Chatting with the Pros: Bobby Nash

I’m pleased to have award winning author Bobby Nash as my guest today on “Chatting with the Pros”. Bobby writes both novels and short fiction, graphic novels and comic books, and has even written screenplays and worked on the movie sets.

About Bobby Nash

An award-winning author, Bobby Nash writes novels, comic books, short stories, novellas, graphic novels, and the occasional screenplay for a variety of publishers. He is a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and International Thriller Writers. On occasion, Bobby appears in movies and TV shows, usually standing behind your favorite actor and sometimes they let him act. Recently, he was seen in Creepshow, Joe Stryker, Doom Patrol, The Outsider, Ozark, Lodge 49, Slutty Teenage Bounty Hunters, and more. He also draws from time to time.

He was named Best Author in the 2013 Pulp Ark Awards. Rick Ruby, a character co-created by Bobby and author Sean Taylor also snagged a Pulp Ark Award for Best New Pulp Character of 2013. Bobby has also been nominated for the 2014 New Pulp Awards and Pulp Factory Awards for his work. Bobby’s novel, Alexandra Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt won a Paranormal Literary Award in the 2015 Paranormal Awards. The Bobby Nash penned episode of Starship Farragut “Conspiracy of Innocence” won the Silver Award in the 2015 DC Film Festival. Bobby’s story in The Ruby Files Vol. 2 “Takedown” was named Best Short Story in the 2018 Pulp Factory Awards, one of five nominations for The Ruby Files Vol. 2 (created by Bobby Nash & Sean Taylor). Bobby’s digest novel, Snow Drive was nominated for Best Novel in the 2018 Pulp Factory Awards. Bobby was part of Moonstone’s Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, which won a 2020 Pulp Factory Award for Best Pulp Anthology. Bobby’s novel, Nightveil: Crisis at the Crossroads of Infinity was also named Best Pulp Novel in the 2020 Pulp Factory Awards. In 2020, The Sangria Summit Society awarded the New Pulp Fiction Award to Bobby Nash for his work on Snow Falls and the Snow series.

For more information on Bobby Nash please visit him at http://www.bobbynash.com, http://www.ben-books.com, and across social media.

Interview

Kaye: You’ve been in the writing and publishing business a long time. What is your take on how the publishing industry has changed, and what adaptions have you had to make?

Bobby: There are certainly many more options for getting stories to readers now than when I started back in the pre-internet, pre-self-publishing model we have today. When I was getting started, you wrote a query, synopsis, and three chapters, printed them out, put them in a self-addressed stamped envelope, and mailed them to a publisher in the hopes you might hear back, or at the very least receive a form letter. Self-publishing wasn’t as well regarded as it is today so that wasn’t really an option. No internet limited your reach back then. Things are more open today, but that also means there are more books out there as well, so you have to work even harder to make your book stand out in a crowded field.

Today, being a writer means you’re running a small business. Marketing, promotion, publicist, travel/event planner, etc. That’s all on the writer, whether self-published or traditional.

I had to teach myself how to promote. I had to learn how to handle book production, pre-press, cover design, how to write a press release, things like that. I learned how to speak in public, to do panels and interviews, live podcasts, stage performances, and the like. As an author, you’re not just trying to sell books. You’re selling an experience. You’re part of that experience so you’re selling yourself as well. Branding is important to building an author brand. It is a bit time-consuming, but is important to my career as an author. Writing is just a small part of my job.

Kaye: According to your bio, you’ve written “novels, comic books, short stories, novellas, graphic novels, audio dramas, and the occasional screenplay”. Which form of writing would you say you enjoy most? Why?

Bobby: Not sure if ‘enjoy most’ is the best way to describe it. Each works different creative muscles so they’re not always easily compared. With prose, it’s all me so I see it all as I’m doing it. With comics, audio, and screenplays, I do my part, it goes away, then later comes back to me to do more, then goes away, and on and on until it’s finished. I’m part of a team there so I’m in and out at various stages of the process. Each has its enjoyable parts and the parts I like less. Just the nature of the beast, I suppose. I love them all. I will say that comic books were my first love. All of this desire to create, to tell stories, was born in the pages of comic books.

Kaye: Which type of writing presents the most challenge for you? Why?

Bobby: Novels require more time. As they are all me, I’m responsible for everything in them. That means I have to describe things in detail without it coming across as dull or as an info-dump. I’m painting the picture for the audience with words only. With scripts, most of what I write is direction for the artist or actors. They then interpret those details, adding another layer to the story. In a novel, if we walk into a character’s living room, I describe it so the reader can ‘see’ it. In a comic, I tell the artist it’s a living room. I will say that there are certain things that need to be there if important, but I leave it to the artist to design the living room. It’s a very different mindset. When I write for the artist, it’s not to entertain them, but to let them know what’s going on. The artists and actors aren’t my audience. They’re my partners.

Writing characters that are not mine also presents its own challenges. Doing work-for-hire on publisher-owned titles or media tie-ins means making sure I write the characters correctly. Research and study come in handy there. The characters have to stay in character. If not, the reader will notice something’s not right.

Kaye: You’ve done some work with graphic novels and comic books. How does the writing  in these mediums differ from fiction?

Bobby: Comics are collaborative. The artist has input into the storytelling. We’re a creative team. When I write a script, as I mentioned earlier, most of what I write in the script is direction, so the artist knows what I’m thinking in regard to the panel. I also tell them what dialogue I’m planning, though this may change after I see the art. The artist then takes this information and creates the page with art and making that art flow and tell the story. Here’s an example of a script panel.

Panel 1. Bobby sat at the desk in his office, writing. Books and comics are stacked everywhere. Controlled chaos. He’s typing on a laptop, a soda and several action figures on his desk. He appears stumped. His hair is uncombed. Glasses slid down his nose. Deep in thought about his current story.

Caption:             MEANWHILE, THE WRITER SITS TUCKED AWAY IN HIS OFFICE, UNAWARE OF THE DANGER HEADED HIS WAY.

              WHY CAN’T I MAKE THIS PAGE WORK?

SFX (in the distance):    BOOM!

SFX is sound effects. Something like that. The artist would then figure out the best way to draw this panel. It never comes back to me the way I pictured it in my head, which is fine. It almost always comes back better than I imagined. Seeing the art come in is one of the big joys of writing comics. It always makes me smile.

Kaye: How does one get into writing comic books or graphic novels? Is there a secret society one must break into? What’s the secret handshake?

Bobby: This is a harder question to answer than you might think. There’s an old joke that says that anyone who manages to break into comics is expected to brick up that entrance and close it off. Ha! Ha! Getting to work for larger, established comic book publishers is tough. Really tough. Most do not take submissions. Those that do want you to turn in a finished project, story, art, letters, colors, ready to print. Today, you basically have to be a comic book creator to get hired by publishers that create comics.

That said, we live in an age where you can put out your own comics yourself. Self-publishing, comic ebooks, and webstrips are all wonderful ways to show the world your work. If your goal is to work for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, etc., then showing the editors there your published work is the only way to show these publishers what you can do. If they like what they see, then they may reach out to you about possibly pitching something to them.

If you want to create comics, then create comics. That’s step one.

From there, you keep trying, keep creating, and hope you capture someone’s attention if doing work-for-hire comics is for you. There are smaller publishers that will hire creators to create comics. I write comics on a work-for-hire basis, but it took a long time to get into those publishers. Once they know you and your work, and if they like working with you, it’s easier to get additional comic book opportunities.

Kaye: Do you do your own illustrations for these books?

Bobby: Heavens, no. I leave that to the professionals who are so much better at it than I. I can draw. I doodle. I sketch. I can give the artist a sketch if I have a specific idea on how I would like to see a scene so he or she can see what I was thinking, but otherwise, I leave that to the artists. They’re so much better at it than me.

My dream as a kid was to be a comic book artist. I started writing so I would have stories to draw. Turns out, I was better at writing comics than drawing them. Eventually, I focused on the writing and eventually was hired to write a comic. I never looked back.

Kaye: You are a member of the International Association of Media Tie-Ins. Can you give a brief explanation of what a media tie-in is and tell us a little about how you got into that arena?

Bobby: Media tie-ins are stories based on characters that originated in other mediums. Novels, comics, short stories, etc. based on television shows or movies are media tie-ins. Star Trek, Star Wars, MCU, etc. These characters are usually licensed from the owner of the property and creators are hired by the publisher, often with approval from the rights holder. Stories are also approved by the rights holders as well. Media tie-ins generally come with a lot of rules, a lengthy list of the type of stories you can and cannot do. The owners of Zorro, for example, are there to protect Zorro. They won’t allow you to write a story that hurts the character. One of the biggest misconceptions I hear about media tie-ins are that many readers assume this is fanfiction. It’s not. With fanfic, you basically write what you want with no oversight. With tie-ins, there is oversight. There are rules. The challenge we, as writers, face is how to tell the best story we can within those parameters, which is not really that big a challenge. You just have to know what you can and cannot pitch. Don’t kill any main characters, cut off their arms, get them married or have children, things like that. Big changes to the characters will come from the owners. I’m just borrowing the character and returning it the way I received it.

I like to describe media tie-in writing like an episode of Star Trek. The original series usually opened with the Enterprise flying through space. Everyone is on the bridge, happy, maybe laughing. Then, trouble happens. The crew has to deal with, then solve a problem. At the end of the episode, the Enterprise flying through space. Everyone is on the bridge, happy, maybe laughing. Media tie-in writing generally happens like that. I can bend the characters, but not break them.

My media tie-in journey started with a local access morning kids television series called Roger Rocket. He was an astronaut musician who had puppets on the spaceship with him and they played music videos for kids. I met him at a comic shop and he hired me to write a comic for his show. Though, very little of my work survived him deciding to rewrite it himself, that was my first tie-in experience. Years later, Moonstone invited me to write a Green Hornet short story. From there, I was lucky to be invited to write other characters like Zorro, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Lone Ranger, Night Beat, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Box 13, Remo Williams, At The Earth’s Core, and a number of properties owned by various authors and publishers. It’s fun to play in someone else’s sandbox from time to time.

Kaye: How does one get into media tie-ins? Do you go knocking or do they find you? What advice would you give to someone trying to break in to media tie-ins? Is there a secret handshake for that one?

Bobby: Much like comics, they tend to find you. Unlike anthologies or company-owned characters, getting hired for media tie-ins means you have to be approved by the editor and publisher then approved by the owners of the media tie-in property. I was once tapped by an editor for a media tie-in project only to be told no by the owners of the property because they wanted a more well-known writer. That’s their choice, of course. It stung, though.

Usually, media tie-ins are not open calls. The publisher reaches out and invites writers they know to be part of it. There’s a method to writing tie-ins. You have to understand what kind of stories you can tell or not. Because I now have experience, I know what stories not to pitch because they will probably never be greenlit. As I mentioned previously, media tie-in writing is not fanfiction. That’s very important to remember. Writing tie-ins comes with a lot more rules, a lot more do’s and don’ts than other types of writing. You have to write a story that fits the brand you’re writing. The characters have to act and sound right. They have to be in character. Your story should fit seamlessly into the world of the media project that you’re writing.

As with comics, get work out there. Write your own characters and get them out there as your resume, as your writing samples. That will be what tells the publishers if your style fits their licensed characters. Once publishers get to know you, they may invite you to be part of their media tie-in projects.

As with everything in publishing, a lot of it boils down to timing and luck.

Kaye: Your work has won or been considered for many awards over the years. Which of these would you say you are the most proud of, and why?

Bobby: The first one is always special. There are also those that happen without you even knowing. I won best author in the Pulp Ark Awards, which was a huge surprise. Winning the Sangria Summit Society’s Pulp Fiction Award was also a nice surprise. I had no idea I was in the running for either. Awards are nice. It’s a bit of an ego boost. You feel like you’re doing something right, but also that others have noticed. Awards aren’t why I write, but it is a great feeling when it happens.

Kaye: Which do you enjoy writing most, heroes or villains? Why?

Bobby: Villains get the best lines. They get to do the coolest stuff. Villains are fun to write.

Kaye: Every author has those stories which are near and dear to their heart, those that are just special for whatever reason. Which of your works would you say falls into that sweet spot for you? Why?

Bobby: My go to answer for this question is usually Evil Ways. Evil Ways was my first published novel, and the book that launched this career of mine. It wasn’t always fun or easy. My original publisher turned out to be horrible, but I had a book in hand as a resume that allowed me to reach out to other publishers and show them my work. I picked up some writing gigs that kept me working until my contract ran out and I got the rights to Evil Ways back. Then, I published it myself, which was my first foray into self-publishing. So, yeah, I owe a lot to Evil Ways.

Kaye: You have a Patreon, where you market your books. Can you tell us a little about that? How effective do you find Patreon to be compared to other venues for selling your books?

Bobby: Patreon is nice. I have a small following. I post a writing blog there, keeping everyone up do date on work. I also have an ebook club ($5 and up tiers) where most of my ebooks exist. I also run serialized novels and novellas there, posting chapters every week-ish (sometimes I fall behind). Patrons are part beta readers that way. This allows me to be more productive and gets at least two additional novellas out a year more than I would otherwise. Good motivation.

I like Patreon. I don’t really sell many books through there though. My patrons tend to be readers who were probably already getting the books who are there to support me. That support means a lot to me.

Kaye: Which book marketing strategies do you find to be most effective?

Bobby: My most impactful way to sell books is at in-person events. Getting out to conventions, conferences, libraries, bookstores, and other events where I can meet people, talk up the books, just get to know readers. Outside of that, I use social media, I do interviews like this one, go on podcasts and virtual panels, write and send out press releases to news outlets, create and send out a free monthly newsletter (you can sign up at https://www.subscribepage.com/NashNews), and other opportunities as they present themselves to talk about writing and my books. There are many marketing methods out there. Not all of them work the same for every book. A promotion method that works for Evil Ways, for example, might not work for Dante’s Reckoning. You have to be willing to try new promotional paths to see what works and what doesn’t.

Kaye: Your most recent work seems to be your Dante novels. Would you like to talk a little about that series?

Bobby: The Dante books are fun. I wrote a short story for Valhalla Books’ The Devil’s Due prose anthology. The theme was that all deals come with a price. I wrote a story set in the old west, a mining town called Dante. There, a deal had been made years before with an other-dimensional being. It was time to pay up, but there were those in the town who wanted to keep the final settlement from happening. It was a fun little horror/western story. The publisher later came to me and asked what happened next. I told him I didn’t know. I just wrote a short story. I hadn’t planned any further than that. He said, this is a series. So, I got busy writing. Book 3, Dante’s Reckoning just released this Halloween. I am working on book 4, Dante’s Rebirth for 2025. I love it when things work out this way. I’m glad the publisher saw something in the concept that made him want to keep it going.

Kaye: Where can readers who would like to learn more about you and your works find you?

Bobby: I’m all over social media. There’s links at my website, which is www.bobbynash.com. This is the main hub of all things me. Ha! Ha! There are links to everywhere you can find me on the site. My indie press, BEN Books is at www.ben-books.com. These are the titles I publish myself. Please visit me and say hello.

About the A Tale of Dante Series

Welcome to Dante!

Dante, Arizona is not your average mining town.

Many dreamers have come to this barren speck of desert to strike it rich. Gold, silver, and other valuable minerals are there for the taking if you’re brave enough to pay the price, this wealth, power, and influence. Dante turned peasants into millionaires overnight.

Some suggest that these men sold their souls for the find of a lifetime. Did Dante’s founders make a deal with the devil? If so, what was it? More importantly, what will it cost the town? Nothing happens for free. Every deal has its price and there are still deals to be made.

This brings new blood to town as well as old blood. When a young reporter’s assistant becomes enamored of the daughter of a new arrival, he learns the terrifying truth behind the town. A deal was made.

And payday is coming.

Dante’s long nightmare begins here with the short story that started it all and two new tales from Dante. From the pages of The Devil’s Due comes Dante’s Tenth by award-winning author Bobby Nash.

My Review of the A Tale of Dante Series

I remember reviewing my first weird western, before I was even aware that there was such a genre, back in 2020, a book in the western genre with dragons, trolls, dwarves, and other beings from the fantasy domain. Since that time, I’ve read and review several more weird westerns and I’ve grown quite fond of the genre. Naturally, when I saw that Bobby Nash had a weird western series, I offered to review the whole series for this segment of “Chatting with the Pros”. And I’m glad that I did. One never knows what will happen next in the A Tale of Dante series, where vampires lurk in the shadows and werewolves roam the desert landscape surrounding Dante, Arizona. By hiding in plain sight, they manuvuere behind the scenes and interact with the unmidful miners and townfolk.

The town sits central in the hub of a great evil, where deals were struck long ago and now, a debt has become due. At times it is hard to tell the good guys from the bad, but make no mistake that there will be a reckoning. These stories can be read as stand alones, but I recommend reading Dante’s Showdown before Dante’s Reckoning, as the later takes place after the former. Dante’s Tenth is a collection of three short Dante stories which offer insight into three of the characters readers meet in the other two books.

The protagonists are likeable, and the villians deplorable, and lines are drawn between good and evil, if a little blurred at times. Vampires and werewolves abound in the old west town of Dante, and even the good guys carry guns. Bobby Nash brings us a vampiric priest and an army of the undead, a couple of gunfighters and a newspaper reporter who takes her job seriously to champion on the side of goodness and stop the final reckoning from taking place.

An excellent weird western series, I give the Tales of Dante series five quills.

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