Interview With Actionopolis Author Justin Cline
Greetings!
Today I have author Justin Cline taking center stage here at 1889 Labs. I met him a year ago online, as my husband directed me to speak with him since he had been publishing a novel that he'd been writing on his blog, and it was technically him who had given me the idea to do the same with The Antithesis. So, quite a few of my readers should thank him!
I had the pleasure of meeting him in person this March at Planet Comicon in Overland Park, Kansas, as he was helping out a local comic book shop that both he and my husband frequent, and he was just as awesome in the flesh!
Aside from his awesomeness, Justin is a published author with Actionopolis, a young adult fiction publishing company, which is primarily electronic and is quite successful. Their book lines are available for both Kindle and Nook, along with many smartphone applications. Since we at 1889 Labs are all for both digital publishing and alternative publication presses, I now think it's time to meet Justin Cline.
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When did you first start working as an author for Actionopolis, and how did this career come about?
I started plotting out my first book for Actionopolis editor, Shannon Denton, in July of 2010. If you had asked me at the time, I would have told you that my introduction to Shannon was the single most important thing that had happened in my writing career to date. But I would have been selling it short. There's no way I could have known then that less than a year later, I would consider the man not only a friend but also a mentor.
As far as how the two of us came to be working together, I would have to give credit to an online novel I was publishing early last year. Though I never did get it finished (more on that later), the fact that I made good on most of my self-imposed deadlines hadn't gone unnoticed. A comic book writer friend of mine, Jai Nitz, approached me with a possible job offer. A friend of his was writing a comic book for an independent publisher and needed someone to write a prose backup story. Having been a lifelong fan of comics, I jumped at the chance.
Jai put me in touch with Shannon and Shannon explained the job, sending me the details on the character the two of us would be writing: a World War I flying ace. [Insert the sound of a record scratching to a halt.] Suffice it to say, I didn't know the first thing about WWI, let alone a WWI flying ace. Still don't. I was on the verge of turning down the assignment for fear of handing in something that betrayed my ignorance on the subject when I remembered a bit of an old Hollywood actor's advice.
"If they ask you if you can ride a horse, you say 'Hell, yes, I can ride a horse!' Then the first chance you get, you figure out how to ride a horse." Good advice, that.
So I wrote the story, and it was well received (even if 99.9% of it took place on the ground and not in the skies). A year later, that story is still sitting on someone's hard drive, unpublished, but it led me to bigger and better things. Having seen that I was willing and capable of writing something more significant than a short story, Shannon offered me my first Actionopolis book. And that was that.
Tell us about your current published works.
The first book I wrote for Actionopolis is entitled Master of Voodoo. Much like the WWI flying ace story, this book required a lot of research on my part. That may sound strange, given that it's a book aimed at children, but I wanted to be true to the ideas of voodoo while still being able to tell the story I needed to tell. In the end, it wound up being a great learning experience for me. The Actionopolis books are only 20,000 words long (roughly 75 pages double-spaced), so they are heavily outlined in advance. That wasn't something I was used to doing, but under these circumstances it was more than helpful. I can't imagine anything worse than if I had reached a point where it was time to wrap up the book and only having 500 words left to do so.
The story concerns a teenage boy, Gibson Cross, who discovers a great grandmother whose existence has been kept secret from him. At the same time, he's dealing with a newfound ability to communicate with ageless voodoo spirits called the Lwa, who grant him something akin to super(natural) powers. With the help of his friend, Rav, Gibson has to do his best to save both his town and his family from the darker elements of voodoo, which threaten to turn everyone he knows and loves into zombies.
Shortly after finishing Master of Voodoo, I started on a second book: Vampirium. My initial thought was that I didn't want this to be a traditional vampire book. Despite the fact that vampires continue to be popular, there's not a lot of originality where the characters are concerned. I wasn't telling a love story here, and there wasn't going to be any glowing. So the challenge is to take the idea and turn it on its head.
In Vampirium, our hero, Wyatt Kent, is still getting used to having moved to a new town when he discovers he's a descendant of a race called the Vampirium. This gives him both heightened senses as well as the ability to travel through shadows. Unfortunately, the use of his powers puts him on the radar of the Vampirium. Along with his cousin, Kody, he has to prevent the return of this ancient and evil race as well as their attempt to bring their world into our own.
Right now, I do have a third book completed for Actionopolis, but I can't talk about that one just yet. All I can tell you is that it's more of a science fiction buddy comedy, and if you're looking for something that's incredibly over the top and fun, then you'll find it with this one.
Both Master of Voodoo and Vampirium are now available as e-books through Barnes & Noble and Amazon, and they should also be available in print-on-demand editions coming later this year.
Who are your inspirations, as an author? Is there any other works that stand out to you? Why?
I draw most of my inspiration from writers who allow their readers to help carry the burden of the story. When I read a book, I want to be an active participant. I want to bring all of my own thoughts and memories to the process, and the more excessive an author becomes with the details the less I'm able to do that.
I want plot and character on the page. I can bring everything else.
I don't think I'm alone in crediting Stephen King for interesting me in books when I was a kid. Admittedly, his later career's been a little hit or miss, but his early work had a vibe about it that was unique and visceral. When I started writing, I was very much trying to ape his style.
Same thing with Quentin Tarantino. Though he doesn't write books, he was very influential to me when I was in college. I'm drawn to both great dialogue as well as finding new and inventive ways to tell a story.
Other key influences would be Billy Wilder, J.J. Abrams, William Goldman, Paul Auster, and Richard Russo.
Since I've been writing books for children or teens, I've also checked out quite a few writers in the teen fiction arena, and I like Suzanne Collins and James Dashner a lot.
I think what most of these writers have in common is a sense of the cinematic. They are very much telling stories that are visual and play out inside the mind's eye for the reader. With every story I tell, that's what I'm going for. That's what I'm trying to achieve.
What are things that inspire you (aside from authors)? Are there any forms of other media (music, movies, etc) that give you ideas, or make your creativity flow easier?
I hear people talk about writer's block all the time, and I have no idea what they're talking about. I've never suffered from not being able to think of a new story. Sometimes it takes a while to crack a particular plot problem, but inspiration abounds.
For me, inspiration always comes from the juxtaposition of two or more ideas. I keep a notebook on me at all times where I write down interesting things I've seen or heard in my everyday life. These things may not mean anything at the time, but when I look over them a few days later, I may find that that little snippet of dialogue fits perfectly into what I'm working on. Or it might go together with something else to come up a new concept.
What I find is that if you spend too much time looking for the big X, then sometimes you miss out on the treasure.
What are three things you aim to do before you die? Think carefully.
I would like to be successful enough in my writing career to do it full-time.
I would like to write an on-going title for DC's Vertigo comics line. Not only do I think these titles are the pinnacle of adult comic books, but I appreciate the autonomy of the line, where each title succeeds or fails on its own merits.
I would like to both write and direct a feature film. I have written several screenplays and had one filmed, but I've never directed. I think I'd enjoy it.
Explain your writing process. How do you go about writing a story, from beginning to completion of the novel itself?
For the purposes of this question, I'll use one of the Actionopolis titles as an example.
With Master of Voodoo, I received a brief outline of the story from Shannon, a rough idea if you will. This was something along the lines of boy gets voodoo powers, finds out about secret great grandmother, suffers setbacks, ultimately triumphs over evil.
From there, I wrote an outline. In this outline, I'm roughing out the characters as well as the sequence of events. I'm breaking out chapters, so that I get a sense of how many pages I can devote to each part of the story. With only 75 pages to write, there's no padding here. Everything has to be relevant to both character and plot. Otherwise it cannot stay.
Once that's approved, then I put together a beat sheet. These are basically bullet points that denote every time there's a significant change in the story. If you don't have at least two or three upheavals per chapter, something's probably wrong.
From there, I write, knowing that I have a rough word count/page count to hit with each chapter. If I save up a few words in this chapter, then there are more to use in the next. Vice versa, if I use too many, then the next chapter has to be cut back. My plan here is to play it lean and mean early on so that I can make the last two or three chapters really count.
The actual writing is where the good stuff comes out, and the best stuff comes out of editorial.
Maybe the most important thing I learned with this book is that your first idea is most likely your worst idea. In almost every instance. It may seem otherwise, but in a given situation, nine writers out of ten will come up with the same idea on how to handle it. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's your job to be the tenth writer. The tenth writer is a maniac, and his stuff doesn't even make any sense. Your job is to be the one amongst the nine who goes back and comes up with a second or a third or a forty-seventh idea until it's something worth writing.
Once the rewrites are complete, I wait for the killer cover design to show up, and then we're on to publication.
Is there anything you are currently working on?
Earlier, I mentioned a book that I had been writing online last year. I've returned to that, and I'm working on doing rewrites as we speak. I feel like I've learned a lot of important lessons during my Actionopolis experience, and I'm applying a lot of those to my current work. If all goes well, I'll be trying to shop that one around next year.
I am also writing at least one more Actionopolis book. This one has to do with monsters. Big, hairy monsters. With fangs.
Aside from writing, what are your other hobbies and/or interests?
When I'm not writing, I'm usually hanging out at my local comic book shop, Elite Comics.
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Further information on Justin's works, along with other musings of his, are available on his blog.
Until next time.
"
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
-Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken" 1916
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Headline image by asluthier
