10 Questions with Jeff Strand
If you could have a voodoo doll of any living person, who would you choose and why?
I would have a voodoo doll of a voodoo priestess, so I could be all like, “Make me MORE voodoo dolls! And more! And more!” Then I could rule the world, which I would do in a fair but firm manner.
2. Of all the books you’ve written, what are you most proud of?
Can I call it a tie between Dweller and Kutter? Those aren’t actually my personal favorites (the books I have the most affection for are Kumquat, Benjamin’s Parasite, and Fangboy) but those are the two that I think had the most difficult concepts to successfully pull off. A 50-year friendship between a boy and a monster, and a savage serial killer who becomes a better person after finding a Boston Terrier. If I’m not allowed to have a tie, I’ll go with Dweller because it’s longer.
3. Who is your favorite comedian?
Ack! Just one? Fine. Patton Oswalt. With honorable mentions to Stephen Wright, Nick Griffin, and Don Reese.
4. If you were a contestant on Survivor, what strategy would you choose to outplay, outwit, and outlast?
Y’know, the game is so unpredictable that any kind of elaborate strategy going in is probably doomed. I would work hard around camp, stay out of petty squabbles, start making alliances immediately (even though sometimes that comes back to bite you), and cheerfully lie to people about being in their alliance even if they made me swear on the life of a family member.
5. What current writing projects are you working on?
I just finished a young adult novel called The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever. Right now I’m working on a non-horror novel about a stand-up comedian, which is a funny, filthy, tragic book that I guess you’d call “mainstream” fiction. I don’t have an official title for it yet, which is driving me insane.
6. If you couldn’t be a writer, what would you do for a living?
If I could have my dream non-writing job, I’d be a cartoonist. The answer to this question assumes that we’re in a magical world where I have drawing talent. In the real world…I dunno…marketing or something?
7. What would you rather have to face, a family of cannibals or a horde of zombies?
Zombies. You can shoot as many as you want with nary a moral qualm. When you start killing cannibals, there’s the whole “But they’re human beings, too!” issue to deal with. I suppose I’d need a more specific definition of family (three?) vs. horde (three hundred?) to get into the whole survival aspect, but in terms of retaining my humanity, I’ve gotta go with the zombies.
8. What made you start writing?
Genetics. I don’t mean that I came from a family of writers (my relatives are almost exclusively on the academic/scientific/non-arts side) but I’ve never NOT wanted to be a writer.
9. What made you want to start writing horror?
A couple of friends got me into horror movies in a big way in high school, and my reading tastes quickly moved in that direction as well. So I started writing some horror as part of my thousands of pages of unpublished “practice” work. I really just considered myself a humor writer until after Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) was published, which other people called a horror novel even though it was written as a mystery/comedy. After that, I embraced the “horror writer” label.
10. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?
Douglas Adams. Or Beverly Cleary.
I would have a voodoo doll of a voodoo priestess, so I could be all like, “Make me MORE voodoo dolls! And more! And more!” Then I could rule the world, which I would do in a fair but firm manner.
2. Of all the books you’ve written, what are you most proud of?
Can I call it a tie between Dweller and Kutter? Those aren’t actually my personal favorites (the books I have the most affection for are Kumquat, Benjamin’s Parasite, and Fangboy) but those are the two that I think had the most difficult concepts to successfully pull off. A 50-year friendship between a boy and a monster, and a savage serial killer who becomes a better person after finding a Boston Terrier. If I’m not allowed to have a tie, I’ll go with Dweller because it’s longer.
3. Who is your favorite comedian?
Ack! Just one? Fine. Patton Oswalt. With honorable mentions to Stephen Wright, Nick Griffin, and Don Reese.
4. If you were a contestant on Survivor, what strategy would you choose to outplay, outwit, and outlast?
Y’know, the game is so unpredictable that any kind of elaborate strategy going in is probably doomed. I would work hard around camp, stay out of petty squabbles, start making alliances immediately (even though sometimes that comes back to bite you), and cheerfully lie to people about being in their alliance even if they made me swear on the life of a family member.
5. What current writing projects are you working on?
I just finished a young adult novel called The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever. Right now I’m working on a non-horror novel about a stand-up comedian, which is a funny, filthy, tragic book that I guess you’d call “mainstream” fiction. I don’t have an official title for it yet, which is driving me insane.
6. If you couldn’t be a writer, what would you do for a living?
If I could have my dream non-writing job, I’d be a cartoonist. The answer to this question assumes that we’re in a magical world where I have drawing talent. In the real world…I dunno…marketing or something?
7. What would you rather have to face, a family of cannibals or a horde of zombies?
Zombies. You can shoot as many as you want with nary a moral qualm. When you start killing cannibals, there’s the whole “But they’re human beings, too!” issue to deal with. I suppose I’d need a more specific definition of family (three?) vs. horde (three hundred?) to get into the whole survival aspect, but in terms of retaining my humanity, I’ve gotta go with the zombies.
8. What made you start writing?
Genetics. I don’t mean that I came from a family of writers (my relatives are almost exclusively on the academic/scientific/non-arts side) but I’ve never NOT wanted to be a writer.
9. What made you want to start writing horror?
A couple of friends got me into horror movies in a big way in high school, and my reading tastes quickly moved in that direction as well. So I started writing some horror as part of my thousands of pages of unpublished “practice” work. I really just considered myself a humor writer until after Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) was published, which other people called a horror novel even though it was written as a mystery/comedy. After that, I embraced the “horror writer” label.
10. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?
Douglas Adams. Or Beverly Cleary.
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