It's been a while but Eric Hendixson has joined the illustrious two-timers club. He's been busy since his last visit.
What's been going on since Bucket of Face?
I wrote Giving the Finger for the Bizarro Starter Kit Red and Drunk Driving Champion, as well as another novel that is in editing stages right now. In the middle of that, I switched jobs and moved to Chicago, which has improved my pizza, pierogi, and hot dog situation but ruined my winter situation. I took Krav Maga classes, visited the House on the Rock, and read an obscene short story at the AWP in Minnesota. I've also been editing flash fiction for Bizarro Central.
What possessed you to write a drunken version of Cannonball Run or It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World?
What surprised me was that nobody else had already written this novel. When I came up with the idea, it had that sort of “of course” feel to it. I've always liked road trips and road trip stories, and this was a way of making a racing story more interesting.
My first experience with drunk driving was a cross-country trip. When I was eight or nine and my family was moving back to the United States, my father had to drop our van off at the Navy port at Rota, Spain. On the way back to the Air Force base at Torrejon, we drove the new chaplain's car, which had just been shipped in. He had an older car that had bench seats, and between me and my father, there was a huge ice chest. When I reached in for a soda, my father had forgotten to buy any. It was all beer. From Rota to Torrejon is a seven-hour drive. That's a lot of beer, but we made it home without creating an international incident. It was a very wholesome experience: a father and son taking a trip in the priest's car, only we were drinking beer all the way. At the time, this did not seem unusual. What really stood out in my mind about the trip was that the Navy base had a Baskin-Robbins. I'd never had someone ask me what flavor of ice cream I wanted before. It was amazing. When I got home, the story I told everyone was about ice cream, not beer. That trip might have something to with where the idea came from.
Ever have a GPS take you through unsavory areas?
I have an innate distrust of GPS units. I don't like their voices, and voice really matters to me, so I try not to rely on them. However, I once had to go to the Prince George's County jail in Maryland. I've never been good at navigating Maryland. The whole state seems upside-down and poorly thought out. This morning, I was covering for a coworker who'd called in sick, so I was already running late. I hate being late for things, so I was already nervous when my GPS took me to the corner of Marlboro Pike and Marlboro Pike. That's where the adventure began. The GPS had me turn off Marlboro Pike onto Marlboro Pike. This other Marlboro Pike was an older road, faded, broken, and wooded, but I figured the jail might be in the middle of nowhere, like prisons and nuclear power plants. The grass got really high, and the road kept getting worse. There were shacks and abandoned trailers by the side of the road. Faint banjo music played in the distance. It turns out that Marlboro Pike intersects with Marlboro Pike about five times, and the GPS had me going from the modern road to the old road pretty much at random. So I was trying to get to an unsavory place, but the unit kept leading me to the wrong unsavory places. When I finally made it to jail, I was late for the meeting and the guards didn't want to let me in. I was probably the only person in PG County that morning trying this hard to get into jail.
What did you drink for research purposes while writing Drunk Driving Champion?
I dedicated the book to Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Evan Williams, since the book would have been impossible without either of them.
Did you learn anything while writing Drunk Driving Champion?
I learned a few stylistic things. When you write a race story, it has to read fast, and I found ways to do that. It was all about distillation. I've visited a few breweries and distilleries, and the first stage of making whiskey is like making beer—bad beer but essentially beer. The distillation process is both the difference between good writing and bad writing and the difference between beer and whiskey. I found as I rewrote the story, it kept getting shorter even though I was adding more story. In the later stage of editing Drunk Driving Champion, I did a pass in which I added a new chapter and still finished with fewer words than I started with. I considered that a victory, since I had distilled more of the water out and produced a higher proof of story.
In the dedication of Drunk Driving Champion, you mentioned people not wanting you to write this book. Care to elaborate?
I've worked a table at the Printer's Row festival for the past two years with some other Midwest bizarro writers. One of our favorite things is meeting new people who see the book covers, read the descriptions, and immediately get it. Those people were already bizarro fans. They just didn't know the genre existed yet. It's a great experience.
But our real favorite thing is seeing the people who look at our books and walk away clutching their pearls or holding their purses tighter. This year, we actually had a woman sneer at us in disgust. She looked like a cat that can't quite smell something. I got a little bit of that from people when I was writing the book. For the most part, those people weren't my audience anyway. This genre is not for everybody. It's oftentimes a love it or hate it situation.
Most bizarro fiction is pretty transgressive to begin with. In Bucket of Face, I have organ harvesting, a man having sex with a kiwi fruit, and a tomato cutting open a woman's chest so he can fist her ribcage and shoot her heart out from the inside. In Giving the Finger, I have a child whose body parts are used to repair a dike. However, a few people who were fine with that just noped out at the idea of drunk driving. It wouldn't really be bizarro if it was the kind of story everyone agrees on. Squeamishness is the basis of a lot of comedy. It's usually very specific, and we all have different things that can set us off. It's fun to see where different people draw the line.
Do you ever plan to revisit the world of Bucket of Face?
That story is grounded in the geography of the DC area, and a lot has changed since I lived there. If I ever moved back to DC, I might, but a lot of what I'm writing these days is based in Chicago. The two cities have very different personalities. I do plan on revisiting the bizarro noir style, but that story will take place in Chicago.
What is the best car movie of the 1970s and 80s?
I watched a lot of car movies while writing the novel. I started with the 1965 classic The Great Race, which has the patently absurd premise of an auto race from New York to Paris. You don't need a GPS to tell you the problem. This led to Wacky Racers cartoons, which took a lot from that movie.
My favorites of the 1970s were both made in 1971: the original Vanishing Point and Two Lane Blacktop, which may have inspired the actual Cannonball Runs. Back in the 70s, people just didn't care whether or not their movies made sense, and a lot goes unexplained. You finish watching the movies, and you're really not sure what just happened or what it meant. I borrowed a scene from Vanishing Point, where the Soviet sleeper agents, high on amphetamines, face a police roadblock made of bulldozers. Drunk Driving Champion was like the opposite of Two Lane Blacktop, a race away from DC instead of toward it. Of course, Deathrace 2000 was a huge influence.
Thanks to TV and movies from the 80s, I grew up thinking car chases would play a much larger role in my life than they have so far. Gumball Rally and Cannonball Run are very similar movies, but Cannonball Run has the edge. The Smokey and the Bandit movies have the problem of Burt Reynolds. The guy is too charming, so it comes off as a romantic comedy instead of a car movie.
I would give honorable mentions to Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, Mad Max, Christine, and Deathproof, but they're off topic.
What are you reading these days?
In the month, I've been reading a lot of Jim Thomson, an anthology called Chicago Noir, another edited by Chuck Palahniuk called Burning Tongues, Punkland, a comic book series called C.O.W.L., Texas Chainsaw Mantis, and an anthology of 20th Century noir. I also like to browse the Chicago Municipal Code when I don't have a book with me. Laws, what they tell you not to do, tell you a lot about society. For example, it's illegal in this city to dye birds artificial colors and give them away as gifts or prizes. That tells us that at one time, this was a big enough problem in Chicago that some legislator said, “I've had it with all the pink ducks in this city.” I like to think that, at one time, there were hordes of men guy wandering through Chicago distributing colorized waterfowl and shouting, “You win a duck, you win a duck, and you win a duck!”
What's are you writing next?
I want to go back to the bizarro noir style for for a detective story set in the South Side. I've also started a fairy tale set in Appalachia. Right now, though, I'm editing my first Chicago novel, which will either be called Precious Blood of the Lamb or All Our Future Thursdays. It's about the meatpacking industry, Last Thursdayism, tacos, and sheeple—not metaphorical sheep/people but people who turn into sheep and go on a rampage.
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interview. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2016
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
10 Questions with Lawrence Block!
It's not every day a guy's favorite crime writer agrees to answer some questions for his blog. Without further adieu, here's my interview with Lawrence Block!
What made you decide to revisit Bernie Rhodenbarr with The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons?
I’d wanted to write more about Bernie ever since THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL nine years ago. I’ve always enjoyed writing in his voice and seeing the world through his eyes. But the several attempts I made over the years were discouraging, and just didn’t come together, and I wasn’t willing to force it, because the one thing I’m unwilling to do is write a bad book about him.
Then I reached a point where I was ready, and I got on a cruise ship on a Saturday in July, and Sunday morning I got up early and went to work. I wrote every day for the next five weeks, and when the ship docked I got off with a finished book.
How has your writing process changed since the first Burglar book, Burglars Can't Be Choosers?
I’m not sure it has, beyond my having made the transition twenty years ago from typewriter to computer.
You've struck me as one of the authors to really see the potential in reissuing out off print works as eBooks. Do you have any ebooks coming down the pipe you think people should be aware of?
I’ve got two non-fiction titles in preparation, collections of pieces I’ve written over the years. One will center on the world of crime fiction, while the other will have essays and travel writing and, well, other stuff. But these will be originals, and you asked about out-of-print reissues.
Actually, I think I’ve reissued just about everything out there. Unless I manage to talk myself into discovering the merits of one or another pseudonymous work of midcentury erotica, and that’s always a possibility.
How did you get entangled with Hard Case Crime in the beginning? It seems like a match made in heaven to me.
Charles Ardai, the guiding genius of Hard Case Crime, has been a fan and a friend for a long time. THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART was Hard Case’s first title, and he went on to publish several more of my paperback crime novels before hitting on a few originally pseudonymous works—like A DIET OF TREACLE and KILLING CASTRO—and, coming up in May, BORDERLINE.
Did you get to choose the stories for Catch & Release?
Yes, and it wasn’t difficult to choose; the book contains all my short fiction written too late to be included in ENOUGH ROPE.
What's the story behind Borderline?
I believe it was written in 1961, and originally published under the publisher’s rather lame title of BORDER LUST. The pen name was not one of mine, but “Don Holiday,” a pen name used by my friend Hal Dresner. If I remember correctly, I had an extra book that month, and it thus got published under his name. (Or it may simple have got jumbled at the publisher’s offices. Many things did.)
Do you have any more books with Hard Case in the works?
No, but Charles is looking at a couple of other early works. One’s unquestionably a crime story—it centers on a holdup—but on first reading he saw problems with it. He’s looking again to see if it’s something he can salvage.
How involved have you been in the production of A Walk Among the Tombstones?
Not at all, beyond having the great pleasure of visiting the set four or five times during filming. And I did have a cameo—I was Man in Bar #3, a role I spent much of my early years rehearsing—but that whole scene got cut, so my film debut will have to wait.
Might we see a new Matthew Scudder short story to coincide with the release of the movie?
There’s an interesting thought. I can’t rule it out, but neither can I make it happen by force of will. We’ll have to see.
What's next for Lawrence Block?
Lunch!
What made you decide to revisit Bernie Rhodenbarr with The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons?
I’d wanted to write more about Bernie ever since THE BURGLAR ON THE PROWL nine years ago. I’ve always enjoyed writing in his voice and seeing the world through his eyes. But the several attempts I made over the years were discouraging, and just didn’t come together, and I wasn’t willing to force it, because the one thing I’m unwilling to do is write a bad book about him.
Then I reached a point where I was ready, and I got on a cruise ship on a Saturday in July, and Sunday morning I got up early and went to work. I wrote every day for the next five weeks, and when the ship docked I got off with a finished book.
How has your writing process changed since the first Burglar book, Burglars Can't Be Choosers?
I’m not sure it has, beyond my having made the transition twenty years ago from typewriter to computer.
You've struck me as one of the authors to really see the potential in reissuing out off print works as eBooks. Do you have any ebooks coming down the pipe you think people should be aware of?
I’ve got two non-fiction titles in preparation, collections of pieces I’ve written over the years. One will center on the world of crime fiction, while the other will have essays and travel writing and, well, other stuff. But these will be originals, and you asked about out-of-print reissues.
Actually, I think I’ve reissued just about everything out there. Unless I manage to talk myself into discovering the merits of one or another pseudonymous work of midcentury erotica, and that’s always a possibility.
How did you get entangled with Hard Case Crime in the beginning? It seems like a match made in heaven to me.
Charles Ardai, the guiding genius of Hard Case Crime, has been a fan and a friend for a long time. THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART was Hard Case’s first title, and he went on to publish several more of my paperback crime novels before hitting on a few originally pseudonymous works—like A DIET OF TREACLE and KILLING CASTRO—and, coming up in May, BORDERLINE.
Did you get to choose the stories for Catch & Release?
Yes, and it wasn’t difficult to choose; the book contains all my short fiction written too late to be included in ENOUGH ROPE.
What's the story behind Borderline?
I believe it was written in 1961, and originally published under the publisher’s rather lame title of BORDER LUST. The pen name was not one of mine, but “Don Holiday,” a pen name used by my friend Hal Dresner. If I remember correctly, I had an extra book that month, and it thus got published under his name. (Or it may simple have got jumbled at the publisher’s offices. Many things did.)
Do you have any more books with Hard Case in the works?
No, but Charles is looking at a couple of other early works. One’s unquestionably a crime story—it centers on a holdup—but on first reading he saw problems with it. He’s looking again to see if it’s something he can salvage.
How involved have you been in the production of A Walk Among the Tombstones?
Not at all, beyond having the great pleasure of visiting the set four or five times during filming. And I did have a cameo—I was Man in Bar #3, a role I spent much of my early years rehearsing—but that whole scene got cut, so my film debut will have to wait.
Might we see a new Matthew Scudder short story to coincide with the release of the movie?
There’s an interesting thought. I can’t rule it out, but neither can I make it happen by force of will. We’ll have to see.
What's next for Lawrence Block?
Lunch!
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
600th Post! - An interview with S.A. Hunt
Today's guest is S.A. Hunt, author of The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree, the first book in the Outlaw King saga.
How did The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree come about?
It actually started as a very different book in a very different frame of mind. I wanted to write DIME, a horror novel about a man that gets stuck in a town teetering on the brink between Earth and hell, and have a part at the end of it where he wakes up in a military hospital. He realizes the whole thing was a dream, but through abilities gained along the course of the book he reaches into that other-place and essentially pulls his fellow survivors, fictional people, into the real world. Life difficulties and a decreasing enthusiasm for the story as a whole ended with DIME on the backburner, but I still wanted to write something incorporating the same sort of metaphysical detangling.
After a while, I wanted to write a post-apocalyptic novel and it quickly transformed into a gunslinger epic. After a few rewrites and an epiphany, I changed the protagonist back to a male and re-introduced the concept of existing in a fictional space. In the end, WHIRLWIND is inspired by both Stephen King's DARK TOWER as well as my own fledgling feints at writing DIME--which is where a lot of the horror comes into play. And the follow-up to WHIRLWIND, the more Noreen-centric LAW OF THE WOLF, is actually going to incorporate a character and certain aspects from DIME. The Sileni, the antagonists from WHIRLWIND, are striving to induce wickedness in humanity and in LAW, we're going to see that firsthand when several characters end up back on Earth and find themselves obligated to prevent a public massacre.
Did you shop it around to agents or jump directly into the self-publishing ocean?
Both. I self-published it first, and once I got a few good reviews under my belt, I started querying in the hope that the good press would make me look better to a prospective agent. Some of you may think that's a backwards idea, but it seems to make sense to me. More and more, however, as I go along, I'm beginning to taper off in my quest to find an agent. It's looking like I'm not going to have any biters. That's okay; as I like to tell myself, go ahead and pass on me. You just won't get any share in the movie rights some day.
How much of you is there in Ross Brigham?
Quite a lot. I needed a doofus with a wounded heart to justify the way Ross just blunders into a parallel world without compunction, and I had just the right kick in the stomach the book needed: my own recent return and subsequent divorce. Chapter Two of WHIRLWIND is very similar to my own first night home from overseas. Luckily, my real father is still alive and I haven't been sucked into a tornado, regardless of what my ex-wife would like.
How many books are planned in the Outlaw King series?
I would estimate it at three, but it honestly depend s on two factors: how popular the first two books end up being, and whether or not the story is totally finished by the end of book three.
Have you thought about using Kickstarter to fund the writing of the next book(or books)?
I have thought about it, but I had several reservations. First of which was that I didn't think Kickstarter allowed crowdfunding of novels, at least self-published ones. The second was that it didn't seem ethical to me as there are already so many self-published writers out there churning out work without the benefit of outside financial assistance, regardless of my own difficulties. The third was that I honestly didn't figure I would be able to attract much funding, especially with how WHIRLWIND was doing so poorly in KDP numbers (note: when my KDP is up in May, I am not renewing my Select status, and WHIRLWIND will be available on UncoveredBooks, Smashwords and Kobo.) The fourth was that I couldn't think of anything substantial I could offer as a bonus to the highest bidders. Signed paperback copies? Paper maps of Destin? My notebook? Discounts on future books? If anyone thinks I'd have a chance at Kickstarter success or has good ideas for bidder bonuses, feel free to let me know. I could definitely use the financial lifeline.
What is your favorite 1980's sf/fantasy movie?
Hands down, I'd have to say KRULL. I still can't believe there was no sequel and it wasn't inspired by a novel. The world in the movie is so exotic and realized, and the story and the Glaive itself were very original for their time. It's a sad thing that Hollywood isn't as adventurous as it was in the 80's... there was some quality innovation back then. Suits just don't take many chances anymore, which is sad because those projects have a peculiar habit of producing truly legendary cult content when you give them a chance. (I have to give classic He-Man flick MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE a nod, though. It was a crazy movie but it definitely gave the He-Man world a swarthier Boris Vallejo / Yoshitaka Amano vibe it desperately deserved. SUPER MARIO BROS has earned a place in my heart as well.)
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
It has to be a toss-up between Stephen King's DARK TOWER series, Joe Hill's HORNS, Dan Simmons's HYPERION series, and the swashbuckling non-fiction travelogue HEART OF THE WORLD, by rebel National Geographic explorer Ian Baker. I've been writing since I was a little kid, but up until now I've been trying to build my life according to everyone else's rules. Joe Hill's book is what slapped me in the face and reminded me of who I really was and what I was capable of.
Who would you say your influences are?
I think I get my wordiness, banter, and paragraph structure from Dean Koontz, my pantsy style of writing from King, my descriptiveness from Dan Simmons (as well as my years playing MU* games and buil ding world grids in same games) and my propensity for delving into the psychotic and mythical from Neil Gaiman. But as LeVar says, don't take my word for it. My readers will see what they will see.
What's your favorite book?
11/22/63.
Who's your favorite author?
King, without a doubt. His kid Joe is really gaining on him, though. It's like a slow-motion horse race. They both do extraordinary horror, but King's still got the goods in character development and getting into heads.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
Brad Poynter's THE MEEK: a mysterious phenomenon shrinks every human on the planet to the size of an action figure, turning the world into a warzone of ravenous pets and giant obstacles. It's an amazing odyssey combining the survivalism of a wilderness thriller with the mind-blowing and sometimes hilarious aspects of life four inches tall.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
(1) WRITE. WRITE WRITE WRITE. Stop telling yourself that you're not any good, and stop telling yourself you don't have the time. Stop overplanning, past a certain point planning is just procrastination. Just do it, and don't rely on writer self-help books to tell you how to do it. Stop overthinking it. Just open a word processor file and start typing. (2) They say "write what you know," but that doesn't mean a plumber should write a story about being a plumber. Stephen King said, "A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar," and that's what WWYK means: use your memories, throw in your scars and shiners and bruises. A compelling story is a witch's brew of what life's thrown at you. (3) Scrivener is very much worth the $30. If you're serious about writing, get it.
What's next for S.A. Hunt?
Living and writing, writing and living. I wish I could tell yo u I'm going to be executive producer on the movie adaptation of WHIRLWIND, but I'd be fibbing!
How did The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree come about?
It actually started as a very different book in a very different frame of mind. I wanted to write DIME, a horror novel about a man that gets stuck in a town teetering on the brink between Earth and hell, and have a part at the end of it where he wakes up in a military hospital. He realizes the whole thing was a dream, but through abilities gained along the course of the book he reaches into that other-place and essentially pulls his fellow survivors, fictional people, into the real world. Life difficulties and a decreasing enthusiasm for the story as a whole ended with DIME on the backburner, but I still wanted to write something incorporating the same sort of metaphysical detangling.
After a while, I wanted to write a post-apocalyptic novel and it quickly transformed into a gunslinger epic. After a few rewrites and an epiphany, I changed the protagonist back to a male and re-introduced the concept of existing in a fictional space. In the end, WHIRLWIND is inspired by both Stephen King's DARK TOWER as well as my own fledgling feints at writing DIME--which is where a lot of the horror comes into play. And the follow-up to WHIRLWIND, the more Noreen-centric LAW OF THE WOLF, is actually going to incorporate a character and certain aspects from DIME. The Sileni, the antagonists from WHIRLWIND, are striving to induce wickedness in humanity and in LAW, we're going to see that firsthand when several characters end up back on Earth and find themselves obligated to prevent a public massacre.
Did you shop it around to agents or jump directly into the self-publishing ocean?
Both. I self-published it first, and once I got a few good reviews under my belt, I started querying in the hope that the good press would make me look better to a prospective agent. Some of you may think that's a backwards idea, but it seems to make sense to me. More and more, however, as I go along, I'm beginning to taper off in my quest to find an agent. It's looking like I'm not going to have any biters. That's okay; as I like to tell myself, go ahead and pass on me. You just won't get any share in the movie rights some day.
How much of you is there in Ross Brigham?
Quite a lot. I needed a doofus with a wounded heart to justify the way Ross just blunders into a parallel world without compunction, and I had just the right kick in the stomach the book needed: my own recent return and subsequent divorce. Chapter Two of WHIRLWIND is very similar to my own first night home from overseas. Luckily, my real father is still alive and I haven't been sucked into a tornado, regardless of what my ex-wife would like.
How many books are planned in the Outlaw King series?
I would estimate it at three, but it honestly depend s on two factors: how popular the first two books end up being, and whether or not the story is totally finished by the end of book three.
Have you thought about using Kickstarter to fund the writing of the next book(or books)?
I have thought about it, but I had several reservations. First of which was that I didn't think Kickstarter allowed crowdfunding of novels, at least self-published ones. The second was that it didn't seem ethical to me as there are already so many self-published writers out there churning out work without the benefit of outside financial assistance, regardless of my own difficulties. The third was that I honestly didn't figure I would be able to attract much funding, especially with how WHIRLWIND was doing so poorly in KDP numbers (note: when my KDP is up in May, I am not renewing my Select status, and WHIRLWIND will be available on UncoveredBooks, Smashwords and Kobo.) The fourth was that I couldn't think of anything substantial I could offer as a bonus to the highest bidders. Signed paperback copies? Paper maps of Destin? My notebook? Discounts on future books? If anyone thinks I'd have a chance at Kickstarter success or has good ideas for bidder bonuses, feel free to let me know. I could definitely use the financial lifeline.
What is your favorite 1980's sf/fantasy movie?
Hands down, I'd have to say KRULL. I still can't believe there was no sequel and it wasn't inspired by a novel. The world in the movie is so exotic and realized, and the story and the Glaive itself were very original for their time. It's a sad thing that Hollywood isn't as adventurous as it was in the 80's... there was some quality innovation back then. Suits just don't take many chances anymore, which is sad because those projects have a peculiar habit of producing truly legendary cult content when you give them a chance. (I have to give classic He-Man flick MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE a nod, though. It was a crazy movie but it definitely gave the He-Man world a swarthier Boris Vallejo / Yoshitaka Amano vibe it desperately deserved. SUPER MARIO BROS has earned a place in my heart as well.)
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
It has to be a toss-up between Stephen King's DARK TOWER series, Joe Hill's HORNS, Dan Simmons's HYPERION series, and the swashbuckling non-fiction travelogue HEART OF THE WORLD, by rebel National Geographic explorer Ian Baker. I've been writing since I was a little kid, but up until now I've been trying to build my life according to everyone else's rules. Joe Hill's book is what slapped me in the face and reminded me of who I really was and what I was capable of.
Who would you say your influences are?
I think I get my wordiness, banter, and paragraph structure from Dean Koontz, my pantsy style of writing from King, my descriptiveness from Dan Simmons (as well as my years playing MU* games and buil ding world grids in same games) and my propensity for delving into the psychotic and mythical from Neil Gaiman. But as LeVar says, don't take my word for it. My readers will see what they will see.
What's your favorite book?
11/22/63.
Who's your favorite author?
King, without a doubt. His kid Joe is really gaining on him, though. It's like a slow-motion horse race. They both do extraordinary horror, but King's still got the goods in character development and getting into heads.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
Brad Poynter's THE MEEK: a mysterious phenomenon shrinks every human on the planet to the size of an action figure, turning the world into a warzone of ravenous pets and giant obstacles. It's an amazing odyssey combining the survivalism of a wilderness thriller with the mind-blowing and sometimes hilarious aspects of life four inches tall.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
(1) WRITE. WRITE WRITE WRITE. Stop telling yourself that you're not any good, and stop telling yourself you don't have the time. Stop overplanning, past a certain point planning is just procrastination. Just do it, and don't rely on writer self-help books to tell you how to do it. Stop overthinking it. Just open a word processor file and start typing. (2) They say "write what you know," but that doesn't mean a plumber should write a story about being a plumber. Stephen King said, "A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar," and that's what WWYK means: use your memories, throw in your scars and shiners and bruises. A compelling story is a witch's brew of what life's thrown at you. (3) Scrivener is very much worth the $30. If you're serious about writing, get it.
What's next for S.A. Hunt?
Living and writing, writing and living. I wish I could tell yo u I'm going to be executive producer on the movie adaptation of WHIRLWIND, but I'd be fibbing!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Do Not Avoid! 13 Questions with J.W. Wargo
Today's guest is J.W. Wargo, author of Avoiding Mortimer.
How did you get involved in the Bizarro movement?
Happenstance, really. I've been writing stories since I learned how to read and write. I moved to Portland, Oregon after dropping out of college and kept writing, but not too many people were into the weirdness I was creating. While searching the Portland library for absurd literature, I came across a Carlton Mellick III book, Fishy-Fleshed, and started reading it. I was hooked instantly and began gobbling up as much Bizarro as I could get my hands on. When I realized that the majority of the writers and publishers were based in Portland, I started communicating with them online and eventually met Mellick at a reading. I attended the Bizarro Convention that year and have been a part of the community since.
What's the inspiration behind Avoiding Mortimer?
The idea for the book first came to me in the summer of 2010 while I was hitchhiking Europe. The previous year I had been in an accident involving my overly-intoxicated face coming into close contact with the floor of an NYC bar bathroom, leaving a bloody gash across my eyebrow. I received medical treatment at NY Presbyterian, and as soon as they discovered I had no insurance, no money, no job, and no home, they had me fill out paperwork to apply for emergency medicaid and I was rejected because Social Security had told them, "According to our records Joseph Wargo is deceased". I had to go through a bunch of redtape with the government to get that one fixed. Dead as I was, I still applied for and got a passport and left the country. They eventually fixed the clerical error, or so I assume. And that was where it started: "What if a guy dies due to a processing error in the afterlife?"
How much of you is there in Mortimer?
Mortimer's personality was partly based on previous social anxieties I had. Besides us both having inquisitive natures, not much else about us is similar. While Mortimer goes to great lengths to avoid things, I pushed myself to face the world with an unusual approach to it. In 2009 I became permanently semi-nomadic and wandering storyteller. I chose hitchhiking as my main method of travel, and it forced me to interact with a wide variety of people from all over. I got past any public speaking fears by reciting my short fiction and poetry on street corners for change. I made enough money to survive and I've always kept moving. 4 years later I've gone from Portland to NYC to Florida to California to Europe to Albuquerque to Canada to Hawaii to Mexico and back to Hawaii. All points I've hit in between adds up to over 75,000 miles traveled and so many experiences I could never write them all.
Are there any crazy books about the afterlife that you would recommend?
Punk Land by Carlton Mellick III and Suicide Girls in the Afterlife by Gina Ranalli. Good Omens by collaborators Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, while not exactly a book about the afterlife, is a great one, too. Also, not a book but I have described Avoiding Mortimer as being "like the film Wristcutters: A Love Story without the love story".
Every watch Pushing Daisies? Jim Dale's voice was in my head while I was reading Avoiding Mortimer.
I have not. After reading a bit about it though, I am quite intrigued by the premise. I shall have to hunt this down for later viewing.
What is your favorite B-movie?
1954's Them! The first big bug movie and probably one of the catalysts for my childhood obsession with ants. I was very happy to be able to include ants as an important plot point in Avoiding Mortimer. I suspect I endeavor to sneak ants into subsequent books,
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
Though I had started writing stories at age six, I didn't start thinking about writing as anything more than a fun hobby until I was fourteen and watched the film Memento by Christopher Nolan. I watched the movie several times and then found the screenplay online and read it. I thought that this is exactly what I want to do. Write stories as good as this one. I later took screenwriting classes to learn the craft, and the knowledge gained I applied to fiction writing and have since been working to better my skills and create a style wholly my own.
Who would you say your influences are?
As a kid, I was heavily influenced by the satire of Douglas Adams, the philosophy of Bill Watterson, the outlandishness of Shel Silverstein, the technical language of Michael Crichton, and the imaginative worlds created inside Choose Your Own Adventure Books. More recently, I've studied Nietzsche, Jung, and theoretical physics, but possible the most influential person I've ever read has been Robert Anton Wilson. Both his fiction and nonfiction have taught me more effective forms of communication and helped me see the world in so many new and exciting ways.
What's your favorite book?
During my travels I have always carried a copy of the aforementioned Wilson's book, Prometheus Rising, with me. It attempts to explain consciousness, the brain, and how we communicate and interpret information using an amalgamation Every time I open it up and read a little bit of it I always gain something different from it.
Who's your favorite author?
Kevin L. Donihe
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
A very difficult question. I have read three in the past six months that were all quite excellent reads. Of Thimble and Threat by Alan Clark, We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson, and The Deadheart Shelters by Brandon Armstrong.
I am currently reading Fuckness by Andersen Prunty and it has surprised me thus far. I'm only halfway through it and I already want to write the film adaptation for this book.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
Whatever you write, when you feel it is the best that you can write it, take it and read it aloud, whether to yourself or to someone else. When you hear the words coming out of your mouth, rather than from within your head, they will change and you will see how you can make it even better.
What's next for J.W. Wargo?
I'm currently doing a series of travelogues over at Imperial Youth Review about some of the more interesting experiences I've had on the road. You can follow my exploits with this handy link: http://imperialyouthreview.wordpress.com/tag/jwwargo/
I also started a monthly series on Bizarro Central highlighted strange music and musicians. Working on a few short stories for magazine publication, and plan to write my next book later this year. As for travels, look for me doing some more storytelling on the streets of Japan and Australia next year!
How did you get involved in the Bizarro movement?
Happenstance, really. I've been writing stories since I learned how to read and write. I moved to Portland, Oregon after dropping out of college and kept writing, but not too many people were into the weirdness I was creating. While searching the Portland library for absurd literature, I came across a Carlton Mellick III book, Fishy-Fleshed, and started reading it. I was hooked instantly and began gobbling up as much Bizarro as I could get my hands on. When I realized that the majority of the writers and publishers were based in Portland, I started communicating with them online and eventually met Mellick at a reading. I attended the Bizarro Convention that year and have been a part of the community since.
What's the inspiration behind Avoiding Mortimer?
The idea for the book first came to me in the summer of 2010 while I was hitchhiking Europe. The previous year I had been in an accident involving my overly-intoxicated face coming into close contact with the floor of an NYC bar bathroom, leaving a bloody gash across my eyebrow. I received medical treatment at NY Presbyterian, and as soon as they discovered I had no insurance, no money, no job, and no home, they had me fill out paperwork to apply for emergency medicaid and I was rejected because Social Security had told them, "According to our records Joseph Wargo is deceased". I had to go through a bunch of redtape with the government to get that one fixed. Dead as I was, I still applied for and got a passport and left the country. They eventually fixed the clerical error, or so I assume. And that was where it started: "What if a guy dies due to a processing error in the afterlife?"
How much of you is there in Mortimer?
Mortimer's personality was partly based on previous social anxieties I had. Besides us both having inquisitive natures, not much else about us is similar. While Mortimer goes to great lengths to avoid things, I pushed myself to face the world with an unusual approach to it. In 2009 I became permanently semi-nomadic and wandering storyteller. I chose hitchhiking as my main method of travel, and it forced me to interact with a wide variety of people from all over. I got past any public speaking fears by reciting my short fiction and poetry on street corners for change. I made enough money to survive and I've always kept moving. 4 years later I've gone from Portland to NYC to Florida to California to Europe to Albuquerque to Canada to Hawaii to Mexico and back to Hawaii. All points I've hit in between adds up to over 75,000 miles traveled and so many experiences I could never write them all.
Are there any crazy books about the afterlife that you would recommend?
Punk Land by Carlton Mellick III and Suicide Girls in the Afterlife by Gina Ranalli. Good Omens by collaborators Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, while not exactly a book about the afterlife, is a great one, too. Also, not a book but I have described Avoiding Mortimer as being "like the film Wristcutters: A Love Story without the love story".
Every watch Pushing Daisies? Jim Dale's voice was in my head while I was reading Avoiding Mortimer.
I have not. After reading a bit about it though, I am quite intrigued by the premise. I shall have to hunt this down for later viewing.
What is your favorite B-movie?
1954's Them! The first big bug movie and probably one of the catalysts for my childhood obsession with ants. I was very happy to be able to include ants as an important plot point in Avoiding Mortimer. I suspect I endeavor to sneak ants into subsequent books,
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
Though I had started writing stories at age six, I didn't start thinking about writing as anything more than a fun hobby until I was fourteen and watched the film Memento by Christopher Nolan. I watched the movie several times and then found the screenplay online and read it. I thought that this is exactly what I want to do. Write stories as good as this one. I later took screenwriting classes to learn the craft, and the knowledge gained I applied to fiction writing and have since been working to better my skills and create a style wholly my own.
Who would you say your influences are?
As a kid, I was heavily influenced by the satire of Douglas Adams, the philosophy of Bill Watterson, the outlandishness of Shel Silverstein, the technical language of Michael Crichton, and the imaginative worlds created inside Choose Your Own Adventure Books. More recently, I've studied Nietzsche, Jung, and theoretical physics, but possible the most influential person I've ever read has been Robert Anton Wilson. Both his fiction and nonfiction have taught me more effective forms of communication and helped me see the world in so many new and exciting ways.
What's your favorite book?
During my travels I have always carried a copy of the aforementioned Wilson's book, Prometheus Rising, with me. It attempts to explain consciousness, the brain, and how we communicate and interpret information using an amalgamation Every time I open it up and read a little bit of it I always gain something different from it.
Who's your favorite author?
Kevin L. Donihe
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
A very difficult question. I have read three in the past six months that were all quite excellent reads. Of Thimble and Threat by Alan Clark, We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson, and The Deadheart Shelters by Brandon Armstrong.
I am currently reading Fuckness by Andersen Prunty and it has surprised me thus far. I'm only halfway through it and I already want to write the film adaptation for this book.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
Whatever you write, when you feel it is the best that you can write it, take it and read it aloud, whether to yourself or to someone else. When you hear the words coming out of your mouth, rather than from within your head, they will change and you will see how you can make it even better.
What's next for J.W. Wargo?
I'm currently doing a series of travelogues over at Imperial Youth Review about some of the more interesting experiences I've had on the road. You can follow my exploits with this handy link: http://imperialyouthreview.wordpress.com/tag/jwwargo/
I also started a monthly series on Bizarro Central highlighted strange music and musicians. Working on a few short stories for magazine publication, and plan to write my next book later this year. As for travels, look for me doing some more storytelling on the streets of Japan and Australia next year!
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Trailer Parks and Superspies - An Interview with David Barbee
Today's guest is David Barbee, author of Carnageland, A Town Called Suckhole, and Thunderpussy.
How did you get involved in the Bizarro movement?
I was self-publishing when the call came out for the first New Bizarro Author Series, a tryout for Eraserhead Press to find writers who wanted to specialize in bizarro. I already wanted to specialize in bizarro, and I wanted to work with Eraserhead just as badly. So I left my self-publishing endeavors behind to start fresh with them. My NBAS book, Carnageland, did pretty well and thus I was indoctrinated into the scene. The author world can be volatile and scary, but the bizarro crew is a really tight-knit family. They are friendly and ambitious in all the right ways.
How did you get involved in the Bizarro movement?
I was self-publishing when the call came out for the first New Bizarro Author Series, a tryout for Eraserhead Press to find writers who wanted to specialize in bizarro. I already wanted to specialize in bizarro, and I wanted to work with Eraserhead just as badly. So I left my self-publishing endeavors behind to start fresh with them. My NBAS book, Carnageland, did pretty well and thus I was indoctrinated into the scene. The author world can be volatile and scary, but the bizarro crew is a really tight-knit family. They are friendly and ambitious in all the right ways.
What was the inspiration for A Town Called Suckhole?
I've always loved cyberpunk, and I've wanted to write a sci-fi cop story like Blade Runner since I was a little kid. I had such a story in my head for years until I realized that the idea would be cooler and more unique with a big conceptual twist. So I started reworking the idea to be both a cyber-detective story while also twisting it into a Southern noir. Those two elements came together really well, and created a world that's extremely weird and deceptively simple. The title, A Town Called Suckhole, came to me while driving home from work one night. It was one of the easiest books for me to write, because the voices and references on display can usually be found right outside my front door.
Who is your favorite redneck comedian?
Redd Foxx, who isn't a redneck at all. But he was way funnier than Jeff Foxworthy or any of his ilk could hope to be. The redneck comedy boom was strange. People who enjoy it are free to do so, that's fine. But since I grew up around this stuff, to me it always comes off as jingoistic. And not even in a subversive way. It's these millionaires cracking jokes to (mostly) ignorant rednecks about a lifestyle that, in the twenty-first century, is a total fucking sham. So yeah, Redd Foxx.
What is your favorite Southern dish and have you ever eaten road kill?
I haven't had the pleasure of eating roadkill yet. I hear that possum is the worst tasting meat known to man, though. On southern cuisine I actually eat, I'll just say that the soul food my wife cooks is delicious as hell. She can make a country meal that tastes wonderful and isn't trying to actively murder you with cholesterol.
What was the inspiration for Thunderpussy?
Absolutely none, which feels like I'm saying the book is uninspired (it isn't). I just mean that I had no plan to write a spy novel. I was pitching a ton of things to Carlton Mellick III, and one of them was called "Quantum Crashers of Thunderpussy." He didn't like the pitch, but said that Thunderpussy would make a good title for a bizarro spy book. I've found that that's how a lot of creative endeavors start. Someone says something as a joke, and then boom, it's real.
What is your favorite spy movie?
I wrote Thunderpussy as one of those jet-setting action stories full of high stakes, but the spy movies I enjoy best are the more realistic ones, like "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." I love nothing more than to watch a movie with a ton of British actors basically talking to one another the whole time.
Do A Town Called Suckhole and Thunderpussy occur at different points of the same timeline?
That's a damned good question. I'd say it's possible. Thunderpussy takes place in a strange future with settings all over the world. Suckhole is set much further along in time and in a singular place. The townsfolk of Suckhole have their own ideas of history, but those ideas are ill-informed and mostly wrong. Thunderpussy exists somewhere between that future apocalypse and the weird Civil War that Suckhole remembers. So it's possible, but just barely. If I think too hard on it, I'll probably become obsessed with all of my stories existing in the same shared world... which would drive me insane with the quickness.
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
Not really. When I was a boy, I wanted to be a comic book artist. Then I realized that I wasn't as good at drawing as I thought, so then I wanted to be a comic book writer. That evolved into just being a writer of prose, which I could do on my own. It seems to be panning out okay. I've always wanted to be creative, but there wasn't just one thing that made it so.
Who would you say your influences are?
A lot of things. My earliest influences were movies and comic books. I'm one of those 80's kids that grew up on Star Wars, Thundercats, and X-Men. Even video games influence me, at least the ones from back when I used to play. I make an effort to draw inspiration from as many things as possible, because that's what make the imagination fertile. I read as many other books as I can, too. That's the cornerstone for any author, and I believe you have to seek variety there as well. I read hardcore horror books, scifi/fantasy, bizarro, and try to sprinkle some true literary novels in there as well.
What's your favorite book?
This answer would probably change depending on when you ask me, but for right now, I'll stick with "Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman. I got a copy of it at an old book sale last year and it was one of my absolute favorite stories as a child. Children's literature operates with a sense of simplicity while also talking about serious things, which is what I try to do with my own writing.
Who's your favorite author?
Once again, there are a lot of right answers to this, but today I'll say Alan Moore. It doesn't matter what medium you're working in, you can make room for big ideas. Whether it's superheroes, horror, or even pornography, Alan Moore's stories always work for me because he's using big ideas to tell them, bigger ideas than anyone else would even dare to use.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
I just finished "All Monster Action!" by Cody Goodfellow. It's a Grindhouse-like collection of stories leading up to a "feature attraction" novella, and it's just brilliant. Cody's a madman who takes already-insane concepts and pushes further than you or I would think to. And doing that, making it work seamlessly in a story or stories, takes a mixture of brains and balls that only he has. If anyone enjoys ridiculous sci-fi, high concept horror, or just big monsters smashing one another, then they should definitely read this book. It's a bizarro masterpiece.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers? --The author's life is that of a lone samurai dependent on his sword. Only your sword is a word processor, yet you still might get your head chopped off. Treat it as work. Hard yet honorable work. And don't expect fame, riches, or groupies belonging to your preferred gender. If you're meant to be a writer, then none of this will bother you.
What's next for David Barbee?
I just turned in a novella for my entry into the Bizarro Starter Kit. I'm hoping that it will also be collected with two other novellas that I'm working on, and they can be released together sometime. I'm also working on a story called "Shotgun Sodapop" for the Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, and I'm promoting the hell out of Thunderpussy. Whosoever is reading this interview, I implore you to buy my book. Reading is fundamental, but reading Thunderpussy is just plain fun.
Friday, January 4, 2013
STC in the House!: An interview with Shane T. Cartledge
Today's guest is Shane T. Cartledge, author of House Hunter.
How did you get involved in the Bizarro movement?
Anyone who's a part of the Bizarro community will know how supportive these guys are. They genuinely want to reach out to new fans and new writers. I was a bit of both. I read a few Bizarro books, mentioned them a bit on facebook. I put book covers up as my profile pictures to show people what I was reading. I started getting friend requests from people like Carlton Mellick and Jordan Krall. From there, I read more, got into writing weirder stuff and read up about the New Bizarro Author Series on the Eraserhead Press website. And the more I read, the more I wanted to get in touch with authors. Part of me knew it was a business thing, getting to know people in the industry, but mostly, I've just enjoyed getting to know some fantastic people and read some entertaining books. It started around November/December 2010, I think, but it wasn't until November 2012 at BizarroCon that I got to meet a lot of these people face-to-face for the first time.
Tell us about House Hunter.
It's an epic action/adventure fantasy that's got all the action and none of the long-winding nonsense of epic action/adventure fantasies. It's about a world where houses are living creatures that grow up in the wild and are domesticated by house hunters before they settle down in towns and cities. It's about a young woman who is struggling to make ends meet while the world around her crumbles. It's about house fights and legendary castles and epic battles. It's about being fun and crazy and weird and entertaining.
I had a Labyrinth vibe while reading House Hunter. Are you a fan of that awesome movie starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly?
As much as I would love to say yes, I can't. As much as I'd love to be a film buff, I'm not. I would be the worst film buff ever. I love movies, but I just haven't seen any of the films that I should have. Labyrinth was a little before my time, so I can't recall ever watching it. Maybe as a really young child, but I can't remember. I'm a fan of David Bowie, and I'm a fan of labyrinths, yet somehow I haven't seen the two intersect. I'm a fan of Pan's Labyrinth, though.
I already know about this since I was also in the contest but tell us about Thorquake.
Thorquake was a short story I wrote for a Bizarro fanfiction competition. It was based around James Steele's "Felix and the Sacred Thor". The story was set in a hypothetical real world where the Bizarro scene was massive and BizarroCon was roughly the equivalent to something like ComiCon. It blended James' story with Jeff Burk's pop-culture novel "Shatnerquake", and just went nuts. It was a lot of fun to write, considering I was working with fictional characters and fictionalised versions of real people I'd never met. I treated it like a fanfiction send-up, and it worked out great. The year after, I wrote another Bizarro fanfiction for Spike Marlowe's "Placenta of Love". That one was called Plaception, and it was set in her theme park world and took her characters on an Inception-themed ride. Now that I've got my own Bizarro book out, I'd like to run my own fanfiction competition at some point during the year.
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
I would probably have to say the H.P. Lovecraft short, "The Call of Cthulhu". I was reading some of his work in my last year of high school, and in my gap year I started writing to pass the time. The stuff I wrote back then were pulpy gothic horror stories that tried to imitate his style. So that would have to be my most obvious influence. I'm not sure if there was anything before that that may have got me thinking about writing. I read Fight Club a couple of years later, when I was studying creative writing at uni, and that had a massive impact on my writing too. I guess that book would have had more of an influence in a professional "maybe I could do this as a career" sort of way.
Who would you say your influences are?
Neil Gaiman as an author (although I've only read American Gods), and as a public personality. I like the way he approaches folklore and fantasy from a gritty, modernised perspective. Cameron Pierce, for being fantastically strange. D. Harlan Wilson, for fucking with the rules. Carlton Mellick has influenced me a lot lately, for his limitless creativity. I'm also a bit of a manga/anime fan. Tsutomu Nihei is a big influence there, for his grand designs and fantastically sublime worlds that are exposed through his sprawling, chaotic storytelling. It's vast, sparse, and lightning fast. Hayao Miyazaki, for his beautiful films, but also for his apocalyptic manga, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I could go on...
Superman or Batman?
Duh, Batman. Superman is boring. Super strong, super fast, AND he has a chiselled chin? I like my superheroes to have flaws.
What's your favorite book?
Just one? I'd have to go with American Gods.
Who's your favorite author?
That's a tough one. It's likely to change depending on what I'm feeling at any one point in time. I'll go with Cameron Pierce for now.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
I'd probably have to call it a tie between Shane Jones' "Light Boxes" and Forrest Armstrong's "The Deadheart Shelters".
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
Practice helps you to improve, so a lot of people say to just write. Write as much as you can. I'd like to add to that, you need to get your writing out there, too. Feedback helps you evaluate just how far you've improved. I started off posting stories on forums and getting feedback that way, before I started sending my writing elsewhere, doing workshops, that sort of thing. Criticism is a most valuable asset. Sometimes you need to hear things out loud what you kind of knew all along. And, of course, it helps to know how to take criticism. You don't reject it because people fail to see your perspective, nor do you blindly swallow what others have to say. Weigh up their arguments. If they say something's wrong, that means something's probably wrong. They may be wrong when they point out where the problem is, but that part is for you to figure out. Know your stories and know your audience. And it doesn't hurt to give a little feedback in return. But if all else fails, just relax and write for the fun of it.
What's next for Shane Cartledge?
This year is all about House Hunter. I'm trying to prove my worth to the publisher with this book, so I'm trying to put my book out there and reach markets outside the usual Bizarro audience. I'm also hoping to pump out short stories throughout the year, while I figure out what I'll be doing for my next book. I've got a lot of ideas kicking around as to what that book might be, and I've had a few people hassling me over one novel idea they want me to work on (which is nice, in a way, to have people wanting me to write more). I'm working on a short story at the moment that I think the Bizarro crowd will love. It's about a murder investigation that takes place in a prison in a surreal utopian society.
How did you get involved in the Bizarro movement?
Anyone who's a part of the Bizarro community will know how supportive these guys are. They genuinely want to reach out to new fans and new writers. I was a bit of both. I read a few Bizarro books, mentioned them a bit on facebook. I put book covers up as my profile pictures to show people what I was reading. I started getting friend requests from people like Carlton Mellick and Jordan Krall. From there, I read more, got into writing weirder stuff and read up about the New Bizarro Author Series on the Eraserhead Press website. And the more I read, the more I wanted to get in touch with authors. Part of me knew it was a business thing, getting to know people in the industry, but mostly, I've just enjoyed getting to know some fantastic people and read some entertaining books. It started around November/December 2010, I think, but it wasn't until November 2012 at BizarroCon that I got to meet a lot of these people face-to-face for the first time.
Tell us about House Hunter.
It's an epic action/adventure fantasy that's got all the action and none of the long-winding nonsense of epic action/adventure fantasies. It's about a world where houses are living creatures that grow up in the wild and are domesticated by house hunters before they settle down in towns and cities. It's about a young woman who is struggling to make ends meet while the world around her crumbles. It's about house fights and legendary castles and epic battles. It's about being fun and crazy and weird and entertaining.
I had a Labyrinth vibe while reading House Hunter. Are you a fan of that awesome movie starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly?
As much as I would love to say yes, I can't. As much as I'd love to be a film buff, I'm not. I would be the worst film buff ever. I love movies, but I just haven't seen any of the films that I should have. Labyrinth was a little before my time, so I can't recall ever watching it. Maybe as a really young child, but I can't remember. I'm a fan of David Bowie, and I'm a fan of labyrinths, yet somehow I haven't seen the two intersect. I'm a fan of Pan's Labyrinth, though.
I already know about this since I was also in the contest but tell us about Thorquake.
Thorquake was a short story I wrote for a Bizarro fanfiction competition. It was based around James Steele's "Felix and the Sacred Thor". The story was set in a hypothetical real world where the Bizarro scene was massive and BizarroCon was roughly the equivalent to something like ComiCon. It blended James' story with Jeff Burk's pop-culture novel "Shatnerquake", and just went nuts. It was a lot of fun to write, considering I was working with fictional characters and fictionalised versions of real people I'd never met. I treated it like a fanfiction send-up, and it worked out great. The year after, I wrote another Bizarro fanfiction for Spike Marlowe's "Placenta of Love". That one was called Plaception, and it was set in her theme park world and took her characters on an Inception-themed ride. Now that I've got my own Bizarro book out, I'd like to run my own fanfiction competition at some point during the year.
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
I would probably have to say the H.P. Lovecraft short, "The Call of Cthulhu". I was reading some of his work in my last year of high school, and in my gap year I started writing to pass the time. The stuff I wrote back then were pulpy gothic horror stories that tried to imitate his style. So that would have to be my most obvious influence. I'm not sure if there was anything before that that may have got me thinking about writing. I read Fight Club a couple of years later, when I was studying creative writing at uni, and that had a massive impact on my writing too. I guess that book would have had more of an influence in a professional "maybe I could do this as a career" sort of way.
Who would you say your influences are?
Neil Gaiman as an author (although I've only read American Gods), and as a public personality. I like the way he approaches folklore and fantasy from a gritty, modernised perspective. Cameron Pierce, for being fantastically strange. D. Harlan Wilson, for fucking with the rules. Carlton Mellick has influenced me a lot lately, for his limitless creativity. I'm also a bit of a manga/anime fan. Tsutomu Nihei is a big influence there, for his grand designs and fantastically sublime worlds that are exposed through his sprawling, chaotic storytelling. It's vast, sparse, and lightning fast. Hayao Miyazaki, for his beautiful films, but also for his apocalyptic manga, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. I could go on...
Superman or Batman?
Duh, Batman. Superman is boring. Super strong, super fast, AND he has a chiselled chin? I like my superheroes to have flaws.
What's your favorite book?
Just one? I'd have to go with American Gods.
Who's your favorite author?
That's a tough one. It's likely to change depending on what I'm feeling at any one point in time. I'll go with Cameron Pierce for now.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
I'd probably have to call it a tie between Shane Jones' "Light Boxes" and Forrest Armstrong's "The Deadheart Shelters".
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
Practice helps you to improve, so a lot of people say to just write. Write as much as you can. I'd like to add to that, you need to get your writing out there, too. Feedback helps you evaluate just how far you've improved. I started off posting stories on forums and getting feedback that way, before I started sending my writing elsewhere, doing workshops, that sort of thing. Criticism is a most valuable asset. Sometimes you need to hear things out loud what you kind of knew all along. And, of course, it helps to know how to take criticism. You don't reject it because people fail to see your perspective, nor do you blindly swallow what others have to say. Weigh up their arguments. If they say something's wrong, that means something's probably wrong. They may be wrong when they point out where the problem is, but that part is for you to figure out. Know your stories and know your audience. And it doesn't hurt to give a little feedback in return. But if all else fails, just relax and write for the fun of it.
What's next for Shane Cartledge?
This year is all about House Hunter. I'm trying to prove my worth to the publisher with this book, so I'm trying to put my book out there and reach markets outside the usual Bizarro audience. I'm also hoping to pump out short stories throughout the year, while I figure out what I'll be doing for my next book. I've got a lot of ideas kicking around as to what that book might be, and I've had a few people hassling me over one novel idea they want me to work on (which is nice, in a way, to have people wanting me to write more). I'm working on a short story at the moment that I think the Bizarro crowd will love. It's about a murder investigation that takes place in a prison in a surreal utopian society.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Griffins, Goggles and Sex Ninjas? An interview with Jay Kristoff
Today's guest is Jay Kristoff, author of Stormdancer.
Stormdancer is one of the most original sf/fantasy novels I've read in a long time. What are some of the inspirations behind Stormdancer?
Stormdancer is one of the most original sf/fantasy novels I've read in a long time. What are some of the inspirations behind Stormdancer?
Thanks, that’s awesome of you to say :)
It all started with a dream I had about a griffin with broken wings, and a little boy trying to teach it to fly. But “I had a dream…” is the SINGLE lamest answer and author can give to that question, so I’m going to make up a better one. Something with ninjas. Sex ninjas, maybe. Although I’m not 100% what it is sex ninjas do…
I liked the steampunk aesthetic, but I felt like Victorian England had been done, and a lot of steampunk just seemed to be paranormal romance dressed up in a frock coat and goggles. No-one seemed to be playing with other cultures and steampunk from what I could see (remember I wrote Stormdancer nearly three years ago) so it seemed like a good way to have the book stand out from the pack. A lot of steampunk seems to look back on the advent of industrialization as some marvellous, liberating event in history, and gloss over all that unpleasantness about child exploitation and slavery and whatnot that came with it. I wanted to tell a story where the machine was the enemy. Where technology wasn’t just killing people, but the land they lived in.
Not that I’m yearning for the days of rural bliss where we had to grow our own potatoes and died of tooth infection at age 24, but yeah…
Anyways, sex ninjas were involved somehow.
Any rejection horror stories with Stormdancer?
Any rejection horror stories with Stormdancer?
I was actually really lucky with Stormdancer. Most of my horror stories concern my previous novel – a very angsty, bloody vampire story I wrote in the middle of Twilight hysteria (in hindsight, probably not the best use of my time)
Although I do have a good story instead – my agent is one of those “I don’t reply to your query if I’m not interested” chaps (I know, I know…) and he was one of my dream picks. I sent off an e-query and got no response. But I was getting interest from other agents on the book, so just to be sure, I send a snail mail version of the query about two months after sending off the e-version. And it turns out the e-version actually got lost in the ether, because within two weeks of the snail mail arriving, I was signed with him.
So have hope: “no answer” doesn’t always mean “no”.
Here's a question a lot of people will have upon finishing Stormdancer: What is the next book series and when can I get my grubby talons on it?
Here's a question a lot of people will have upon finishing Stormdancer: What is the next book series and when can I get my grubby talons on it?
I can’t tell you the next book title yet. The title reveal will be a “thing”. I like my “things”. The title is also something of a spoiler. But book 2 will be out this time next year. Before you consider putting one in my chest and two in my head, remember most folks haven’t read the first book yet! :D
If there was a movie based on Stormdancer, who would your dream cast be?
If there was a movie based on Stormdancer, who would your dream cast be?
Ah, fun question. I think Yukiko would have to be someone new. But here’s who I imagined when I was writing the characters. Interestingly enough, most of the Tiger clan members are Chinese actors, and the Foxes are Japanese. And they’re all probably too old now. But anyway…
Masaru – Ken Watanabe
Kasumi – Michelle Yeoh
Akihito – Tony Leung (he’d have to hit the ‘roids to bulk up though)
Michi – Chiaki Kuriyama or maybe Devon Aoki
Aisha – Zhang Ziyi
Yoritomo – Chang Chen
Hideo – George Takei ( I love George)
Daichi – Chow Yun Fat
Kaori – Maggie Cheung
Will we be seeing books from you outside the Lotus War series in the future?
Will we be seeing books from you outside the Lotus War series in the future?
Well, I guess if that depends if anyone other than my mum buys the books. I certainly have other stories to tell. I’m tossing around a few ideas about what to write next. A post-apocalypse cyberpunk thing and a dark urban epic fantasy thing are battling it out for top spot atm. YES, THINGS.
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
Not really. I totally half-assed it into being an author. It’s embarrassing. I see a lot of other authors telling stories about how they wrote their first book at 13 and it’s all they ever wanted to do. But to be honest, I always dreamed of being a rock star, or maybe the corrupt dictator of a small island nation, and when I was 13 I was too busy fantasizing about Dr Beverly Crusher in Star Trek: the Next Generation to write down much of anything….
…TMI?
…TMI?
As I got older, I wrote as a hobby, but never took it seriously. I worked in an advertising agency, and the last thing you want to do after writing TV scripts all day is come home and write more words. My first book began as a scene I scribbled down when I was bored at work, and somehow over the next 18 months, it became a book. A screaming train-wreck of a book, granted, but still a book. I discovered that I really liked the process, so I decided to get serious, learn how publishing actually worked and see where it took me.
Five years later, here we are :P
Who would you say your biggest influences are?William Gibson. Alan Moore. George Orwell. Stephen King (I was reading him when I was 10, which apparently makes him YA – who knew) Great storytellers and character writers like David Simon or David Knauf. And strangely enough, a lot of the lyricists of the bands I listen to. Telling a story in 100,000 words is easy. Telling in in three minutes with a few dozen is hard.
Who's your favorite author? Ever? Really hard question. I love Gibson. There’s this kind of concrete-grey menace to everything he writes. But Where the Wild Things Are is my favourite book ever, so I should probably give a nod to Maurice Sendak.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. But I read at a snail’s pace, so me finishing more than a few books in six months these days is something of a miracle.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?Well, there’s the usual stuff about write every day and don’t write to trends and blah blah blah. But everyone says that stuff. So I say this instead:
Five years later, here we are :P
Who would you say your biggest influences are?William Gibson. Alan Moore. George Orwell. Stephen King (I was reading him when I was 10, which apparently makes him YA – who knew) Great storytellers and character writers like David Simon or David Knauf. And strangely enough, a lot of the lyricists of the bands I listen to. Telling a story in 100,000 words is easy. Telling in in three minutes with a few dozen is hard.
Who's your favorite author? Ever? Really hard question. I love Gibson. There’s this kind of concrete-grey menace to everything he writes. But Where the Wild Things Are is my favourite book ever, so I should probably give a nod to Maurice Sendak.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. But I read at a snail’s pace, so me finishing more than a few books in six months these days is something of a miracle.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?Well, there’s the usual stuff about write every day and don’t write to trends and blah blah blah. But everyone says that stuff. So I say this instead:
The only belief that matters in this equation is your own. It’s nice to have the support of betas or trusted friends, but it’s not necessary (the only person who had more than the vaguest idea that I was writing a book until I got repped was my wife). The only person who needs to believe you can do this is you. Everything else is window dressing.
The people who tell you that you can’t do it? The people who give you a funny little look when you mention your book? The people who are waiting for you to fail?
Fuck them.
Say those words. Sing them. Take a deep breath and scream them.
Fuck.
Them.
It doesn’t matter what they think, or what they say. It doesn’t matter what they believe. It only matters what you think, what you believe. Because if you believe you can do it, and you’re meant to be doing it, then you will. You can. And that’s all there is to it. No more, no less than that.
Believe in yourself. Keep the faith. At the end of the day, it’s all any of us have.
What's next for Jay Kristoff?
What's next for Jay Kristoff?
Well, Stormdancer launches in September and I’m still wrapping my brainmeat around that. I’m finishing the first draft of book 3 at the moment, before heading back into the edit cave on book 2 with my notes from the Powers. So I’ll be living in the Lotus War for a while yet. After that, I’ll be off to post-apocalyptic cyberpunk or epic urban fantasy or maybe the bottle of some kind of fancy bottle that the flash folk drink.
Cheers.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Master of the Multiverse: An Interview with Paul Melko
Today's guest is Paul Melko, author of Walls of the Universe and its frighteningly good sequel, The Broken Universe.
What was the inspiration behind Walls of the Universe and its sequel, Broken Universe? The first version of Walls was a novel that covered the same period as the first half of the current novel. It didn't work - too flabby. I let it sit for a while and brought it back out a few years later. I trimmed it to novella length, cutting the slow parts and that ended as the novella of the same name, published in Asimov's. It went on to win the Asimov's Readers Poll for Best Novella. It was also on the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon ballots. (It lost all 3 of those awards, by the way.) I realized that there was a lot more to John's story after the end of the novella, so when I was searching for a second novel to write, I took it up. At the end of Walls, I wanted to take the story even bigger. Instead of two Johns, I wanted ten. I wanted to see where these characters took the device and what they did with it. The Broken Universe ramps up the scale. The third and probably final book ramps it up again. Any army of Johns? Yes, probably. I've always loved parallel universe and pocket universe books. Philip Jose Farmer's World of Tiers series is a person favorite.
Any rejection horror stories with Walls of the Universe? The first version of the novel wasn't good enough to get published. It was rejected, but that was the state of my career back then. It was what it was. But the crux was good enough to get into Asimov's right away.
Were you always planning to do more books in the same world after Walls of the Universe? Yes, as I mentioned above, I wanted the scope of John's problems and domain to ratchet up in each book.
If there was a movie based on Walls of the Universe/Broken Universe, who would you cast as John, Casey, Henry, and Grace?
Walls has been optioned by the same production team that did the Shrek movies. A script is being written, so I'm excited to see what comes of that. I of course have no input into casting. But it was funny when the movie rights were being shopped around, I kept getting updates from the film agents about who was interested and who they thought might play a lead. There was even talk of Hayden Christensen as John. The list of producers they sent the book to was amazing. I chortled as I read the names.
As to who I would like to see, I really have no strong opinion. I think the role would be a meaty one, since they would get to play both John and Prime together.
One of the things that impressed me about the two Universe books is the logic behind transferring universes. How much planning did you do before putting pen to paper? I'm an engineer, so I attacked the problem as an engineer. What would the constraints of a transfer device be? What problems would it pose? How would it be controlled and regulated? When it broke, what would happen? I wanted a device that was powerful and yet flawed.
Will we be seeing more books in the Universe series in the future? There will be at least one more!
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer? No one book made me want to be a writer, but the Heinlein juveniles were what I started reading, and they influenced my love of science and engineering greatly. In Have Spacesuit - Will Travel, Kip calculates the speed of the spaceship to Pluto using a sliderule. It blew my mind that such a thing was even possible, to use physics to find a solution. I loved that idea.
Who would you say your biggest influences are?
Heinlein, Farmer, Zelazny, Harrison. I read those 4 with fervor. Heinlein and Farmer by far are the two writers who I feel I am most emulating in my own work. Who's your favorite author?
These days, I'm a big fan of Dan Simmons, Neal Stephanson, and William Gibson. They are doing great stuff at the moment. What's the best book you've read in the last six months? House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds. It's seldom that I get a sense of wonder that sends chills down my back, but that book did it for me. Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers? When I give writers workshops, my key piece of advice to aspiring writers is that they strive to enjoy the journey. I see too many would-be writers waiting for that first acceptance, that first interest from an agent, that first nibble from a publisher, thinking that it will change everything. It won't. A writer still has to spend the majority of his or her time writing, and if you don't enjoy that solitary time in your basement or at the coffee shop, then maybe writing isn't for you. The milestones are always going to be few and far between and if you're waiting for those, you'll be disappointed. If you don't feel the soulful joy of writing when you put pen to paper, look elsewhere for fulfillment. What's next for Paul Melko? I'm working on two hard SF middle-grade readers. I noticed that my oldest two children (12 and 14) had no problem finding fantasy novels to read. Hard science fiction wasn't that prevalent in the libraries and bookstores. I know how influential the Heinlein juveniles were on me, so I wanted to put out some middle-grade books that weren't vampires and dragons.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
15 Questions with Benjamin Whitmer
Today's guest is Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike.
What was the inspiration behind Pike?
It was an image. I don’t know how or why, but I got this picture stuck in my head of a little girl walking in the snow with this big, hulking figure beside her. I’ve no idea where it came from or why, but it started the whole ball rolling on the book. Trying to figure out who the people in the image were, and where they were going. It was a lot of fun getting there.
Any rejection horror stories with Pike?
Man, more than I can count. It got rejected by everybody. Every major publisher I can think of turned it down, and most of the small ones – even those who pride themselves on publishing hardboiled books that others won’t touch. Always almost the exact same feedback: too dark, too racist. I was incredibly lucky to have an agent like Gary Heidt who stuck with me even when it looked completely hopeless, and to finally find PM Press. The folks there have been just incredible.
If there was a Pike movie, who would you cast as Pike, Rory, and Derrick?
I was actually asked to write this up once for a movie director who was interested. (Nothing ever came of it, of course.) My answer was easy for Pike and Derrick. For Derrick, Waylon Jennings, circa the great Honky Tonk Heroes album. For Pike, a bearded Mel Gibson, stuffed full of cocaine and bourbon with strict instructions to tap into his inner self-hatred. Rory’s tougher. In fact, for me, impossible, in that I don’t think I watch any movies featuring his age group.
Will we be seeing more of Pike and Wendy in the future?
No, probably not. I think I’d just screw things up if I meddled with them too much at this point. I love them dearly, and I’d hate to mess around and make myself like them less by pushing them into books in which they don’t organically belong, if you know what I mean.
I first heard about Pike at BoucherCon. Have you done a lot of conventions since Pike was published?
No, not at all. I mean, I’ve done BoucherCon twice, but that’s pretty much it. Conventions are a lot of fun, of course, but it’s tough to find the time and money.
Was Cincinnati Lou (from Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail!) written before or after Pike?
It was written long after. And, man, it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. My brain’s not geared towards short stories as it is, and it turns out that revisiting a character I already had fixed in my mind made things that much more difficult. If it hadn’t been for the editorial advice of Andrea Gibbons and Gary Phillips that thing would be a disaster. Or more so of one, I mean, in that I’m not real comfortable with the way it turned out.
How did you get involved with Satan is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers?
It was Neil Strauss who came up with the idea. He’d interviewed Charlie for the New York Times, and really wanted to get his story for his Igniter Books. So he was looking for a writer, and somehow that ended up in the lap of my agent, Gary Heidt. I didn’t really think I had a shot, but we sent them an excerpt of Pike, and they liked it well enough that by the end of a week’s time we were at work.
Do you have any other biographies in the works?
Emphatically, no. This was a one shot deal, unless something else was to come along just as amazing. I’m a lifelong fan of country music, especially of that time period, and there was no way I could pass up hearing those stories. Particularly, given the thematic fit with my on interests I saw – whether or not it was really there – in Ira’s heavily flawed and complicated character. But it was a lot of work, and it meant taking a year and a half of working on my own novels. It’d have to be with someone equally as interesting for me to do it again. Billy Joe Shaver. Or Mel Gibson, maybe.
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
For better or worse, that book is most definitely Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream. Other stuff of his, too. But that’s the one I remember reading and going, shit, this is what I want to do. As a teenager it seemed like the only the worth doing. It still does, of course.
Who would you say your biggest influences are?
That’s a tough one, in that it changes book to book. I get obsessed with shit, and my reading runs in that direction for awhile. If I’m obsessed enough, it tends to start being a book. For Pike it was definitely Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, combined with William T. Vollmann’s Rising Up and Rising Down. For Satan Is Real it was a lot of country music books and Harry Crews’ A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, because it was the finest memoir I could think of. For the book I’m working on now, it’s hobo books from the turn of the last century written by folks like Jack Black and Jim Tully.
Who's your favorite author?
Melville. He’s been my favorite forever. It’s the flaws and complications of his characters, I think. And his sense of wonder at the world, sometimes playful sometimes incredibly heavy. And the adventure, both in his books and his writing style, the linguistic explosions and constant referencing of other works, until you get the sense that pretty much every book in the world is contained in his. And his absolute inability not to present life as he saw it, even when he knew it’d destroy his career. Which it did.
Lawrence Block or Donald Westlake?
Westlake, I guess. This is sacrilege, I know, but I’ve read a couple by each of ‘em, but not much, and what I read didn’t move me a whole lot.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
I can’t even begin to answer that. I read all the time, and pretty much every book I finish I’m ready to call the best book of the last six months – else I probably just don’t finish it. Fictionwise, lately it’s been Stephen Graham Jones’ The Ones that got Away, Scott Phillips’ The Adjustment, and Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. I’m also working my way through James Lee Burke’s early stuff, and, yeah, love it.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
Probably that they’d be better off seeking advice from Jonathan Franzen or Stephen King than me.
What's next for Benjamin Whitmer?
Well, I’ve got a novel that my agent’s shopping around, and another I’m about half done with. Then there’s two more I’ve got ideas for. Not sure which I’ll move on first, as I’m pretty excited about ‘em both. I’m always trudging along, y'know?
What was the inspiration behind Pike?
It was an image. I don’t know how or why, but I got this picture stuck in my head of a little girl walking in the snow with this big, hulking figure beside her. I’ve no idea where it came from or why, but it started the whole ball rolling on the book. Trying to figure out who the people in the image were, and where they were going. It was a lot of fun getting there.
Any rejection horror stories with Pike?
Man, more than I can count. It got rejected by everybody. Every major publisher I can think of turned it down, and most of the small ones – even those who pride themselves on publishing hardboiled books that others won’t touch. Always almost the exact same feedback: too dark, too racist. I was incredibly lucky to have an agent like Gary Heidt who stuck with me even when it looked completely hopeless, and to finally find PM Press. The folks there have been just incredible.
If there was a Pike movie, who would you cast as Pike, Rory, and Derrick?
I was actually asked to write this up once for a movie director who was interested. (Nothing ever came of it, of course.) My answer was easy for Pike and Derrick. For Derrick, Waylon Jennings, circa the great Honky Tonk Heroes album. For Pike, a bearded Mel Gibson, stuffed full of cocaine and bourbon with strict instructions to tap into his inner self-hatred. Rory’s tougher. In fact, for me, impossible, in that I don’t think I watch any movies featuring his age group.
Will we be seeing more of Pike and Wendy in the future?
No, probably not. I think I’d just screw things up if I meddled with them too much at this point. I love them dearly, and I’d hate to mess around and make myself like them less by pushing them into books in which they don’t organically belong, if you know what I mean.
I first heard about Pike at BoucherCon. Have you done a lot of conventions since Pike was published?
No, not at all. I mean, I’ve done BoucherCon twice, but that’s pretty much it. Conventions are a lot of fun, of course, but it’s tough to find the time and money.
Was Cincinnati Lou (from Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail!) written before or after Pike?
It was written long after. And, man, it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. My brain’s not geared towards short stories as it is, and it turns out that revisiting a character I already had fixed in my mind made things that much more difficult. If it hadn’t been for the editorial advice of Andrea Gibbons and Gary Phillips that thing would be a disaster. Or more so of one, I mean, in that I’m not real comfortable with the way it turned out.
How did you get involved with Satan is Real: The Ballad of the Louvin Brothers?
It was Neil Strauss who came up with the idea. He’d interviewed Charlie for the New York Times, and really wanted to get his story for his Igniter Books. So he was looking for a writer, and somehow that ended up in the lap of my agent, Gary Heidt. I didn’t really think I had a shot, but we sent them an excerpt of Pike, and they liked it well enough that by the end of a week’s time we were at work.
Do you have any other biographies in the works?
Emphatically, no. This was a one shot deal, unless something else was to come along just as amazing. I’m a lifelong fan of country music, especially of that time period, and there was no way I could pass up hearing those stories. Particularly, given the thematic fit with my on interests I saw – whether or not it was really there – in Ira’s heavily flawed and complicated character. But it was a lot of work, and it meant taking a year and a half of working on my own novels. It’d have to be with someone equally as interesting for me to do it again. Billy Joe Shaver. Or Mel Gibson, maybe.
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
For better or worse, that book is most definitely Hemingway’s Islands in the Stream. Other stuff of his, too. But that’s the one I remember reading and going, shit, this is what I want to do. As a teenager it seemed like the only the worth doing. It still does, of course.
Who would you say your biggest influences are?
That’s a tough one, in that it changes book to book. I get obsessed with shit, and my reading runs in that direction for awhile. If I’m obsessed enough, it tends to start being a book. For Pike it was definitely Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, combined with William T. Vollmann’s Rising Up and Rising Down. For Satan Is Real it was a lot of country music books and Harry Crews’ A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, because it was the finest memoir I could think of. For the book I’m working on now, it’s hobo books from the turn of the last century written by folks like Jack Black and Jim Tully.
Who's your favorite author?
Melville. He’s been my favorite forever. It’s the flaws and complications of his characters, I think. And his sense of wonder at the world, sometimes playful sometimes incredibly heavy. And the adventure, both in his books and his writing style, the linguistic explosions and constant referencing of other works, until you get the sense that pretty much every book in the world is contained in his. And his absolute inability not to present life as he saw it, even when he knew it’d destroy his career. Which it did.
Lawrence Block or Donald Westlake?
Westlake, I guess. This is sacrilege, I know, but I’ve read a couple by each of ‘em, but not much, and what I read didn’t move me a whole lot.
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
I can’t even begin to answer that. I read all the time, and pretty much every book I finish I’m ready to call the best book of the last six months – else I probably just don’t finish it. Fictionwise, lately it’s been Stephen Graham Jones’ The Ones that got Away, Scott Phillips’ The Adjustment, and Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. I’m also working my way through James Lee Burke’s early stuff, and, yeah, love it.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
Probably that they’d be better off seeking advice from Jonathan Franzen or Stephen King than me.
What's next for Benjamin Whitmer?
Well, I’ve got a novel that my agent’s shopping around, and another I’m about half done with. Then there’s two more I’ve got ideas for. Not sure which I’ll move on first, as I’m pretty excited about ‘em both. I’m always trudging along, y'know?
Thursday, January 12, 2012
13 Questions with S.D. Foster
And we're back. That break was much longer than I thought. Today's guest is S.D. Foster, author of A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space.
How did you get involved in the Bizarro movement?
My introduction to Bizarro was a few years ago via the chance discovery of The Overwhelming Urge by Andersen Prunty and The Kafka Effekt by D. Harlan Wilson. In 2010, I (unsuccessfully) submitted a longer version of A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space to the excellent Ohio-based small press, Atlatl, which has published fiction by both Wilson and Prunty. Then, in August 2011, I sent a shorter version to Eraserhead’s New Bizarro Author Series editor, Kevin L. Donihe, which marked the beginning of my involvement in the movement. It’s all been very sudden, and it still feels odd to be in regular contact with people who, it turns out, are not just names on book spines.
Tell us about A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space.
I would describe it as a collection of mini-bizarro-biographies, conventionally structured narratives (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) about unconventional, often tragicomic characters: a passionate girl made of wood, a stoic teddy bear, a socially inept snowman, etc. These characters are very important to me. I’m interested in their histories, I’m sympathetic to their struggles, I’m appalled by their vices—and I hope that readers will be, too.
Is there one story you've written that you'd say is your favorite?
Not really. Several of the stories deal with my favorite theme, frustrated ambition.
Was there a book that made you realize you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a child, but don’t remember being inspired by any one book. As an adult, Raymond Carver’s short story collection, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, was revelatory. This may seem strange, given that Carver was a dirty realist; but his style was one I believed I could aspire to. I consider myself a dirty irrealist.
What made you decide to go with a collection of short stories rather than a novella for the New Bizarro Author Series?
A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space wasn’t written with the NBAS specifically in mind. I write short stories because that’s what I most love to read, and because the form is well-suited to my prose. I agonize over every word, have nightmares about sentence construction.
Who would you say your influences are?
The living: Russell Edson, James Tate, D. Harlan Wilson, Lemony Snicket. The dead: Daniil Kharms, Flann O’Brien, Frank L. Baum. The decayed: Hans Christian Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Aesop. And, like most Bizarros, I have a taste for and am influenced by cult horror and exploitation movies. This list is by no means exhaustive, though.
King Kong or Godzilla?
In solidarity with my fellow primate, I vote Kong. I have a Kong-themed story appearing soon in Garrett Cook’s ezine, Nuckelavee.
What's your favorite book?
For nostalgic reasons, probably something from childhood, like Alice Through the Looking Glass or In the Night Kitchen.
Who's your favorite author?
Narrowing it down to one is impossible. My influences are my favorites.
What's your favorite short story?
Again, it’s impossible to narrow down. A few that spring immediately to mind are Daniil Kharms’ “The Old Woman,” Roald Dahl’s “Pig,” Richard Matheson’s “Blood Son,” Spencer Holst’s “The Zebra Storyteller,” and Edward Lear’s “The Story of the Four Little Children Who Went Round the World.”
What's the best book you've read in the last six months?
The best prose I’ve read is Kevin L. Donihe’s zombie parody, Night of the Assholes. It includes more uses of the word “asshole” than the subtitles to Korean war-horror movie R-Point. The best poetry is Luke Kennard’s The Migraine Hotel, which is, like all my favorite books, equally profound and ridiculous.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring writers?
Sleep deprivation, depression and Dr. Pepper are invaluable creative aids. Yes, it’s true, the first draft is awful; so is the second; the third is hardly an improvement; and so on. Find the right publisher. And once published, the work has only just begun.
What's next for S.D. Foster?
At the moment I’m so busy promoting A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space that I can’t imagine ever writing again! But when I do, more of the same, only longer—a collection of around fifty stories, each featuring a memorable character with an alliterative name, is my aim. I wouldn’t rule out something longer, though…
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