10 Questions with Mort Castle
1. Do you think there exists a group of people similar to the strangers in your novel The Strangers?
A group? Well, there's no question we do have sociopaths running around loose. And sometimes small groups of sociopaths, or those directly controlled by them (think Charles Manson!) might band together for a while ... But, when we consider the strong narcissistic element of the sociopathic personality ... A cohesive group acting together is not likely: Too many big egos involved.
2. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Probably wouldn't bother: rather have one banjo and play it. But, that said, I've read Hemingway's complete short story collection, the Finca Vigia edition, just about every year for at least the past 20 years and I'm still finding new insights and passages that I memorize without working to do so.
You do hear a number of readers and yappy writers (mostly newbies trying to pretend they are revolutionaries) knocking Hemingway: He didn't have the range of subject matter. He had only his one voice. He was mannered and artificial. He was overly romantic. He was misogynistic. He had a bad skin condition ...
The reason they knock him, rather than learning from and appreciating him, is because they're full of prune whip.
3. How has the digital revolution and the emergence of ebooks affected you as a writer?
Let's remember I've been doing this from way before the "digital revolution"; in a small way, I was part of the mimeo revolution and the American Samizdat movement. Hell, I was almost a part of the Gutenberg revolution. That means I've hit a point in my career at which I can pick and choose my venues. These days, I seldom submit anything over the transom (whether that's a digital transom or no). I don't have to. I'm grateful that editors ask me for my writing and I judge the soliciting publication, cyber, paper, or damp clay tablet, by its quality.
4. How have people and society in general changed since you wrote The Strangers?
A. Cell phones. Cell phones have messed us all up. Used to be, you used a camera to take a picture. You didn't get in touch with your pal in Singapore by talking into your camera. B. Americans have become much more informal and definitely more crude. "Hey, how the fuck you fuckers doing the fuck? WTF ..." That was the president of Harvard welcoming the class of 2018 to the school. C. Americans have really become much fatter. I sure have. But it's not my fault. It's an American thing. I'm patriotic is what it is.
5. What does Ray Bradbury mean to you as a writer?
Quite simply, he brought the magic. He's one of the reasons I write. Blame it directly on the slim novel SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES and the very different but still unmistakably Bradbury short story "I See You Never." I hit those works at the right for me, 13ish or so, and ... Poe had done it earlier. Then Ray affirmed it.
And of course, SHADOW SHOW, the anthology I edited with Sam Weller, earned a Bram Stoker Award (R). That book was a labor of love, a slew of writers, like me, saying "Thank You" to the splendid Mr. B. Ray did not live to see the book in print, but he did read the contents (Sam read some of the stories to him) and he was most gratified, "very, very happy," he said. (He cried at Alice Hoffman's wonderful story "Conjure.")
6. What's more satisfying to you, to write a novel or to edit an anthology?
Easy one. I've never written a novel that fully satisfied me. I've published seven novels. Some of them were competent beach reads, two of them were pretty good horror novels with some aspects that I thought pretty good, but that's all. Both CURSED BE THE CHILD and THE STRANGERS had excellent reviews and critical response and even decent sales. STRANGERS was named one of the "Ten Best Horror/Thriller Novels" published in Poland in 2008 by Newsweek. But by my standards, no, I have yet to write a fully successful novel, beginning to middle to end.
But I've been very pleased with what I've done as an editor of fiction and non-fiction. ON WRITING HORROR is non-fiction, of course; SHADOW SHOW is all fiction. But I have said about both of them, "Not a less than excellent piece in the book."
And hell, as a short story writer, well, I've published about 500 short STORIES and I do have around 30 now that make me say, "Yeah, Castle, you did it right."
Ah, maybe I'll tackle another novel or two to see if I can get it really right. Or maybe not.
7. Who is your favorite writer?
Has to be Hemingway, but there are so many wonderful writers, well established writers and up an coming ... Seems I come across a new writer every week that makes me say, "What a gift it is to be able to read."
What is the most common mistake that new writers make?
Oh, man, I'm regarded as something of the curmudgeon because I've said this so often. New writers, as such, make no more or different mistakes than new writers have always made. The real new writers.
It's the self-deluded and often self-published and typically epub only so called writers who are making the mistake of .... Not learning to write. Of course, they don't have to. They see their name in (pixel) print and think, Now I am a writer. Don't have to know storycraft, 'cause the alleged editor (if there is one) hasn't bothered to learn it. Don't have to consider audience, 'cause it's the same set of semi-literate readers who are likewise planning to publish semi-literate stuff for other semi-literate audiences ... Don't have to learn that grammar stuff 'cause it might inhibit my apostrophe rich style ... The wheel of delusion goes around and around.
9. Do you outline prior to writing your story, or do you work out the plot as you write?
I can hold a complete short story in my head without an outline. If a story tells me it wants to be other than what I planned, that's fine. I listen to the story.
Bigger stuff--say a three issue comics story or a lengthy novella (lengthy for a novella!), you bet I outline.
Jerry Williamson taught me a method I use and have shared with my classes. It gives you the reassurance that, "Yes, you can finish this because you've already thought of one way to get from beginning to end."
10. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?
J. N. Williamson and I began working on a non-fiction book that could have come out okay. I'll give you the concept: It was called A WRITER'S ASTROLOGY. Jerry had been a professional astrologer, earning his living from it. I thought astrology was right up there with fortune cookie future predicting. We were alternating chapters. He was the believer. I was the skeptic. No publisher was interested in Jerry's belief or my cynicisms, so that died a'borning.
Right now, well, I have successfully collaborated with Edgar Allan Poe. I've written several Hemingway, Philip Jose Farmer, and HPL pastiches, and the pastiche is a form of collaboration, I'd think. It's fairly easy to work with dead authors.
But--well, like with the sociopaths mentioned above, there's too much ego in authors--at least in this author--to sublimate the Big Me so we could forge the identity of WE.
A group? Well, there's no question we do have sociopaths running around loose. And sometimes small groups of sociopaths, or those directly controlled by them (think Charles Manson!) might band together for a while ... But, when we consider the strong narcissistic element of the sociopathic personality ... A cohesive group acting together is not likely: Too many big egos involved.
2. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Probably wouldn't bother: rather have one banjo and play it. But, that said, I've read Hemingway's complete short story collection, the Finca Vigia edition, just about every year for at least the past 20 years and I'm still finding new insights and passages that I memorize without working to do so.
You do hear a number of readers and yappy writers (mostly newbies trying to pretend they are revolutionaries) knocking Hemingway: He didn't have the range of subject matter. He had only his one voice. He was mannered and artificial. He was overly romantic. He was misogynistic. He had a bad skin condition ...
The reason they knock him, rather than learning from and appreciating him, is because they're full of prune whip.
3. How has the digital revolution and the emergence of ebooks affected you as a writer?
Let's remember I've been doing this from way before the "digital revolution"; in a small way, I was part of the mimeo revolution and the American Samizdat movement. Hell, I was almost a part of the Gutenberg revolution. That means I've hit a point in my career at which I can pick and choose my venues. These days, I seldom submit anything over the transom (whether that's a digital transom or no). I don't have to. I'm grateful that editors ask me for my writing and I judge the soliciting publication, cyber, paper, or damp clay tablet, by its quality.
4. How have people and society in general changed since you wrote The Strangers?
A. Cell phones. Cell phones have messed us all up. Used to be, you used a camera to take a picture. You didn't get in touch with your pal in Singapore by talking into your camera. B. Americans have become much more informal and definitely more crude. "Hey, how the fuck you fuckers doing the fuck? WTF ..." That was the president of Harvard welcoming the class of 2018 to the school. C. Americans have really become much fatter. I sure have. But it's not my fault. It's an American thing. I'm patriotic is what it is.
5. What does Ray Bradbury mean to you as a writer?
Quite simply, he brought the magic. He's one of the reasons I write. Blame it directly on the slim novel SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES and the very different but still unmistakably Bradbury short story "I See You Never." I hit those works at the right for me, 13ish or so, and ... Poe had done it earlier. Then Ray affirmed it.
And of course, SHADOW SHOW, the anthology I edited with Sam Weller, earned a Bram Stoker Award (R). That book was a labor of love, a slew of writers, like me, saying "Thank You" to the splendid Mr. B. Ray did not live to see the book in print, but he did read the contents (Sam read some of the stories to him) and he was most gratified, "very, very happy," he said. (He cried at Alice Hoffman's wonderful story "Conjure.")
6. What's more satisfying to you, to write a novel or to edit an anthology?
Easy one. I've never written a novel that fully satisfied me. I've published seven novels. Some of them were competent beach reads, two of them were pretty good horror novels with some aspects that I thought pretty good, but that's all. Both CURSED BE THE CHILD and THE STRANGERS had excellent reviews and critical response and even decent sales. STRANGERS was named one of the "Ten Best Horror/Thriller Novels" published in Poland in 2008 by Newsweek. But by my standards, no, I have yet to write a fully successful novel, beginning to middle to end.
But I've been very pleased with what I've done as an editor of fiction and non-fiction. ON WRITING HORROR is non-fiction, of course; SHADOW SHOW is all fiction. But I have said about both of them, "Not a less than excellent piece in the book."
And hell, as a short story writer, well, I've published about 500 short STORIES and I do have around 30 now that make me say, "Yeah, Castle, you did it right."
Ah, maybe I'll tackle another novel or two to see if I can get it really right. Or maybe not.
7. Who is your favorite writer?
Has to be Hemingway, but there are so many wonderful writers, well established writers and up an coming ... Seems I come across a new writer every week that makes me say, "What a gift it is to be able to read."
What is the most common mistake that new writers make?
Oh, man, I'm regarded as something of the curmudgeon because I've said this so often. New writers, as such, make no more or different mistakes than new writers have always made. The real new writers.
It's the self-deluded and often self-published and typically epub only so called writers who are making the mistake of .... Not learning to write. Of course, they don't have to. They see their name in (pixel) print and think, Now I am a writer. Don't have to know storycraft, 'cause the alleged editor (if there is one) hasn't bothered to learn it. Don't have to consider audience, 'cause it's the same set of semi-literate readers who are likewise planning to publish semi-literate stuff for other semi-literate audiences ... Don't have to learn that grammar stuff 'cause it might inhibit my apostrophe rich style ... The wheel of delusion goes around and around.
9. Do you outline prior to writing your story, or do you work out the plot as you write?
I can hold a complete short story in my head without an outline. If a story tells me it wants to be other than what I planned, that's fine. I listen to the story.
Bigger stuff--say a three issue comics story or a lengthy novella (lengthy for a novella!), you bet I outline.
Jerry Williamson taught me a method I use and have shared with my classes. It gives you the reassurance that, "Yes, you can finish this because you've already thought of one way to get from beginning to end."
10. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?
J. N. Williamson and I began working on a non-fiction book that could have come out okay. I'll give you the concept: It was called A WRITER'S ASTROLOGY. Jerry had been a professional astrologer, earning his living from it. I thought astrology was right up there with fortune cookie future predicting. We were alternating chapters. He was the believer. I was the skeptic. No publisher was interested in Jerry's belief or my cynicisms, so that died a'borning.
Right now, well, I have successfully collaborated with Edgar Allan Poe. I've written several Hemingway, Philip Jose Farmer, and HPL pastiches, and the pastiche is a form of collaboration, I'd think. It's fairly easy to work with dead authors.
But--well, like with the sociopaths mentioned above, there's too much ego in authors--at least in this author--to sublimate the Big Me so we could forge the identity of WE.
No comments have been added yet.
