10 Questions with Eric Luke
1. What medium do you prefer writing: screenplays, comics, audiobook narration, or novels?
One great thing about working in the digital age is that you have so many different kinds of media to choose from. You can even make a movie on your phone, which just wasn't possible even 5-10 years ago. So you can look at any narrative and say: what's the best way to tell this, not just in terms of storytelling, but in presentation. INTERFERENCE is a story about an audiobook, so that was a natural choice. And there are all kinds of interesting meta moments that happen when you make that choice: the listener realizing that he's listening to an audiobook about an audiobook, the narrator speaking directly to the listener ABOUT the fact that he's listening to an audiobook. The different levels of reality start to echo off each other in exciting ways. So the short answer is: no favorite; it's whatever works best.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
For modern horror Stephen King is one of the greats. His style is so effortless, the storytelling so simple, and it holds you in the moment like few other modern writers, horror or otherwise. His ON WRITING is one of the best books about the craft. For really enjoyable page turners, George RR Martin, China Mieville and Joe Abercrombie come to mind. When I was younger I loved the greats: Verne, H.G.Wells. Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast is amazing. And in my teens: Kerouac, Raymond Chandler.
3. What current writing projects are you working on?
I'm working on the followup to INTERFERENCE. It will be an audiobook as well, and will continue to play with the levels of reality in new and exciting ways. Cinema has been using the "found footage" trope for a while, and I'm exploring the audio equivalent. The internet is a vast and scary place; who knows what lies coiled in the stygian, unplumbed depths...? (cue theremin)
4. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
For me the theme is always discovered in the narrative, which always comes first. A general theme that keeps emerging is that people are basically good and want to do the right thing, and my villains are people who put self-interest over empathy, but beyond that... I think it's awkward to interject a theme, or even start with it. You have to explore what you found exciting about the idea and make sure it's as strong as it can be by finding the theme and focusing it. For me it's first and foremost about a compelling narrative; finding the theme will strengthen that every time. It will even help you find narrative moments you would have missed otherwise.
5. What was your favorite writing project?
Writing EXPLORERS was the first screenplay I wrote where I really caught fire: couldn't stop writing, was consumed by the process. Since then I've found you have to treasure those moments, because it's not going to happen every time. In fact you're lucky if it does at all. INTERFERENCE was like that also: you sit back after a couple of hours of writing and realize you've lost track of time. Some of it writes itself, and that's a gift.
6. What made you choose audiobooks as a device for your antagonist to use in Interference?
Audiobooks are still mostly seen as secondary, an afterthought to the original book, though that's changing. I really enjoy audiobooks, and wanted to write a project where the audiobook format was essential to the narrative. Audiobooks are all about an intimate, shared experience between the listener and narrator. Most of us had books read to us before we could read ourselves, so the words were being perceived on a much more primitive level, a process we didn't fully understand yet. I wanted to capture the power of that process, and then have the antagonist use it to twist and manipulate events for its own purposes. Also, the protagonists don't fully believe what's happening, that their audiobook is speaking directly to them, so it's easier for it to work its way into their psyche. By the time they do believe... it's too late. (again, cue theremin).
7. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?
Any scene that surprises me. It can be a key piece of dialogue, a discovered character trait, an unexpected action sequence, a moment of visual description, something out of your past that you didn't know you had stored away. Anything that makes you sit back and say: where the hell did that come from?
8. What made you start writing?
I couldn't stop myself. I've wanted to tell stories ever since I can remember, and each medium that opens up, digital or otherwise, is a new way of exploring that same basic need: to tell a good story. Of course, every time you sit down at the keyboard, you learn something new. I'm still discovering how to tell a good story every time I try.
9. What was your experience like narrating Interference?
I've been working with audio drama and narration for years, in animation, podcasts, voiceover, volunteering for the Braille Institute's books on tape. It was great to finally use those skills for my own project. It took a long time to get here, and I enjoyed the whole process. I've written for movies and TV for decades, but those scripts are always blueprints for the finished project, which somebody else is usually directing, editing, performing, etc. This was the first time I was working on the piece itself, the thing that was being delivered directly into the hands of the reader (or ears of the listener).
10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
The first thing that comes to mind? Absent friends. Lost to death or circumstance, who I'll never see again in this life. The particulars are personal, meaningful only to me.
Or maybe not.
Maybe there's a good story there...
One great thing about working in the digital age is that you have so many different kinds of media to choose from. You can even make a movie on your phone, which just wasn't possible even 5-10 years ago. So you can look at any narrative and say: what's the best way to tell this, not just in terms of storytelling, but in presentation. INTERFERENCE is a story about an audiobook, so that was a natural choice. And there are all kinds of interesting meta moments that happen when you make that choice: the listener realizing that he's listening to an audiobook about an audiobook, the narrator speaking directly to the listener ABOUT the fact that he's listening to an audiobook. The different levels of reality start to echo off each other in exciting ways. So the short answer is: no favorite; it's whatever works best.
2. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?
For modern horror Stephen King is one of the greats. His style is so effortless, the storytelling so simple, and it holds you in the moment like few other modern writers, horror or otherwise. His ON WRITING is one of the best books about the craft. For really enjoyable page turners, George RR Martin, China Mieville and Joe Abercrombie come to mind. When I was younger I loved the greats: Verne, H.G.Wells. Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast is amazing. And in my teens: Kerouac, Raymond Chandler.
3. What current writing projects are you working on?
I'm working on the followup to INTERFERENCE. It will be an audiobook as well, and will continue to play with the levels of reality in new and exciting ways. Cinema has been using the "found footage" trope for a while, and I'm exploring the audio equivalent. The internet is a vast and scary place; who knows what lies coiled in the stygian, unplumbed depths...? (cue theremin)
4. Is there an overall theme to your writing?
For me the theme is always discovered in the narrative, which always comes first. A general theme that keeps emerging is that people are basically good and want to do the right thing, and my villains are people who put self-interest over empathy, but beyond that... I think it's awkward to interject a theme, or even start with it. You have to explore what you found exciting about the idea and make sure it's as strong as it can be by finding the theme and focusing it. For me it's first and foremost about a compelling narrative; finding the theme will strengthen that every time. It will even help you find narrative moments you would have missed otherwise.
5. What was your favorite writing project?
Writing EXPLORERS was the first screenplay I wrote where I really caught fire: couldn't stop writing, was consumed by the process. Since then I've found you have to treasure those moments, because it's not going to happen every time. In fact you're lucky if it does at all. INTERFERENCE was like that also: you sit back after a couple of hours of writing and realize you've lost track of time. Some of it writes itself, and that's a gift.
6. What made you choose audiobooks as a device for your antagonist to use in Interference?
Audiobooks are still mostly seen as secondary, an afterthought to the original book, though that's changing. I really enjoy audiobooks, and wanted to write a project where the audiobook format was essential to the narrative. Audiobooks are all about an intimate, shared experience between the listener and narrator. Most of us had books read to us before we could read ourselves, so the words were being perceived on a much more primitive level, a process we didn't fully understand yet. I wanted to capture the power of that process, and then have the antagonist use it to twist and manipulate events for its own purposes. Also, the protagonists don't fully believe what's happening, that their audiobook is speaking directly to them, so it's easier for it to work its way into their psyche. By the time they do believe... it's too late. (again, cue theremin).
7. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?
Any scene that surprises me. It can be a key piece of dialogue, a discovered character trait, an unexpected action sequence, a moment of visual description, something out of your past that you didn't know you had stored away. Anything that makes you sit back and say: where the hell did that come from?
8. What made you start writing?
I couldn't stop myself. I've wanted to tell stories ever since I can remember, and each medium that opens up, digital or otherwise, is a new way of exploring that same basic need: to tell a good story. Of course, every time you sit down at the keyboard, you learn something new. I'm still discovering how to tell a good story every time I try.
9. What was your experience like narrating Interference?
I've been working with audio drama and narration for years, in animation, podcasts, voiceover, volunteering for the Braille Institute's books on tape. It was great to finally use those skills for my own project. It took a long time to get here, and I enjoyed the whole process. I've written for movies and TV for decades, but those scripts are always blueprints for the finished project, which somebody else is usually directing, editing, performing, etc. This was the first time I was working on the piece itself, the thing that was being delivered directly into the hands of the reader (or ears of the listener).
10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?
The first thing that comes to mind? Absent friends. Lost to death or circumstance, who I'll never see again in this life. The particulars are personal, meaningful only to me.
Or maybe not.
Maybe there's a good story there...
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