3Q’s – Tommy Clark and the bigfoot conundrum!
99% sure today’s 3Q’s is the first one I’ve done with a zombie. I say 99% because there’s still the lingering mystery surrounding Carl John Lee and based on his age and biography – he could also be a zombie.
Today’s author is a friend to many, an author who delivers his Splatterpunk with enthusiasm while also supporting the community like very few do!
Please welcome Tommy!
Steve: What does your process look like once you finish your first draft? Do you immediately dive back into it, or do you take some time away?
Tommy: Once I’m on a project, I tend to stick with it until it’s finished. My first drafts are a bit more extensive than some writers, because I edit as I write. This slows my writing process, as I end up re-reading and polishing my previous day’s work when I sit down. My first drafts still end up being a bit “bad-wordy.” I have to go through and remove my “bad words” and that often lengthens the piece. Bad words I don’t like using out of dialogue include just, so, like, that, even, very, was, had, were, alright, alot… and LY adverbs. After I go through the draft, I’ll send it off to beta readers and wait for their bad news.
Steve: Do you believe cryptozoological creatures exist? If so, which one do you think has the best chance of being proven to exist?
Tommy: Okay, Steve. This is a tricky one to answer. If you asked this question to a little boy named Tommy Clark in 1976, he would tell you Bigfoot. He would tell you he saw a Bigfoot. He’d tell you all about Bionic Bigfoot, The Patterson Film, how much he idolized John Greene. This incident made so much of an impact on my life, that it’s become the backdrop for a future project I have in the pipeline (Falls Brook is the working title, and it features a unique Sasquatch as one of the characters).
Adult Tom Clark is a bit more skeptic. He knows that there is more to Bigfoot’s footprint than the tracks found in the woods. There’s the cryptoid’s ecological footprint out there, and we haven’t been able to find one.
So, to answer your question… Bigfoot? Sasquatch? But the cryptoids I think that has the best chance of being proven to exist? They’re not fantastic creatures by any stretch of the imagination. They’re allegedly extinct species, much like the coelacanth. One is the North Eastern Cougar and the other is the Tasmanian Tiger. And even though I know I really didn’t see Bigfoot 45 some-odd years ago (it was likely a deer)… I’m still terrified of the growling I heard in Minerva, NY during my wife and I’s first wedding anniversary in 2004. I’ll go to my grave swearing it was a cougar. “Nature has a way,” isn’t that what Ian Malcom says?
Steve: Of the books or stories you’ve released, which is your personal favorite and why?
Tommy: It’s a toss up between Good Boy (my first stand alone piece of long form fiction – it was written in memorial of my father) or my latest, SummerHome (as it’s my first full length novel).
Steve: Bonus Fun Question – What was the best practical joke you’ve ever been involved in?
Tommy: At first I was going to tell you how I switched Diet Pepsi for a concoction made of soy sauce and seltzer water in my friend’s 2-Liter bottle (he liked drink straight from the 2-Liter)… then I thought about the time we made some kid drink the algae-ridden bong water out of a 3-liter gravity bong… but I’ll settle on a call back to one of your earlier questions.
After I “saw” Bigfoot way back when, of course I told all my pals in the neighborhood. They didn’t believe me, but their older brothers and sisters thought it was hilarious, and those kids? Well, they hatched a plan.
The house I lived in rested upon a small creek. Our back yard was fenced in, and my little brother and I went outside one afternoon to play (he was three then). Across the creek we heard a noise and went to the back to investigate. We stood in horror, unable to move. I shit you not, across the creek, standing in the woods… was a motherfucking Bigfoot.
We screamed bloody murder, and our mother came running out of the house and saw the monster. She freaked out, herded us under her arms and ran us back into the house. She called the cops, grabbed a kitchen knife, locked the doors, and waited for the Sheriff’s Deputies to arrive.
In the interim, Bigfoot disappeared like Bigfoot fucking does.
The Deputies showed up, searched through the woods and then started interviewing our neighbors. An hour later the teenagers confessed to their prank, leaving an explanation to why Bigfoot disappeared. He went back to his house, of course. On this day, I discovered a furry rug and a King Kong mask do resemble Bigfoot from a distance.
I still resent those teenagers and their prank. Shockingly, it would be another two years before I learned the truth about Santa Claus by stumbling into my parent’s cache of gifts in their closet. But I will never forgive those kids for ruining Bigfoot for me.
Steve: Oh man, that’s great! Haha!
Thank you so much for doing this, Tommy!
To find more of his works, check the links!
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Thomas-R-Clark/author/B07JL6V3W6
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TokenTom
Website: https://thomasrclark.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/token_tom
