Weldon Burge's Blog, page 6
August 10, 2016
Meet Thriller Writer John Gilstrap
Most people know bestselling author John Gilstrap for his thrillers, especially his Jonathan Grave novels (No Mercy, Hostage Zero, High Treason, Damage Control, End Game, Threat Warning). But fewer know that he is also an accomplished screenwriter, writing screen adaptations of novels by Nelson DeMille, Thomas Harris, Norman McLean, and of course his own work. Outside of his writing, John has an extensive background in hazardous waste management, fire behavior, and explosives�knowledge that he has incorporated at times in his fiction.
John welcomed an interview for Suspense Magazine, and I thoroughly enjoyed our Q&A session!
Let�s start with your screenwriting. Your first screenplay was an adaptation of your own novel, Nathan�s Run. Apparently you knew nothing about screenwriting before taking on the job. Yet you wrote the screenplay in, what, less than a week? What did you do to get up-to-speed on that project?
Two years after I�d sold the movie rights to Nathan�s Run, my film agent at CAA called with the bad news that Warner Bros was putting Nathan�s Run in turn-around�the first in a complex series of steps that generally lead to a movie�s death. All because of script problems. I told my agent that the previous script writers were missing the point of the story; that I could do better, if only given the chance. Important Hollywood Lesson: Be careful what you say.
�Hmm,� my agent said. �Do you think you could do it by next week?� The word �sure� escaped my lips before the filter in my brain had a chance to stop it. Sure I could write a screenplay in a week. Why should I let a little detail like never having seen a screenplay�let alone write one�stand in my way? Bravado, baby.
So, with so little time to deal with the deadline, what did you do?
I dashed out to my local bookstore and picked up a copy of William Goldman�s book, Adventures in the Screen Trade, and read it cover to cover in a day. In it, he�s got the complete script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and when I finished it, I thought I had a handle on this screenwriting thing, so I started writing. Three days later, I had a completed script for Nathan�s Run.
Wow, three days? How did it go over?
My agent loved it. The executives at Warner Bros. loved it�enough to pull it out of turn-around and back into active development. But best of all, I had a decent writing sample for my agent to shop around Hollywood, in search of additional screenwriting work. And, of course, Nathan�s Run is back in turn-around, where it has languished for 20 years now.
You�ve also adapted the works of Nelson DeMille, Norman McLean, and Thomas Harris. I can�t imagine taking a 800-page DeMille novel and squeezing it into a two-hour movie. Can you share a little bit about your adaptation process?
The first thing a screenwriter needs to remember�and it wouldn�t hurt for authors to remember this, too�is that a film adaptation of a book is an entirely different work of art than the book from which it is adapted. As a screenwriter, my job is to tell an engaging story on the screen that captures the feel and the through line of story I�m adapting. It�s much easier to do with an author like Thomas Harris because Red Dragon, the book I adapted, is written very cinematically. That is to say it�s written with a scene structure that lends itself to direct adaptation.
With an author like DeMille, whose stories are less structured with lots of flashbacks and character development�all of which add page count�tougher decisions have to be made. The book of his that I adapted, Word of Honor, was very long, and while very rich in detail (DeMille is one of my favorite authors), there were a number of plot lines, mostly dealing with protesting the Vietnam War, that had lost their social relevance, so those were fairly simple to excise.
I guess what I�m saying is, it�s a balancing act.
Joe Lansdale�s novel, Savage Seasons, was recently produced as a TV series, Hap and Leonard, for Sundance TV. Would you consider writing a short-run series of one of your books for television?
If asked, I would be delighted to.
Is it difficult to switch gears between writing a novel and writing a screenplay? Or is the process pretty much the same for you�creatively speaking?
It�s not so much a matter of shifting gears as it is driving entirely different vehicles that share the same shift pattern. Story is story, character is character, and pacing is pacing. The major difference for me is that the specific detail that makes novels complete drag a screenplay down. In a Jonathan Grave novel, for example, readers will find detailed descriptions of Jonathan�s office and home and the locations where he plies his trade. In a screenplay, it�s perfectly acceptable (some would say preferred) to write merely, �INT.�OFFICE�DAY� then add something like, �It�s opulent, more gentleman�s club than business office.� The production designer takes it from there.
The other big difference between novels and screenplays is the inability to convey thoughts and inner-monologue in film. Those thoughts need to come through, but it�s done in an entirely different way.
Do you outline, do you just wing it, or do you have a different approach when beginning a novel?
Before I start a novel, I know the premise, the ending, and a couple of set pieces in the middle. After that, I work it out on the fly. When I first started, I was an obsessive outliner, but not anymore. Maybe again in the future?
Do you have any rituals/habits you must do when you sit down to write?
I don�t have rituals in the OCD sense, no. My typical day starts with a two-mile walk that ends at my local Starbucks, where I read the paper and catch up on local gossip with the other gentlemen of a certain age. I�m generally in my office by 11 a.m., and I take care of email and social media stuff. Around 1:00, I�m ready to move on to the writing. I start every writing session by rewriting what I wrote during the previous session, and then move on with the goal of finishing a scene. It�s mid-March as I write this, and with a mid-September deadline, I feel no immediate pressure to drive myself too hard, but when mid-August comes, I'll be pretty crazed.
Do you have annual production goals? Say, one novel and one screenplay each year?
With the exception of an occasional short story, I only write fiction when it is under contract. That applies for novels, novellas, and screen projects. 2015 was a two-book year, so this year will be less hectic than last�unless the phone rings with an offer I can�t refuse.
We first met at the Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity conference a few years ago. You often speak at such literary events. What is the value of these events for you? And, perhaps more important, what is the value for writers new to the industry?
I�m very much a Type-A extrovert. I draw energy from being around other people. Since writing is by definition a pretty solitary endeavor, I welcome the opportunity to step out and hang with other writers. As a group, I find writers to an engaging, unusually intelligent lot.
I�ve always found the networking at conferences to be perhaps the most valuable aspect. I�m always surprised at how approachable most writers are.
As for the value of conferences to new writers, well, let�s come at it from a different angle: Among the biggest mistakes I�ve seen made by new writers, the most devastating is to forget that publishing is first and foremost a business. Like any business, it has key players, it has mentors and it has rules. Without going to conferences, I don�t know how anyone would even know what they don�t know.
You�ve also taught in writing seminars and workshops. What have you learned from teaching other writers?
When I teach writing workshops, I do learn a great deal, if only because teaching forces me to articulate things that have evolved unnoticed over the years. While I�m more a pantser than a plotter, I�ve come to realize that there is method to what feels like merely winging it.
Also, my sessions almost always include writing exercises for students, and I�m am continually amazed by the quality and quantity that they can put out in just five-minute bursts of creativity.
What are you reading now?
J.S.: At the moment, I am reading the page proofs for my next Grave book, Friendly Fire, as well as two manuscripts sent to me by publishers in search of cover blurbs.
Two more questions, just for fun. Who is your favorite superhero and why?
No question here. It�s Captain Underpants. I don�t think there�s a novelist on the planet who can�t identify with a man whose superpowers are largely imaginary, yet he�s protected by others who don�t want to shatter the dream.
Magnum, P.I. or McGyver?
This one�s tougher. Magnum�s got the car and the girls and the �stache, but McGyver�s technical expertise make up for the crazy mullet. I�ve got to go with McGyver, just as a hedge against the time I find myself held hostage in a submarine with access only to a pocketknife and dental floss.
I�d probably have to agree with you. Thanks, John, for a great interview!
If you�d like to learn more about John and his work, visit his website at www.johngilstrap.com, or his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/johngilstrap....
John welcomed an interview for Suspense Magazine, and I thoroughly enjoyed our Q&A session!
Let�s start with your screenwriting. Your first screenplay was an adaptation of your own novel, Nathan�s Run. Apparently you knew nothing about screenwriting before taking on the job. Yet you wrote the screenplay in, what, less than a week? What did you do to get up-to-speed on that project?
Two years after I�d sold the movie rights to Nathan�s Run, my film agent at CAA called with the bad news that Warner Bros was putting Nathan�s Run in turn-around�the first in a complex series of steps that generally lead to a movie�s death. All because of script problems. I told my agent that the previous script writers were missing the point of the story; that I could do better, if only given the chance. Important Hollywood Lesson: Be careful what you say.
�Hmm,� my agent said. �Do you think you could do it by next week?� The word �sure� escaped my lips before the filter in my brain had a chance to stop it. Sure I could write a screenplay in a week. Why should I let a little detail like never having seen a screenplay�let alone write one�stand in my way? Bravado, baby.
So, with so little time to deal with the deadline, what did you do?
I dashed out to my local bookstore and picked up a copy of William Goldman�s book, Adventures in the Screen Trade, and read it cover to cover in a day. In it, he�s got the complete script for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and when I finished it, I thought I had a handle on this screenwriting thing, so I started writing. Three days later, I had a completed script for Nathan�s Run.
Wow, three days? How did it go over?
My agent loved it. The executives at Warner Bros. loved it�enough to pull it out of turn-around and back into active development. But best of all, I had a decent writing sample for my agent to shop around Hollywood, in search of additional screenwriting work. And, of course, Nathan�s Run is back in turn-around, where it has languished for 20 years now.
You�ve also adapted the works of Nelson DeMille, Norman McLean, and Thomas Harris. I can�t imagine taking a 800-page DeMille novel and squeezing it into a two-hour movie. Can you share a little bit about your adaptation process?
The first thing a screenwriter needs to remember�and it wouldn�t hurt for authors to remember this, too�is that a film adaptation of a book is an entirely different work of art than the book from which it is adapted. As a screenwriter, my job is to tell an engaging story on the screen that captures the feel and the through line of story I�m adapting. It�s much easier to do with an author like Thomas Harris because Red Dragon, the book I adapted, is written very cinematically. That is to say it�s written with a scene structure that lends itself to direct adaptation.
With an author like DeMille, whose stories are less structured with lots of flashbacks and character development�all of which add page count�tougher decisions have to be made. The book of his that I adapted, Word of Honor, was very long, and while very rich in detail (DeMille is one of my favorite authors), there were a number of plot lines, mostly dealing with protesting the Vietnam War, that had lost their social relevance, so those were fairly simple to excise.
I guess what I�m saying is, it�s a balancing act.
Joe Lansdale�s novel, Savage Seasons, was recently produced as a TV series, Hap and Leonard, for Sundance TV. Would you consider writing a short-run series of one of your books for television?
If asked, I would be delighted to.
Is it difficult to switch gears between writing a novel and writing a screenplay? Or is the process pretty much the same for you�creatively speaking?
It�s not so much a matter of shifting gears as it is driving entirely different vehicles that share the same shift pattern. Story is story, character is character, and pacing is pacing. The major difference for me is that the specific detail that makes novels complete drag a screenplay down. In a Jonathan Grave novel, for example, readers will find detailed descriptions of Jonathan�s office and home and the locations where he plies his trade. In a screenplay, it�s perfectly acceptable (some would say preferred) to write merely, �INT.�OFFICE�DAY� then add something like, �It�s opulent, more gentleman�s club than business office.� The production designer takes it from there.
The other big difference between novels and screenplays is the inability to convey thoughts and inner-monologue in film. Those thoughts need to come through, but it�s done in an entirely different way.
Do you outline, do you just wing it, or do you have a different approach when beginning a novel?
Before I start a novel, I know the premise, the ending, and a couple of set pieces in the middle. After that, I work it out on the fly. When I first started, I was an obsessive outliner, but not anymore. Maybe again in the future?
Do you have any rituals/habits you must do when you sit down to write?
I don�t have rituals in the OCD sense, no. My typical day starts with a two-mile walk that ends at my local Starbucks, where I read the paper and catch up on local gossip with the other gentlemen of a certain age. I�m generally in my office by 11 a.m., and I take care of email and social media stuff. Around 1:00, I�m ready to move on to the writing. I start every writing session by rewriting what I wrote during the previous session, and then move on with the goal of finishing a scene. It�s mid-March as I write this, and with a mid-September deadline, I feel no immediate pressure to drive myself too hard, but when mid-August comes, I'll be pretty crazed.
Do you have annual production goals? Say, one novel and one screenplay each year?
With the exception of an occasional short story, I only write fiction when it is under contract. That applies for novels, novellas, and screen projects. 2015 was a two-book year, so this year will be less hectic than last�unless the phone rings with an offer I can�t refuse.
We first met at the Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity conference a few years ago. You often speak at such literary events. What is the value of these events for you? And, perhaps more important, what is the value for writers new to the industry?
I�m very much a Type-A extrovert. I draw energy from being around other people. Since writing is by definition a pretty solitary endeavor, I welcome the opportunity to step out and hang with other writers. As a group, I find writers to an engaging, unusually intelligent lot.
I�ve always found the networking at conferences to be perhaps the most valuable aspect. I�m always surprised at how approachable most writers are.
As for the value of conferences to new writers, well, let�s come at it from a different angle: Among the biggest mistakes I�ve seen made by new writers, the most devastating is to forget that publishing is first and foremost a business. Like any business, it has key players, it has mentors and it has rules. Without going to conferences, I don�t know how anyone would even know what they don�t know.
You�ve also taught in writing seminars and workshops. What have you learned from teaching other writers?
When I teach writing workshops, I do learn a great deal, if only because teaching forces me to articulate things that have evolved unnoticed over the years. While I�m more a pantser than a plotter, I�ve come to realize that there is method to what feels like merely winging it.
Also, my sessions almost always include writing exercises for students, and I�m am continually amazed by the quality and quantity that they can put out in just five-minute bursts of creativity.
What are you reading now?
J.S.: At the moment, I am reading the page proofs for my next Grave book, Friendly Fire, as well as two manuscripts sent to me by publishers in search of cover blurbs.
Two more questions, just for fun. Who is your favorite superhero and why?
No question here. It�s Captain Underpants. I don�t think there�s a novelist on the planet who can�t identify with a man whose superpowers are largely imaginary, yet he�s protected by others who don�t want to shatter the dream.
Magnum, P.I. or McGyver?
This one�s tougher. Magnum�s got the car and the girls and the �stache, but McGyver�s technical expertise make up for the crazy mullet. I�ve got to go with McGyver, just as a hedge against the time I find myself held hostage in a submarine with access only to a pocketknife and dental floss.
I�d probably have to agree with you. Thanks, John, for a great interview!
If you�d like to learn more about John and his work, visit his website at www.johngilstrap.com, or his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/johngilstrap....
July 20, 2016
The Multi-talented Aaron J. French Discusses Writing, Editing, and His Love for Anthologies
Aaron J. French is one busy guy! Besides being a prolific writer, he is an accomplished editor and has pulled together some of the best horror and weird fiction anthologies now available. His story, "Whirling Machine Man," appeared in the Smart Rhino anthology, Zippered Flesh. His latest novella, The Dream Beings, is a hard-boiled Lovecraftian tale involving a serial killer and an investigator who is pulled into cosmic horrors.
Aaron agreed to answer some questions for us--and we hope you'll learn something from his vast experience!
Aaron, you and I have similar backgrounds: writer, editor, anthologist. Let�s start with your own fiction. Your collection of stories, Aberrations of Reality, has been described as a �modern grimoire of mystical horror,� and you�ve also written a zombie collection, Up From Fresh Soil. Your The Dream Beings is an incredibly creepy serial killer/occult novel. Plus you�ve written a number of novellas. How do you manage to juggle your time to write your own work, considering your many other obligations? Do you have a defined routine?
Thanks. Yes, it�s a lot of work, there�s really no getting around that. But it�s work I love to do, so that makes it worth it. I used to have a steady routine of writing 1000 words a day, and I did that for many years. But at this point, I�m basically just working all the time, whether writing, editing, and working academically (still writing). So I basically just do as much as I can on all fronts, but focus on whichever one has the nearest deadline (ha). But whenever I have a break, I try to write a new short story, or at least revise one that I have already written. It�s a way of keeping myself working on my own fiction, given everything else I do. And yet, I will say that more and more�as you mentioned with AoR and The Dream Beings�I have been using my own personal experiences and my research into science, religion, and magic to inform my stories. Yes, life is weird. So, while I still write to entertain (as it were) or for a certain market, lately I have been formulating more of a specific agenda with what I want to do with my fiction. You can see this most explicitly with Aberrations. I feel almost like a scientist, and I am doing experiments with my work to see what I can tease out of it. Ultimately, I want to explore how horror and science fiction affect states of consciousness.
You�re a book editor for JournalStone Publishing and the Editor-in-Chief for Dark Discoveries magazine. What advice would you offer horror and other fiction writers looking to publish their work? What are the common �mistakes� you see in the submissions that come across your editor�s desk?
My advice is probably what people get all the time but might be the last thing they want to hear. It�s certainly the most trying aspect in my case. But that advice is: Never give up. Sadly, it�s quite a process to get yourself up to the level where your writing is unique and profitable. It just takes time and endurance. And that means there will be a lot of disappointments and rejections along the way, but you've got to just keep at it. If you do, you�ll start getting somewhere.
The other thing I would say is don�t do any cop-outs. What I mean is, don�t try to write a certain thing for a certain market because something in that particular market is currently popular. I hate that. I�m much more interested in what you as an individual have to say as a person, what joys and fears you can draw on from your own life that are unique to you. How can you twist and mutate your personal biography into something new, strange, and different? I think originality always gets you farther in the long run than mimesis. But of course there is always a stage of mimesis at the beginning. Moving beyond that is when things really pick up.
I�m impressed with the number of anthologies you�ve edited (The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow of the Unknown, Songs of the Satyrs, just to name a few). And you�re also a frequent writer for anthos�including the story, �Whirling Machine Man,� in Smart Rhino�s Zippered Flesh. What do you find the most rewarding when working on an anthology project?
I love anthologies. I almost love making them more than reading them. In high school, I was the kid who had all the cassette tapes and knew all the music scene stuff, and I would make excellent mix tapes and just give them to my friends. Even then, I was more interested in seeing their reaction to the tapes than anything else. That still comes out in the anthologies I edit. I love to put strange things together. Hopefully it works out.
Going back to the anthology The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft, you�re a noted Lovecraftian. Why do you think Lovecraft has such an appeal today?
Ha, loaded question. I could think of a lot of varying answers to that question, some which paint HPL and those who read him in a very negative light, but also some which paint them in a very positive light. Perhaps that�s part of the appeal�the controversy around HPL, especially now. But really that�s never what it�s been about for me.
I was drawn to HPL for the same reason I was drawn to Machen, Blackwood, Hodgson, and later PKD and Thomas Ligotti�and that�s the confrontation with the unknown, the supersensible, the larger-than-human dimension of the cosmos. Well, and all the occult underpinnings that go along with that. I also happen to think that much of the world feels disillusioned, disenchanted, and powerless, and so the Mythos of HPL totally resonate with that. I mean come on, has anyone been able to account for why HPL has become so popular in contemporary culture? I don�t think anyone can satisfactorily answer that�I mean, why him and not one of his other homies�but I suspect is has something to do with the state of the world. Something very big seems to be on the horizon�and, if I may, I believe that it might be cosmic aliens after all.
Thanks so much, Aaron!
Visit Aaron's website at aaronjfrench.com/
Aaron agreed to answer some questions for us--and we hope you'll learn something from his vast experience!
Aaron, you and I have similar backgrounds: writer, editor, anthologist. Let�s start with your own fiction. Your collection of stories, Aberrations of Reality, has been described as a �modern grimoire of mystical horror,� and you�ve also written a zombie collection, Up From Fresh Soil. Your The Dream Beings is an incredibly creepy serial killer/occult novel. Plus you�ve written a number of novellas. How do you manage to juggle your time to write your own work, considering your many other obligations? Do you have a defined routine?
Thanks. Yes, it�s a lot of work, there�s really no getting around that. But it�s work I love to do, so that makes it worth it. I used to have a steady routine of writing 1000 words a day, and I did that for many years. But at this point, I�m basically just working all the time, whether writing, editing, and working academically (still writing). So I basically just do as much as I can on all fronts, but focus on whichever one has the nearest deadline (ha). But whenever I have a break, I try to write a new short story, or at least revise one that I have already written. It�s a way of keeping myself working on my own fiction, given everything else I do. And yet, I will say that more and more�as you mentioned with AoR and The Dream Beings�I have been using my own personal experiences and my research into science, religion, and magic to inform my stories. Yes, life is weird. So, while I still write to entertain (as it were) or for a certain market, lately I have been formulating more of a specific agenda with what I want to do with my fiction. You can see this most explicitly with Aberrations. I feel almost like a scientist, and I am doing experiments with my work to see what I can tease out of it. Ultimately, I want to explore how horror and science fiction affect states of consciousness.
You�re a book editor for JournalStone Publishing and the Editor-in-Chief for Dark Discoveries magazine. What advice would you offer horror and other fiction writers looking to publish their work? What are the common �mistakes� you see in the submissions that come across your editor�s desk?
My advice is probably what people get all the time but might be the last thing they want to hear. It�s certainly the most trying aspect in my case. But that advice is: Never give up. Sadly, it�s quite a process to get yourself up to the level where your writing is unique and profitable. It just takes time and endurance. And that means there will be a lot of disappointments and rejections along the way, but you've got to just keep at it. If you do, you�ll start getting somewhere.
The other thing I would say is don�t do any cop-outs. What I mean is, don�t try to write a certain thing for a certain market because something in that particular market is currently popular. I hate that. I�m much more interested in what you as an individual have to say as a person, what joys and fears you can draw on from your own life that are unique to you. How can you twist and mutate your personal biography into something new, strange, and different? I think originality always gets you farther in the long run than mimesis. But of course there is always a stage of mimesis at the beginning. Moving beyond that is when things really pick up.
I�m impressed with the number of anthologies you�ve edited (The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow of the Unknown, Songs of the Satyrs, just to name a few). And you�re also a frequent writer for anthos�including the story, �Whirling Machine Man,� in Smart Rhino�s Zippered Flesh. What do you find the most rewarding when working on an anthology project?
I love anthologies. I almost love making them more than reading them. In high school, I was the kid who had all the cassette tapes and knew all the music scene stuff, and I would make excellent mix tapes and just give them to my friends. Even then, I was more interested in seeing their reaction to the tapes than anything else. That still comes out in the anthologies I edit. I love to put strange things together. Hopefully it works out.
Going back to the anthology The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft, you�re a noted Lovecraftian. Why do you think Lovecraft has such an appeal today?
Ha, loaded question. I could think of a lot of varying answers to that question, some which paint HPL and those who read him in a very negative light, but also some which paint them in a very positive light. Perhaps that�s part of the appeal�the controversy around HPL, especially now. But really that�s never what it�s been about for me.
I was drawn to HPL for the same reason I was drawn to Machen, Blackwood, Hodgson, and later PKD and Thomas Ligotti�and that�s the confrontation with the unknown, the supersensible, the larger-than-human dimension of the cosmos. Well, and all the occult underpinnings that go along with that. I also happen to think that much of the world feels disillusioned, disenchanted, and powerless, and so the Mythos of HPL totally resonate with that. I mean come on, has anyone been able to account for why HPL has become so popular in contemporary culture? I don�t think anyone can satisfactorily answer that�I mean, why him and not one of his other homies�but I suspect is has something to do with the state of the world. Something very big seems to be on the horizon�and, if I may, I believe that it might be cosmic aliens after all.
Thanks so much, Aaron!
Visit Aaron's website at aaronjfrench.com/
June 29, 2016
Meet Horror/Suspense Writer W.D. Gagliani
W.D. Gagliani is the author of many novels, including Savage Nights, Wolf�s Trap, Wolf�s Gambit, Wolf�s Bluff, Wolf�s Edge, and more. Wolf�s Trap was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award in 2004. Bill has published fiction and nonfiction in numerous anthologies and publications. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA), the International Thriller Writers (ITW), and the Authors Guild. Raised in Genova, Italy, as well as Kenosha, Wisconsin, he now lives and writes in Milwaukee.
Bill, with his co-writer David Benton, wrote the story "Piper at the Gates," published in the Smart Rhino anthology Zippered Flesh 2: More Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad! We had fun in the following interview!
You tend to write a hybridization of horror and crime fiction/suspense. Do you find this combination easy to write, and why?
I do find it easier (no writing is truly easy, as you know). But not because there�s something magical about the mix that I�m tapping into. I find it easier because I grew up loving thrillers (and mystery and other genres, but thrillers were big), and later fell under the spell of one S. King, who blew my mind and sent it reeling into that black hole of terror I�d always been circling anyway. I had enjoyed horror before, such as James Herbert�s The Rats and The Fog, but when King came along with �Salem�s Lot, I truly was lost. I went all in on horror then. I took a break for my first couple years of college, then jumped back in. It became my favorite genre to read.
But, in any case, I never quite lost the thrill of the thriller. I loved the British authors the most. I admit, writers such as Ian Fleming, Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, and Duncan Kyle. Although David Morrell made a huge impact with First Blood and I started discovering great American writers, too. After quite a few years concentrating on horror, I just naturally started to channel the thriller people I�d always liked so much. So, the idea that thrillers and horror aren�t necessarily mutually exclusive swirled around in my head, but subconsciously. I think in the long run I found that I couldn�t always sustain that sense of terror or dread needed in a horror novel, but if I mixed in a sense of more realistic suspense, maybe less supernatural and more grounded in what happens every day in the world (violence seems to be the true universal language, unfortunately), I was able to fill out the plots in a way that seemed more fulfilling to me. Since I came to love the so-called splatterpunks of the '80s, whose work tended to be more visceral and less supernatural, it was like blending two primary colors to create a third (secondary) color, you know? Whether or not it works, I don�t know. I have fun with it, so I hope that sense of fun translates down to the reader.
The sixth Nick Lupo novel was recently released. How did you develop a character who is a werewolf homicide detective?
I started developing the plot for my first novel Wolf�s Trap right in the middle of the vampire resurgence, and I just rebelled against it. I enjoy some vampire fare, especially people such as Kim Newman, Tamara Thorne, Karen Taylor, Nancy Kilpatrick, Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod � but generally I tend to stay away from it unless it grabs me with some other element. I always gravitated toward the Wolf Man motif from the Universal movies, loved some books such as The Wolf�s Hour by McCammon and The Howling by Brandner.
I dunno, I liked the metaphor of the dark side, the monster within, long before I even understood it. I mean, I found it truly frightening. Then there was this syndicated TV show, Forever Knight, about a vampire who atones by becoming a cop. I don�t mean that I decide to copy that, but it was large in my head because it dealt with the everyday struggle of a guy who was a monster but a) didn�t want to be, and b) had to find ways around his needs and �desires.� I started to think, what if he was a werewolf instead of a vampire? And except for the night-time limit, everything else seemed tougher on the werewolf. So I started noodling with the idea and wondered how someone would deal with it, that condition. (Eat lots of raw meat, for instance.) Originally I used Dominic �Nick� Lupo as a working name, but over time I started to like the Dickensian approach of naming some characters, and decided to keep him Italian � and a lupo, a wolf. Why not? I think the fact that he became a cop was both testament to the fact that he had committed some crimes and wanted to atone, sure, but more so because it allowed me to bring in some of the other genres I loved, the thriller and the noir/hard-boiled mystery. And there you have it.
You're on a bus with two of your favorite writers. Who are they, and where are you headed?
This makes me ask so many questions!
Why are we on a bus? Is it only the three of us? Who am I sitting next to, and is the third one sitting in front of us, looking back, or behind us and we�re looking back? Or is he/she across the aisle? Is it night? Is it one of those Greyhound overnight routes? Is there a cramped bathroom? What happens in there, other than the expected? Is there a serial killer at the rear of the bus, working his way forward with a knife? (See �At the Back of the Blue Bus� by W.D. Gagliani and David Benton for the answer to that one.) Why aren�t we on a plane? Who are we running from? Do we have luggage? Who has the window seat? What�s that outside the glass? Why does it look different than it did before �?
What was the question again?
Oh, yeah, the other writers � I guess I�d love to talk about the genesis of steampunk (which I�ve loved since 1984) with Tim Powers and James Blaylock, who were mentored by Philip K. Dick. I could just as easily see myself talking to Phil Dick and Harlan Ellison, two other great influences of mine. But I think Powers and Blaylock would be it. They�re already friends, so I�d love to be in that circle. We�d eat bad roadside food and talk about the vagaries of the universe and wonder why we�re not reaching our destination, which for some reason we�ve forgotten� you see how this goes. It never ends!
A perpetual bus ride. Somehow that seems fitting. Thanks, Bill!
You can visit W.D.�s website and check out his latest ventures.
Bill, with his co-writer David Benton, wrote the story "Piper at the Gates," published in the Smart Rhino anthology Zippered Flesh 2: More Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad! We had fun in the following interview!
You tend to write a hybridization of horror and crime fiction/suspense. Do you find this combination easy to write, and why?
I do find it easier (no writing is truly easy, as you know). But not because there�s something magical about the mix that I�m tapping into. I find it easier because I grew up loving thrillers (and mystery and other genres, but thrillers were big), and later fell under the spell of one S. King, who blew my mind and sent it reeling into that black hole of terror I�d always been circling anyway. I had enjoyed horror before, such as James Herbert�s The Rats and The Fog, but when King came along with �Salem�s Lot, I truly was lost. I went all in on horror then. I took a break for my first couple years of college, then jumped back in. It became my favorite genre to read.
But, in any case, I never quite lost the thrill of the thriller. I loved the British authors the most. I admit, writers such as Ian Fleming, Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley, and Duncan Kyle. Although David Morrell made a huge impact with First Blood and I started discovering great American writers, too. After quite a few years concentrating on horror, I just naturally started to channel the thriller people I�d always liked so much. So, the idea that thrillers and horror aren�t necessarily mutually exclusive swirled around in my head, but subconsciously. I think in the long run I found that I couldn�t always sustain that sense of terror or dread needed in a horror novel, but if I mixed in a sense of more realistic suspense, maybe less supernatural and more grounded in what happens every day in the world (violence seems to be the true universal language, unfortunately), I was able to fill out the plots in a way that seemed more fulfilling to me. Since I came to love the so-called splatterpunks of the '80s, whose work tended to be more visceral and less supernatural, it was like blending two primary colors to create a third (secondary) color, you know? Whether or not it works, I don�t know. I have fun with it, so I hope that sense of fun translates down to the reader.
The sixth Nick Lupo novel was recently released. How did you develop a character who is a werewolf homicide detective?
I started developing the plot for my first novel Wolf�s Trap right in the middle of the vampire resurgence, and I just rebelled against it. I enjoy some vampire fare, especially people such as Kim Newman, Tamara Thorne, Karen Taylor, Nancy Kilpatrick, Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod � but generally I tend to stay away from it unless it grabs me with some other element. I always gravitated toward the Wolf Man motif from the Universal movies, loved some books such as The Wolf�s Hour by McCammon and The Howling by Brandner.
I dunno, I liked the metaphor of the dark side, the monster within, long before I even understood it. I mean, I found it truly frightening. Then there was this syndicated TV show, Forever Knight, about a vampire who atones by becoming a cop. I don�t mean that I decide to copy that, but it was large in my head because it dealt with the everyday struggle of a guy who was a monster but a) didn�t want to be, and b) had to find ways around his needs and �desires.� I started to think, what if he was a werewolf instead of a vampire? And except for the night-time limit, everything else seemed tougher on the werewolf. So I started noodling with the idea and wondered how someone would deal with it, that condition. (Eat lots of raw meat, for instance.) Originally I used Dominic �Nick� Lupo as a working name, but over time I started to like the Dickensian approach of naming some characters, and decided to keep him Italian � and a lupo, a wolf. Why not? I think the fact that he became a cop was both testament to the fact that he had committed some crimes and wanted to atone, sure, but more so because it allowed me to bring in some of the other genres I loved, the thriller and the noir/hard-boiled mystery. And there you have it.
You're on a bus with two of your favorite writers. Who are they, and where are you headed?
This makes me ask so many questions!
Why are we on a bus? Is it only the three of us? Who am I sitting next to, and is the third one sitting in front of us, looking back, or behind us and we�re looking back? Or is he/she across the aisle? Is it night? Is it one of those Greyhound overnight routes? Is there a cramped bathroom? What happens in there, other than the expected? Is there a serial killer at the rear of the bus, working his way forward with a knife? (See �At the Back of the Blue Bus� by W.D. Gagliani and David Benton for the answer to that one.) Why aren�t we on a plane? Who are we running from? Do we have luggage? Who has the window seat? What�s that outside the glass? Why does it look different than it did before �?
What was the question again?
Oh, yeah, the other writers � I guess I�d love to talk about the genesis of steampunk (which I�ve loved since 1984) with Tim Powers and James Blaylock, who were mentored by Philip K. Dick. I could just as easily see myself talking to Phil Dick and Harlan Ellison, two other great influences of mine. But I think Powers and Blaylock would be it. They�re already friends, so I�d love to be in that circle. We�d eat bad roadside food and talk about the vagaries of the universe and wonder why we�re not reaching our destination, which for some reason we�ve forgotten� you see how this goes. It never ends!
A perpetual bus ride. Somehow that seems fitting. Thanks, Bill!
You can visit W.D.�s website and check out his latest ventures.
May 28, 2016
Interview with Michael Bailey, Bram Stoker Award Winner
Michael Bailey is a multli-award-winning author, editor, and publisher of incredible speculative fiction. He recently won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology for The Library of the Dead. His nonlinear horror novel, Palindrome Hannah, was a finalist for the Independent Publisher Awards. His follow-up novel, Phoenix Rose, was listed for the National Best Book Awards for horror fiction, was a finalist for the International Book Awards, and received the Kirkus Star, awarded to books of remarkable merit. Scales and Petals, his short story and poetry collection, won the International Book Award for short fiction, as well as the USA Book News �Best Books� Award. His short fiction and poetry can be found in anthologies and magazines around the world, including the US, UK, Australia, Sweden, and South Africa.
Michael has published a number of anthologies (including Pellucid Lunacy, Qualia Nous, The Library of the Dead, and the Chiral Mad series) and has just released Chiral Mad 3, published by his own imprint, Written Backwards, at Dark Regions Press. He is currently the Managing Science Fiction Editor at Dark Regions. Michael took some time off from his busy schedule to talk with us.
Chiral Mad 3 was just released, and you must be ecstatic. An introduction by Chuck Palahniuk, illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne, stories and poetry by incredible writers (Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Mort Castle, Gary Braunbeck, Gene O�Neill, and 15 others). Wow! This is your most ambitious project to date. Can you share with us some of your process when pulling together such an impressive anthology?
I�m not even sure where to begin. I knew there would be a third Chiral Mad someday (I was hounded for it immediately upon release of the second volume). I knew if it were to exist, the book would have a specific story by King: �The Last Rung on the Ladder,� so I guess it all started with Steve. Apparently he digs my anthologies, or at least I hope he does, since he�s found his way into three of my books. �The Jaunt� appeared in Qualia Nous last year (a literary blend of science fiction and horror), and �I Am the Doorway� will appear later this year in You, Human, my first science fiction anthology with Dark Regions Press.
I designed the cover for Chiral Mad 3 and on a whim decided the entire book should be chiral in structure, with an odd amount of stories and an even amount of symmetrically-placed poetry. I reached out to a handful of writers I wanted in the book (for both fiction and poetry). Before I knew it, I had a dozen stories and a dozen poems; every single one of them spectacular. Chaos quickly took over.
I had so much fun working with gak illustrating The Library of the Dead and Luke Spooner illustrating Gene O�Neill�s novella At the Lazy K, that I started thinking about having the third volume of chiral madness illustrated, and knew the illustrations would be in vibrant black and white. By this time, I had the King story, so on another whim, I reached out to an artist known for illustrating much of King�s work over the years: Glenn Chadbourne. I sent him �Last Rung� and he sent back five new illustrations in a matter of days, and agreed to ink at least one for each piece of fiction, which eventually totaled 21 stories. Eventually we added illustrations for all 20 poems as well.
Unlike the past two volumes, CM3 was loosely �invite only,� which it had to be to remain controllable. One-by-one, I found stories to fit the mold for the book I�d created in my head, and one-by-one they fell into place. The introduction was the last piece of the puzzle. I aimed high, and somehow snagged Palahniuk�s attention after he read a proof copy of the entire book (with low-res illustrations and a few typos at the time). I�ll have the opportunity to thank him in person this winter, since we�re both guests of honor at The Stanley Hotel Writers Retreat in Colorado, the hotel that inspired King�s novel The Shining.
Anyway, Chiral Mad 3 is absolutely insane! It�s a beautiful book. I�m not sure there�s anything I could ever do to top such an ambitious anthology. People are already asking if there will be a fourth volume.
Your own fiction tends toward SF/horror�also considered by many as speculative. You�re now the Managing Editor of Science Fiction at Dark Regions Press. I�m just curious�how has your editing at Dark Region informed your own writing? What have you learned from editing and working with other writers that has enhanced your own work?
Truth be told, I have only written/published three stories I consider SF/horror: �Bootstrap/The Binds of Lasolastica� and �Fireman/Primal Tongue� from the Zippered Flesh anthologies, and a story I wrote specifically for Thomas F. Monteleone while binge-writing one weekend called �Time is a Face on the Water,� which is more literary than SF/horror, and will appear in Borderlands 6 (the series that first got me interested anthologies). I have a fourth SF/horror story on hiatus called �Gave� that will have some sort of / �Other Title� in its title, which I will finish for Zippered Flesh 3 if a third volume comes to fruition.
We�re planning a ZF3, probably next year.
I consider the rest of my work speculative fiction, most of it nonlinear in structure. Some call my stuff literary horror, or lit/spec. I just write down what comes out of me. And, yes, that part of me is evolving.
Palindrome Hannah was dark, Phoenix Rose was even darker, as well as both short fiction and poetry collections: Scales and Petals, and Inkblots and Blood Spots (illustrated beautifully by Daniele Serra), and Psychotropic Dragon (a meta-novel I�m currently co-authoring with someone I cannot yet name) is the darkest thing I�ve ever written. It�s a novelette wrapped around a novella wrapped around a short novel, and has three illustrators involved, one for each narrative (some of the artists mentioned earlier). Jack Ketchum blurbed it as �addictive, scary, and at times, mind-blowing.� So that tells you something. But I�m changing. I�ve been working on that book for over 10 years now, and my writing hit some sort of dark-lit crescendo with that book. I�m changed as a writer because of Psychotropic Dragon, and now that it�s out of my head, I feel lighter. I took a spontaneous trip to Oahu just to get away from that book, as if running from it. My work has always focused on finding beauty in dark places, but the part of me I discovered in Hawaii after finishing that book flipped on some sort of light switch, and now I�m finding all sorts of beautiful things around me that I never knew were there before.
Those who read my story in Borderlands 6 will learn what I�ve become. I�m not even sure if I can (or want to) write �horror� anymore. Even my reading habits have become more selective. I�m writing a fourth novel now called Seen in Distant Stars, which is more mainstream than anything else. But that�s just my writing. Has my editing at Dark Regions Press informed my own writing? No, at least not yet. My transmogrification happened before I joined DRP. But the stories I�ve chosen to work with at Written Backwards (now an imprint of the aforementioned) have definitely impacted my writing. If you read any of my anthologies from beginning to end, you will notice that each anthology tells a different part of me.
Every writer I work with has found a place in my heart, and I have fallen in love with their words. Their stories make me weep, make me cry, make me laugh, make me squirm. They tug at me from all directions, toy with my emotions, and make me realize that I�m not alone in this world. These writers are a part of me now, which is why I often seek them out for my books, although sometimes it�s the other way around. Each of their stories/�chapters� in my anthologies reveal a different part of me I want to express.
If anything, each of my books is an eclose, from a different cocoon, and Chiral Mad 3 is the latest unfolding of my wings, a way of saying �Look what I�ve become now!� Working with such an eclectic group of writers, and editing these anthologies, has shaped my writing habits more than my writing style. I write more delicately now, more concisely. I edit along the way, which is a much slower process, but in the end it seems more efficient and makes my editors� lives easier.
Your story, �Primal Tongue,� was included in the Smart Rhino anthology Zippered Flesh 2, and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Many of your projects have received awards and high recognition. Besides obvious ego-boosting, what have all the kudos done to help you further your career?
Unless a book has a foil sticker noting a National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, or Pulitzer, awards don�t do much other than let you know your peers are thinking well of you. �Primal Tongue� was my first official Bram Stoker Award nomination for short fiction, Qualia Nous was my first for editing an anthology, and this year The Library of the Dead won the award. Perhaps Chiral Mad 3, perhaps the next book, or the next story I write. John Palisano (�The Geminis�) was nominated for short fiction from Chiral Mad 2, and Gary A. Braunbeck (�The Great Pity�) won for long fiction; both Rena Mason (�Ruminations�) and Usman T. Malik (�The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family�) won the Stoker last year for their short fiction in Qualia Nous (Malik also nominated for a Nebula for his story, covering both horror and science fiction); Norman Partridge (�Special Collections�) is up for his long fiction/introduction from The Library of the Dead.
I�m happy about all of that. But it�s just an award. Don�t get me wrong � winning a Stoker (even being nominated) is an accomplishment. Horror writers are a small group of people, in the grand scheme of writerly things, but to have fellow horror writers�the people you work with and perhaps look up to�nominate your work, move it from long-list to short-list (aka The Ballot), and either vote for your work or for another of your peers you admire in your category (among all other considered works published that year), is something incredible, something in which you should take great pride. Will it further your career? Probably not. It won�t hurt it, though. Who won the Stoker in 2013 for novel, first novel, YA, nonfiction, fiction collection, poetry collection, long fiction, short fiction? How about 2014? How about last year? Do you remember? Were you even paying attention?
Horror has the Stoker. Mystery has the Edgar. Science fiction and fantasy have the Nebula and the Hugo. There are a lot of awards out there for a lot of books. There are a lot of books. And there are many awards for the indie scene. I�ve won quite a few medals, placards, and foil stickers to put on books, and pieces of paper to frame and hang on walls: the Indie Awards, Independent Publisher Book Awards, International Book Awards, the IndieFabs. One of my favorite accomplishments was finally winning the Benjamin Franklin Award after so many years of submitting books. It�s one of my favorite trophies. But that�s all it is, really�a trophy, and it sits on the shelf collecting dust with the others.
What I take greater pride in are the books I create, the stories I publish (whether my own or others� within my anthologies). Those are the real trophies, the real awards. I may have sold a few more copies of Qualia Nous because of accolades, or I may sell a few more copies of The Library of the Dead this year, but the books are what matters. The award won�t be on any other shelf but mine, but the book, the story � How many other shelves out there are willing to hold them?
If you could go back in time and start over, what would you do differently?
I would have started earlier.
Thanks for the great interview, Michael! Check out his bio page to see his range of books on Amazon ... and buy a book or two! You can also check out his Written Backwards blog for more info.
Michael has published a number of anthologies (including Pellucid Lunacy, Qualia Nous, The Library of the Dead, and the Chiral Mad series) and has just released Chiral Mad 3, published by his own imprint, Written Backwards, at Dark Regions Press. He is currently the Managing Science Fiction Editor at Dark Regions. Michael took some time off from his busy schedule to talk with us.
Chiral Mad 3 was just released, and you must be ecstatic. An introduction by Chuck Palahniuk, illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne, stories and poetry by incredible writers (Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Mort Castle, Gary Braunbeck, Gene O�Neill, and 15 others). Wow! This is your most ambitious project to date. Can you share with us some of your process when pulling together such an impressive anthology?
I�m not even sure where to begin. I knew there would be a third Chiral Mad someday (I was hounded for it immediately upon release of the second volume). I knew if it were to exist, the book would have a specific story by King: �The Last Rung on the Ladder,� so I guess it all started with Steve. Apparently he digs my anthologies, or at least I hope he does, since he�s found his way into three of my books. �The Jaunt� appeared in Qualia Nous last year (a literary blend of science fiction and horror), and �I Am the Doorway� will appear later this year in You, Human, my first science fiction anthology with Dark Regions Press.
I designed the cover for Chiral Mad 3 and on a whim decided the entire book should be chiral in structure, with an odd amount of stories and an even amount of symmetrically-placed poetry. I reached out to a handful of writers I wanted in the book (for both fiction and poetry). Before I knew it, I had a dozen stories and a dozen poems; every single one of them spectacular. Chaos quickly took over.
I had so much fun working with gak illustrating The Library of the Dead and Luke Spooner illustrating Gene O�Neill�s novella At the Lazy K, that I started thinking about having the third volume of chiral madness illustrated, and knew the illustrations would be in vibrant black and white. By this time, I had the King story, so on another whim, I reached out to an artist known for illustrating much of King�s work over the years: Glenn Chadbourne. I sent him �Last Rung� and he sent back five new illustrations in a matter of days, and agreed to ink at least one for each piece of fiction, which eventually totaled 21 stories. Eventually we added illustrations for all 20 poems as well.
Unlike the past two volumes, CM3 was loosely �invite only,� which it had to be to remain controllable. One-by-one, I found stories to fit the mold for the book I�d created in my head, and one-by-one they fell into place. The introduction was the last piece of the puzzle. I aimed high, and somehow snagged Palahniuk�s attention after he read a proof copy of the entire book (with low-res illustrations and a few typos at the time). I�ll have the opportunity to thank him in person this winter, since we�re both guests of honor at The Stanley Hotel Writers Retreat in Colorado, the hotel that inspired King�s novel The Shining.
Anyway, Chiral Mad 3 is absolutely insane! It�s a beautiful book. I�m not sure there�s anything I could ever do to top such an ambitious anthology. People are already asking if there will be a fourth volume.
Your own fiction tends toward SF/horror�also considered by many as speculative. You�re now the Managing Editor of Science Fiction at Dark Regions Press. I�m just curious�how has your editing at Dark Region informed your own writing? What have you learned from editing and working with other writers that has enhanced your own work?
Truth be told, I have only written/published three stories I consider SF/horror: �Bootstrap/The Binds of Lasolastica� and �Fireman/Primal Tongue� from the Zippered Flesh anthologies, and a story I wrote specifically for Thomas F. Monteleone while binge-writing one weekend called �Time is a Face on the Water,� which is more literary than SF/horror, and will appear in Borderlands 6 (the series that first got me interested anthologies). I have a fourth SF/horror story on hiatus called �Gave� that will have some sort of / �Other Title� in its title, which I will finish for Zippered Flesh 3 if a third volume comes to fruition.
We�re planning a ZF3, probably next year.
I consider the rest of my work speculative fiction, most of it nonlinear in structure. Some call my stuff literary horror, or lit/spec. I just write down what comes out of me. And, yes, that part of me is evolving.
Palindrome Hannah was dark, Phoenix Rose was even darker, as well as both short fiction and poetry collections: Scales and Petals, and Inkblots and Blood Spots (illustrated beautifully by Daniele Serra), and Psychotropic Dragon (a meta-novel I�m currently co-authoring with someone I cannot yet name) is the darkest thing I�ve ever written. It�s a novelette wrapped around a novella wrapped around a short novel, and has three illustrators involved, one for each narrative (some of the artists mentioned earlier). Jack Ketchum blurbed it as �addictive, scary, and at times, mind-blowing.� So that tells you something. But I�m changing. I�ve been working on that book for over 10 years now, and my writing hit some sort of dark-lit crescendo with that book. I�m changed as a writer because of Psychotropic Dragon, and now that it�s out of my head, I feel lighter. I took a spontaneous trip to Oahu just to get away from that book, as if running from it. My work has always focused on finding beauty in dark places, but the part of me I discovered in Hawaii after finishing that book flipped on some sort of light switch, and now I�m finding all sorts of beautiful things around me that I never knew were there before.
Those who read my story in Borderlands 6 will learn what I�ve become. I�m not even sure if I can (or want to) write �horror� anymore. Even my reading habits have become more selective. I�m writing a fourth novel now called Seen in Distant Stars, which is more mainstream than anything else. But that�s just my writing. Has my editing at Dark Regions Press informed my own writing? No, at least not yet. My transmogrification happened before I joined DRP. But the stories I�ve chosen to work with at Written Backwards (now an imprint of the aforementioned) have definitely impacted my writing. If you read any of my anthologies from beginning to end, you will notice that each anthology tells a different part of me.
Every writer I work with has found a place in my heart, and I have fallen in love with their words. Their stories make me weep, make me cry, make me laugh, make me squirm. They tug at me from all directions, toy with my emotions, and make me realize that I�m not alone in this world. These writers are a part of me now, which is why I often seek them out for my books, although sometimes it�s the other way around. Each of their stories/�chapters� in my anthologies reveal a different part of me I want to express.
If anything, each of my books is an eclose, from a different cocoon, and Chiral Mad 3 is the latest unfolding of my wings, a way of saying �Look what I�ve become now!� Working with such an eclectic group of writers, and editing these anthologies, has shaped my writing habits more than my writing style. I write more delicately now, more concisely. I edit along the way, which is a much slower process, but in the end it seems more efficient and makes my editors� lives easier.
Your story, �Primal Tongue,� was included in the Smart Rhino anthology Zippered Flesh 2, and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Many of your projects have received awards and high recognition. Besides obvious ego-boosting, what have all the kudos done to help you further your career?
Unless a book has a foil sticker noting a National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, or Pulitzer, awards don�t do much other than let you know your peers are thinking well of you. �Primal Tongue� was my first official Bram Stoker Award nomination for short fiction, Qualia Nous was my first for editing an anthology, and this year The Library of the Dead won the award. Perhaps Chiral Mad 3, perhaps the next book, or the next story I write. John Palisano (�The Geminis�) was nominated for short fiction from Chiral Mad 2, and Gary A. Braunbeck (�The Great Pity�) won for long fiction; both Rena Mason (�Ruminations�) and Usman T. Malik (�The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family�) won the Stoker last year for their short fiction in Qualia Nous (Malik also nominated for a Nebula for his story, covering both horror and science fiction); Norman Partridge (�Special Collections�) is up for his long fiction/introduction from The Library of the Dead.
I�m happy about all of that. But it�s just an award. Don�t get me wrong � winning a Stoker (even being nominated) is an accomplishment. Horror writers are a small group of people, in the grand scheme of writerly things, but to have fellow horror writers�the people you work with and perhaps look up to�nominate your work, move it from long-list to short-list (aka The Ballot), and either vote for your work or for another of your peers you admire in your category (among all other considered works published that year), is something incredible, something in which you should take great pride. Will it further your career? Probably not. It won�t hurt it, though. Who won the Stoker in 2013 for novel, first novel, YA, nonfiction, fiction collection, poetry collection, long fiction, short fiction? How about 2014? How about last year? Do you remember? Were you even paying attention?
Horror has the Stoker. Mystery has the Edgar. Science fiction and fantasy have the Nebula and the Hugo. There are a lot of awards out there for a lot of books. There are a lot of books. And there are many awards for the indie scene. I�ve won quite a few medals, placards, and foil stickers to put on books, and pieces of paper to frame and hang on walls: the Indie Awards, Independent Publisher Book Awards, International Book Awards, the IndieFabs. One of my favorite accomplishments was finally winning the Benjamin Franklin Award after so many years of submitting books. It�s one of my favorite trophies. But that�s all it is, really�a trophy, and it sits on the shelf collecting dust with the others.
What I take greater pride in are the books I create, the stories I publish (whether my own or others� within my anthologies). Those are the real trophies, the real awards. I may have sold a few more copies of Qualia Nous because of accolades, or I may sell a few more copies of The Library of the Dead this year, but the books are what matters. The award won�t be on any other shelf but mine, but the book, the story � How many other shelves out there are willing to hold them?
If you could go back in time and start over, what would you do differently?
I would have started earlier.
Thanks for the great interview, Michael! Check out his bio page to see his range of books on Amazon ... and buy a book or two! You can also check out his Written Backwards blog for more info.
April 25, 2016
Meet Horror Writer Shaun Meeks
Shaun Meeks was born and raised in Toronto, and still lives there with his partner, Mina LaFleur. Shaun was formerly a semi-pro skateboarder. Now he enjoys sharing his nightmares in his writing--and scaring the hell out of his readers! His short stories have been published in many magazines and anthologies, including Smart Rhino's ZIPPERED FLESH 2, SOMEONE WICKED, and INSIDIOUS ASSASSINS. He is also the author of the books SHUTDOWN, THE GATE AT LAKE DRIVE, and DOWN ON THE FARM.
Thanks, Shaun, for hanging out with us for a few minutes!
Your novel, THE GATE AT LAKE DRIVE, is a great monster story. (And the cover is super, too!) What's your recipe for a great monster?
I�ve been writing a lot more monster stories as of late, and part of that has to do with this new series I�ve started, "Dillon the Monster Dick;" THE GATE AT LAKE DRIVE is the first book in the series.
What makes a good monster? Really depends on what you�re going for. Making one scary--the stuff of nightmares--is just fun. To do that, I usually think of what frightens people. Deep-sea life, spiders, demons, the dark--these are things I�ll splice into a monster so that, on a deep level, the elements strike a chord of fear within the reader. I love the idea of monsters with slimy tentacles, coarse hairs, a multitude of eyes, and a nest of sharp, deformed teeth. The trick is making the reader imagine what it�d feel like to be face to face with the monster. The idea of feeling the repulsive skin touching your own, the overwhelming odor of rot that lingers on the thing's flesh. That's what I want readers to be thinking as they read.
But what about the monsters that truly hate or can't change what they are, the ones that you pity? I enjoy playing with that theme--the monster that is hunted and feared, yet proves to be the character with which the readers relate. The humans who shun or hunt the creature prove to be the real monsters. Having a reader relate to the monster isn�t always easy, but it�s great when it works!
You've published a collection of your short stories, AT THE GATES OF MADNESS. Your stories have also been published in Smart Rhino anthos. What's your strategy for writing a short story? What would you advise a new fiction writer concerning tailoring a tale?
When I�m writing a new story, most days I have no idea what it�s going to be about or how it�ll end. Often all I have is an opening, just a line, or maybe a full paragraph--and the story is born from there. People think that everything I write is plotted out and outlined well in advance. It�s really not.
When I wrote "Treats," which appears in AT THE GATES OF MADNESS, the story was simply going to be about an older man on Halloween night, reflecting on his life and his loneliness. A group of vicious teens were going torment the man until he snapped, and he would attack those harassing him. What I ended up writing was a bizarre, very different monster story that many have said is one of the vilest things they�ve ever read. I remember, when writing the story and it took a sharp turn, thinking I didn�t see that coming.
From time to time, I write something for a themed anthology. "Taut," which appeared in ZIPPERED FLESH 2, is a good example of that. I knew the theme was about body modification, so I sat down with the intention of writing a story about suspension. That was as much as I knew when I started. I had no idea who the characters would be, where the story was going, or how it would end. That�s the way I prefer to write a short story--allowing the story to become what it wants to be.
Whenever a newer writer asks me for advice on writing a short story, I tell them four things. Number one: Grab the reader right from the start. Whether it�s jumping into the action or simply writing something that�s striking, you really need to give them a good punch right off the bat. Hook �em and reel �em in.
Number two: Give the reader a great punch at the end. Don�t end the story with a cliche like and then he/she woke up. Nobody likes that.
Number three: Make sure your characters' actions make sense. Don�t ever make a character do something that nobody would do in real life. We see it all the time in movies, those moments where you think, Why would they go in the basement! Get out of the house! If you can explain the reasoning behind the action though, then do it. But re-read that section and, if it sounds forced, cut it.
Number four: Don't over-explain! All too often, I see writers over-explaining things, especially through dialogue. It�s sloppy writing to have a character explain the cause of some unexplainable event when there�s no way he/she could possibly know the cause. Use scenes, actions, and descriptions to push the plot, and let the reader take it from there.
What horror novel by another writer do you wish you had written ... and why?
Oh, so many, but if I had to pick one, I�d say IT by Stephen King. It�s an epic novel, one of those books you just don�t want to end. The characters are beautifully fleshed out, each of them having a perfect voice that never wavers. It moves flawlessly back and forth through time. King is a master at that. Not only that, but Pennywise is one of the best monsters ever. Whether it manifests in the form of a clown, blood-filled balloons, a teenage werewolf, or even its true form, Pennywise sends chills through me. I can only hope to write something on that level one day.
Thanks, Shaun, for a great interview. We look forward to reading more of your work!
Thanks, Shaun, for hanging out with us for a few minutes!
Your novel, THE GATE AT LAKE DRIVE, is a great monster story. (And the cover is super, too!) What's your recipe for a great monster?
I�ve been writing a lot more monster stories as of late, and part of that has to do with this new series I�ve started, "Dillon the Monster Dick;" THE GATE AT LAKE DRIVE is the first book in the series.
What makes a good monster? Really depends on what you�re going for. Making one scary--the stuff of nightmares--is just fun. To do that, I usually think of what frightens people. Deep-sea life, spiders, demons, the dark--these are things I�ll splice into a monster so that, on a deep level, the elements strike a chord of fear within the reader. I love the idea of monsters with slimy tentacles, coarse hairs, a multitude of eyes, and a nest of sharp, deformed teeth. The trick is making the reader imagine what it�d feel like to be face to face with the monster. The idea of feeling the repulsive skin touching your own, the overwhelming odor of rot that lingers on the thing's flesh. That's what I want readers to be thinking as they read.
But what about the monsters that truly hate or can't change what they are, the ones that you pity? I enjoy playing with that theme--the monster that is hunted and feared, yet proves to be the character with which the readers relate. The humans who shun or hunt the creature prove to be the real monsters. Having a reader relate to the monster isn�t always easy, but it�s great when it works!
You've published a collection of your short stories, AT THE GATES OF MADNESS. Your stories have also been published in Smart Rhino anthos. What's your strategy for writing a short story? What would you advise a new fiction writer concerning tailoring a tale?
When I�m writing a new story, most days I have no idea what it�s going to be about or how it�ll end. Often all I have is an opening, just a line, or maybe a full paragraph--and the story is born from there. People think that everything I write is plotted out and outlined well in advance. It�s really not.
When I wrote "Treats," which appears in AT THE GATES OF MADNESS, the story was simply going to be about an older man on Halloween night, reflecting on his life and his loneliness. A group of vicious teens were going torment the man until he snapped, and he would attack those harassing him. What I ended up writing was a bizarre, very different monster story that many have said is one of the vilest things they�ve ever read. I remember, when writing the story and it took a sharp turn, thinking I didn�t see that coming.
From time to time, I write something for a themed anthology. "Taut," which appeared in ZIPPERED FLESH 2, is a good example of that. I knew the theme was about body modification, so I sat down with the intention of writing a story about suspension. That was as much as I knew when I started. I had no idea who the characters would be, where the story was going, or how it would end. That�s the way I prefer to write a short story--allowing the story to become what it wants to be.
Whenever a newer writer asks me for advice on writing a short story, I tell them four things. Number one: Grab the reader right from the start. Whether it�s jumping into the action or simply writing something that�s striking, you really need to give them a good punch right off the bat. Hook �em and reel �em in.
Number two: Give the reader a great punch at the end. Don�t end the story with a cliche like and then he/she woke up. Nobody likes that.
Number three: Make sure your characters' actions make sense. Don�t ever make a character do something that nobody would do in real life. We see it all the time in movies, those moments where you think, Why would they go in the basement! Get out of the house! If you can explain the reasoning behind the action though, then do it. But re-read that section and, if it sounds forced, cut it.
Number four: Don't over-explain! All too often, I see writers over-explaining things, especially through dialogue. It�s sloppy writing to have a character explain the cause of some unexplainable event when there�s no way he/she could possibly know the cause. Use scenes, actions, and descriptions to push the plot, and let the reader take it from there.
What horror novel by another writer do you wish you had written ... and why?
Oh, so many, but if I had to pick one, I�d say IT by Stephen King. It�s an epic novel, one of those books you just don�t want to end. The characters are beautifully fleshed out, each of them having a perfect voice that never wavers. It moves flawlessly back and forth through time. King is a master at that. Not only that, but Pennywise is one of the best monsters ever. Whether it manifests in the form of a clown, blood-filled balloons, a teenage werewolf, or even its true form, Pennywise sends chills through me. I can only hope to write something on that level one day.
Thanks, Shaun, for a great interview. We look forward to reading more of your work!
March 21, 2016
Meet Suspense/Horror Writer Billie Sue Mosiman
Billie Sue Mosiman�s NIGHT CRUISE was nominated for the Edgar Award and her novel, WIDOW, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Novel. She�s a prolific writer, one of our favorites here at Smart Rhino Publications, appearing in several of our anthologies. A suspense thriller novelist, she often writes horror short stories. Billie has also been a columnist, reviewer, and writing instructor. She lives in Texas where the sun is too hot for humankind. We are grateful that she took some time from her busy schedule to answer a few questions for us.
You're a powerhouse short fiction writer, with stories in a great many anthologies and collections. Do you get more satisfaction out of writing short fiction than writing novels? If so, why?
I enjoy both forms of fiction writing. What do I find easiest to write, though? Short stories. One idea, a couple of characters, one forward plot. Novels are Olympic where stories are like college sports. I very much enjoy finishing a novel. I know I've run the marathon and made it.
Your latest novel, THE GREY MATTER, received a nomination for the Kindle Book Award. Your work often bridges the gap between horror and suspense. How much of this is intentional, and how much is simply "I write what I enjoy reading"? Do you think of marketing at all when you're in the "creation mode"?
Two of my suspense novels employed more than suspense. BAD TRIP SOUTH has a little girl who can read minds. It was the first time I mixed genres and I really liked how it came out. You're following a crime drama and meanwhile the girl knows exactly what's going on in the minds of the adults. I employed speculative fiction in THE GREY MATTER, which is essentially a crime suspense novel. The world goes dark due to EMPs and there's a serial killer in it. Otherwise, most of my books are straight suspense novels. I figured if whatever I write is something I like, others will like it too. Now I'm writing a new novel, THE BLACKEST PLACE, and it will be noir suspense. I do write what I enjoy reading.
You've been writing professionally since the early '80s--more than 60 books and perhaps more short stories than I can count. Looking back, what would you have done differently? In short, what advice would you offer a young writer following in your footsteps?
I doubt I'd done anything differently except maybe slowed down publishers who pushed me for the next book. My advice to young writers is to be true to yourself. If you like mystery writing and someone pushes horror onto you, balk, back-peddle, do anything you can to stick with what you love. Read tons of books, of all kinds. Write like a mad person. Trust your gut. And never, never give away your Life of Copyright. If someone wants to give you a million bucks for it to one of your books, trust you can get $1.2 million from some other publisher who won't steal your copyright. Besides being productive, you must be smart.
For more on Billie Sue Mosiman, and the many books she's written, visit her Facebook page.
THE GREY MATTER is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.
You're a powerhouse short fiction writer, with stories in a great many anthologies and collections. Do you get more satisfaction out of writing short fiction than writing novels? If so, why?
I enjoy both forms of fiction writing. What do I find easiest to write, though? Short stories. One idea, a couple of characters, one forward plot. Novels are Olympic where stories are like college sports. I very much enjoy finishing a novel. I know I've run the marathon and made it.
Your latest novel, THE GREY MATTER, received a nomination for the Kindle Book Award. Your work often bridges the gap between horror and suspense. How much of this is intentional, and how much is simply "I write what I enjoy reading"? Do you think of marketing at all when you're in the "creation mode"?
Two of my suspense novels employed more than suspense. BAD TRIP SOUTH has a little girl who can read minds. It was the first time I mixed genres and I really liked how it came out. You're following a crime drama and meanwhile the girl knows exactly what's going on in the minds of the adults. I employed speculative fiction in THE GREY MATTER, which is essentially a crime suspense novel. The world goes dark due to EMPs and there's a serial killer in it. Otherwise, most of my books are straight suspense novels. I figured if whatever I write is something I like, others will like it too. Now I'm writing a new novel, THE BLACKEST PLACE, and it will be noir suspense. I do write what I enjoy reading.
You've been writing professionally since the early '80s--more than 60 books and perhaps more short stories than I can count. Looking back, what would you have done differently? In short, what advice would you offer a young writer following in your footsteps?
I doubt I'd done anything differently except maybe slowed down publishers who pushed me for the next book. My advice to young writers is to be true to yourself. If you like mystery writing and someone pushes horror onto you, balk, back-peddle, do anything you can to stick with what you love. Read tons of books, of all kinds. Write like a mad person. Trust your gut. And never, never give away your Life of Copyright. If someone wants to give you a million bucks for it to one of your books, trust you can get $1.2 million from some other publisher who won't steal your copyright. Besides being productive, you must be smart.
For more on Billie Sue Mosiman, and the many books she's written, visit her Facebook page.
THE GREY MATTER is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.
March 1, 2016
L.L. Soares & Laura Cooney on Their Novella GREEN TSUNAMI
Husband and wife team, Bram Stoker Winner L.L. Soares and Laura Cooney, having written some truly incredible and entertaining horror fiction over the years. L.L.'s stories have appeared in a number of Smart Rhino anthologies ("Sawbones" in ZIPPERED FLESH, "Seeds" in ZIPPERED FLESH 2, "Sometimes the Good Witch Sings to Me" in SOMEONE WICKED, and "What the Blender Saw" in INSIDIOUS ASSASSINS). Smart Rhino also had the pleasure of publishing their SF/horror novella GREEN TSUNAMI. The two of them took some time out of their busy schedules for a few interview questions.
Most of your writing tends toward horror, but GREEN TSUNAMI definitely has a science fiction flavor as well. What sparked the idea for the novella?
LL: Well, a lot of it had to do with the initial concept. Our first short story collection, IN SICKNESS, had just come out from Skullvines Press (which featured solo stories by both of us, and a novella called "In Sickness," which we wrote together). A couple of writers we knew were starting their own small press, and they wanted another collaborative novella from us. The only stipulations were that: 1) it had to involve the end of the world, and 2) it had to be told in correspondence format between a husband and wife (letters, emails, etc.). At this point, apocalyptic fiction had just started to really get big, but we didn�t want to do anything that had been done before. No zombies or cannibals or stuff like that. In fact, the entire idea of the end of the world can instantly bring to mind ruins and barren spaces and death. And we wanted to do something the complete opposite of that. Where, instead of death and desolation, there was going to be life. It just wasn�t necessarily going to be human life. Not as we know it.
And that�s how the science fiction flavor evolved. There are also elements of bizarro fiction in there, since both Laura and I are big fans of surrealism, and the idea of a constantly evolving, mutating landscape seemed to tap right into that. Unfortunately, once the novella was completed, the small press that asked for it closed up shop. Here we had a novella we really thought came out great, but the place that had requested it was gone. That�s when Smart Rhino swooped in and came to the rescue. Which we�re both grateful for.
Laura: People usually associate apocalyptic stuff with science fiction, but once the whole zombie apocalypse thing took off, it became a major subgenre within horror as well. I�ve always loved stories about the end of the world.
Whether I�m reading or writing fiction, the characters are always the most important thing to me. I�ve never been a genre snob. There�s that hierarchy bullshit in fiction where literary fiction is supposedly at the top, followed by mystery and crime fiction, then science fiction. Horror and romance are usually lumped at the bottom. I think it�s narrowed-minded to limit yourself to just one or two fiction genres. There�s great stuff in every genre. I�m interested in how characters react in stressful or heightened situations and how characters interact with each other and the conflicts that come out of that. That�s the stuff that makes great fiction and that defies genre.
GREEN TSUNAMI is written entirely using email correspondence between a husband and a wife separated by a global catastrophe. The husband witnesses all the destruction and mutation of everything, including buildings and inanimate things, all around him, and his goal is to find and rescue his wife. She is apparently trapped in an office building. Did L.L. assume the role of the husband and Laura the wife during the writing process? And in what ways did you collaborate when writing the novella? Any surprises along the way?
LL: Since the correspondence aspect was already decided on, we considered toying around with the gender roles, and have me write the woman�s parts and Laura write the man�s, but it wasn�t coming together. So we just went with Laura writing Joy�s parts, and me writing Aaron�s. And we wrote it just like it appears in the novella. I�d send her an email, and she�d respond. And then if there were things in her response that I had questions about, I�d ask, and it evolved from there. We wouldn�t discuss things beforehand (until we got closer to the ending I had in mind). I think once we touched upon the whole Davey thing (their son), that�s when it all clicked and we knew we were going in the right direction. No big surprises after that, but a lot of little surprises along the way.
Laura: Writing a novel in the form of letters, emails, diary entries, texts and such, is a great way to get into the minds of the characters. Exchanging letters or emails is a wonderful way to explore the dynamics of a relationship, which makes it especially interesting when the characters are husband and wife. I�ve never liked stories where the husband and wife have a �perfect� relationship. They never argue or have different perspectives, never have resentments or guilt feelings. These aren�t people, these are poinsettias, or ferns or maybe even a coral reef, but they�re not human beings. The characters in GREEN TSUNAMI are facing the worst situation of their lives and they have to do it alone and not knowing if they will ever see one another again. That�s an incredibly stressful situation, so part of the story is: How do they deal with this stress?
LL and I share a similar mindset, which makes it pretty easy for us to collaborate on stories together. Neither of us is afraid to show the ugly or unpleasant aspects of human beings. Some people didn�t like the character of the wife, and that�s usually when I tell them that LL wrote that part. (Just kidding.) I think Joy is very honest and real and that�s what I like about her. Aaron isn�t quite so prickly; I think he�s kinder. I�ve seen that dynamic in a number of marriages. Davey is a whole other thing, to put it mildly. I�ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the evil child character. Maybe it goes back to the first time I saw "The Bad Seed" on TV as a kid. I really loved Patty McCormack�s character and thought she was hilarious. Like LL said, once we came up with the evil child, we were off and running.
What is your most vexing problem when writing a short story for an anthology? What advice would you give another writer in that regard?
LL: I guess if it�s a themed anthology, the most vexing thing can be coming up with an idea that fits the theme but that is completely different from anything else any of the other writers is going to come up with. You don�t want to go with any obvious choices. You want your story to stand out and be different. But, for example the most recent anthology of yours I contributed to, INSIDIOUS ASSASSINS, I started with the title �What the Blender Saw,� and then worked backward from there. The title struck me as something that would stand out, and it perfectly fits what is going on in the story. You know, it�s funny. I�ve contributed to several Smart Rhino anthologies, and I think every single story I�ve written for you has involved a hit man or an assassin of some kind. I didn�t plan that at all, it just sort of bloomed on its own. But, aside from trying to come up with something that fits but is original, you just have to block out everything else and just write what comes to you.
Laura: You also have to consider what sort of overall tone the editor is looking for in the anthology. In horror, there�s always that ongoing debate about quiet horror vs. extreme horror. I�m not sure why there�s a debate. There�s more than enough room for both. In an anthology, the editor wants a cohesive tone, even if the anthology itself is not themed. While you have to keep these things in mind, you should always retain your own voice and be true to your vision as a writer. Everything you can think of has probably already been written; what makes it distinct is your unique voice and point of view. It would be great if a reader was able to read something you wrote and know it�s you without reading the byline.
Thanks, L.L. and Laura!
Most of your writing tends toward horror, but GREEN TSUNAMI definitely has a science fiction flavor as well. What sparked the idea for the novella?
LL: Well, a lot of it had to do with the initial concept. Our first short story collection, IN SICKNESS, had just come out from Skullvines Press (which featured solo stories by both of us, and a novella called "In Sickness," which we wrote together). A couple of writers we knew were starting their own small press, and they wanted another collaborative novella from us. The only stipulations were that: 1) it had to involve the end of the world, and 2) it had to be told in correspondence format between a husband and wife (letters, emails, etc.). At this point, apocalyptic fiction had just started to really get big, but we didn�t want to do anything that had been done before. No zombies or cannibals or stuff like that. In fact, the entire idea of the end of the world can instantly bring to mind ruins and barren spaces and death. And we wanted to do something the complete opposite of that. Where, instead of death and desolation, there was going to be life. It just wasn�t necessarily going to be human life. Not as we know it.
And that�s how the science fiction flavor evolved. There are also elements of bizarro fiction in there, since both Laura and I are big fans of surrealism, and the idea of a constantly evolving, mutating landscape seemed to tap right into that. Unfortunately, once the novella was completed, the small press that asked for it closed up shop. Here we had a novella we really thought came out great, but the place that had requested it was gone. That�s when Smart Rhino swooped in and came to the rescue. Which we�re both grateful for.
Laura: People usually associate apocalyptic stuff with science fiction, but once the whole zombie apocalypse thing took off, it became a major subgenre within horror as well. I�ve always loved stories about the end of the world.
Whether I�m reading or writing fiction, the characters are always the most important thing to me. I�ve never been a genre snob. There�s that hierarchy bullshit in fiction where literary fiction is supposedly at the top, followed by mystery and crime fiction, then science fiction. Horror and romance are usually lumped at the bottom. I think it�s narrowed-minded to limit yourself to just one or two fiction genres. There�s great stuff in every genre. I�m interested in how characters react in stressful or heightened situations and how characters interact with each other and the conflicts that come out of that. That�s the stuff that makes great fiction and that defies genre.
GREEN TSUNAMI is written entirely using email correspondence between a husband and a wife separated by a global catastrophe. The husband witnesses all the destruction and mutation of everything, including buildings and inanimate things, all around him, and his goal is to find and rescue his wife. She is apparently trapped in an office building. Did L.L. assume the role of the husband and Laura the wife during the writing process? And in what ways did you collaborate when writing the novella? Any surprises along the way?
LL: Since the correspondence aspect was already decided on, we considered toying around with the gender roles, and have me write the woman�s parts and Laura write the man�s, but it wasn�t coming together. So we just went with Laura writing Joy�s parts, and me writing Aaron�s. And we wrote it just like it appears in the novella. I�d send her an email, and she�d respond. And then if there were things in her response that I had questions about, I�d ask, and it evolved from there. We wouldn�t discuss things beforehand (until we got closer to the ending I had in mind). I think once we touched upon the whole Davey thing (their son), that�s when it all clicked and we knew we were going in the right direction. No big surprises after that, but a lot of little surprises along the way.
Laura: Writing a novel in the form of letters, emails, diary entries, texts and such, is a great way to get into the minds of the characters. Exchanging letters or emails is a wonderful way to explore the dynamics of a relationship, which makes it especially interesting when the characters are husband and wife. I�ve never liked stories where the husband and wife have a �perfect� relationship. They never argue or have different perspectives, never have resentments or guilt feelings. These aren�t people, these are poinsettias, or ferns or maybe even a coral reef, but they�re not human beings. The characters in GREEN TSUNAMI are facing the worst situation of their lives and they have to do it alone and not knowing if they will ever see one another again. That�s an incredibly stressful situation, so part of the story is: How do they deal with this stress?
LL and I share a similar mindset, which makes it pretty easy for us to collaborate on stories together. Neither of us is afraid to show the ugly or unpleasant aspects of human beings. Some people didn�t like the character of the wife, and that�s usually when I tell them that LL wrote that part. (Just kidding.) I think Joy is very honest and real and that�s what I like about her. Aaron isn�t quite so prickly; I think he�s kinder. I�ve seen that dynamic in a number of marriages. Davey is a whole other thing, to put it mildly. I�ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the evil child character. Maybe it goes back to the first time I saw "The Bad Seed" on TV as a kid. I really loved Patty McCormack�s character and thought she was hilarious. Like LL said, once we came up with the evil child, we were off and running.
What is your most vexing problem when writing a short story for an anthology? What advice would you give another writer in that regard?
LL: I guess if it�s a themed anthology, the most vexing thing can be coming up with an idea that fits the theme but that is completely different from anything else any of the other writers is going to come up with. You don�t want to go with any obvious choices. You want your story to stand out and be different. But, for example the most recent anthology of yours I contributed to, INSIDIOUS ASSASSINS, I started with the title �What the Blender Saw,� and then worked backward from there. The title struck me as something that would stand out, and it perfectly fits what is going on in the story. You know, it�s funny. I�ve contributed to several Smart Rhino anthologies, and I think every single story I�ve written for you has involved a hit man or an assassin of some kind. I didn�t plan that at all, it just sort of bloomed on its own. But, aside from trying to come up with something that fits but is original, you just have to block out everything else and just write what comes to you.
Laura: You also have to consider what sort of overall tone the editor is looking for in the anthology. In horror, there�s always that ongoing debate about quiet horror vs. extreme horror. I�m not sure why there�s a debate. There�s more than enough room for both. In an anthology, the editor wants a cohesive tone, even if the anthology itself is not themed. While you have to keep these things in mind, you should always retain your own voice and be true to your vision as a writer. Everything you can think of has probably already been written; what makes it distinct is your unique voice and point of view. It would be great if a reader was able to read something you wrote and know it�s you without reading the byline.
Thanks, L.L. and Laura!
February 17, 2016
Bram Stoker Award-Winner Lisa Mannetti on Storytelling
Lisa Mannetti�s debut novel, THE GENTLING BOX, garnered a Bram Stoker Award and she was nominated in 2010 both for her novella, �Dissolution,� and a short story, �1925: A Fall River Halloween.� Her story �Everybody Wins,� which was included in the UNCOMMON ASSASSINS anthology, was made into a short film by director Paul Leyden, starring Malin Ackerman and released under the title Bye-Bye Sally. Lisa lives in New York.
What was your favorite (the most fun to write) section of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER AND HUCK FINN? Tell us a little bit about it.
Truly, my own cats, Tom and Huck, were such wilders and so much fun and so connected to me, I had a great time writing every part of the book and frequently found myself laughing out loud as I worked�both at them and what I was putting down on the page. But, if I had to choose a favorite section, I�d have to say it was the s�ance scene. Unquestionably, Tom�s braggadocio draws on the same giddy bravado displayed by Twain�s Hank in A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR�S COURT�especially the scenes when he�s up against Merlin, and those moments in Twain always made me laugh, too. But Tom�s attempts at frightening the Chancery House guests, his description of the medium and his delight at their terror struck me as hilarious; and a critic or two concurred.
Here�s Tom�s take on Myra the medium and her lack of style�just before he lets loose and shows her how a s�ance ought to be conducted!
�Drat the woman�she ain�t got a bit of style.� I shook my head. If Myra had any smarts, she�d a waited till the s�ance got bouncin along and then got the spirits to move her tables and lamps and whatnot. �Course she wanted to prove they was present and manifestin�since, thanks to Houdini, hardly anybody believes in s�ances�so she had to go and make it look as if everything was just as ordinary as a copy of the Hartford Courant.
Anyhow, in tandem with the s�ance scene, Huck�s misunderstanding of their plight and his subsequent pluck (or perhaps, mental aberration for a cat so terrified of haunts) demonstrated by screaming at the ghosts they are so stupid they don�t know enough to go into the light also made me giddy.I also experienced a great deal of amusement writing the scenes when Cal and Al, the trumped up no-account "professors" at the community college, seduce the wicked Lily Blum, and whenever the resident "werewolfs" (as Tom and Huck call them) Ted and Earle show up in the novel. Additionally, Tom�s asides and explanations about the demonic nature of vacuum cleaners, Lizzie Borden�s murders, Internet dating, and the nature of witchcraft were a hell of a lot of fun.
All in all, I have to say I never had more enjoyment writing any book I�ve written. Of course, the book has many uneasy supernatural moments, along with quite a bit of poignancy�it�s not a one-note book. It was important for me to incorporate every element that goes into writing a novel�depth of character, resonance, a broad range of moods, and atmosphere depending on the plot demands as the book moves toward its climax and conclusion. In that sense, it�s also a serious work�and not merely an homage to Twain�s humor.
What advice would you offer a young writer concerning working with an editor?
My first job out of school was as the assistant to one of the executive editors at New York Magazine � one day she sent me off to interview Mikhail Barishnikov for a piece for the Intelligencer. I came back to work and wrote it in what I thought was my best facsimile of the �Intelligencer Style,� and she told me it was excellent and proceeded to (very quickly and very rapidly�because she was brilliant) edit it. I was amazed at how much better it was. I remember saying to her, �Elizabeth, this is incredible. You turned it into something extraordinary.� She shrugged and told me, �No you wrote it � but remember, every writer�no matter who she or he is�needs an editor.� I never forgot those words�not just because she was a friend and my mentor�but because they were true. If you�re not ready to hear them, you�re not a pro. Simple as that.
Every writer needs an editor. Make it your credo and you�ll find your sales improve dramatically�not because you�re kowtowing to someone else�s wishes, but because you�re open to how your work can be improved. That�s the key�it�s about finding out which scenes work and which don�t. Where your book lags, where your story is overwritten, where a character needs to be sharpened, made more important or eliminated. Good fiction demands these kinds of changes�always be ready to make your book or story the best it can be, even when you know in your heart you�ve written your best. Someone else�s input can be invaluable�not just on that particular piece, but because you begin to incorporate that advice in subsequent work automatically and your writing will improve by leaps and bounds over time.
Always be willing to improve your storytelling skills�in the long run, you�ll be able to take more chances with your work and hit your stride.
[This interview was first published in the May 2015 issue of the Smart Rhino Publications newsletter. Smart Rhino published her novella, THE BOX JUMPER, shortly after this was published.]
For more on Lisa Mannetti, and the many books she's written, visit her website at http://www.lisamannetti.com/.
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER AND HUCK FINN is available on Amazon in both adult and young adult (YA) editions.
You can also find her latest book, THE BOX JUMPER, on Amazon as well.
What was your favorite (the most fun to write) section of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER AND HUCK FINN? Tell us a little bit about it.
Truly, my own cats, Tom and Huck, were such wilders and so much fun and so connected to me, I had a great time writing every part of the book and frequently found myself laughing out loud as I worked�both at them and what I was putting down on the page. But, if I had to choose a favorite section, I�d have to say it was the s�ance scene. Unquestionably, Tom�s braggadocio draws on the same giddy bravado displayed by Twain�s Hank in A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR�S COURT�especially the scenes when he�s up against Merlin, and those moments in Twain always made me laugh, too. But Tom�s attempts at frightening the Chancery House guests, his description of the medium and his delight at their terror struck me as hilarious; and a critic or two concurred.
Here�s Tom�s take on Myra the medium and her lack of style�just before he lets loose and shows her how a s�ance ought to be conducted!
�Drat the woman�she ain�t got a bit of style.� I shook my head. If Myra had any smarts, she�d a waited till the s�ance got bouncin along and then got the spirits to move her tables and lamps and whatnot. �Course she wanted to prove they was present and manifestin�since, thanks to Houdini, hardly anybody believes in s�ances�so she had to go and make it look as if everything was just as ordinary as a copy of the Hartford Courant.
Anyhow, in tandem with the s�ance scene, Huck�s misunderstanding of their plight and his subsequent pluck (or perhaps, mental aberration for a cat so terrified of haunts) demonstrated by screaming at the ghosts they are so stupid they don�t know enough to go into the light also made me giddy.I also experienced a great deal of amusement writing the scenes when Cal and Al, the trumped up no-account "professors" at the community college, seduce the wicked Lily Blum, and whenever the resident "werewolfs" (as Tom and Huck call them) Ted and Earle show up in the novel. Additionally, Tom�s asides and explanations about the demonic nature of vacuum cleaners, Lizzie Borden�s murders, Internet dating, and the nature of witchcraft were a hell of a lot of fun.
All in all, I have to say I never had more enjoyment writing any book I�ve written. Of course, the book has many uneasy supernatural moments, along with quite a bit of poignancy�it�s not a one-note book. It was important for me to incorporate every element that goes into writing a novel�depth of character, resonance, a broad range of moods, and atmosphere depending on the plot demands as the book moves toward its climax and conclusion. In that sense, it�s also a serious work�and not merely an homage to Twain�s humor.
What advice would you offer a young writer concerning working with an editor?
My first job out of school was as the assistant to one of the executive editors at New York Magazine � one day she sent me off to interview Mikhail Barishnikov for a piece for the Intelligencer. I came back to work and wrote it in what I thought was my best facsimile of the �Intelligencer Style,� and she told me it was excellent and proceeded to (very quickly and very rapidly�because she was brilliant) edit it. I was amazed at how much better it was. I remember saying to her, �Elizabeth, this is incredible. You turned it into something extraordinary.� She shrugged and told me, �No you wrote it � but remember, every writer�no matter who she or he is�needs an editor.� I never forgot those words�not just because she was a friend and my mentor�but because they were true. If you�re not ready to hear them, you�re not a pro. Simple as that.
Every writer needs an editor. Make it your credo and you�ll find your sales improve dramatically�not because you�re kowtowing to someone else�s wishes, but because you�re open to how your work can be improved. That�s the key�it�s about finding out which scenes work and which don�t. Where your book lags, where your story is overwritten, where a character needs to be sharpened, made more important or eliminated. Good fiction demands these kinds of changes�always be ready to make your book or story the best it can be, even when you know in your heart you�ve written your best. Someone else�s input can be invaluable�not just on that particular piece, but because you begin to incorporate that advice in subsequent work automatically and your writing will improve by leaps and bounds over time.
Always be willing to improve your storytelling skills�in the long run, you�ll be able to take more chances with your work and hit your stride.
[This interview was first published in the May 2015 issue of the Smart Rhino Publications newsletter. Smart Rhino published her novella, THE BOX JUMPER, shortly after this was published.]
For more on Lisa Mannetti, and the many books she's written, visit her website at http://www.lisamannetti.com/.
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER AND HUCK FINN is available on Amazon in both adult and young adult (YA) editions.
You can also find her latest book, THE BOX JUMPER, on Amazon as well.
November 29, 2015
Developing Characters Via Dialogue
Many fiction writers have difficulty developing real-to-life characters in their work. One of the ways to pull this off effectively is with dialogue�something most of us enjoy writing. But, as an editor, I often see short stories that miss the mark. How? With dialogue that doesn�t truly differentiate the characters, much less help define them.
Have you read fiction in which the dialogue has one tone, one voice? Typically this is because the author is writing in his or her own voice instead of getting into the characters� heads and talking in the ways they would. The dialogue must fit the characters. I�m often guilty of being lazy when developing dialogue myself, and often have to go through my drafts to hone the dialogue.
Let�s consider an example.
I�m currently working on a police procedural novel. Of course, there are a number of detectives and other police officers in the story, and each has a distinct character. My main character, Matthew Marrs, is a by-the-book, straightforward detective with a heart, who is highly intuitive and superb at his job. His partner, Gordon O�Daniel, constantly looks for the humor in situations, is something of a lady�s man, and is quick-witted and street-smart. Anthony D�Oro is an older, gruff detective, something of a curmudgeon. Now, let�s hear them talk.
�Give me a break,� Marrs said.
�Gimme a break,� D�Oro said.
�C�mon!�O�Daniel said.
The detectives react to the same situation and say pretty much the same thing, but with different voices that portray their characters. Even if I didn�t add the attributions, you�d probably know who said what from my earlier descriptions of their characters.
A writer should really think through how dialogue expresses character. This takes work. It�s so easy to slip into your own voice. Go back through your dialogue and see where your characters better express themselves. Reading your work aloud can also help you determine where your characters are not really speaking in their own voices.
Think also of your beats in dialogue, those breaks that help the flow and balance of the dialogue for the reader. Beats can also show character. Let�s consider some examples using the three detectives.
Marrs tapped the pad with his pen, thinking of his next line of questioning. He looked up, directly into Elinore�s eyes. �Your mother. How can I contact her?�
D�Oro started to pick his nose, a bad habit, but thought the better of it. �I gotta talk with your Mom.�
O�Daniel tilted his head. Elinore was definitely attractive and had a pleasant voice. He wondered � nah � �Is your Mom available? I�ll need to talk to her.�
OK, not perfect. But can you see the differences in character as the scene progresses? The strategy can be subtle, almost invisible to the reader, in the context of your work.
As you write, be aware of how your characters express themselves, how their characters shine through in their speech and mannerisms. Maybe this seems like a no-brainer, but it�s not always easy for writers to maintain that focus. But, if you make this a concentrated effort, your readers will appreciate it!
October 25, 2015
Taking a Shot at Flash Fiction
I'm not a big fan of flash fiction--generally stories of fewer than 300 words. But, when it comes to writing, I'll try anything (at least once). So, I took a shot at writing flash fiction, and even what I've written is not quite short enough at about 340 words. Still, see if this passes muster ...
Dunes
by Weldon Burge
There was snow on the beach, dunes upon dunes, and the ocean, pissed at the world, clawed at the surf with icy fingers.
James gazed out over the bitter Atlantic from his 10th-floor, hotel room window. He�d checked into the hotel the previous evening, in the middle of the worst nor�easter to hit the Northeast seaboard in decades. The trip from Atlanta to Atlantic City had been pure hell.
James could see white caps on the waves as far out as he could see. The wind howled like a demon outside the window. He wanted to see dolphins. Even seagulls. Any form of life. But the water and the beach were barren.
He wanted summer again.
Hard to believe that, only months before, James had brought the family to this very hotel, this beach, for a week of sun and fun. He remembered Luke and Matt, six and eight, helping him build an enormous sandcastle, then gleefully pounding it back into the sand with their bare feet. James could hear Matt laughing as they both attempted to boogie board on the chaotic waves, often tumbling together in the surf and chasing their boards in the wet sand. He remembered telling both boys to stop throwing potato chips to the hordes of raucous gulls that surrounded their bleach blanket.
Most of all, James remembered the distinct aroma of cocoa butter, the sweet suntan lotion on Lori�s bronze skin as she soaked up the sun, stretched out next to him on the blanket. She turned to him, a magnificent smile for him, a gift. He so loved this woman. She was beautiful beyond description, beyond imagination. James felt like the luckiest man on the planet, right at that moment when she smiled for him.
Was that really the last time she smiled?
James wanted summer again.
But seasons change.
There was snow on the sand, dunes upon dunes, and James was due in divorce court at noon.
So, what do you think?
