10 Questions With Tim Marquitz
1. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
TM: Clive Barker is who really set me along the path to writing, but it was Jim Butcher who most impacted me stylistically. It was reading the Dresden Files that sparked my direction for the Demon Squad. I wasn’t really sure of my voice when I first started, but reading Jim’s work made me realize I could just be me. I didn’t need poetic or graceful, at least not with the Demon Squad. All I needed was to be myself…only better.
2. How has your interest in heavy metal music influenced your writing and what are some of your favorite bands?
TM: While it might not be obvious beyond the band references I make, my love of metal is a major influence on my writing. The epic, dark feeling I try to capture comes the music I grew up on. It’s what I picture when I’m working on a scene, when I’m contemplating a story. The aggressiveness, the brutality and nihilistic characterization is all a reflection of the bands I listen to.
Nowadays, I’m a big doom fan. I listen to Candlemass, Anathema, My Dying Bride, the Foreshadowing, but I’m a fan of metal, in almost all of its genres. I grew up with Venom, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Voivod, Destruction, Kreator, Dark Angel, and pretty much every band around back then, as well as a bunch of punk and hardcore like Cryptic Slaughter, GBH, and the Exploited.
3. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
TM: Tough question. I’m not very sentimental when it comes to books so there’s no one book I’d prefer over any of the others. Maybe if there was a copy of Playboy with Kiera Knightley in it; only for the articles, of course.
4. How has the digital revolution and the emergence of ebooks affected you as a writer?
TM: I’m a product of this new generation, but I tried to chase the tail of the old ways and didn’t get anywhere. It’s kind of frustrating trying to figure out how to get out there in the new world, and I don’t think I’ve quite figured it out.
I think, despite my lack of critical success, I’m benefiting from the revolution. Readers are looking for new books that don’t fit easily into the tried and true niches carved out by traditional publishing. There’s a market for different, and now there’s a path for the little guys to find their audience. The hard part is standing out amidst the flood of like-minded indies.
5. Who is your favorite writer?
TM: Unequivocally, Clive Barker. There’s just a grace and beauty to his writing that moves me and brings me back to every word he sets to paper.
6. Most of your novels are parts of a series. When you start writing, do you intend to make it a series, or does it evolve that way?
TM: I think they kind of evolve that way. I actually prefer the idea of writing a book that starts and end within the same covers, but there always seems to be more to it than that. When I sit down and find a character I really enjoy writing the excuse is there to keep writing, to create more stories for the character to star in. It’s like a good friend, a beautiful woman, or a great book, you just want more.
7. What current writing projects are you working on?
TM: I’m currently plotting a novel that’s a zombie/assassin/sword and sorcery mashup, and I hope to settle into the writing soon now that the flood of side projects are out of the way. I’m also mulling ideas for the fifth Demon Squad book. And as weird as it is for me to say this, that’s all I have going on right now as far as actual writing.
I’ve a number of projects sitting with publishers that I’ve yet to hear back on, and I’m fixing to release the second book in the Blood War Trilogy any day now. I’ve also just released a collection, along with Malon Edwards, Edward M Erdelac, and Lincoln Crisler, called Four in the Morning, so I’m in the process of promoting that. Most of my time, though, has been spent working on my forthcoming anthology, Fading Light, which features stories by Mark Lawrence, Gene O’Neill, Gord Rollo, William Meikle, David Dalglish, Nick Cato, and a ton of other great authors.
8. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
TM: None at all. I write to entertain. There’s no message or theme or idea that runs through my stories in any intentional manner.
9. How do you try to craft fight scenes in your writing?
TM: I’ve been fortunate (unfortunate?) to have been in a number of fights, and I’m also a huge fan of mixed martial arts and have watched damn near every fight ever recorded. I study all that and try to bring a gritty realism to my scenes. Of course, you need to fictionalize it a bit or the fight will last all of a sentence or two.
Ultimately though, I try to picture what I need the scene to provide. Am I writing a fight to advance characterization or plot? Both require a different focus, so I write to satisfy those needs.
10. You have a lot of religious elements in your story telling. What drives this religious influence and are you ever concerned that you might offend readers?
TM: The Demon Squad series is based in the Christian mythos so there’s an obligatory need to reference religion and its tropes/traditions. That said, I’m not religious, and I don’t touch the subject unless it fits within the characterization needed for the story.
As for offending readers, I’m not concerned at all. I purposely avoid attacking anyone’s religious beliefs, but I write what I feel. If it turns out to be offensive to someone, as it will inevitably be, that’s too bad. My stories aren’t for everyone and I won’t pretend they are. It’s never my goal to offend, but I’m not going to dance around a subject because of how someone might feel afterwards.
I’m a firm believer in, “If you don’t like what I write, don’t read it.”
TM: Clive Barker is who really set me along the path to writing, but it was Jim Butcher who most impacted me stylistically. It was reading the Dresden Files that sparked my direction for the Demon Squad. I wasn’t really sure of my voice when I first started, but reading Jim’s work made me realize I could just be me. I didn’t need poetic or graceful, at least not with the Demon Squad. All I needed was to be myself…only better.
2. How has your interest in heavy metal music influenced your writing and what are some of your favorite bands?
TM: While it might not be obvious beyond the band references I make, my love of metal is a major influence on my writing. The epic, dark feeling I try to capture comes the music I grew up on. It’s what I picture when I’m working on a scene, when I’m contemplating a story. The aggressiveness, the brutality and nihilistic characterization is all a reflection of the bands I listen to.
Nowadays, I’m a big doom fan. I listen to Candlemass, Anathema, My Dying Bride, the Foreshadowing, but I’m a fan of metal, in almost all of its genres. I grew up with Venom, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Voivod, Destruction, Kreator, Dark Angel, and pretty much every band around back then, as well as a bunch of punk and hardcore like Cryptic Slaughter, GBH, and the Exploited.
3. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
TM: Tough question. I’m not very sentimental when it comes to books so there’s no one book I’d prefer over any of the others. Maybe if there was a copy of Playboy with Kiera Knightley in it; only for the articles, of course.
4. How has the digital revolution and the emergence of ebooks affected you as a writer?
TM: I’m a product of this new generation, but I tried to chase the tail of the old ways and didn’t get anywhere. It’s kind of frustrating trying to figure out how to get out there in the new world, and I don’t think I’ve quite figured it out.
I think, despite my lack of critical success, I’m benefiting from the revolution. Readers are looking for new books that don’t fit easily into the tried and true niches carved out by traditional publishing. There’s a market for different, and now there’s a path for the little guys to find their audience. The hard part is standing out amidst the flood of like-minded indies.
5. Who is your favorite writer?
TM: Unequivocally, Clive Barker. There’s just a grace and beauty to his writing that moves me and brings me back to every word he sets to paper.
6. Most of your novels are parts of a series. When you start writing, do you intend to make it a series, or does it evolve that way?
TM: I think they kind of evolve that way. I actually prefer the idea of writing a book that starts and end within the same covers, but there always seems to be more to it than that. When I sit down and find a character I really enjoy writing the excuse is there to keep writing, to create more stories for the character to star in. It’s like a good friend, a beautiful woman, or a great book, you just want more.
7. What current writing projects are you working on?
TM: I’m currently plotting a novel that’s a zombie/assassin/sword and sorcery mashup, and I hope to settle into the writing soon now that the flood of side projects are out of the way. I’m also mulling ideas for the fifth Demon Squad book. And as weird as it is for me to say this, that’s all I have going on right now as far as actual writing.
I’ve a number of projects sitting with publishers that I’ve yet to hear back on, and I’m fixing to release the second book in the Blood War Trilogy any day now. I’ve also just released a collection, along with Malon Edwards, Edward M Erdelac, and Lincoln Crisler, called Four in the Morning, so I’m in the process of promoting that. Most of my time, though, has been spent working on my forthcoming anthology, Fading Light, which features stories by Mark Lawrence, Gene O’Neill, Gord Rollo, William Meikle, David Dalglish, Nick Cato, and a ton of other great authors.
8. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
TM: None at all. I write to entertain. There’s no message or theme or idea that runs through my stories in any intentional manner.
9. How do you try to craft fight scenes in your writing?
TM: I’ve been fortunate (unfortunate?) to have been in a number of fights, and I’m also a huge fan of mixed martial arts and have watched damn near every fight ever recorded. I study all that and try to bring a gritty realism to my scenes. Of course, you need to fictionalize it a bit or the fight will last all of a sentence or two.
Ultimately though, I try to picture what I need the scene to provide. Am I writing a fight to advance characterization or plot? Both require a different focus, so I write to satisfy those needs.
10. You have a lot of religious elements in your story telling. What drives this religious influence and are you ever concerned that you might offend readers?
TM: The Demon Squad series is based in the Christian mythos so there’s an obligatory need to reference religion and its tropes/traditions. That said, I’m not religious, and I don’t touch the subject unless it fits within the characterization needed for the story.
As for offending readers, I’m not concerned at all. I purposely avoid attacking anyone’s religious beliefs, but I write what I feel. If it turns out to be offensive to someone, as it will inevitably be, that’s too bad. My stories aren’t for everyone and I won’t pretend they are. It’s never my goal to offend, but I’m not going to dance around a subject because of how someone might feel afterwards.
I’m a firm believer in, “If you don’t like what I write, don’t read it.”
No comments have been added yet.
