JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS - Editor Interview

This week’s guest is editor John Joseph Adams, whose latest book is UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS, new short stories celebrating the 100th anniversary of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic hero John Carter of Mars.

John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams  is the bestselling editor of Wastelands, The Living Dead (a World Fantasy Award finalist), The Living Dead 2, By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Brave New Worlds, The Way of the Wizard, and Lightspeed: Year One. Forthcoming anthologies include The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination (Tor Books) and Armored (Baen Books). In 2011, he was nominated for two Hugo Awards and two World Fantasy Awards. He has been called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble.com, and his books have been lauded as some of the best anthologies of all time. He is also the editor of Lightspeed Magazine, and is the co-host of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxypodcast.

ANTHONY:   John, thanks for taking a few moments to chat with me about UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS. How did the project come about?

JOHN:  I’d heard that Disney was going to be adapting A Princess of Mars into a movie, and it sounded like–at LAST–the adaptation was finally going to happen. There had been a number of false-starts over the years, but it seemed like this one was finally going to happen, thanks in no small part to the success of (and SFX technological advancement provided by) Avatar. Being a fan of the original books, I was quite excited, and the idea of doing the “new adventures” of John Carter sprang to mind. It seemed like a good, marketable idea, and a book that would be a hell of a lot of fun, so I started putting together a proposal and recruiting authors for it. Once I started reaching out to people, the number of folks who were excited about it really reinforced my thought that it would be a great project, and luckily Simon & Schuster agreed and published the anthology.

ANTHONY:  The book features a fantastic line-up. Was there an open submission process or was it invitation only? Are there any authors you’d hoped would take part who weren’t able to?

JOHN:  The book was invitation-only; unfortunately, I had to keep it that way because I was under orders to keep the project secret basically until it was done being assembled; the publisher wanted to wait to announce it until we had a table of contents to show off. Also, I had recruited a pretty large number of authors for the book in the proposal stage, and I knew it would be unlikely that I’d have much extra room for anything beyond that. Plus, for a book like this one, which is a VERY specific topic, I knew if I did an open call for submissions, a lot of writers would end up with stories that they probably wouldn’t be able to sell anywhere else. Although the Barsoom stories are public domain, most short fiction venues are unlikely to run a story set in another author’s milieu.

Neil Gaiman and Michael Moorcock were both initially interested but ultimately couldn’t contribute due to their schedules, so that was disappointing. And there were a number of authors I would have loved to have on board who said no at the proposal stage for one reason or another. One contributing factor to this was that the anthology had to be put together on a pretty short timeline if we were going to have the book ready to publish to coincide with the release of the John Carter film.

Under The Moon of Mars

ANTHONY:  The preview for the book on Amazon mentions a number of great artists, like Charles Vess and Mike Kaluta, contributing story illustrations. How did you decide which artist to pair with which stories for the illustrations?

That was mostly decided by Lizzy Bromley & Tom Daly at Simon & Schuster and my agent, Joe Monti. I was consulted, and I could have taken a more active role in those decisions, but I’m no art director, and I don’t really have a lot of connections to many artists, so I was happy to have someone else take the lead. I was pleased to see Mike Cavallaro participate, as I’m a huge fan of the graphic novel he did with Jane Yolen called Foiled. Likewise John Picacio, who I’ve been a fan of for years, and, of course, it’s an honor and a privilege to have work by Charles Vess. And it was also really cool, of course, to be exposed to artists I wasn’t as familiar with previously.

You can actually view all of the illustrations on the anthology’s website, johnjosephadams.com/barsoom.

ANTHONY:  John Carter is easily Edgar Rice Burroughs’ second most popular creation after Tarzan, even though Burroughs didn’t write anywhere near as many books about Carter and in fact half of the Barsoom novels focus on other characters. What do you think is the enduring appeal of John Carter in particular and Barsoom in general?
JOHN:  On the most basic level, the Barsoom stories are just great adventure stories, and so they’re sort of inherently appealing. But they also cross all kinds of genre boundaries. They’re obstensibly science fiction, but they feel a lot like fantasy, and there are elements from other genres as well, certainly romance and western fiction to name a few.

I think that as kids, we all wanted to be able to travel to Mars, and wouldn’t it be great if we could and it turned out to be the fantastical place with strange and interesting aliens and beautiful princesses? And a lot of us still have such dreams–so I think that’s a large part of what makes it so appealing–and enduring.

ANTHONY:  2012 is also Tarzan’s 100th anniversary, and Burroughs’ Pellucidar series hits 100 in 2014. Are you involved at all in anniversary anthologies for those books?

JOHN:  I’m not–at least not at the moment! For Tarzan, it would be too late to do anything to celebrate the anniversary, obviously, but Pellucidar…who knows!

ANTHONY:  What other books do you have coming our way this year?

JOHN:  As we’ve discussed, Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom just came out.

Coming up in April, I have Armored, an anthology of stories about mecha and power armor, from Baen. It includes stories by Jack Campbell, Brandon Sanderson, Tanya Huff, Daniel H. Wilson, Alastair Reynolds, Carrie Vaughn, and others.

I’m also currently wrapping up work on two reprint anthologies. One is an anthology of epic/high fantasy fiction to be called Epic, which will be coming out from Tachyon Publications this fall. And due out this summer from Night Shade Books is Other Worlds Than These, an anthology of portal fantasies and parallel worlds stories. And, as usual, I’ve got a couple of other things in the works that I can’t officially talk about yet, but I hope to be able to announce soon.

Then, in February 2013, I’ll have The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, from Tor. That one features stories by Carrie Vaughn, Alan Dean Foster, Daniel H. Wilson, David Farland, Seanan McGuire, and Naomi Novik, among others, plus an original short novel by Diana Gabaldon.

ANTHONY:  And my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

JOHN:  The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester. When I read that book, it BLEW MY MIND. After reading it, my reading life became all about finding other books like that one. Up to that point, I’d read a number of sf novels that I liked a great deal, and still to this day remember fondly, but it wasn’t until The Stars My Destination that I realized the heights that science fiction was capable of attaining, and it wasn’t until then that I narrowed my reading focus almost exclusively to sf in my efforts to find more books that effected me in that same way.

There’s a paragraph in the book from the early part of chapter one that describes “common man” protagonist Gully Foyle’s state of mind. He’s been stuck, as the lone survivor, on a spaceship for 170 days, and watches as another ship approaches his, ignores his distress call, and leaves him to die:

He had reached a dead end. He had been content to drift from moment to moment of existence for thirty years like some heavily armored creature […] but now he was adrift in space for one hundred and seventy days, and the key to his awakening was in the lock. Presently it would turn and open the door to holocaust.

So that’s the key to Gully’s awakening. I think of The Stars My Destination as mine.

ANTHONY: Thanks again, John! Always a pleasure!

You can follow John Joseph Adams on Twitter as @JohnJosephAdams and you can see more about all of his books by visiting his website.

SAM LANT - Actor Interview

Today I welcome young actor and fundraiser Sam Lant.

Sam Lant

Sam was born in Truckee, California. He spent his primary years growing up on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, learning to ski and wake-board depending on the season. Sam’s break through in acting came at IMTA New York in 2006. Realizing acting was Sam’s big dream, his family made the move to Los Angeles, along with his dog, Capone, and a fighting fish named Sapporo. In his free time Sam enjoys riding his mountain bike, taking Tae Kwon Do and spending time camping with his Boy Scout Troop.

ANTHONY:  Hi, Sam. Thanks for taking the time to chat.

SAM:  Thank you for having me.  I am excited to chat with you and get the word out about my upcoming projects as well as the Ronald McDonald Walk for Kids.

ANTHONY:  How long have you been acting, and what was your first professional credit?

SAM:  I have been acting professionally in Los Angeles for 5 years.  I started out taking classes in Reno, NV and was approached about competing at IMTA in New York.  I went to New York and won pre-teen actor of the year 2006.  Which brought me to Los Angeles to audition with many agents and managers who were interested in working with me.  I commuted from Tahoe for the first 3 years but then officially moved out here in 2009.  I worked a bunch of student films and did background work when I moved to learn about being in front of a camera.  I would say my first real professional credit was when I worked on the game show Destroy Build Destroy.  It might be a game show, but there was a lot of behind the scene stuff going on to help pump up our energy.  It was a great project to work on even though my brother’s team ended up winning.  My favorite part of the project was when I was howling at the moon for fun and one of the producers saw me, he came running over and said to do it again for the camera.  They ended up using that footage in the commercials promoting my episode “Big Bros vs. Lil Bros”.

ANTHONY:  You’re in the cast of the upcoming PROJECT X. Tell us a little about the movie, and your role.

SAM:  Project X is about 3 high schoolers who throw a party because they think it is their last chance to become cool before they graduate.  Things get way out of hand.  The party gets so big that Jimmy Kimmel reports on it during his opening monologue.  It is pretty funny stuff.  I play Dave.  He is a freshman trying to sneak into the party.  He keeps getting caught and thrown out.  You will have to watch and see if he is eventually successful or not.  

ANTHONY:  The movie looks just a little bit … insane. What was filming like?

SAM:  The movie is more than a bit insane.  HA.  Scott Budnick and Nima Nourizadeh were amazing to work with because they were very encouraging.  In fact, all the crew were awesome.  One of the days we filmed, it was my birthday, and they all wished me a Happy Birthday.    But filming for me wasn’t that bad because I am a minor and they couldn’t film some of the scenes around me.  So, the days I worked were pretty tame.  The final scene was a lot of fun though because I had to dance with this really hot girl.  When I got to set I found out it was going to be Anna Sophia Berglund, who Hugh Hefner’s current girlfriend.  All the guys on set that night were very jealous of me.

ANTHONY:  Your other recent project is “too perfect.” How did you get involved in that project, and where can people see it?

SAM:  I got involved with “too perfect” through LA Casting and over skype.  The director, Julie Rubio, contacted my mom after my mom submitted me for the role on LA Casting.  My mom actually didn’t realize the project was filming in San Francisco when she submitted me.  I then auditioned over Skype and Julie thought I would be perfect as Skylar.  We did several table reads and rehearsals where I was skyped in to follow along since I lived in Los Angeles.  I went to San Francisco to film for 9 days.  It was a lot of fun.

You will be able to find “too perfect” on netflix and blockbuster sometime this year.

ANTHONY:  You also seem to be the only one of the main 5 cast-members whose character is not named after himself. How did you manage that?

SAM:  Originally, the story was written about 5 friends in real life.  Unfortunately, Skylar couldn’t film so Julie put out a notice on LA Casting to see if someone else fit the role.  The other 4 kids who filmed with me are all friends and go to school together.  I met the real “Skylar” the night of the premiere and he congratulated me on doing a great job acting like him.  Now we are all friends on Facebook.

ANTHONY:  You’ve done a few short films. What do you see are the differences between working on a short film and a feature film?

SAM:  I guess the main difference would be how long you are filming for, short films can be shot in a weekend or even a day sometimes where feature films need a lot longer to get all the scenes filmed.  Another difference is the craft services – bigger productions have the budget for more food and bring in catering companies to cook main meals.  My favorite thing about being on set besides acting is the amazing food.  ha ha ha

ANTHONY:  I know the job search for teen actors is just as difficult as it is for adults, possibly moreso because there are fewer “big” venues for kid actors — if you’re not involved in a Nick or Disney series, options for regular tv work are definitely smaller — so how do you get your name and face out there for casting directors to see?

SAM:  My agent and manager are great about pitching me out to casting directors for upcoming projects.  Also a lot of shows have guest starring roles for kids such as Criminal Minds and CSI, so the opportunity is there.  Another way I network is at casting director workshops which allow me to meet casting directors I haven’t before while also learning something new or building on previous knowledge.  And, every year in November there is an event called Actorfest which has casting director meet and greets, and holds training workshops hosted by top professionals in the business.  I try to network at events like these to get my name out there.

ANTHONY:  What kind of prep do you do for auditions? Are you working with an acting coach, taking classes?  Do you ever think “man, there are just SO many of us trying for the same few parts, maybe I should do something else for a living?”

SAM:  I am taking classes with the amazing and talented Amy Lyndon who is teaching me the 15 main guidelines for cold read and booking a role.  When I prep for an audition, I have a work sheet Amy gave me that I use to break down a script.  Then I work on it until I feel I have the character just right.  It is all about a choice.  My choice might not be the same as someone else, so it is up to the casting director to see who made the best choice to bring the writer’s vision to light.  As far as doing something else, I act because I love it not for the money.  I really can’t see myself ever giving up something I love doing.  Although, I am planning to get an aeronautical engineering degree in college because I would also like to be an astronaut.

ANTHONY:  Speaking of classes — how do you balance auditioning/being on-set and school work?

SAM:  I home school, actually go to a year-round charter school, so I only go to class twice a week for an hour to take tests.  Because I do my work at home, I can do my school around my audition schedule.  Sometimes, I do homework in the morning and when I have had a hectic schedule preparing for auditions then I will do it at night.  Since I go to a year-round school I am actually working faster than being in regular school and should graduate a year early.  Being on set is a even easier, because the law requires me to do 3 hours of school each day we are working.

ANTHONY:  Okay, let’s talk about causes. I know you’re doing a Ronald McDonald House fundraiser at the moment. Why this cause, and how did you get involved?  What can my readers do to help you and your Walk For Kids team?

SAM:  I was filming a short film called “Tears Asunder” and the location was about 5 houses down from Ronald McDonald House Pasadena.  We walked past it everyday on our way to set and I asked my mom what it was.  She explained what they did and I thought that was really cool because when I was little I had very bad asthma and often was hospitalized.  We lived in a small town so my mom was able to stay in the room with me but I know that isn’t always possible in larger cities.  I was glad to have my mom close because it was very scary sometimes.  I got involved with Walk For Kids last year when one of my friends invited me to join her team.  I raised $400 last year and want to raise even more this year.  I decided to start my own team this year because I wanted to be more active in helping Ronald McDonald House.

People can help our team by donating any amount, even $1 will help us reach our goal of $10,000.  My favorite thing to say is…can you give up your morning latte today and donate that $5 to our fundraiser.  A lot of people don’t realize if they just cut one specialty item out of their schedule they would have enough to help a child have their mom close by if they get scared.

Here is the link to my donation page —  My goal is $1000 but I would like to raise even more than that if possible.

ANTHONY:  What other causes are important to you, and how involved are you with those?  

SAM:  I am working with several organizations.  Last year I donated my birthday to Project Night Night.  They give security totes to kids whose families have become homeless due to the economy or loss of job.  Each tote has a blanket, teddy bear or stuffed animal, and a bedtime story.  On my 15th birthday, I asked my guests to bring one or more of these things to donate to the tote bags.  We were able to stuff over 75 totes for kids ages 0-12 years old.  I was over whelmed with how generous everyone was to help these kids.  I am doing the same again this year for my 16th birthday.  I don’t have a lot but there are people out there who have a lot less and it feels good to help those people.

Another project I am working on is a Freeline Skate team which will be going around to different charity events to teach kids to Freeline skate who might not have opportunity to learn.  We are going to work with the Boys and Girls Club, Autism Talks, Make a Wish, Starlight Foundation and anyone else who is interested in having a fun time learning to skate.

ANTHONY:  And my usual final question:  What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

SAM:  My favorite book right now is “The Hunger Games”.  Which is really actually a series of books.  I read the first one in a single day because it grabbed my attention and I didn’t want to put it.  The plot had a really great twist at the end which surprised me.  I think a lot of kids would really enjoy reading these books.  I am excited for the movie to come out and plan on seeing it the very first day it comes out.  

ANTHONY: Thanks again, Sam!

SAM:  Thanks for the interview.  These were some fun questions and I enjoyed answering things I hadn’t been asked before.  OH…and thanks for your donation to Walk For Kids.  YOU ROCK!!!!

ANTHONY: As I said on Twitter: “Curse you, Sam Lant! Stop ruining my reputation as a big ol’ meanie!”

You can follow Sam on Twitter as @ActorSamLant, check out his Facebook fan page, his IMDb page, and his freeline skate team’s YouTube channel. And of course donate to his Ronald McDonald House fundraiser!

GIVING THANKS - Anthony R Cardno

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day 2011 here in the U.S.. Other countries celebrate a Thanks Giving Day of one kind or another in other months, of course, but tomorrow is our official day to give thanks.

On the one hand, I love the day: family, friends, food, parades (if I’m awake enough to see them). On the other hand … shouldn’t we give thanks EVERY day for the blessings in our lives?

Personally, I do give thanks every day. Sometimes it’s just in my head, sometimes it’s spoken or written to the person I’m thankful for or posted in a place where they can see it. And really, I think that’s the point of Thanksgiving Day: to proclaim a bit more publicly what we’re thankful for every day.

So what am I thankful for this year?

I am thankful for my health. I still have to medicate to deal with high cholesterol, I still get migraines, and I still carry tons of stress that results in aching shoulders and ground teeth. But I’m also 6 years cancer-free, and I do not take that fact for granted.

I am thankful for not only being gainfully employed in a climate where so many are struggling to find any work at all (never mind work that pays all the bills), but also for being employed by a company that actually cares about its employees. I am well aware that in a different employment situation, the personal challenges of this past year would have resulted in being handed my walking papers. Our company president and my direct boss are amazing and they’ve earned my loyalty. And my co-workers rock and roll. (Yes, I know you’re reading this, and yes, I mean it.)

I am thankful for all of those who willingly provide service to others often at the risk of their own health, safety or finances. I have cousins and friends among the firefighters, EMTs, emergency room and hospital ward staff, police, every branch of the armed forces (yes, including the Coast Guard and various reserves), and teachers who put themselves out there every day often to the brink of exhaustion in order to provide service.

I am thankful for the music that fills my ears, the moving images that entertain my eyes, and the words that challenge my brain, and for the singers, songwriters, musicians, actors, directors, artists, editors, and writers who create them.

I am thankful for Twitter and Facebook. Twitter has connected me to so many wonderful people, famous and not, who have livened my nights and expanded my horizons. Without Twitter I would not be enjoying interviewing folks like Lawrence Block, Linda Potievin, Jennifer Holliday, Burnham, Hollywood Ending, and Ellen Datlow. Likewise, I would not now have friends like Christie Yant, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Marianne Burnham, Desiree Russell, and so many others. Without Facebook, I’d have a much harder time keeping my family and friends abreast of where I am on any given day (difficult to keep track of thanks to the traveling nature of my day job), and my Scrabble skills would surely have atrophied by now. And thanks to both sites, I’ve been introduced to so much new music and new writing, I can’t begin to list it all.

And last but not least, I am thankful for my family and friends. I’m not perfect, I know, and there are times when you all scratch your heads and wonder “what was he thinking” as I repeat cycles I thoughts I’d broken out of ages ago. But you are there for me, even when I don’t think I deserve it. I know, whether I say it or not, how truly blessed I am in the mountain of loved ones I have caring for me both nearby and long-distance. There are too many of you to name, but you know who you are.

JERRY ORDWAY, Comic Book Creator - Interview

Sometimes I get to interview my friends, sometimes I get to interview folks whose work I’ve stumbled across recently and enjoyed, and sometimes I get to interview my creative heroes. This week, I’m talking with comics creator Jerry Ordway, who definitely falls into the “heroes” category.

Jerry Ordway

Jerry Ordway has been working professionally in comics since 1980. He had a long run as finisher and then full artist on DC’s ALL-STAR SQUADRON, which is where I first encountered him. He co-created the original INFINITY INC, had a eight-year run on the SUPERMAN family of titles, and a fantastic four year run redefining THE POWER OF SHAZAM. He’s also done work for Marvel Comics.

ANTHONY: Hi, Jerry. Thanks for agreeing to let this long-time fanboy pester you for a while.

JERRY: No problem, happy to chat.

ANTHONY: DC Comics recently announced a black-and-white SHOWCASE reprint edition of the early issues of All-Star Squadron. I couldn’t find a contents listing on Amazon. How much of your work on the series will be seen in this first volume?

JERRY: I assume you’ll see the finishes I did on Buckler, as well as those on Adrian Gonzales in issues 1-14, including the first annual. Maybe they’ll include the Justice League portion of the JLA-JSA crossover. Not sure what the page counts is, on those collections.

ANTHONY: You started out inking Rich Buckler, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at a couple of New York Comic-Cons, but he eventually left the book and you shifted to pencilling duties. Was there any pressure to mimic Rich’s style in the beginning, or did the editors just let you jump right in?

JERRY: Well, since I was doing finishes on All Star Squadron from the beginning, the editor felt that my “veneer” so to speak, was the selling point, especially since I was working over Adrian Gonzales’s work from around issue #6(?) until I started pencilling. In fact, I had been wanting to pencil from the start, but doing the monthly All Star book was something DC didn’t want to mess with, or derail. By the second year, Roy Thomas had me doing so many art changes, I was frustrated. I decided to take up an offer to draw an 8 page Creeper back-up in Flash, and quit the book. But Len Wein, the editor told me I could pencil All Star, instead. Not wanting Adrian to lose work was my concern, and he was apparently happy to shift over to Arak, instead of drawing a dozen costumed heroes in a period backdrop:) So, no pressure to have to follow any style but my own.

ANTHONY: I have to say that I think part of my enduring love for the Golden Age Flash, Green Lantern and Starman over and above their more modern counterparts has to do with your take on them back in the Squadron days. Why do you think Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Ted Knight and even the original Captain Marvel still have such a fan-base 70 or more years after they debuted?

JERRY: Well, I think they are all compelling characters in their own right, of course, but I think in the case of the JSA-ers, that Roy, with some help from me, imbued them with personalities that didn’t exist in earlier incarnations. Roy lived and breathed those characters, and that is what made the JSA characters special in our time frame, via All Star Squad, and also Infinity Inc in the mid 1980’s. That material directly inspired the Goyer and Robinson (later Geoff Johns) material, much as the 1940’s to 1970’s stuff inspired Roy and myself.

ANTHONY: You got to redesign some WW2 characters and create some brand-new characters for All-Star Squadron. Looking back, what was your favorite costume design, and who would you like to have (re)designed given the chance?

JERRY: Again, at Roy’s insistence we gave Tarantula new life, outside of being a Sandman clone. That costume is a favorite of mine. Amazing Man was a new creation, though also a fun design, an attempt to design as if it was 1940 instead of 1980. I was never compelled to redesign any of the classic ones, though. I felt I could make them work in the drawing, if they appeared a bit clunky, as Alan Scott’s 1940’s outfit was. That one had every color in the paintbox, but worked fine if you drew it consistent.

ANTHONY: When you wrote and drew The Power of Shazam!, including painting the series covers, you gave the book a look that seemed to sit squarely between the cartoony look of creator CC Beck and the realistic look Don Newton used in the short Adventure Comics run he did. Was this a conscious decision, or just a function of how your own style had developed at that time?

JERRY: Well, I was a fan of Don Newton’s work overall, from his Charlton days on the Phantom, and I also respected C.C. Beck’s vision. To me, the only way Captain Marvel ever looked correct, was when he was on model with the Beck head design. I’ve always tried to make my heroes different in subtle ways, for storytelling clarity, and with Cap, that was the iconic look, much as Joe Shuster and Jack Burnley’s golden age Superman was the correct model for that hero.

ANTHONY: How has your creative process changed over the years? Do you still use basically the same tools, or have you switched completely to digital? And how do you think digital tools have affected the style of newer artists in the field?

JERRY: I work with paper and pencils, ink and pens. I scan work and do digital touch-ups, but the appeal for me isn’t in inking or drawing digitally. It’s a tactile experience, feeling the pen tip on the paper. Digital is an improvement in many ways, allowing for color separations to be done better, and I’ve seen painted work that looks great digitally, but the training is the same, learning to draw, learning to use color, or black and white.

ANTHONY: You’ve worked extensively for DC, you’ve done some work for Marvel. Is there any character out there you haven’t had a chance to work on that you’d still like to take a crack at?

JERRY: I love drawing Captain America, and also always wanted another shot at the Fantastic Four. I grew up a Marvel reader, so those characters connect me to my childhood, you know? But sometimes, you are better off not working on material that you love to much at the start, because it hampers your vision, in a way. I learned to love Superman, as well as Captain Marvel, and I think I did my best work on them because I could be objective about what worked and what didn’t.

ANTHONY: What are you currently working on?

JERRY: I just finished a 6 page Alfred story for the Bat-books, with a Halloween theme, so I suppose that will go into inventory for next year> Also I have 5 pages in the second issue of the new Thunder Agents series, drawing a 1960’s flashback, which was fun. I have a couple of projects lined up, but can’t spill the beans just yet. The first is a new take on a 1960’s era DC book, which is all I can tease.

ANTHONY: You’ve been auctioning original art on e-bay. Is there any piece of your own work that you would never ever part with?

JERRY: I have a hard time parting with most stuff, which is why I’ve been selling prelims and sketches for the most part. Each drawing represents a day or two of my life, you know?

ANTHONY: Thanks again, Jerry!

You can find Jerry all over the web. He’s on Twitter as @JerryOrdway, he’s on Facebook, he blogs on Ordster’s Random Thoughts, and there’s still content up on his website as well.

ELLEN DATLOW, Author - Interview

This week, I’m happy to be interviewing another one of my personal favorites, editor Ellen Datlow.

(From her website:) Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for almost thirty years. She was fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and SCIFICTION and has edited more than fifty anthologies, including the horror half of the long-running The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Ellen is currently tied with frequent co-editor Terri Windling as the winner of the most World Fantasy Awards in the organization’s history (nine). Ellen was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre.” She lives in New York.

ANTHONY: Between April and September of 2011, you’ve had four anthologies hit the market. That’s a lot of pages in a short period of time! Are you planning on resting any time soon?

ELLEN: Those anthologies were finished more than a year before they were published, and Naked City was essentially finished two years before it came out. I should have only had three original anthologies published in 2011 (I also had The Best Horror of the Year volume three) but Naked City was delayed by a year as I awaited a promised story that never came in (by a BIG name). Publicizing four anthologies within a six month period became very complicated. It was difficult for me to remember which writers were in which book. Honestly. I occasionally screwed up and set up two different signings for which I asked the wrong writers to participate—embarrassing.

I’m currently only working on one original anthology plus The Best Horror of the Year volume four so have it relatively easy this year as far as editing goes. But overall, I’d much rather be editing more than less.

ANTHONY: The anthologies seem to work in pairs. For instance, NAKED CITY: New Tales of Urban Fantasy from St. Martin’s Griffin and SUPERNATURAL NOIR from Dark Horse. From the titles, a casual browser might assume both feature gritty city-based detective tales with a supernatural angle. Aside from different publishers, what distinguishes these two books from each other?

ELLEN: The two anthologies aren’t meant to be related at all. Naked City is mostly comprised of stories reflecting the traditional definition of urban fantasy as written by John Crowley, Ellen Kushner, Peter Beagle, and Delia Sherman—fantasy that takes place in cities, with the city almost always crucial to the action. It mostly includes fantasy and some dark fantasy.

Supernatural Noir is a horror anthology-combined with the flavor of the film noir of the 40s-50s. In my guidelines I made it clear that I didn’t want only detectives as main characters and that in fact I’d prefer that writers avoid that kind of set-up. And mostly they did.

Blood & Other Cravings

ANTHONY: I can ask the same question of TEETH: Vampire Tales from Harper and BLOOD AND OTHER CRAVINGS from Tor. Both are, on the surface, books about vampires. One thing that distinguishes these two books from each other is the target audience. TEETH is aimed directly at the YA market, BLOOD is for the adult reader. What else separates them?

ELLEN: Teeth is a young adult anthology in which vampires play a major role. Every story has an actual blood-sucking vampire in it.

Blood and Other Cravings is an adult anthology focusing on vampirism, the concept rather than the creature, even if there are vampires in some of the stories. It’s a follow up to my two vampirism anthologies from 1989 and 1991: Blood is Not Enough and A Whisper of Blood (both recently brought together in one big beautiful new hardcover edition titled A Whisper of Blood from the Barnes & Noble imprint Fall River Press).

ANTHONY: Only one of your four recent anthologies has been with a co-editor: TEETH, with long-time editing partner Terri Windling. What are some of the key differences between solo editing and co-editing?

ELLEN: With co-editing, some of the material might include stories that one editor loves more than the other. When I’m editing solo it’s completely my taste. We both approach writers and wrangle them (to get the stories in on time). We both read and choose the stories. We split some of the tasks. Terri writes our meaty introductions, I put together the bios of each contributor and compile the front matter. Depending on how strongly one of us feels about a particular story we want to buy, either Terri or I will work with the writer on the substantive editing. I do most of the line editing.

ANTHONY: You’ve worked with Terri quite often, but I think you’ve had other co-editors as well. Is there a quantifiable difference between working with Terri and, say, Nick Mamatas?

ELLEN: I’ve worked with Terri on six young adult anthologies, two adult anthologies, and three middle-grade anthologies. (For our Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror we each chose our halves independent of one another.) They were all fantasy.

The only other editor I’ve worked with has been Nick Mamatas. Nick and I worked on Haunted Legends, a horror anthology, together. Nick knows a different pool of writers than Terri and I do so it was interesting to work with some of “his” authors. Since it was our first anthology together it was also a little worrisome at the beginning as to whether we’d be on the same wavelength. Luckily we were and I’d be happy to work with him again.

ANTHONY: You’ve occasionally been accused of having a sort of stable of writers: “If this is a Datlow anthology, I don’t even have to look at the ToC, I know Authors A, B, C and D will be included.” And I’m sure other editors receive similar accusations. Do comments like that have any influence on your story choices?

ELLEN: I don’t consider having a stable of writers an negative, and it’s certainly not a limitation. It’s a fact of editing over a long period of time. One works with writers whose work one enjoys and who produces great stories –on time. So of course the editor will keep buying stories from those writers over the course of time, as long as she can –see my note in the next paragraph. I have a huge stable of writers from my seventeen years at OMNI Magazine, my almost six years at SCIFICTION, plus the twenty-five Best of the years I’ve edited.

In every original and reprint anthology I edit there are some writers whose work I use repeatedly, but there are always other writers I’ve only rarely or never before published in my anthologies. This is especially true in my best of the year anthologies. Just in the last two years of The Best Horror of the Year I published twelve stories by writers I’d never worked with before—some of whom I’d never even read before. The crucial thing to know about writers is that they often stop writing short stories once they publish their first novel, so to me it’s important to use their best short fiction while they‘re still writing it. Very few of the hundreds of writers I published in OMNI write many if any short stories today. So yeah. I’m delighted to be able to continue to publish writers like Jeff Ford, Kathe Koja, Kaaron Warren, Laird Barron, and Richard Bowes as long as they continue to produce great stories. I’d be stupid not to.

ANTHONY: We’ve talked in the past (mostly on your livejournal) about the importance of story placement, especially in the lead-off and concluding positions of an anthology. Is there ever pressure from a publisher to ensure Author X gets the lead-off, even if you personally feel the story is more appropriate for the middle of the book in relation to the rest of the stories you’ve accepted?

ELLEN: No –that’s generally my decision. Twice, in-house editors have suggested a switch, but when that happened it had nothing to do with who the writer was but the feeling that a different story would work better as the lead. And thinking it over I concurred.

ANTHONY: How intimately do you work with writers before a story is officially accepted? Have you ever initially accepted a story and then through the editing process realized that it wasn’t going to work out?

ELLEN: I never accept a story before I’m certain that it will work out. If I love a story but feel it needs too much work to buy outright, I’ll ask the writer if she’s willing and able to work with me on it (setting out what I see are the problems). If she is, I’ll make it clear that until we’re agreed on the revisions and I see the rewrite I can’t commit to taking the story (giving specific suggestions and asking specific questions about the trouble spots). But if I and the writer put that much time into rewrites I know that ultimately I will take the story.

When I was a lot newer to editing I had a few experiences in which I requested rewrites but the writers didn’t “hear” what I was saying–they made changes I didn’t ask for and in so doing made their story worse. Which is why I’m much more careful now how I ask for rewrites and try to be very specific.

Also, because I’m not working on a magazine/webzine with a slush pile, I usually work with writers whose work I’ve solicited. That means I’m familiar with their work and hope we’re on the same wave length. Going back to your questions about “stables”–that’s the advantage of working with writers you’ve worked with before. You know that you can work with them, saving a lot of time and energy on both sides.

ANTHONY: You’ve said in recent interviews that all of your anthologies are “invitation only.” I can’t resist asking: how does one go about getting invited? Or, to phrase the question more seriously: what catches Ellen Datlow’s attention these days that might cause you to invite a writer to a future anthology?

ELLEN: By me noticing your fantastic stories when I read for The Best of the Year. And since I skim so many sf/f/h/mystery short stories (and some non-genre) being published in a given year, I’m pretty aware of new writers as well as the more established ones.

ANTHONY: Speaking of the future. I see that one of your and Terri’s classic anthologies, SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED, was recently reissued. Are there any plans to continue the Adult Fairy Tale series?

ELLEN: We’re very pleased that Snow White, Blood Red has always done so well. It sold 72,000 in mass market pb which is amazing for an anthology. It was in print for over ten years and it’s great that it’s in print again from Fall River Press.

I grew tired of reading so many re-told fairy tales after six volumes of adult tales and three of middle grade (for children). The sub-genre exploded after we did ours. I don’t know if there’s much of a market for new anthologies on the theme any more– I’m not convinced we could sell a new one these days. Black Thorn, White Rose, and Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears are both currently in print from Wildside Books. What we’d love is for the last three volumes to be reissued, as they’ve been out of print for awhile.

ANTHONY: What else are you working on at the moment?

ELLEN: Terri and I recently finished a young adult anthology called After: Dystopian and Post-apocalyptic Tales that will be published by Hyperion next fall. And we’re working on an adult Victorian Fantasy anthology for Tor. And of course, The Best Horror of the Year volume four, my bête noir.

ANTHONY: Finally, can you tell my readers about the Fantastic Fiction readings at KGB in New York City?

ELLEN: It’s a monthly reading series started in the late 1990s by writer Terry Bisson and Alice K. Turner (former fiction editor at Playboy), originally pairing genre and mainstream writers at the KGB Bar, an east village institution (in New York City). I took over for Alice in spring 2000 and when Terry Bisson left for the west coast in 2002, Gavin J. Grant began co-hosting with me. Matthew Kressel took over for Gavin in 2008 and we’ve been co-hosting ever since.

ANTHONY: Thank you for taking the time to chat, Ellen! Always a pleasure!

* * * * * *

I somehow managed to not ask Ellen my usual closing question (“What is your favorite book and what would you say to convince someone who hasn’t read it that they should?”), so I’ll mention that my favorites of Ellen’s anthologies are The Beastly Bride, co-edited with Terri Windling, and Naked City.

You can go to Twitter to follow @ellendatlow, and you can find Ellen on her own website.

I’m also happy to announce my first Interview Giveaway! Ellen and her publisher, Dark Horse Books, have been kind enough to provide me with a copy of SUPERNATURAL NOIR to give away in conjunction with this interview.

Supernatural Noir

SUPERNATURAL NOIR is a “masterful marriage of the darkness without and the darkness within … an anthology of original tales of the dark fantastic from twenty modern masters of suspense,” including Gregory Frost, Paul G. Tremblay, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Elizabeth Bear, and Joe R. Lansdale.

To be entered to win the book, leave a comment on this post sharing the name of your favorite Ellen Datlow-edited (or co-edited) anthology. Winner will be picked at random from all comments left here by midnight Tuesday, November 29th. That’s one week from today, folks! Comments are screened, so you won’t show up on the post right away, but rest assured I will approve all comments that are not obviously spam (and I do seem to get a lot of that) and chose from all eligible comments!

PATTY JANSEN, Author - Interview

This week’s guest is author Patty Jansen, as part of the Blog Tour she’s doing to promote her latest book.

The Icefire Trilogy by Patty Jansen

Patty Jansen lives in Sydney, Australia, where she spends most of her time writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. She publishes in both traditional and indie venues. Her story This Peaceful State of War placed first in the second quarter of the Writers of the Future contest. Her futuristic space travel story Survival in Shades of Orange will appear in Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

Her novels (available at ebook venues, such as the Kindle store) include Watcher’s Web (soft SF), The Far Horizon (SF for younger readers), Charlotte’s Army (military SF) and books 1 and 2 of the Icefire Trilogy Fire & Ice(http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005TF1B9K) and Dust & Rain (post-apocalyptic steampunk fantasy).

Patty is a member of SFWA, and the cooperative that makes up Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and she has also written non-fiction.

Patty is on Twitter (@pattyjansen), Facebook, LinkedIn, goodreads, LibraryThing, google+ and blogs at: http://pattyjansen.com/

Patty Jansen

ANTHONY:  Hi, Patty! Thanks for stopping by to chat. You’re about to release book three of your IceFire Trilogy. Give my readers a little overview of the series so far, if you will.

PATTY:  On a strange world in a land without a name, a relic of a long-dead society causes a lethal radiation called icefire. The people who live close to this thing, called the Heart of the city, have become immune to it, but the Imperfects, always born with parts of limbs missing, can bend it to their will. Fifty years ago, such a person became king and used icefire to cut out people’s hearts, turning them into ghostly servitors who terrorised the population in the king’s name.

This lasted until the Eagle Knights, flying on the back of giant birds, killed the king and ousted his family. But in the fifty years since, the Eagle Knights have led a cruel witch hunt against  those who happened to be born Imperfect. Many families have lost children, and the tide is turning the other way.

The old king’s grandson, Tandor, has grown up in neighbouring Chevakia and he wants only one thing, revenge. His grandfather’s diaries tell him how to increase the beat of the Heart, and with the resulting higher level of icefire, he plans to re-take the throne.

However, to do so, he needs the help of the Imperfect children whom he’s saved from death, and the Eagle Knights have discovered their hiding place.

So starts a frantic rush to find the children, or to find other Imperfects, and without giving too much away, I can say that once you start meddling with icefire, it takes on a mind of its own. This is a destructive, evil force.

The rest of the series involves how refugees and people from the neighbouring country (who will die once icefire reaches certain levels) piece together the only way to undo the damage.

ANTHONY: Sounds exciting and intriguing! So many fantasy trilogies these days seem to grow into quadrologies or longer. Is IceFire a real trilogy, a “done in three” deal?

PATTY:  It’s a complete story, so if ever there were any other books in this world, they wouldn’t be part of the trilogy.

ANTHONY:  I recently talked to Andrew P. Mayer about his “Society of Steam trilogy.” We talked about how the first book was a mystery but the second book is more of an action-romance, and how the tenor of individual books in a series can change while still being true to the whole. How did you approach crafting the IceFire Trilogy? Is it one massive story told in three parts, like the Lord of the Rings, or does each book have its’ own personality and purpose?

PATTY:  It is a massive story told in three parts. It grew out of me trying to write it as one book, and failing miserably. There are various aspects to it. Book 1 takes place entirely in one locality, until something dramatic happens at the end. Book 2 deals with the fallout from that event, and book 3 brings the threads together as the characters must find a way to deal with the disaster that is acceptable to all, and learn that every good is also evil, and every evil is also good.

ANTHONY:  How did you plot/pace the Trilogy? Was it tightly-plotted from the beginning, or did you allow room for tangents and new ideas? (Isn’t that a nice way of rephrasing the “are you an outliner or a pantser” question? haha)

PATTY:  I am a pantser extra-ordinaire. That said, I always knew where I wanted the book to end up. The bits in between are never clear until I write them, but the ending always is.

ANTHONY:  In addition to the trilogy, you’ve got stand-alone novels and a plethora of short stories/novellas available through Smashwords. I know you’ve blogged about your love for Smashwords on your own blog, but I want to play devil’s advocate and ask: what are the pitfalls to electronic self-publishing?

PATTY:  Doing it too early, before you have a clue about writing, about what’s hot and what’s not, before anyone who is not a friend or relative has read and commented (read: shredded) on your book. You should develop some writing chops before you wade into the giant self-publishing pool. Get a few short stories published. Submit to agents for a while. If you get regular requests for the full manuscript, that is when you can self-publish.

ANTHONY:  Jay Lake often talks about an author’s “span of control.” What’s your most comfortable working length for fiction?

PATTY:  I honestly don’t have one. A story is as long as it needs to be.

ANTHONY:  As you know, I’m a bit obsessed with short stories.  Do you approach the writing of a short story any differently than you approach writing a novella or novelette?  What factors into deciding something will be a story versus a novella?

PATTY:  A lot of my longer works started out as short stories. I think any short story can be made into a novel by adding extra layers or expanding the plot (the short story plot usually ends up being a secondary thread). This is what I seem to be doing a lot recently. The trilogy started life as a short story. The story covered a tiny part of the plot, and in the novel, I ended up turning it upside down.

ANTHONY:  It seems like your standard short story page length is around 50 pages, which is about 40 pages longer than my average short story. I’m fairly new to the e-reader scene, but do you find that working at that length makes it easier to re-brand / market your shorter works for the Kindle, Nook, etc? What are the challenges of taking a story that’s been published (print or online) in a magazine or anthology and then putting it out as a stand-alone ebook?

PATTY:  No, not really, but if a short story is less than 5000 words, I like to tack something else onto it. Also, some of my short stories (especially the freebies) have a sample chapter attached.

ANTHONY:  What other projects, short or long, are you working on?

PATTY:  I write a fair bit of hard SF, and once I finish the trilogy, I will be working on a novel in the same world as my novellettes His Name In Lights and Luminescence and the novella Charlotte’s Army.

ANTHONY:  And my usual final question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to convince someone who hasn’t read it that they should?

PATTY: C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series. These books are social Science Fiction that describes relationships between aliens and humans living on a planet where humans are refugees, in the minority and not in power. The aliens are human enough for interactions, but alien enough so that you never really know what they will do next. The depth in these books is astounding, the immersion in the character incredible.

ANTHONY:  Thanks, Patty!

2011 WRITING GOALS - Anthony R Cardno

I think it is absolutely time to state some broad writing goals for this year.  I’ve been in a bit of a slump writing-wise since before the holidays, but am slowly coming out of it.

Part of coming out of the slump is thanks to taking Jeremy C. Shipp’s Yard Gnome Army Fiction Writing Boot Camp (Winter session).  Jeremy is a fun writer to read, and an even more fun writer to work with. He’s been encouraging to even the slowest-writing students (read: ME), and his feedback has definitely improved the story “Thumbsucker” already. I’m interested to see his feedback on the second draft, and am hopefully that a third pass through the material will have it ready to start being submitted.

The story-submission horse is one I definitely need to get back on.  My goal, in the first half of this year, is to revisit all of my existing unpublished short stories and do polishes on them with the intent of getting them back in the world.

The other big assignment for Jeremy’s class is the first chapter of a novel. I’m plugging away slowly at that. It’s due soon, and I think I have something. We’ll see just what it is.

Check out the link to Jeremy’s own website in the Links section to see his work and learn a bit more about him.

The other large motivating factor, today, was Jay Lake’s post on his blog about his writing goals for the coming year. I read it, and I realized: I need to do that. I know there’s a school of thought that insists sharing goals with the greater public actually works against accomplishing them. In this case, I disagree. I need to get these goals in front of me, and this space is one good place to do that (the other being the bulletin board above my desk).

So, the 2011 writing goals are:

Ongoing: rework the unpublished short stories and get them on the rounds again.

March 2011: finish the first draft of Ambergrin Hall, the mystery-thriller set on the Croton College campus.  The whole manuscript needs tightening, but that can only happen when the first draft is finished.

April 2011: finish the first draft of Christmas Ghosts. Not as much to do to finish this one, but I’m sure a second pass will bring plot holes and inconsistencies to light.

June 2011: Plot out and begin Tarasque, the swords-and-planets novel in the vein of John Carter Mars, Carson of Venus, and Adam Strange.

I’ve also, on the non-fiction side, embarked on writing book reviews for ICARUS magazine, which is published by Lethe Press. Paying book review gigs are always a good thing.

So, as Jay said in his post: there are my upcoming goals. What are your plans?

ANTHONY R. CARDNO, Author - Interview

Yesterday I had the older group of kids who are my nieces and nephews interview me. Today we continue with the younger crowd, starting with my niece Renee, to whom THE FIRFLAKE is dedicated.

The Firflake, Anthony R Cardno

RENEE (age 11): What inspires you the most?

ANTHONY: Yesterday I talked about how inspiration for writing comes from a lot of different places: people I’ve seen, places I’ve been too, things I’ve read. But what inspires me as a person, every day, is love. I’m blessed to have so many amazing people in my life, and that love and support inspires me to be a better writer and also a better person. And hugs. Hugs are important. As you know.

RENEE: Are you going to make another Christmas story for me and Vinnie?

ANTHONY: There is another Christmas story coming. CHRISTMAS GHOSTS isn’t written for you and Vin the way THE FIRFLAKE was, but I still want you to read it! And who knows… maybe Christmas Eve I’ll have a new story to tell you guys, and that might someday become another book!

JARED (age 11): What inspired you to become a writer?

ANTHONY: Yesterday, I said “comic books.” Of course, it wasn’t just comic books that did it. It was also teachers and other adults who encouraged my creativity. Mrs. Bleakly and Mrs. Vezina at Austin Road Elementary; Mr. and Mrs. DelCampo and Ms. Burgh at Mahopac High School; the professors at Elmira. When I mentioned the cousins on Long Island whose house I used in my super-hero stories? Aunt Terry used to read everything I wrote while I was visiting, and then she’d ask questions and make suggestions about how to improve it. All of that encouragement helped, and continues to help.

JARED: Are your characters in your stories based on people you know?

ANTHONY: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The main characters are very rarely based on any one person. For instance, in CHRISTMAS GHOSTS, the character of Collum McCann has bits and pieces of the personalities of lots of sixth graders I’ve known over the years. It’s hard to base a main character on a specific person because there’s always the chance that person will be insulted or upset at the way you portray them, despite the fact that the story is fiction. I find it’s easier to use friends and relatives as supporting characters, so they can be happy they got included but I don’t have to worry about how they’ll feel about their portrayal. CHRISTMAS GHOSTS is a good example: between students, teachers and coffee shop workers, there are a LOT of familiar names and little “winks” at family and friends. Who knows … YOU might even be in that one!

JARED: What’s your favorite kind of writing and is it the same as what your favorite kind of reading is?

ANTHONY: Hmmmm. They are probably not the same thing. I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, but I haven’t really written that much science fiction or fantasy so far other than the super-hero stuff I wrote for the Super-Team Amateur Press Alliance (STAPA). I can say that I read a lot of short stories (at least 365 every year) and that’s the story length I like to write too. Novels are hard work!

MORGYN (age 8): How do you like to elaborate with your stories? I’m learning to elaborate with mine right now.

ANTHONY: I’m glad your teachers are teaching you how to elaborate on your ideas! You know, the first draft of the THE FIRFLAKE was a lot shorter. There was a lot less detail about the kids and how they were a part of the storytelling tradition of the family. So when I wrote later drafts, I added more sense detail: smells, sights, etc., and I gave the kids more to do. And then in one of the last drafts, your Uncle Jon said “there’s still something missing. What is it? Elves. Santa. Snow. Presents. Waitaminnit! Where’s the reindeer??” And a whole new scene got written. So sometimes I elaborate by asking “what is it the characters are seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, doing.” And sometimes I elaborate because someone says “hey, did you ever think about including a scene where…”

MORGYN: How do you decide on a topic to write on?

ANTHONY: Mostly it’s whatever strikes me when I sit down to write. It might be a new idea that popped into my head while I was driving, or it might be a scene in a story I’m already working on but I’ve been struggling with it. Story ideas come from all over the place, but it’s really rare that I have an idea and immediately start working on it. I usually let ideas sit in my head a while, until I’ve thought them over and they seem ready to be written. I call that “letting them percolate.”

MORGYN: If you could interview someone you haven’t interviewed yet, who would you pick?

ANTHONY: I can’t give just one answer to this question. So I’m going to divide it up by category, okay?
Authors: Rick Riordan. Neil Gaiman. Seanan Maguire. Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman.
Musicians/Singers (adult): Rosanne Cash. Dennis DeYoung. Adam Levine. Kalan Porter. Pentatonix.
Actors (adult): Nathan Fillion (Castle). Colin Morgan (Merlin). John Glover. John Lithgow.
Comic Book Writers/Artists: Gail Simone. George Perez. Bill Willingham.
Musicians/Singers (teens): Kropp Circle. Cody Simpson. The Feaver. And I know you and Renee would love it if I could interview Big Time Rush.
Actors (teen): Sterling Beaumon. Zach Mills. Jeanette McCurdy. Molly Quinn.

XAVIER (age 8): What inspired you to write the book?

ANTHONY: Well, Xave, like your mother I have always loved Christmas. And I’ve always loved the animated television specials like Rudolph, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. So those cartoons were part of the inspiration. Reading The Grinch and Polar Express and ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas to Vinny and Renee when they were very little was another inspiration. And then there’s the tradition of wishing on the first snowflake of winter, and what magic that snowflake carries. All of that came together to become THE FIRFLAKE you know and love.

JACK (age 10): Who is your favorite Harry Potter character? (even though I already know)

ANTHONY: Well, since you already know, I don’t have to answer, do I? haha. Okay, since other people probably want to know, too: Remus Lupin. He reminds me a lot of me. My second favorite character would be Ron Weasley,who also reminds me a lot of me.

JACK: Which is your favorite Harry Potter book?

ANTHONY: They’re all so good, but if I had to choose one … Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It’s exciting, it introduces Remus and Sirius (my favorite character and your father’s favorite!), and Buckbeak is just really cool.

JACK: What was the most exciting part of your favorite Harry Potter book?

ANTHONY: Oh, the whole scene in the Shrieking Shack where Harry, Ron and Hermione are facing off with Sirius and Lupin, and we find out Scabbers is not really a rat, and then Snape shows up … the first time I read the book I couldn’t put it down through that whole sequence.

JOEY (age 7): Have you read any books about the Titanic?

ANTHONY: I have! I read Walter Lord’s A NIGHT TO REMEMBER when I was in high school. I haven’t read any recently though. It’s an incredible story, though, isn’t it?

JOEY: Have you ever written a humongous paragraph?

ANTHONY: I think the longest paragraph I’ve ever written was one full page long when I typed it up. That’s probably not really “humongous,” since there are some writers who write paragraphs that go on for 10 pages!

JOEY: What’s your favorite book?
XAVIER: What is your favorite book?

ANTHONY: I don’t have just one favorite book, so it’s a good thing you both asked me this question. And, since it’s the same question I ask at the end of every interview I do, it’s the perfect final question for this post too! So here’s my two favorite books, and what I would say to recommend them to someone who hasn’t read them yet:

Dracula by Bram Stoker. I’ve read this book every couple of years since high school. It wasn’t the first vampire novel ever written, but it is the most famous. What I love about the book is that while Dracula is the title character, he’s not the narrator. In fact, you very rarely get a look into what Dracula is thinking. He’s frightening because of the way the other characters talk about him.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I read this one every year around Christmas. Even when I’ve been having a bad day or week or year, the story of Scrooge reminds me that anyone can change and be a better person, if they want to be. It’s just that some of us (like Scrooge) need someone else to remind them why being a better person is important. And the narrator tells the story as though he were a favorite uncle telling the story to kids in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve, which reminds me just a little bit of me!

* * * * *
I want to thank all of my real and adopted siblings for letting their kids take part in this: my sister Lorraine Bostjancic, Margaret and Scott Witt, Jon and Cindy Cornue, Jim and Liz Leahey, Tom and Hilda Werder, Frances and Grant Price, Nina O’Reilly, Judy Kiddoo, and Romykay Hajkowski. I’m hoping to do this again in about 6 months and get the rest of the nieces and nephews who missed this one to take part. I think all of the kids (and the not-so-kids like Danny, Laura, and Jake) asked some great questions, making me a proud uncle!

ANTHONY R. CARDNO, Author - Interview Part One

I had the brilliant idea a few weeks ago that it might be a nice year-end change-up to my regular interview posts to have my various nieces and nephews (both the ones related to me by blood and the ones who are kids of friends) quiz me about my writing, interviewing and reading habits. While I didn’t hear back from everyone (*cough*AlexDevinMaxA*cough*), I got a lot of good questions with only a few repetitions. Today’s post is the older batch of kids, ages 13 to 20.

Anthony R Cardno with niece Renee, his sister, and his nephew, Vinny

Anyone who has read THE FIRFLAKE has seen the dedication (“For Mom and Dad, who taught me how to believe, and for Buddy and Squirmy Worm, who reminded me when I forgot.”) Buddy and Squirmy Worm are our family nicknames for my nephew Vinny and niece Renee. Vinny’s questions start off today’s post, and Renee gets the lead-off tomorrow when the younger kids have their say.

VINNY (age 14): What inspired you to write?

ANTHONY: Comic books. That’s the short answer, anyway. The first stories I remember writing were all with Marvel and DC superheroes. I can remember a summer visit to the Cornelia cousins on Long Island, and using their house as the secret base in a story featuring a group of Marvel’s third-string characters (Marvel Man (now Quasar), Blue Streak, The Vamp, and someone else). I had to be in 5th or 6th grade then. I also remember being in the lunch-room at Mahopac Junior High and writing a story about Bat-Girl (the Barbara Gordon version), and trying to draw the logo they used for her in Batman Family at the time. Those stories are all long-since lost; they were all hand-written in loose-leaf binders and spiral-bound notebooks and who knows where they ended up.

VINNY: Will you ever venture into the horror genre?

That depends on what type of horror you mean. Will I ever write a slasher-flick like the Jason movies? Probably not. But the short story “Canopus” right here on the website is suspenseful-horror, and my mystery novel AMBERGRIN HALL has at least a few horrific moments (and a hint of the supernatural). And as you may remember, I’m still supposed to be co-writing a zombie novel with Aunt Nina if I ever get off my buttocks and work on it. (By the way, Vin, kudos for using the word “venture.” Haha)

LAURA (age 20): When you get a creative idea, what sparks in your mind and says “THATS IT! There needs to be a book about this!”

ANTHONY: Ah, the famous “AHA!” moment. I’m not sure I actually get those. I hear other writers talk about them, but my epiphanies are smaller. I get an idea and it’s not “OH MY GOD THIS HAS TO BE A BOOK” so much as “oh, there’s a neat idea, let’s see where it goes.” The moment a story “clicks” for me is usually well after I’ve started it, and then I get that “Oh, yeah, this works!” spark.

LAURA: Out of all of the places you have traveled to, which place gave you the most inspiration when it comes to writing?

ANTHONY: Inspiration always seems to be stronger in the places that feel like home. The scenery change can be subtle (the slightly different small towns elsewhere in northwest NJ / southern NY) or dramatic (an apartment in a city somewhere in the country), but when I’m closer to family I’m more inspired to write. Outside of NY/NJ, the places I get the most writing done are, in no particular order: Palmdale CA, Chicago IL, Portland OR, and Kenosha WI.

DANNY (age 19): How do you avoid repetition in your writing?

ANTHONY: Hire a good editor.

DANNY: How do you avoid repetition in your writing?

ANTHONY: Wow, déjà vu. You want a more serious answer? Being in a local writers’ group (“The Write Direction,” and thank you Marie Collinson, Rosemary Foley and Jessie Peck-Martin!) and having a few “beta-readers” via email — folks who are looking not just at story as a whole but for clarity of language and awkward repetitive moments.

DANNY: How do you avoid repetition in your writing?

ANTHONY: Yes, folks, Danny is the one who seems to have inherited my sense of humor. Or he’s bucking for a job as my editor. Alright, Dan, any OTHER questions?

DANNY: Yes. How do you stay confident with your own writing?

ANTHONY: Oh, good one. The truth is, I don’t. I’m not sure any writer ever does. It’s sort of like stage fright for an actor. Helen Hayes, near the end of her long and varied career, said “I get sick with stage fright. Noel Coward threw up before every show, he got so sick. God made stage fright.” Carol Channing followed that up with “She was right about that. God made stage fright. I’ve noticed over a lifetime those that do not have stage fright, are not that good on stage.” It’s the same for me. Doesn’t matter that I’ve got had non-fiction, short fiction, and a short novel published. Every time I write something, there’s always that “oh my god, does this suck bat-guano” question lingering in the back of my head. And even after it’s been published, it’s the same. Just this month, knowing Marianne Burnham and her talented family had a copy of THE FIRFLAKE, I was constantly thinking “what if these wonderful new friends of mine, who were so excited to buy the book, end up hating it?” They didn’t hate it, but that’s beside the point.

JAKE (age 20): Are you working on a follow up to THE FIRFLAKE and/or are you going to try to go in a different direction with your writing?

ANTHONY: Yes. Don’t you love when people answer “either/or” questions that way? Seriously, THE FIRFLAKE is pretty complete unto itself. As much as I love Papa Knecht, Mama Alvarie, Engleberta and the rest, I’m pretty sure (at least right now) that their story is complete. However, I do have another, longer, Christmas novel nearing completion. Where THE FIRFLAKE is a book meant to be read by parents to children, CHRISTMAS GHOSTS is aimed straight at the middle-grade / young-adult market. It’s about sixth grader Colum McCann, who is still hurting about the unexpected death of the older brother he worshipped, and how he discovers a secret about Christmas Eve that could give him the chance to say goodbye. Beyond that, I’d say my writing is constantly headed in other directions. AMBERGRIN HALL is a college-set mystery-thriller. I just sold a science-fiction short story. I’m working on a sequence of connected fantasy and sf stories. I never know what genre I’ll be writing in next. The authors I most idolize (Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Orson Card, Lawrence Block) all have the ability to write in more than one genre, and to write in more than one style.

JAKE: Is there a specific artist or genre of music that you like to listen to when you write?

ANTHONY: Generally speaking, no. In the past, I’ve gone from working in complete silence to working with only instrumental music in the background. IF I’m going the instrumental route, I tend to rotate between classical stuff like the Carmina Burana and Dvorak’s New World Symphony (both of which I’ve loved since high school, thank you Terry Wynne and Darrell Long respectively) and movie or tv soundtracks. For horror-story-moodiness, nothing beats Wojciech Kilar’s soundtrack for the Francis Ford Coppola version of DRACULA. Michael Giacchino’s LOST soundtracks to seasons one through three are frequently playing as well. When I write my annual holiday poem, there’s always seasonal music playing. In a broader sense, I draw inspiration from the music I love, whether I’m writing at that moment or not. Right now, that ranges from all-time favorites like Rosanne Cash, Jennifer Holliday, Styx and Supertramp to friends like The Dalliance, Casey Stratton, Burnham and Matt Johnson.

JAKE: How would you describe your relationship with Orson Scott Card? I remember my mom telling me he posted on your Facebook wall a while ago which I thought was awesome.

ANTHONY: Over the past few years, I’ve had a chance to interact with Orson a couple of times. Some of his books would easily make any Top 25 list I might put together (particularly Ender’s Game, Lost Boys, and the whole Alvin Maker series). I’ve learned a lot about craft reading his books, and he’s graciously answered my fan-boy questions about his work and even about the Mormon religion. He’s never been anything but polite and friendly towards me, and I appreciate that from any well-known person (meeting Neil Gaiman was equally as gratifying, for instance. And Jennifer Holliday and John Glover and Ellen Datlow, as well.). Orson has made some pretty controversial statements in the recent past about homosexuality and “hating the sin but not the sinner,” (that’s not a direct quote, it should be noted) that I obviously don’t agree with – but that doesn’t detract from my love of his books and how I feel about the times we have interacted. (In fact, I think the Facebook post your mom was referencing was my quote “Gravity doesn’t care who you fall for,” which Orson liked.)

JAKE: How have your past experiences working with children influenced your writing?

ANTHONY: Immensely. You’ve been in the audience when I’ve told campfire stories. There’s no denying that some of my current style is a direct development from that experience. I also think the child and teen characters I write are more realistic because of all the actual kids and teens I am proud to call my nieces and nephews. Whether you were aware of it or not, you and your brother and the rest were the testing ground for the voice I use in a lot of my short stories. And speaking of your brother…

GABE P. (age 16): As you know, I am a high school student, and often times I find myself, along with other high school students, frustrated with teachings about writing in English class. How much of what you learned in school applies to your current writing career, and since then what has affected your writing habits and style?

ANTHONY: I had some really great English teachers in high school: Chris and Eugenia DelCampo (no relation) and PJ Burgh specifically. I learned a lot about literary analysis from them. My love of Mark Twain is all Mrs. DelCampo’s fault. My love of the theater and Shakespeare comes from the other two. I know the basics of writing an essay that I learned in high school served me well when I was writing non-fiction articles for various company newsletters and for Camping magazine. But if I’m being honest: I don’t remember actually studying creative writing in high school, at least not in any of our regular classes. Jerry Hahn and I co-wrote an adaptation of Snow White our senior year of high school that was produced as the fall play, but that’s about the only school-assignment type creative writing I remember doing. All the super-hero stuff I wrote in high school was on my own. The first creative writing classes I took were at Elmira College: Creative Writing with Professor Kerry Driscoll, a Playwriting Directed Study with Professor Jerry Whalen, a Science Fiction class with Doctor Bruce Barton in which we built our own worlds from scratch. Also, being a member of the Super-Team Amateur Press Alliance (STAPA) since 1982, and being in various writers’ groups over the years.

GABE P: Many writers I have seen in the past have conveyed a bit of their personalities in their writing such as Christopher Moore with his wittiness, or Oscar Wilde with his pompous disposition. If there is a characteristic of your personality that you would want your readers to take away from your writing, what would it be?

ANTHONY: Well, I hope my punny, somewhat dorky, sense of humor shines through in most of my work. But I don’t think I intentionally put a characteristic of myself out there as part of the planning for a story. Another Elmira professor of mine, Malcolm Marsden, told me that he enjoyed reading every paper I wrote because I always revealed a bit about myself and my own search for identity as I was analyzing the book or author in question. I think that’s still true. In THE FIRFLAKE, it might be Engleberta’s insecurity about being the best Watcher she can be; in AMBERGRIN HALL, there’s a bit of my quest for identity and love of folk music and the theater in Garrett and in Ezra; in “Canopus,” well… there’s a lot of me in the narrator of that story. I’m still constantly questioning who I am and where I am, and I think that comes out in my fiction.

GABE P: Do you ever find yourself unintentionally emulating an element from another writer’s work, or are you always aware of where you are drawing your influence from at a given moment?

ANTHONY: Unintentionally, all the time. I’ll reread something I wrote and think “wow, that’s a bit of Stoker / Butcher / whoever right there, isn’t it?” Sometimes, of course, that means rewriting because I don’t really want to sound like anybody else … and sometimes it gets left in because that little homage is exactly what I want. Then there are the times when yes, I am intentionally emulating a style. AMBERGRIN HALL has some intentionally Gothic moments in it that recall Stoker, Conan Doyle, Bronte. THE FIRFLAKE is one massive homage to the classic Rankin-Bass claymation Christmas specials. CHRISTMAS GHOSTS is intentionally Dickensian, and “Canopus” has a bit of Lovecraft in there.

GABE P.: I can imagine that when you read, you read pieces from genres all over the map. Is there one genre that you are particularly drawn to?

ANTHONY: I do try to be as widely-read as possible. That being said, in 2011 I’d say at least half of what I read was firmly in the science fiction and fantasy realms. Part of that is because I started writing book reviews for ICARUS: the magazine of gay speculative fiction this year, and that’s two books every quarter that need to be science fiction/fantasy/horror. But it’s also because those are the genres I’ve always loved. Take a look at my home library one of these days and most of it is genre fiction, including mysteries and pulp-adventure.

And now, let’s hear from the 13 and 14 year olds…

GABE O. (age 13): When did you start writing?

ANTHONY: I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. Definitely by the time I was your age, but surely younger.

GABE O.: How do you beat writer’s block?

ANTHONY: With a rather large canoe paddle.

AIDAN (age 14): No, seriously, how do you cure writer’s block?

ANTHONY: It’s an ancient family recipe: salt and other spices rubbed in, and then you let the writer’s block sit and dry for a while, and then…

DANNY (age 19): I think what they mean is, what is your most helpful routine to do when you find yourself with writer’s block?

ANTHONY: Obviously, it’s to make jokes about it. Writer’s block is not so scary when you realize that everyone goes through it occasionally and the best thing to do sometimes is walk away from the project you’re blocked on and just do something else. Go for a walk. Work on a different project. Spend several hours playing Scrabble on Facebook, chatting on Twitter, etc. Or just read. At one point when I was blocked on a short story, I walked away and sat down with a book in a completely different genre and read for a little while, and that seemed to “cleanse the palette” so to speak.

EDDY (age 14): What gives you your inspiration to write?

ANTHONY: I talked early about what inspired me to become a writer. What continues to inspire me? Part of it is that I can’t imagine NOT writing something every day. Some days that urge is fulfilled by my day job (writing for the company newsletter, etc) and some days it’s fulfilled by conducting an interview with a writer, artist, singer, actor or other creative type I respect. And then some days, I’m inspired because I know you all enjoy reading what I write. Encouragement from family and friends helps me continue to enjoy writing, even if I never get published.

AIDAN: So where do you find and how do you come up with ideas for your next story/book?

ANTHONY: Everything, honestly, is capable of giving me inspiration. Sometimes it’s a physical thing: AMBERGRIN HALL has its roots in an old unused building on the Elmira College campus and “Canopus” is based in part on an island in the middle of Lake Mahopac. Sometimes it’s a person: “That Happy Kid” was based on a teenager I used to pass every day commuting home from work. Sometimes it’s a news article: my one-act play “Sneakers in the Sand” and my story “Invisible Me” were based on things I read in the newspaper. So there’s no one thing, really.

EDDY: How many books have you written/published?

ANTHONY: Perfect question to end today’s post on, Eddy! I have one book out there, THE FIRFLAKE: A Christmas Story, and folks can find it if they go up to this site’s navigation bar and click on the tab with the book’s title on it. I also have a short story coming out in the SPACE BATTLES anthology sometime in 2012, and sometime early in the year you should be able to see a music video I scripted for The Dalliance on Youtube. Hopefully, next year will see more of my fiction out there.

That was a much longer post than I expected! Tomorrow (Monday), I’ll post what the younger kids asked me.

DENNIS MILLER, Author - Interview

This week between the holidays, I sit down to chat with my old friend Dennis Miller about his new book One Woman’s Vengeance.

Dennis Miller

Dennis R. Miller lives in upstate New York and is the PR Director at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of the novel, The Perfect Song, and a former musician. He has written syndicated newspaper columns on the humor of daily life and music, as well as blogs, and the higher education marketing blog.

Dennis R Miller

All Nora Hawks and her husband wanted was to raise horses on their New Mexico ranch. But Butch Wheeler and his 11 outlaws murdered her husband, raped Nora, set their house on fire and left her for dead. She survived and returned, hiring retired bounty hunter Peter Clawson to teach her how to track and kill.
She had to train, not only in the ways of killing, but to mentally and physically survive in a male world of merciless, sometimes mindless, violence. When the day came that Nora was ready, the deadly 12-member gang was no match against the fury of one woman’s vengeance.

ANTHONY: Hi, Dennis. Glad we finally have a chance to talk. I’ve compared One Woman’s Vengeance to Charles Portis’ True Grit. What inspired you to write a somewhat classic Western?

DENNIS: At first I thought I wanted to write a western. As I got into it I realized that what I really wanted was an uncluttered setting, an uncivilized land and landscape where I could concentrate on character, almost like a Greek play. I wanted to create a woman who loses everything, including her dreams, and set her on a path of revenge. I wanted to study her relationship with a rather passive but intuitive and deadly retired bounty hunter. . . create bad guys that are so despicable you cheer as they are confronted by this intelligent, determined woman whose rage defines her destiny.

ANTHONY: How long did you work on the book before it was published?

DENNIS: I played with it for four years and then worked on it seriously for three years. In all, I rewrote it probably 10 times. The opening graphs were revised probably 20 times. Unlike a lot of writers, I love writing, and rewriting. I love the challenge of finding a way of saying something in the most compact, dynamic way possible. I don’t like wasted words. We don’t have time for them anymore.

One of the best compliments I’ve had is from a female executive who travels and reads a lot. She said that she often skips through passages of books to get to the meat. With Vengeance, she said, she found herself reading every word because there wasn’t any fat or filling.

ANTHONY: Nora Hawks is a fascinating central character. How did she develop from your initial concept to the woman we see in the published work?

DENNIS: I have to be honest, Nora appeared pretty much fully formed. She was rounded out as her relationship with Peter developed. A lot of people ask if she was modeled on a particular person. My answer is she’s a composite of nearly every woman I’ve ever known. Women are much stronger than men. They combine strength with compassion and practicality. Most men don’t give women a fraction of the credit they deserve.

I have to tell you that feedback from males and females of all ages has been overwhelmingly positive. But women are absolutely passionate about Nora. One woman emailed me saying, “I want to be Nora – strong and beautiful.” She’s 82-years-old. Another wrote and said, simply, “I could so be her.” Nora’s a real person people can relate to. She’s also a mythic figure who, when her family and dreams are taken from her, unleashes a fury that’s unstoppable. She’s really hit a nerve with readers.

I say all this very humbly. I opened the door and she rode in, fully formed and ready to overcome all odds to exact vengeance on her own terms.

I’ll also add that cover artist Marc Rubin fully captured her in terms of her beauty and her fury. His cover is, to me, a masterpiece and a reminder to all writers to find a good cover artist. You can’t judge a book by its cover but your first impression of the book is from that very important work of art.

ANTHONY: The Western movies of the 40s and 50s were full of strong-willed women who ultimately let the men in their lives be “the defender” and do all the dirty work. Nora is the polar opposite of that — while she could just hire Peter Clawson to enact her revenge for her, she continually pushes him out of the way despite the emotional toll her actions are taking on her. Was there ever a point where you thought about easing her path a little bit?

DENNIS: Great question! No, it was quite the opposite. I kept pushing, making things harder, just to see how strong she was. I understood her strength fully when she was alone in the brothel room preparing to confront one of her attackers. She’s scared, sweating and shaking. Previously she had rejected God. Now, instead of falling to her knees and asking for forgiveness and support, she says, “Okay, God, let’s give each other a second chance.” In other words, “We both messed up. Let’s team up and tackle this together.” That line was a gift. I don’t know where it came from but it sums up the woman’s incredible strength.

No, Nora, through what was done to her and her decision to exact vengeance on her own terms, was born to suffer and fight in a man’s world.

ANTHONY: Speaking of Peter Clawson — I see from your blog that I’m not the only one equating him with Rooster Cogburn. Was there any concern as you were writing that Peter would fall into a stereotypical “western bounty hunter” role? Especially since this really is Nora’s story and Peter is important but still somewhat a secondary character?

DENNIS: When I started the book seven years ago True Grit wasn’t even on the radar. The timing is pretty serendipitous. But I’m not too concerned. Peter is much different character than Rooster and Nora is seeking more than justice. She’s a woman who’s lost everything and is out for total revenge while trying to keep her soul. Peter is outwardly quiet until provoked, and then he is deadly.

One of the fun ironies of their relationship is the feminine/masculine tradeoff. He wants to learn how to cook. (“I ain’t had a good bowel movement since the Civil War.”) So Nora teaches him how to live, while he teaches her how to kill.

ANTHONY: I know you love the western United States. Why New Mexico as a setting for the book?

DENNIS: I just love that state. I’ve stood on old volcanoes looking out over plains where dinosaurs played and fought, traveled over dirt roads on huge mountains, took pictures of lizards in the White Sands Desert, toured ghost town copper mining operations. In one part you can follow Billy the Kid. Drive down the road and you’re in Roswell! New Mexico is huge and varied and parts of it are just plain mystical.

ANTHONY: How much research into the time-period did you do both before starting the book and throughout writing it?

DENNIS: We’ve traveled a lot out west – Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, California, so I had, I think a feeling or an appreciation of the West. However, if you go back and look, there’s not really a lot of description of the landscape, clothing, buildings. Just enough to sketch them in. I really wanted to focus on characters.

ANTHONY: One Woman’s Vengeance is a nice complete story with a very satisfactory (but not necessarily “Hollywood-happy”) ending. But you’ve mentioned a sequel in the works. Where do you imagine taking Nora and Peter’s journey next?

DENNIS: I’m struggling with that, Anthony!

I wasn’t planning a sequel but when people read the post-script they assumed there would be a new book. Vengeance is so intense and so focused on Nora’s inner and outer struggles that I’m exploring various options for the sequel. I thought of killing off Peter but realized how important he is as a partner, teacher, father figure and symbol of the West’s wildness.

The postscript is a natural lead-in to another novel, however. The 1870s was the period when the myth of the West was created. The Dime Novels and newspaper accounts provided the blueprint for the 20th century of our need – and our ability — to create larger-than-life heroes to worship, and, ultimately, destroy.

I don’t know. I want to do right by Nora, who has her own life now. By doing what she did, she is a marked woman, by men who want to kill her to make a name for themselves and by the media who want to create a legend to sell newspapers and magazines. By her actions, Nora has become a hero and a villain, a person to be worshiped and destroyed.

The working title is, by the way, One Bullet Beyond Justice.

ANTHONY: I can’t close out this interview without at least mentioning your other book, The Perfect Song, which is not a Western and has a very different feel to it. Tell us a little about what The Perfect Song is about and where people can find it.

DENNIS: The Perfect Song took 25 years to write, off and on. It’s about Mendel, a wandering artist trying to write the perfect song. His castaways are picked up by Poul who goes into partnership with Beasely, a publisher who records the songs. Mendel becomes the most famous songwriter in the world and never knows it. It’s a commentary on our society, the heroes we create and then destroy. It’s also about Poul’s struggles with his own identity, ethics and his love-hate relationship with the genius he never meets but who becomes his best friend/alter ego. It’s about art and commerce, how they clash and work together. I started the book in the 20th century and finished it in the 21st century.

It’s still available in print at Amazon. When things slow down I’ll be making it available as an ebook. Thanks for remembering it!

ANTHONY: How could I forget it! And my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who has never read it to convince them that they should?

DENNIS: Honestly, I don’t have one favorite book. Twain and Hemingway have been huge influences. Henry Miller was a genius and a true anarchist. John D. MacDonald was one of the best storytellers ever. Anais Nin consumed me for years (a strong woman who maintained her femininity). I have the complete Sherlock Holmes on my Nook. The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout was also very influential. The hard-boiled writers – mainly Dashiell Hammett, Cornell Woolrich, Raymond Chandler and Jim Thompson – have been influential in my writing—especially Vengeance.

ANTHONY: No wonder we’ve gotten along so well all these years – such similar tastes in writers. I discovered Woolrich not long ago, and am somewhat obsessed. Anything else you’d like to say before we wrap up?

DENNIS: Great questions, Anthony. I spent a lot of hours and miles thinking about them. I hope my answers did them justice. I also want to thank you for all that you do for artists. Most people don’t realize how time-consuming it is to do the reading, listening, research, interviews, editing and publishing. Artists are lucky to have people like you. Thanks.

ANTHONY: No, thank you!

Dennis maintains a blog to support One Woman’s Vengeance, with deleted scenes and ruminations on the writing of the book.
You can find him on Facebook, where you can also order personally inscribed print editions of One Woman’s Vengeance. Print and ebook editions of One Woman’s Vengeance are available on Lulu.com, and ebooks are available through Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and Amazon.