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Interviews
by The Monster Librarian
This month we interview Steve Vernon, whose latest book Gypsy Blood has just been released from Five Star. Steve's other titles that have reviewed here are Long Horn, Big Shaggy , The Last Stand of the Great Texas Packrat , Nothing to Lose, and his contributed to Right House on the Left.
ML: Steve, thank you for taking the time to do this interview.
SV: My pleasure, Dylan. I'm always happy to talk about my work.
ML: Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
SV : Well, I am a bit of an odd duck. I make a living reading palm and Tarot and telling stories. I think of myself as a crazy urban gypsy.
I've been writing since the mid 80's but I feel as if I've only begun to get serious about my work.
ML: Interesting. Carnival, the main character in your new book, Gypsy Blood, is also a fortuneteller. How much of his development as a character comes from your personal experience?
SV: I drew a lot from my life and a lot more from the life I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't have lived. I often wonder what might happen if I set up a palm reading shop in some inner city retail sector and hung a sign in the window. Of course, I don't have any of my ancestors caged up inside my heart - at least none that I'm aware of.
However, Carnival, (the protagonist from Gypsy Blood), is a lot like I imagine myself to be. Quick-witted, a master of repartee, and a man of dubious action.
Mind you, in reality, I am nothing like Carnival. I often put my foot in my mouth, rarely know what to do, and think with the speed of a molasses tortoise.
ML: You mentioned you're a storyteller. That certainly comes across in your writing. Do you do any oral storytelling?
SV:I have worked for several years as an oral tradition storyteller. Working with local schools I travel from classroom to classroom and have told my tales to audiences ranging from fifteen to five hundred people. I tell ghost stories, legends, folklore and stories I've written. I'm not a quiet storyteller, either. You won't find me whispering by candlelight. I get up, I roar, I jump around.
I am competing with video games and cable television. I've got to keep the volume turned up to the max!
ML: That's great. Storytelling in the oral tradition is really becoming a lost art. Do you translate your oral stories into writing, or does it work the other way around? Or are they entirely different processes?
SV: I have translated my oral stories into written format - especially in my ghost story collections. It can work in the other direction as well. Oral storytelling or writing prose - they are all ways of tapping into the very same creative source.
ML: You've told stories at local schools. Have you written for children or teens, or thought about it?
SV: Actually, my latest project is a YA novel. It is very Canadian and has very little to do with the horror genre. I also have a children's picture book manuscript that is in development with a regional press.
ML: That's neat. I've noticed that your writing is hard to classify. Your stories have been varied in nature. Do you see yourself mainly as a horror writer?
SV: I used to. However, I also am a journalist, a poet, and even once a playwright. I am branching away from the horror genre a bit, although I still have several manuscripts sold and due to be released in 2009-2010. These days I'm just a writer. The guy stringing works together and trying to make a living out of it. I am finding it necessary to branch out in order to achieve that financial autonomy.
ML: When you're writing a story, how do you go about it? Do you write in bits and pieces? Do you listen to music?
SV: I rarely listen to music. I find it distracts me. Ideally I like to start up a project knowing where I'm beginning and where I'm ending - that is, the first scene and the last. Then I just drive from one to the other. Lately, I've found myself a little stretched for energy. The time I dedicate to writing has become a little harder to manufacture - I'm so busy promoting current works as well as just making a living. For example, today I spent about six hours at a book signing at the cruise ship dock, in order to sell 34 copies of my ghost story collections. That's a lot of time spent, but it's necessary to get the books out there. I am a hand seller.
ML: You sound pretty invested in getting your ghost story collections out there.
SV: Well, I have been telling these stories in schools across the Maritimes and the Nova Scotia School Board was so pleased with the book Haunted Harbours: Ghost Stories From Old Nova Scotia that they ordered 560 copies for inclusion in the in-class libraries of every Grade 11 clasroom in the province. Both collections are a big hit with school age kids and grown-ups alike.
I see them as a natural bridge into the YA market - which is where I am aiming myself. In addition to the hand-selling I am currently working on my second article for FATE magazine, a Halloween article for a tourist website, a paranormal column for Shroud magazine and my YA novel. I am building a highway, I guess.
I should add, that although my YA novel doesn't have any elements of horror in it - there are certainly strong elements of the paranormal in it.
ML: Sounds like you are very busy! The important question is, does your YA novel have a vampire?
SV: No sir. It does have a sea serpent. And bagpipes.
Bagpipes are very scary.
ML: Agreed.
Getting back to horror, what would you say are the primary influences on your writing? Did you start out as a horror reader, or did your inspirations come from somewhere else?
SV: I started out reading neo-pulp - Doc Savage, Hardy Boys, Fu Manchu, The Executioner, Leo Kessel's SS stories, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. That's where I learned to write. I also picked up every horror novel I could find as well as the entire run of Dark Shadows - both comic book and novel format.
ML: How would you say your early reading influenced your writing?
SV: It gave me a sense of pacing. It gave me an ear for dialogue and a need for clarity.
Hemingway taught me how to say it straight. Bukowski tipped me off to wild metaphors.
ML: Your horror writing seems to have a fair amount of humor infused into it.
SV: I like a good laugh as much as any other guy. I find that the muscles required for concentrated belly laughing are awfully close to the muscles required for a blood-curdling scream.
ML: Getting back to Gypsy Blood, it looks to be the first book in a cycle. What should we expect from book two?
SV: That's a pretty good question. I have a rough outline of book two - however the publisher of Gypsy Blood - Five Star/Gale/Cengage - has just announced that it is getting out of the horror/fantasy line. That leaves the future of the Gypsy Blood series in a state of dangerous unpredictability. That isn't a good place for a palm reading protagonist to find himself in.
ML: I guess even fortunetellers can't always know the future.
SV: Heh. I was aiming in that direction.
Glad you picked up on the pun.
ML: Is there anything you'd like to share with librarians and readers before we wrap this up?
SV: Well, I could tell them to keep an eye out for my second novel due out from Delirium Press next year. I could also tell them to keep an eye out for my four author - four novella weird western collection from Cemetery Dance (with Keene, Lebbon, Curran and myself). I could also mention that I've got a story sold to Shivers V, from Cemetery Dance.
I could also mention that they ought to pick up my new novella LEFTOVERS from Magus Press, available for pre-order at Horror Mall or directly from the publisher. I could also tell them to look for my third ghost story collection due out next Spring. However I am far too modest to mention any of these accomplishments.
So let's pretend I didn't say a thing, shall we?
ML: Thanks for not sharing all that great news.
SV: What great news?
ML: It sounds like you are reaching out in many directions. We will look forward to seeing more of your outrageous writing in the future.
by Bret Jordan
Rio Youers is an up and coming author to keep your eye on. A year or so ago I reviewed his novel, End Times for MonsterLibrarian and was just awestruck by his capabilities as an author. This led me to go to his website, www.rioyouers.com, and download Old Man Scratch which just so happens to be one of the best short stories I've ever read. Imagine Grumpy Old Men as a horror story. It had humor, horror, and heart, taking the reader from laughing to crying to cringing. After that I read Mama Fish and was again blown away by his capabilities. His latest release, Everdead, is a novel that I plan to be the first in line to get.
BJ: Hello, Rio. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to allow me to interview you.
RY: It’s my pleasure. I like interviews, because I get to tell the truth, which is often a welcome interlude from the satisfying, but sometimes taxing, process of writing fiction.
BJ: At what point in your life did you decide to start writing, and why horror?
RY: I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember. I know that’s an unexciting, cliché answer, but it happens to be true. At some point it graduated from being a child’s hobby to a young man’s passion. I was probably sixteen years old when I thought that being a writer would be a good way to make a living, and I started submitting to agents and publishers at around that time. Without success, obviously; I was a passionate writer at sixteen, but not a good one. I soon amassed an impressive pile of rejection letters, and mustered encouragement from the less-scathing ones. I kept plugging away – not because I wanted to be published, but because I loved writing stories – and eventually the successes came. But it was a long time coming, and there is still a long way to go.
Why horror? I really don’t know. My stories have always had a dark edge. I guess that’s just the way my mind leans. I enjoy all kinds of books and movies. I loved Kung-Fu Panda and I thought Hancock was great fun. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is one of my favorite books of all time, and I still cry openly when I watch It’s a Wonderful Life at Christmas. But when I write, it’s like my brain becomes this charnel house filled with vaults and alcoves that no normal person would dare look into. I think that if I had written It’s a Wonderful Life, Bedford Falls would have been filled with vampires and cannibals. “Every time a bell rings, a town’s person is eaten alive.” Yeah … it may have lost its universal rating, and some of its festive cheer, but it would have been fun.
But why? Seriously, I don’t know. Dr. Phil probably has an answer, but I’m afraid I don’t.
BJ: What movies, books and authors have influenced you?
RY: I don’t think there’s a horror writer alive today that hasn’t been inspired, to some degree, by Stephen King. It’s not just that he’s a great writer – he’s a great storyteller. The great American storyteller, and I think the future will remember him as fondly as Hemingway or Steinbeck. Graham Greene is also a huge inspiration to me, because he writes so beautifully. You get the sense that every sentence is constructed with the utmost care. His books are often short, but they are powerful and incredible pieces of work. And then there’s Peter Straub, who falls somewhere between the two: a great storyteller who writes beautifully. He was the first writer to teach me that you can write wonderful, spooky tales, and you can write them with care and consideration, and without apology. Most of the books I had read up until the time I read Ghost Story were about killer bugs or brain-munching zombies, but I found that you can be just as terrifying – no, more so – with a carefully selected turn of phrase. It was a huge lesson to me. I was fortunate enough to have Mr. Straub read my new novel, Everdead. It’s somewhat intimidating, I have learned, to have one of your heroes read and critique your work. Probably the next time I feel like this will be at my Final Judgment. But Mr. Straub enjoyed my novel, which made me very happy, and made the whole ride so worthwhile.
As for books and movies … well, the list is long. A few stand-outs would be Stand by Me, An American Werewolf in London, Pulp Fiction (I love the dialog in Tarantino’s movies – part comic book, part Elmore Leonard). And books … obviously the works of the authors named above, and a trove of other titles, including Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Dracula (of course), and a book called The Crosskiller by Marcel Montecino, which was outrageous and violent and fun, and it taught me not to be afraid to push the boundaries.
But I find inspiration in a lot of things: good people, good conversation, good music. The right melody at the right time can lift me like a bird. I love when that happens, when you get that glow inside you, that purpose, and you are moved to fill the page with words. To quote Freddie Mercury: “It’s a kind of magic.”
BJ: I had a blast reading End Times. It was unlike any other horror novel I've ever read, and the main character wasn't the typical “hero” type. What inspired you to write the story?
RY: End Times was a conveyor book. It moved along on its own and I had to run alongside to keep up. I really feel as if the story was totally in control, and that I had very little to do with it; I was just a host – a way for the story to be told. It was a thrilling experience, because I didn’t know what was going to happen.
The spark for the novel came from a dream in which I was following a beautiful young woman through the woods, and I noticed that she was floating - that her feet were not touching the ground. I woke up wanting to know more about her, believing she had a story to tell. She floated in my mind for a little while, and eventually her purpose emerged. I started to write about her, and then the story got its hooks in me and dragged me along for the ride.
It’s difficult – maybe even impossible – to give a concise answer as to what inspired me to write End Times, simply because the book wrote itself.
BJ: In End Times you deal quite a bit with the American Indian. Did you have to do a lot of research about them?
RY: Yes, an extensive amount; while the book was happy to write itself, I still had to do all the necessary research. But I like research. It always seems like puzzle-solving to me. And the subject was fascinating, too, which makes the process more enjoyable. I read several books to give me the flavor of life on a modern-day reservation, and the Internet proved extremely valuable. This was eight years ago, so there wasn’t as much information on the ’net as there is today, but I found what I was looking for. I was also able to e-mail people for the answers I couldn’t find. For instance, the troubled protagonist, Scott Hennessey, is given a Lakota name when he goes to the rez: Nabokazunte Nichola, which means “No Fingers.” That’s the sort of thing you don’t find on the Internet, no matter how much digging you do. I had to e-mail a Lakota language center for the translation. I find that most people are happy to help, provided you ask politely.
The Native American research, while challenging, was actually a cakewalk compared to some of the other research I had to do for End Times. I’m thinking about the articles and papers I read on self-mutilation. I’m thinking about the reformed heroin users I spoke to, in depth, about their illness. If End Times was going to work, I needed Scott Hennessey to be believable, and that involved some brutal research. One of the questions I am often asked by people who have read End Times is: “Have you ever taken heroin?” The answer is no, but the fact that the question is asked means that Scott’s illness is accurately depicted.
BJ: Old Man Scratch is in my top ten list of all time favorite short stories, probably in the top three of that list. Where did the idea for that story come from?
RY: A dead raccoon gave me the idea. It was lying in someone’s driveway, all stiff and dusty. It occurred to me that the owner of the house would have to come out, probably with a shovel and rubber gloves, and remove the unfortunate creature. I wondered if this was a common occurrence, if the owner had a specific shovel they used for the job. The roadkill shovel. And then I got to thinking about roadkill, and how it always seems to disappear inside of a day or two. This was enough to kickstart my imagination. I moved a few ideas around in my head, and eventually had a blueprint to work from.
Old Man Scratch is a story that really grew on me as I was writing it. The characters took hold in my mind, all of them, and they became real to me. They became friends. I think that’s when you know that your story is going to be good – when you can feel your characters breathing from the page.
It’s also a story that started out being about one thing (what happens to the roadkill?) and ended up being about something else entirely (age and aloneness). When that happens, when the story moves in and steers itself west instead of east, it’s a clear indication that the story is in control, that it’s writing itself, and you just have to let it happen. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s like Pinocchio turning into a real boy.
BJ: Mama Fish is another story that I read and really enjoyed, it sucked me in and made me keep reading until it was finished. If I remember correctly it takes place in America. Was that hard to write, with you being from England?
RY: I’ve been living in North America for seven years now, so it feels natural to set my fiction here. It’s just a question of nailing the little details, and that comes down to puzzle-solving again – doing the research. I blitzed the first draft of Mama Fish and didn’t worry about the details. I just wanted to get the story down. Second time through I made sure that all my strings were tight and in tune. Most of the novella is set in and around a high school. I went to school in England, and my only experience with American high schools has come through movies like The Breakfast Club and Porkies (which I assume to be accurate representations … right?). I have a good friend – he’s as American as apple pie - and I sent him a copy of the story when it was mostly done. He read it, checking for the inconsistencies that might come from an English mind … checking to see that it read like an American story, told from an American’s perspective. He e-mailed back to say that I’d nailed it, which was pleasing. He also loved the story, which pleased me even more.
Like all my stories, it seems, there was a good deal of research that went into Mama Fish, from urban development in the American northeast, to spinal injuries and rehabilitation for paraplegics. These are subjects I know (or knew) nothing about. But you have to go prospecting. You have to solve those puzzles. And when you do – when it all comes together – it can be extremely satisfying.
BJ: Now, you have a new vampire novel coming out. I haven't read Everdead, but it takes place in a European hot spot, doesn't it? What is that place like, and why did you decide to set your vampire novel in that location?
RY: San Antonio is in Ibiza, which is a little island off the coast of Spain, and every summer it is besieged by (mostly European) tourists who are looking to exorcise their frustrations with a little fun in the sun – which usually involves sex, drugs, and hard-driving techno music. I went there back in the nineties. I was younger then, and better-equipped to deal with the excesses of youth (and techno music). The place blew my mind. There are no rules or inhibitions. Anything goes. I always describe it to Americans as Spring Break on steroids, but even that doesn’t come close. A number of things occurred to me in the two weeks that I was there. Firstly, there isn’t a lot of activity during the daylight hours. Most people are sleeping off the night before – crashed out by the pool or on the beach. But as soon as the sun goes down, the whole town comes to life. It becomes a loud, bright carnival. The second thing that occurred to me is that caution is pretty much left behind. It’s not included when you’re packing the sunscreen and your passport. The rule that we’re all taught as children, Don’t Talk to Strangers, just doesn’t apply. There’s a lot of stranger-talking going on. And there are a lot of people, drunk, high, or just swooning in the excitement of the island, who disappear with complete strangers at the end of the night. Which is pretty scary, when you think about it. Another thing that occurred to me – because the fundamental things certainly do not apply – is that you can go missing for two or three days before alarm bells start ringing. I saw it happen. People just disappear for a couple of days. Having fun. Doing their own thing. It’s a reckless environment.
I got to thinking that San Antonio in Ibiza would be the perfect place for a vampire. It is alive with young, sexy people who are willing – almost encouraged – to walk with strangers. Most importantly, they all come out at night. If I was a vampire, I wouldn’t be terrorizing villagers in some Transylvanian village … I’d be in Ibiza, wearing designer clothes and dancing the night away. Until I got thirsty, and then my choices would be bountiful.
Also, it’s just a great place to set a vampire novel. It’s fast-paced, exciting and exotic, and it gives the story a breath of originality. And I believe that when you write within the vampire genre these days, you have to strive to do something different.
BJ: I've seen the cover by Alan M. Clark and the blurb from Peter Straub and I'm dying to get my paws on Everdead, but I'm curious about your vampires. Are they the suave and haughty vampires of legend, are they vicious killers who are driven by their appetites, or are they somewhere in between?
RY: That’s a good question. There are two types of vampire in Everdead – again, striving to do something different. Luca Giancarlo Carzola is my main vampire, the central character in the book. He’s young (well … he’s over a hundred years old), handsome, and Italian. He’s more in the suave-and-haughty category of vampire, and was actually inspired by Christopher Lee in the Hammer Horror Dracula movies of yesteryear. I don’t mean that he’s fifty years old and wears a cape, but Christopher Lee’s vampire always had a powerful and hypnotizing presence that I was keen to have Luca share. That being said, he’s still essentially an animal – sleeps in crates and in the earth, or wherever there is darkness.
Then we have The Originals: a storm of gargoyle-like creatures – the first vampires, who hunt the darkness for their inferior descendants. They are vampire legend, and it is said that you’ll only see them once. The Originals are vicious killers. No doubt about it. So Luca becomes the hunter and the hunted, which offers the story an interesting dynamic.
I wanted to boogie with tradition, but also offer something unique. Aspects of Everdead pay homage to some of the great vampire stories and movies I have enjoyed over the years. But the overall feel of the book is quite unique. It’s fun and frightening. It’s light and dark. Peter Straub certainly enjoyed it. He actually e-mailed me prior to reading it, basically warning me not to get my hopes up because he isn’t normally a fan of vampire fiction. But he read Everdead – in a state of absolute pleasure, by all accounts – and that filled my long-suffering writer’s heart with so much pride that I thought it would split open. It’s all a question of preference at the end of the day, but I think, with Everdead, that I did a pretty good job.
BJ: I know when I write I need peace and quiet and my own environment. Is it the same for you, or can you write anywhere while listening to music?
RY: Yes. I can write anywhere, at any time. I’m not bothered by noise or the things that might be going on around me. I just zone-out, find the hole, and disappear. I write on trains and in bars. I write in crowded rooms or empty spaces. I can write in a box. I can write with a fox. And always shorthand (I only ever use my computer when I’m at home). Ideally, I am sitting at my kitchen table, listening to MLB Gameday Audio. When I edit and revise, I prefer ruthless, ball-crunching rock and roll.
BJ: What's next on the Agenda for Rio Youers? Are you working on anything now?
RY: Absolutely. I’m always working on something, and that’s just the way I like it. Right now I’m moving toward the end of my new novel. It’s called Souls Fall and it seems like I’ve been writing it for approximately eight hundred years. The end is in sight, however – no more being sidelined by other projects. And I’m extremely happy with it so far. I need to put it in a box and shake the crap out of it (while listening to ball-crunching rock and roll, of course), but I’m confident that there will be a pretty damn good story at the end of it.
Souls Fall should be published next year. I’m also looking to publish a collection of my shorter works, which will include Mama Fish and Old Man Scratch. I need one more kickass story for the collection, though, which I will write after finishing Souls Fall. I already have the idea – or think I do, but I’m willing for the story to turn west instead of east and take me for a ride. With any luck, the collection will be published in the second half of ’09.
BJ: Finally, I know your website is www.rioyouers.com. Are there any other online links for your fans?
RY: I have a MySpace page that is covered in dust. I need to do something with it, when I get time. I look at it every now and again – think to myself, I really need to do something with this. And then I hit the X in the top right-hand corner of the screen, and forget about it for several weeks. Other than that, I would encourage people to visit my favorite sites. I usually lurk, and occasionally post, on the forum at www.gravesidetales.com, which is filled with great people who share my love and enthusiasm for the genre. I’m a lurker at The Horror Mall, too, which is also brimming with great people – both readers and writers. www.joehillfiction.com is another favorite website. I think Joe Hill is an incredible talent, and the most exciting new writer to hit the scene since Clive Barker. I also spend way too much time on You Tube. I watch the same video over and over again, and never seem to get bored of it. Just type in “Jumping Lizard” and you’ll see what gives me my daily dose of the chuckles.
BJ: I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule for this interview and I wish you the best with Everdead and your career as a writer. You can bet I will be keeping an eye out for Rio Youers books.
RY: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure. But now, just thinking about “Jumping Lizard” … I just have to go and watch it again.
An Interview with Steven E. Wedel
by Bob Freeman
It just wouldn’t be Werewolf Month without having a chat with everyone’s favorite shapeshifting scribe, Steven E. Wedel. The author of the critically acclaimed Werewolf Saga, which includes Murdered by Human Wolves, Shara, Ulrik, and the short story collection Call of the Hunt, Steven is also a family man and a high school English teacher in his home state of Oklahoma. So, armed with the cyber-equivalent of silver bullets and wolfsbane, I stalked the literary lycanthrope beneath the light of an Internet full moon and cornered him with some magickally charged questions:
Bob Freeman: First, I’d like to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us here at the Monster Librarian for Werewolf Month.
Steven E. Wedel: Thank you for having me, Bob! Werewolf month, huh? Man, I love the sound of that. Makes me want to build up the fire and put on my wolfskin belt for some dancin’.
BF: So tell me Steve, what led you down the path of writing werewolf fiction?
SEW: I was just writing my biography at first. Oh, wait. I wasn’t supposed to tell that part.
About 15 years ago I had this image of a woman standing over the corpse of her husband and saying, “I told you I’m a real bitch during my monthly.” She meant something a little more than what my wife becomes during that time of the month. That woman became Shara and that was the climactic scene in the short story “Biological Clock,” which was first published in Mausoleum magazine in late 1993 (and later included as a chapter in the novel Shara).
Later, in a writing class I was taking, I had to develop a character and put her into a situation the teacher dictated. I decided to go with this Shara character I’d created, and pretty soon I’d brought her into contact with Josef Ulrik and the thing just blossomed and grew and now is up to four books.
BF: I’m a huge fan of the werewolf mythos myself and have always felt that they were an underused horror trope, not only in literature but in cinema as well. For you, who got it right? What’s your favorite werewolf story?
SEW: Sure, and you’re a damn fine author of the lycanthropic tale, yourself, Mr. Freeman. Your new book is gonna rock some socks. But wait! This is about me.
Okay, confession time. I don’t read that much werewolf fiction. On the one hand, I don’t want to read what someone else has done and think they’ve copied me (they probably didn’t, but I have this huge … ego). And, I don’t want to subconsciously copy things others have done. It can be a rather limiting subgenre, so I just try to avoid getting incestuous.
That said, I loved Gary Brandner’s first THE HOWLING and Kelley Armstrong’s BITTEN. The canonical werewolf text still has to be Robert Louis Stevenson’s THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Although Mr. Hyde isn’t actually a werewolf, it’s obvious that Stevenson knew the appeal of the beast, and the potential danger inherent in releasing your inner monster.
There’s also Guy Endore’s The Werewolf of Paris. Everyone who loves the beasties should read that one.
The most recent werewolf novel I read was W. D. Gagliani’s Wolf’s Trap, which I really enjoyed. I bought Ray Garton’s Ravenous a while back. I love Ray’s writing and look forward to reading this book … eventually.
I read a lot of non-fiction about werewolves … inquisition trials, legends, even some of the hokier stuff where the “werewolf” is supposed to be someone possessed by the devil in modern times.
BF: How about on the silver screen? For me, I always dug Hammer’s Curse of the Werewolf starring Oliver Reed, though Lon Chaney Jr’s portrayal of Larry Talbot in Universal’s The Wolf Man was probably the quintessential werewolf film. Your thoughts?
SEW: I love The Wolf Man. No doubt about it. The first horror movie I can remember watching and liking was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. But, for all its influence and many great things, that first wolf-man movie is pretty flawed. The cops claimed the victims’ throats were torn out, but poor Larry only seemed to strangle them. I think house cats were mutilating the bodies after Larry killed them. And people saw wolf prints, but did you see Larry’s feet? Seriously, it’s a great film if for no other reason than Curt Siodmak compiling, creating and solidifying what we think we know about werewolves today.
My personal favorites are The Company of Wolves and The Howling (only the first one!!!). I couldn’t count how many times I’ve watched The Company of Wolves, but every time I do I find something new to ponder. It’s just an unbelievable film. The Howling was the first “modern” werewolf movie I watched. It was on VHS, and it really creeped me out for a while.
A close third would be Dog Soldiers. That is one great movie. And the werewolves aren’t even CGI.
The Hammer movie is great, too. Hammer did a lot of things right with a lot of their movies. Oliver Reed did a fantastic job of portraying the werewolf there. And it’s the best adaptation of Endore’s novel.
BF: All right, I can sense that you’re chewing at your leash. I get the feeling you’re wanting to talk about something. That wouldn’t be your new release from Scrybe Press would it? What was it called again?
SEW: I don’t remember.
Oh wait! It’s all coming back to me now. The book is called Ulrik. It’s the third volume of The Werewolf Saga and was just released at the end of June. I’m incredibly excited to have it out there. It’s almost 400 pages of the most complex plotting I’ve done so far.
BF: I can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to getting my oversized mitts on Ulrik. It’s been a long time coming. Why don’t you take us back to where it all started, with Shara.
SEW: That’s a long and winding road! I already told you about the birth of Shara and Ulrik. I finished the first draft of Shara in 1997, I think it was. I was taking another creative writing class, this time with mystery author Carolyn Wheat. When I started submitting the novel I came up with this idea that I would become to werewolves what Anne Rice was to vampires. Yeah, I dreamed BIG. By this time Mausoleum had published three werewolf stories by me and another had appeared in a small anthology. I collected those four, wrote four new ones and put them in a saddle-stapled chapbook I made myself and gave away or sold pretty cheap. The idea was to get my name out there and attached with werewolves. That was the first edition of Call to the Hunt. The campaign wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped … but now there are a few people out there who really want one of those original copies. Weird. They were just something I made on the copier at work.
Anyway, Shara was published by 3F Publications in 2003. The publisher had a lot of enthusiasm, but not much business savvy. Soon after publishing Shara (and several other books), the company folded. As 3F was going through its death throes, Scrybe Press was just getting started. Nathan Barker had read Shara and liked it and asked if I had anything else. Well, I’d written Murdered by Human Wolves with the intention of giving it away to everyone who bought Shara through Shocklines bookstore, but that never happened. So I offered it to Nathan, who was specializing in affordable chapbooks, and he accepted it.
About a year later I got the rights back to Shara and Nathan bought the book, and the rights to be the publisher of all The Werewolf Saga books. He dubbed Murdered by Human Wolves as Book One. At the time, I wasn’t thrilled about that. I saw MbHW as a supplemental thing and not really a part of the series. But, one of the main characters from that one plays a huge role in the new book, so it all worked out very well.
I wrote the first few chapters of Ulrik right after finishing Shara in ’97. But, at the time, I didn’t know where to go with the story after Joey ran away. It took me about eight years to figure it out. Okay, well, I might have figured it out sooner if I’d tried, but I was busy writing other stuff and going through some pretty big life shifts.
I’ve begun the next book, too, but it’s stalled at the moment. Based on the ending of Ulrik, I have to make some hard decisions about a couple of key characters, and the muse hasn’t decided which way to jump just yet. So I’m working on something else.
BF: My own experience with your work started with Murdered by Human Wolves. Researching that story must have been fascinating. It’s so compelling.
SEW: Well, thank you! Actually, the research was incredibly rushed. I’d lost my job with a major energy company when it merged with another company. I had to move back to the Oklahoma City metro area, where I took a $30,000 pay cut and went back to my journalism career for a short time. While I was working at that newspaper the photographer told me about Katherine Cross’s grave and how he went there with his wife and one of her friends who claimed to be a witch. The “witch” took some dirt off Katherine’s grave, put it in a jar she then put on her mantle at home and later had to get rid of it because it was creeping her out. Naturally, I had to look into it.
I was barbecuing and talking to the publisher of 3F on the phone about promo stuff and mentioned what I’d heard. She told me to write what I thought would be a short story for that Shocklines promotional chapbook, but she needed it quickly. I got lucky and found Mary Franklin through the Oklahoma City Ghost Club and she provided the bulk of what I used in the story. The people in Konawa either had never heard of Katherine Cross, or wouldn’t talk about her.
What Mary told me was very fascinating. I put pretty much all of it into the feature article in the back of the book.
BF: So, tell me about teaching high school English. Is it as horrifying as it sounds?
SEW: Yes. The school where I work is an independent district within Oklahoma City. We have an incredibly high percentage of students on free or reduced lunch, which is the standard they use to determine the level of poverty in the district. Only about 24 percent of our graduating seniors go on to college. There’s racial tension, fights, departmental politics, all that kind of stuff.
But, I’ll tell you this. I’ve had a lot of jobs, and have earned a lot more money than I make as a teacher, but this is the only job I really love. It can be incredibly frustrating when you’re trying to teach the subtlety of Animal Farm to a bunch of sophomores who’ve never heard of the Soviet Union and are more worried about whether they’ll go home to their meth-addicted mother or to state custody after school. But when a student comes to me and says, “Mr. Wedel, your English class was the funnest class I’ve ever had, and I really learned a lot,” I remind them that “funnest” isn’t a word and get all warm inside. The great thing about teaching English is that you can really talk about anything because there’s literature to cover it.
It’s a hard job, though. Not the planning, lecturing and grading. The hard part is when you have a student crying because she’d rather stay in school than go home, or because her dad drank all the family’s money and she hasn’t eaten for two days. But they’ll beg you not to tell because state or foster care is worse than what they have. There’s nothing harder than seeing that kid wipe her eyes and leave. But there’s nothing better than the reward of seeing that kid graduate despite all the odds, too.
BF: Who are you reading now? What authors inspire you?
SEW: Lord help me. I’m reading Chaucer. I got through 42 years of life and earned a master’s degree without having to read The Canterbury Tales, but this fall I start teaching Advanced Placement Senior English and I have to foist Chaucer on the kids, so I’m subjecting myself to it now. I’m sure it’s sacrilege for an English teacher to say this, but I just don’t care for Chaucer and Shakespeare.
I’m teaching summer school right now, and it’s remediation for kids who did poorly on reading exams during the school year. I had them read Stephen King’s The Long Walk, and we were able to learn parts of speech, vocabulary, personification, setting, plot, theme … all that hoity-toity stuff without the drudgery of archaic language.
BF: The life of a writer can be very lonely at times, especially when you’re locked in the throes of battle with your muse. How do you deal with the isolation? What is it that pushes you?
SEW: Bob, I have four kids at home. Two are teenagers and the other two are ages 7 and 6. Do you know what I would give for some isolation? For five hours without hearing, “Dad, can I have …” or “Dad, will you take me to …” or “Dad, [insert kid’s name] just hit me”? I get to write in spurts, and if I’m lucky I’ll get 30 minutes uninterrupted. A lot of times it gets to where my family can’t be around me because I’m grumpy and on edge because I need to write – NEED it like a junkie – and then my wife will take the kids somewhere and I’ll get an entire afternoon to work.
What pushes me is the story. I want to tell it. I want to explore it. I seldom know exactly where I’m going when I set out on a literary adventure. I just start writing and things happen on the page. I’m lucky in the fact I can write quickly and can slip right back into a scene after a long interruption.
BF: I know that we authors can be a superstitious lot. Do you have any rituals that you perform? Music you listen to while you work?
SEW: No, not really. I do listen to a lot of dark instrumental music when I write – Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana, Danny Elfman movie soundtracks – but it isn’t necessary. I can’t listen to music with lyrics.
I had a marble egg I used to roll in my hands while thinking about a scene or character, but that was replaced by a set of Chinese jingle balls Marcy Italiano gave me.
Sacrificing a goat at the start of every new chapter doesn’t count, does it?
BF: What’s on the horizon for Steven E. Wedel?
SEW: Next up is the publication of a short story called “Okie Werewolf Seeks Love” in Graveside Tales’ anthology The Beast Within. This deviates from the established rules of my Werewolf Saga, and is played for the humor.
After that, Bad Moon Books will be releasing a limited edition novelette called Little Graveyard on the Prairie. This one is about an Oklahoma farmer with Alzheimer’s disease, a ruined farm and an estranged ex-wife and daughter. He’s taken to growing a new crop on his farm. Now, he’s haunted by his own memories and maybe by more than that. It’s a very personal book for me; the farm is the one where my paternal grandparents lived, and my grandpa suffered with Alzheimer’s for years before he passed away. It’s a horrible, unfair disease, and something I really fear. As a result, I think this little book may be the best writing I’ve done. There’s one scene that still makes the hair stand up on my neck when I read it, and that just doesn’t happen when I read my own writing.
Beyond that, I don’t know. I have other stuff floating around, but those projects haven’t found homes yet.
BF: Any last words?
SEW: I’m a shameless pimp. Buy my books!
Nah, you’ve covered a lot, and I’ve rambled on long enough.
BF: Where can we find you online?
SEW: My main site is www.stevenewedel.com. It’s a brand new site, done on Wordpress, which I love and highly recommend. I have another site dedicated just to The Werewolf Saga. It’s at (get ready), www.werewolfsaga.com. Both sites link to MySpace, a bulletin board, etc. I’m spread out over the Internet like some kind of webcam whore. Watch me wiggle, watch me dance. Pull your wallet outta your pants!
BF: On behalf of the Monster Librarian I’d like to thank you for taking part in Werewolf Month with us and I wish you the best of luck with Ulrik. I’ve been a fan since the first time I had the chance to read your work and I look forward to bigger and better things from you in the future.
SEW: Thank you, Bob. I really appreciate that, and that you took the time to interview me for Monster Librarian. It’s one of the best horror sites on the Web. (Next to Horror World, of course! Love ya, Nanci!) Best of luck to you with your new book, too.
Interview with Daniel Waters
by The Monster Librarian
Daniel
Waters is the author of the recently released young adult horror title
Generation Dead his debut novel which is reviewed
here.
ML: Hi Dan, Thanks for taking the time to do this interview.
Daniel Waters: Hello Monsterlibrarian--or can I call you Dylan? Thanks for
having me, and thanks for reviewing Generation Dead.
ML: You're welcome. Can you tell us a little bit
about yourself? Your bio on the book is pretty mysterious, and of course,
you can call me Dylan.
Daniel Waters : Thanks.
Re: the bio--Intentionally mysterious --better to seem mysterious than dull,
I suppose.
Husband, father of two. I've lived in Southeastern CT since I was three.
ML: LOL.
Daniel Waters: I write, read, and have an absurdly
large music collection. Two interesting facts: I cleaned up the Pentagon and
have done CD jacket photography for Thor, the god of rock.
ML: That sounds like great fun. Did you start out
intending to write for teens?
Daniel Waters: Not at all. The conscious decision
to write for teens came after my second foray "out of the cave" to try an
advance my writing career through networking rather than just blind
submissions. I attended WHC 2005 in NYC and there was a YA panel, and the
editors sounded like they were practically begging for manuscripts. One of
my friends then pointed out to me that out of the three or four of my ms he
had read, I'd had a teen protagonist in each one. I had the idea for
Generation Dead rattling around in my head, and so I pitched it on the spot
to one of the editors after the panel, and she invited me to send it when
ready.
ML: Interesting.
Daniel Waters : That being said, now that I'm
officially a YA author, I'm exactly where I want to be.
ML : So did you read other YA books before writing
Generation Dead?
Daniel Waters : Not since I graduated high school!
And then it wasn't a category like it is today--SE Hinton, Robert Cormier
and a few other titles--To Kill a Mockingbird and Catcher in the
Rye are probably in the YA section these days. I can count on one hand
the number of modern YA books I've read--the editor in question gave me a
couple after I submitted, and I've read one or two from people I've met
along the way, but I'm not a student of the category by any means.
Daniel Waters: My avoidance is almost a superstition now.
ML : As Generation Dead is a "zombie" book,
what have your influences been?
Daniel Waters : Other than George Romero, I don't think I have any other
influence as far as the zombie-ness in the book. Zombie purists (there are
zombie purists, right?) would probably find fault with much of it. Romero's
use of "zombies in the mall", as a take on consumer culture, was something I
consciously inverted in part of the book, so that was influential.
Daniel Waters : I think the zombie book(and movie)
most influential on GD is Ira Levin's "The Stepford Wives"
Daniel Waters : Oh, and "The Body Snatchers"
Daniel Waters : by Jack Finney
Daniel Waters : Not exactly EC comics-style living dead
ML: So are you a reader of zombie fiction? I'm just
wondering how you came up with an idea connecting zombies and teens in the
first place, since you already had the idea when you went to the YA panel at
WHC.
Daniel Waters: Actually, Pet Sematary was
influential, now that I think of it.
Daniel Waters : I can't say I actively seek out zombie fiction--I'm a huge
EC comics fan, and I've read and enjoyed a couple of the zombie books of
recent years, but not because I comb the shelves for all things zombie
Daniel Waters : The idea for GD came from watching a newsmagazine show on
violence in schools. I had a job that put me on the road often, and one
night I was holed up in the hotel channel surfing, and there was a show
about kids starting fights or randomly attacking kids just so they could put
in on YouTube. With footage. Scared the living hell out of me. Couldn't get
it out of my head, knew I had to write about it in some way
Daniel Waters: I think the zombies appeared as a coping mechanism--weird,
usually we develop coping mechanisms to guard against things like
zombies!--but they appeared, and it let me tackle subject matter that was at
once very serious and very personally terrifying in a context I could bring
some humor into.
ML : Is that why your zombies are so different from
typical zombies? Your "living impaired" teens are fairly sympathetic
characters in contrast to the usual mindless ravening horde.
Daniel Waters: I think so--I wanted to shake the
conventions a bit, certainly.
ML: I think you succeeded there. Did you do
research to represent teens and teen culture, such as the Goth subculture?
Daniel Waters : Plus I think I'm still 17 at heart,
anyhow.
ML: LOL. Would you say there's a message to the
book?
Daniel Waters : I would. I'm fascinated with the
messages that some reviewers/bloggers have pulled out thus far.
We should keep it a secret though, as I've been cautioned by many that
"message" fiction is the kiss of death in trying to attract a teen
readership!
Daniel Waters : Let me amend--I would say there are
messages, plural, in the book. Secret, subliminal messages!
ML : Well, before I start rolling on the floor
laughing, let me ask you whether you plan to revisit the world of Generation
Dead, or do you have other projects cooking?
Daniel Waters : The second book in the world of GD,
Kiss of Life, is on my editor's desk. There may be more.
I have a couple other ms that we'll start shopping soon, both YA, both with
supernatural themes.
ML: We'll look forward to seeing what you come up
with next. Is there anything else you'd like for librarians and readers to
know?
Daniel Waters : Now that I think of it--if I interpret your question about
"message" to mean a "conscious attempt at social commentary" correctly--that
might be the kiss of death among horror fans as well as teens!
Thanks for destroying my fledgling career, Dylan!
ML : I aim to please.
Daniel Waters: For librarians--GD was a Spring
selection of the Junior Library Guild, something I am thrilled and proud of
Daniel Waters : And for librarians and readers both--thank you in advance
for giving GD a try. I'd love to hear from you at
www.danielwaters.com
and Tommy, one of the zombies from GD, would love to hear from you at his
site
mysocalledundeath.com
ML: Thanks so much for taking time away from your own writing and family to
do this interview. We really appreciate it!
Daniel Waters: Thank you, Dylan. This was a first for me, and I appreciate
the air time.
Interview with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
by Michele Lee
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro is a talented writer whose work spans multiple genres. She is well known as a horror writer and is probably best known for her series of historical horror novels about the vampire Count Saint-Germain. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has had two titles released so far in 2008. Elder Signs Press has recently released Saint-Germain: Memoirs and Borderlands Press has released Lost Prince. Reviewer Michele Lee had an opportunity to interview the author.