ANSON LI - Interview

Anson Li is a singer-songwriter who grew up in New York City and has only recently made the move to Los Angeles. I became aware of him, as I tend to do, through Twitter and finally had the chance to meet up with him in person at the JerseyStock festival earlier this summer. This interview was conducted there before Anson completed his tour, so I edited a couple of questions to reflect that … because I just couldn’t bring myself to cut out all the nice things he said about his tour manager.

Anthony: So let’s start out with a basic question: when did you start performing? When did you realize that this was what you wanted to do?

Anson: Oh, wow. I’ve been playing guitar since I was five, and it’s kind of been my third arm ever since. I realized I wanted to become a performer when I played a lot of talent shows when I was in middle school, and it just hit me when I was maybe ten or twelve that I wanted to do this for a living. I always feel like I belong on the stage. You feel very connected with everything and it feels nice.

Anthony: And you’re how old now?

Anson: I just turned twenty.

Anthony: I always forget that. I know it, and then I forget. Because you have a much younger face.

Anson: Yeah, I look … I have the youth genes. I like it.

Anthony: So your new EP (“This Is Love”) came out how long ago?

Anson: It came out in May.

Anthony: How’s the response been?

Anson: Oh, it’s been fantastic. I think the first four days we sold 1,000 copies of it which is ridiculous. And thank you guys, if you’re reading this, for grabbing it, it means a lot. It’s been going good. I love the new songs, I think they’re definitely more mature and definitely going in a direction I want them to go in, so over time… I’m actually writing the next record right now, trying to figure out everything.

Anthony: Let’s talk a little bit about your songwriting process. How do you approach writing new songs? I hate to ask the question “where do your ideas come from,” because as a writer, that one really annoys me.

Anson: Yeah. It kind of just comes. Honestly, I don’t just sit down and say “I’m gonna write a song today.” I could be in the subway or the grocery and just walking around and I have to just run home and write it. It does depend on the room in my house. I’ve actually noticed this, it depends on the space I write in. For a smaller room, I write sadder songs and in a bigger room I write poppier songs. And it also depends on  how well-lit they are. I have this thing that I think rooms have their own aura, and I write my songs based on that. I don’t really sit down “Oh, I’m gonna write a song.” It just comes.

Anthony: The earlier EP, “Go My Way,” which is I think the first time I heard your music, (and man, “I Swear” still pops into my head unexpectedly and I find myself bopping along to it), was a bit more pop-oriented.

Anson: Yeah, well, on the new EP there’s still some pop songs like “My Leading Lady,” “All Night,” they’re pop-py. I grew up listening to bands like punk-rock like Yellowcard and I’ve been into that scene, and I always wanted to be in a band, but I just never found the right people. I left a band to do my solo stuff, and I was like “I’m just gonna do what makes me happy, I’m gonna do it myself” because I had the ideas and I knew where I was going to go. I’m not saying I don’t like my pop stuff. I love my pop stuff. But I think over time, it will get darker, but I think there’s always going to be gem of pop stuff coming in there.

Anthony: I think the terminology, I’m kind of melding it a little bit, it’s not that your newer stuff isn’t pop, or popular, it’s that your lyrics are taking a darker sense. I get that My Chemical Romance sense, The Black Parade, all about death and yet it’s a great popular song, people love it.

Anson: Exactly! I just wanted to write some stuff that was a little more to the heart, like last time it was like “First Kiss” and they’re cool songs, but they’re on the surface of things. They’re about things that happened in my life, but they’re a little more like when I was on the fourteen or fifteen side of things, and I just wanted to … you look at songs like “Press and Release,” and I wanted to talk about things that I haven’t talked about before. Because people have given me the criticism of “you write all songs about girls,” and I’m like “It’s true, but that’s been what my life’s been …” I mean, not like I’m a player or anything, but you go through relationships and you write about them. It’s all about relationships in life. Even “Every Time” is about my parents’ relationship with me. It’s … it’s about life and what you go through. I write about what happens in my life.

Anthony: Do you, and I’ve asked other artists this who have gone through changes in their style, do you feel or fear that you’re going to lose some of your older fans because they’re used to you being the “Sing About Girls” Anson  and now we’re getting the “Sing About Life” Anson?

Anson:  I don’t think so, to be honest. There’s still some ‘hit’ pop songs on the record. So I’m not really discouraged about that, and my live set is usually a mix between both of them. I kinda want to do what  Bruno Mars does. If you listen to Bruno Mars, he does all those hit songs but if you listen to his actual records, it’s like gospel. It’s not “God,” I don’t know really how to put it…

Anthony: It is. He’s very gospel-inflected, but does cover more serious subjects than “The Lazy Song.”

Anson: Exactly, and it has such a fantastic vibe to it, so I like that kind of idea. Having those hit pop songs that everyone sings along to, and then there’s other life songs.

Anthony: Okay, Devin wanted me to ask you…

Anson: Hello, Devin!

Anthony: Devin from Abnormal Interviews, for those who don’t know her. She wanted me to ask you … I love her questions …  “If you were to be a penguin for an entire day, what would you do with your day?”

Anson: I’d eat so much fish. I’d eat SO much fish. And I’d go swimming. Honestly, I wonder what it would feel like to go swimming as a penguin, you’d probably go so quick because of like the flubber and all that stuff.

Anthony: I’d have a problem with the seafood side of things, because I don’t eat it. So I don’t think I could be a penguin.

Anson: I love sushi, so no problem there.

Anthony:  So you just finished a cross-country tour.

Anson: I ended in Los Angeles.

Anthony: Just you and your guitar…

Anson: And my tour manager!

Anthony: Who has been posting pics to your Facebook page.

Anson: Yeah, He’s been fantastic, he’s a cool dude.  I wanted to bring him along because .. he doesn’t listen to the same music as me, he listens to more punk music, but we both have such a passion for music, it’s one of those things where it doesn’t really matter what music we listen to, it’s just the vibe and the creativity. I really enjoy working with him.

Anthony: It’s great to have someone on tour with you that you can share that sensibility with.

Anson: Exactly. He talks an earful to me about punk music, I talk to him about pop. We’re just intrigued with each other and it’s fantastic. Lots to talk about on tour.

Anthony: Since you mentioned pop music and punk, who are your biggest influences, and has that changed at all?

Anson: Yellowcard. Mayday Parade. Taylor Swift. Paramour. Suzanne Vega, which a random one, 1980’s folk-pop. I actually hung out with her, she played a free show at Madison Square Park, thousands of people, ridiculous. She’s kind of what I want to be later in my life because she’s been doing this for over 35 years, she has a kid, I’m friends with her kid, and she has a very stable life. And that’s what I want, I want to be able to do this for the rest of my life. So she’s a huge inspiration. Yellowcard was the very first CD I purchased and the sad thing is I only purchased it because it was so shiny. That was actually my reason. And then they turned out to be my favorite music.

Anthony: Sometimes you discover great music just by going to the store and saying “well, that cover looks cool.”

Anson: Those are the bands I grew up with, but everything’s inspirational. It doesn’t matter, because you take things from any genre, from any performance, and learn something.

Anthony: I find the same thing with writing. I write mostly science fiction and fantasy, but I read all over because it all influences.

Anson: I love science fiction and fantasy.

Anthony: And that’s probably as good a lead-in as I’ve ever had with a musician for the last question I always ask, which is: What’s your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

Anson: Since we mentioned science fiction, I’m going to pick a science fiction book. Ender’s Game, which is coming out as a movie soon. It’s by Orson Scott Card. He’s a little kooky, but I like his writing. It’s about a boy named Ender Wiggin and he fights these aliens called the Buggers. It’s a great book. You have to read it.

You can follow Anson on Twitter (@AnsonOfficial), find him on Facebook, purchase his music on iTunes, buy posters, bracelets and cds on his merch site, and of course see his videos on Youtube.

FAUSTINO DI BAUDA - Interview

We all know how much I love ONCE UPON A TIME. A few weeks back, I interviewed actor Michael Coleman, who plays Happy the Dwarf on ONCE. That was the first of what I hope will eventually be interviews with all of #Team7. Here’s the second. Through Twitter  (@faustinodibauda) and Facebook I’ve had the chance to chat with Faustino Di Bauda, who plays Sleepy/Walter.

ANTHONY: Let’s start with the usual: what inspired your love of acting and where did you get your start?

FAUSTINO: As a kid growing up in suburban Vancouver I always loved live performances, plays, TV shows and movies yet I was excited and terrified when put on stage and therefore dismissed the notion of acting.  My 1st language is Italian and when I was young I often struggled with finding the words to express myself properly.  As I grew up I discovered I was quite good at sports which offered me a stage and I would perform and get recognition thru my actions. If I won they would cheerJ.  Sports were: running, baseball, rugby, football, wrestling and boxing. Wrestling was the sport I excelled at most.

It wasn’t till in my mid thirties that I got the nod for acting.  I got into a series of automobile accidents getting hit from behind on a Saturday and then again on the following Sunday from the side and later a year later hit again. At the time I was a self employed Stone Mason and due to these accidents my work was difficult to do, so underwent physical therapy to mend myself and in doing so discovered yoga.  Later I met a Swami at a yoga workshop who invited me to a yoga retreat in India. I wanted to go but was financially strapped at the time until one day as I was returning to my car after a doctor’s appointment I discovered my automobile was struck from behind and was a total loss and the insurance company purchased it from me and then I had money and went to India. That day at the doctors I was on my way to my car about 5 minutes earlier and was stopped by the receptionist to sign some paper work and if I wasn’t I would have been in my parked car when it was hit. A lot of things were going thru my mind at the time but something told me to stop driving and go to India so I did.

At the retreat I was feeling pretty good and one day at the ashram I was joking around with the Swami’s and one the Swami’s asked me if I was an actor which I replied no and then he said that I should become an actor. So a year and half later, more therapy, yoga, another trip to India and a bunch of meditation made the realization and took the steps to become an actor. So life inspired me to become an actor I guess J and started my training at Lyric School of Acting.

ANTHONY: How do you typically prepare for a character or scene?

FAUSTINO: First by reading the material presented to me by my agent, doing as much research as possible for character, show, movie etc., building the dialogue of the scene(s) auditioning for to memory, What is it about? What do I want? What are my obstacles if any? Relationship, emotional prep. Etc.  Building as much life as possible using my life’s experiences and If I believe it then hopefully so will you.

Faustino Di Bauda as Sleepy in Once Upon A Time

FAUSTINO: It was my very 1st audition that my agent sent me out for TV and film. Met the casting agents, performed in front of a camera the scene, did so 3 times with different instruction each time. Later I was asked to wait in the hall for a bit. Later that day (20min), I was called in again and asked to perform in front of the Director and Producer where they asked me to do the scene 4 different ways and then said thank you. A week later was called in again to meet the other dwarfs minus Grumpy who was in LA and they taped us all 6 together in character which they sent back to Eddy and Adam I presume to view.  That was a Wednesday and I got the call from my agent that following Tuesday that I got the partJ

ANTHONY: What has been your favorite Sleepy scene to film in the first two seasons of Once?

FAUSTINO: The excitement of my 1st day on set ever for ONCE and my 1st ever professional day of work would have to be it. That was the scene in the pilot where Grumpy and Sleepy are in look out for the curse, I fall asleep and Grumpy says Sleepy wake up and then he rings the bell as the curse comes. Meeting Lee that night and him taking me under his wing and having fun doing what we do was amazing. My favorite Storybrooke  moment would have to be ep.3 s1 (“Snow Falls”) where I`m Walter the security guard who once again falls asleep while John Doe aka David goes missing.  Was another special day but honestly everyday on ONCE has its own magic and is always special moments as they`re so many of them.

… aka Walter the security guard

ANTHONY: I know from talking to Michael Coleman that there is a real camaraderie between the members of #Team7. Did you know any of the other actors prior to joining the show, or did the friendships develop after you were all cast?

FAUSTINO: The only actor that I met prior to joining the show was Mig Macario aka Bashful. The friendships did indeed develop over time working together and over time meeting up on and off set. Love all my cast matesJ

ANTHONY: Of course, after the season two cliff-hanger, we’re all anxious about whether we’ll see #Team7 and the rest of Storybrooke at all in season three. Adam and Eddie, the producers, recently said that “Storybrooke won’t be forgotten.” Have you gotten the call to go back to the set yet?

FAUSTINO: I would love to answer that question but my response is tune in and find outJ

ANTHONY: Well, you can’t blame a guy for trying, right? Haha You’ve appeared in a few other sci-fi/fantasy shows, so I’ll ask you the same question I asked Michael: are you naturally drawn to sf/f shows and movies? And if you are, why?

FAUSTINO: Good question, Vancouver has a long history of sci-fi/fantasy shows going back to X-Files so it seems to be what Vancouver is known for I guess. I like all kinds of cinema and shows but must admit I was a Trekkie growing up and a huge LOST fan as wellJ Why? Probably the fantasy portion of the entertainment is what draws me to the work.

ANTHONY: I’m also a big LOST fan! Now, you also have a feature film coming out in the near future. Tell us about SEVENTH SON and your part in it.

FAUSTINO: Yes I do. Looks like it should be coming to cinemas’ January 2014. I play a Innkeeper and had opportunity to meet and work with Jeff Bridges who is one of the leads in SEVENTH SON. Here is the movie trailer  and the IMDB page. I can’t really say too much about it but looks pretty good!

ANTHONY: 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 they should?

FAUSTINO: Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella which is the book that the feature film Field of Dreams was made from. I love the story for its simple message of “if you build it they will come.” It represents to me the power of our creations and that alone should convince anyone.

ANTHONY: Thanks, Faustino!

I wonder who on #Team7 I’ll get to interview next…

THE NEW ROYALTY - Interview

The New Royalty is another up-and-coming band hailing from the New Brunswick area of New Jersey. Comprised of twins Nick (guitar) and Brittany (Bree, vocals) Iafelice, Ricky Joyce (drums) and Kyle Davis (bass), the band has opened for Big Time Rush and played venues with Kicking Daisies, Anson Li and more. I caught up with them, for one of my rare live interviews, at the JerseyStock music festival in late June.

ANTHONY: Let’s start with an easy question. How did the band come together?

BREE: We all met at a music school about, how many years ago? Five? Almost six. They were here originally, Nick and Kyle, I joined soon after because Nick’s my twin, you know. I went to a few of his shows and I really liked and got along with everyone. Really well, and ever since then we’ve been best friends.

ANTHONY: Do you feel like your style has changed over the past five or six years? You know, bands grow and mature?

BREE: We’ve changed a hell of a lot. Everyone does from the ages of like twelve to nineteen or twenty. We first started out as a cover band, and we really enjoyed all the songs. It helped us grow as artists. And then we started writing our own stuff and since then I guess we’ve changed a lot.

RICKY: We haven’t put anything out since 2010. So we’ve had a lot of time to work together and  get tight as a band, understand how each other approaches music, and we’ve been writing together and then we’re going to be recording our first original stuff since 2010 this month. We’ve had a lot of time together to understand each other which helps a  lot in the writing process.

Anthony: So let’s talk about that, that’s a perfect lead-in. How do you approach writing the new material?

RICKY: We all have different strengths. And we all know that. So, Bree’s really good at melodies, and Kyle and I work well at arranging, taking someone else’s idea and arranging it from a rhythm section point of view, and Nick is really good at all-around just throwing a really good guitar part on top of everything, like the icing on top.

BREE: We all have our different strengths, but…

RICKY: It all depends on who comes to the table with something first.  She’ll come in with something…

BREE: It’s always different.

ANTHONY: So it’s a more organic method, it’s not one person is the lyrics, one person is the melody.

BREE: We all have those strengths, but we try…

RICKY: Like, I’ll try to contribute lyrics, and it’ll be a disaster. And I know that before we start.

BREE: Yeah, but it always helps. (Ricky laughs)

KYLE: I write music every day, whether it’s on piano, or bass or guitar,  and even if it sounds like crap, I’ll write it out on paper for later. And recently I’ve been working with Bree on lyrics. But honestly, it’s up to her to make the melody. That’s not my strength.

ANTHONY: In high school I took a music theory class senior year with Mrs. Castronovo and … I’ve forgotten everything I learned. And now I find when I try to write lyrics, I look down and I’m like “well, that’s a really nice poem.” No musicality whatsoever. So I can sympathise, Kyle.  Now, you guys are going back into the studio in August  …  but you’ve been playing some of the new stuff live, though.  The song you played today, and I’m really bad at titles…

BREE: Not This Time.

ANTHONY: Is that going to be part of the new album?

BREE: We’re hoping. We all really like that song. It connects well with the audience.

ANTHONY: Yeah, it seemed to get a really strong reaction from the audience. I was standing at the back and the energy was strong. When I come to shows like this, I tend to hang back and let the screaming girls be up front. (Something Dan Geraghty from Hollywood Ending still teases me about.) But if you can sell it to me at the back and get me moving … it’s strong.

BAND: Thanks.

ANTHONY: Do you have any performances coming up in August or September?

RICKY: I’m so bad with dates.

BREE: We don’t have much because we’re really focused on writing and getting the new EP out. We’re playing the new stuff live, but we want to share it with our friends online. And we do have friends now  in South America who love us, and we want to do it with them.

RICKY: I forget the dates, but in September I think we’re doing a benefit for Autism.

BREE: We love charities.

RICKY: The woman who is putting it together got Kicking Daisies…

KYLE: Oh, that’s in October in Montclair.

RICKY: I know it’s us, Kicking Daisies, she’s trying to get Hollywood Ending… And then there’s another one in November, another benefit for a company I work for. We’re doing like three benefits in October and November.

ANTHONY: Keep me posted and I’ll tweet and post about it.

RICKY: Thanks.  Oh! We were selected to be on a Doors tribute album. So there’s two albums. One is just  bands. The last time we heard, it sounded like the possibility that the Flaming Lips were also going to be on it. That might not be current. So we did “Break On Through.”

BREE: And it’s kicking!

RICKY: It’ll be on iTunes and maybe in stores in September.

BREE: Keep an eye out for it!

RICKY: And, it’s like … you know Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist, just passed away, and this was all in the works before that. So now it’s like this weird coincidence that he passed and now this tribute album is coming out. And the second album is all famous keyboardists of the classic rock era to play the keyboard parts. So there’s Rick Wakeman of YES and the guy from Asia. So it’s going to be a big deal.

ANTHONY: Sounds like it. I’ll watch for it. Hopefully they’ll release it as a set and you’ll be out there with Rick Wakeman!

NICK: We also have the Christmas album. Our second one! We’re releasing another Christmas album. For some reason.

ANTHONY: Christmas music is popular. I wrote a Christmas book, The Firflake, about the first snowflake of Christmas and how the elves met Santa, and it sells a little bit every year.

RICKY: But, you know, every year it’s instantly marketable.

BREE: And it’s kinda helping us discover what we want to do, because you know, we’re covering songs that have been done several, several times. So we put our own twists on them, and it kind shows what direction we’ll be going into.

KYLE: Our creativity, you know, it really puts us on the spot.

ANTHONY: How can you take something that’s been done a million times and still sound like yourselves. You mentioned being really into charities, and that’s something I’m into, too, so let’s talk about what charities you support and how people can help you support them.

BREE: I personally support food pantries and stuff like that.  And To Write Love On Their Arms.

NICK: We also used to work with this anti-bullying company called…

KYLE: Kicking It.

NICK: Kicking It. Trying to get kids aware of the harmful things that come from bullying. And there’s a bunch of stuff we do. There’s this thing called The Pajama Program, donating pajamas to kids who need them. We’ve done Make A Wish Foundation.

BREE: We donated, how much was it … $10,000…

RICKY: We were part of a big even that collectively raised like $10,000.

NICK: Our last charity was actually our CD release party for our last album. We donated all the money we took in to a middle school to help them keep their music program.

KYLE: It was actually my middle school, so that was kind of cool.

ANTHONY: Feels good to give back, right? I go back every year, I grew up in Mahopac, NY, and I do the American Cancer Society Relay For Life. And, you know, I could do events here in NJ because I’ve lived here for 17 years now, but it feels right to back and honor my parents, who died from different types of cancer, and my friends and family.

BREE: We did a show with the Cancer Society.

RICKY: We did a walk, yeah.

BREE: We’ve all been affected by cancer in our own way, so it’s something that’s important to us.

ANTHONY: Well, as a cancer survivor, thank you for helping out!  Okay, the last question I ask in every interview: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

RICKY: Holy crap. That’s a tough one.

BREE: I have one. And it’s not Twilight. (Band laughs) It’s still like a mystical kind of thing. I read a whole series called The Fallen. I think it’s good because it’s unexpected. I didn’t see the ending coming.

RICKY: I’m not a huge book person, so it took me a minute, but I remember reading this book called Mind Blindness. It’s a book about the perspective of someone who has autism, and the stereotypes and the labels attached with autism are not what they appear to be if you’re looking through the eyes of someone with autism, as far as what they’re capable of. It inspired me to go into special education, so yeah, it was an eye-opener.

ANTHONY: A life-changing book, then. Cool.

KYLE: I read when I have to. So in high school, I guess…

ANTHONY: By the way, comic books are also an acceptable answer. Just throwing that out there as a comic book fan.

KYLE: (laughs) I actually read this book, it was really interesting, Brave New World. It’s a futuristic book, and one kid is like from like a totally different culture and he really has to work, to hunt, to survive. And this other person who comes from a world where he doesn’t have to do anything. So they’re at different levels. And there’s “orgy-porgies” in there somewhere, so I’ll just leave you with that.

NICK: What, what did you call it?

KYLE: Orgy-porgy! It was very interesting!

NICK: I love it. (pauses) Oh, shit, it’s my turn. Uhm … Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess. It was really an eye-opener.

ANTHONY: You didn’t see the ending coming.

NICK: It made me interested in trying other foods, now I don’t knock other foods when I see people eating it. Made me more open to other people’s eating habits…

ANTHONY: Dan from Hollywood Ending’s answer to this question was Hop On Pop, so you’re in good company. Can’t go wrong with Dr. Suess.  Thanks for chatting, guys. Can’t wait to hear the new music!

You can find the whole band on Twitter: @TheNewRoyalty,  @OhWorditsNick, @kyloxx, @breerosemusic, @rickyjoyce. You can also find them on Facebook.  They are also of course on Youtube.

And here’s a video that’s about 1o months old, for their song “I’ll Remember You:”

MEGAN LAVEY-HEATON and ISABELLE MELANCON OF NAMESAKE - Interview

It’s a week for welcoming back previous interviewees! Today, I’m catching up with Megan Lavey-Heaton and Isabelle Melancon, creators of the webcomic NAMESAKE. It’s been a while since my last interview with them; we’d meant to do one during their second Kickstarter project, but that sort of fell through. So here they are to talk to us about how that went and what’s upcoming:

ANTHONY: You successfully funded the print version of Namesake Book Two not so long ago. How is the production process coming, and when will the book be available to the general public?

ISA: Production is pretty much over. I re-colored a couple of the pages, polished it up, added an extra story… and then Megan did all the book putting-together part. The toughest part for me is always to design the covers. And I had to design 3 this time. Whew! Since we had the hardcover version coming out with this Kickstarter too. But they turned out great too. The books should be available in August/September if all goes well, but we might open pre-orders before then.

ANTHONY: Are there plans already afoot for collecting book three in print form?

ISA: Book three is almost fully posted online, so as soon as that’s done, plans for the next Kickstarter will probably start.

ANTHONY: What’s your process been like for transferring from web content to the printed page? Did it change at all between books one and two?

ISA: Well, the pages have a pretty standard format, so making the jump from digital to print wasn’t that hard. I perfected my drawing techniques and scanning techniques, and Megan started doing allt he lettering in indesign to make the whole process go more smoothly. Our processes kinda changed about half-way into book one, so book 2 went considerably better.

ANTHONY: Where do we find the characters at the start of book two?

MEG: Emma is still entrenched in Oz at the beginning of book 2. We take a slight detour to check in on Alice and Lewis in the 1800s, then Ben, Elaine, Fred and the Calliope staff in the modern era, along with the introduction of some new cast members who will be very important in the future. For now though, most of this book tells the bulk of Emma’s adventure in Oz.

ISA: And Warrick’s backstory is revealed in book 2. Everyone loves a good tragic backstory.

ANTHONY: How much material will be in the print edition of book two versus the online edition? Any new special extras?

MEG: Book 2 contains Intermission 1 and chapters 6-10. We are about to start chapter 13 in the online edition. We have a book bonus story with Warrick and a Kickstarter-only story with Chiseri and Adora.

ANTHONY: Has your collaborative process changed at all since you started Namesake?

MEG: Not off the top of our head. The machine isn’t broken!

ISA: Nope, if anything, we just have MORE fun. Because the story is gradually becoming more engaging and creative.

ANTHONY: How about your individual creative processes?

MEG: I know for me, I have switched to doing the lettering of the pages in InDesign. Makes it vastly easier when it comes to creating the books!

ISA: I started doing more storyboarding and I have a notebook listing important visual details for all characters… to make sure I don’t forget anything! I plan to make character turnarounds too. It’s more of a process used in animation, but it helps not to draw someone off-model.

ANTHONY: Has the story continued to play out according to your original master plan, or has it taken any interesting side turns?

MEG: It’s definitely taking interesting side turns. For example, Selva has become one of the main cast when originally she wasn’t supposed to have much of a role beyond chapter 1. Nose is another unexpected developed character. We still have the master plan, but we’re letting the different stories develop organically and adjust as needed.

ISA: Characters change a lot, but the main plot stays stable. I think it’s nice that characters are kinda “telling” us who they want to be.

ANTHONY: What other projects are you both working on?

MEG: I’ll let Isa answer that one!

ISA: We have a couple of things we wish to start. I have a few ideas for graphic novels for kids and pre-teens, because it’s an age group I love to write for. Mostly fantasy stuff. Megan has a few ideas that are really exciting too, but she tends to write more for adults, with police mysteries and diabolical curses. I guess we’ll flip a coin and see who gets to choose first. On the short term, we plan to do a couple of short comics to try different things as a team.

ANTHONY: A slight tweak on my usual closing question: If you could only recommend one of the books your characters are based on/connected to, which one would it be?

ISA: Probably a complete book of Andersen’s works. I love his fairy tales. They are my favorites.

CURA TE IPSUM, Kickstarter Campaign - Interview

I’ve interviewed my friend Neal Bailey a number of times here on “Rambling On,” discussing the progress of CURA TE IPSUM, the fantastic “can one man save himself across the Multiverse” webcomic written by Neal and drawn by the incomparable Dexter Wee. About a month ago, Neal started a Kickstarter to publish a print version of Year Two of the webcomic, with lots of awesome perks for backers … and I promptly dropped the ball in regards to having him on here again to promote it. There’s still four days left and the campaign is going strong, so better late than never, right?

ANTHONY: Hi Neal! So, what’s new and exciting in the world of CURA TE IPSUM?

NEAL: Hey, Anthony! Honestly, that probably depends on your perspective. For the readers, we’re going into a section of story that’s going to be decidedly exciting. A big paradigm shift in the next few months, and the beginnings of the origin of the Dark Everett.

For me, what’s exciting is winding toward the middle of Year Five (I write… in the FUTURE) and finishing up this Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style novella I’m doing for the Kickstarter. It’s a lot of fun.

Also… HARDBACKS! We will have hardbacks, it looks like, thanks to this wonderful Kickstarter thing. 

ANTHONY: What made you feel now was the right time to run a Kickstarter for CURA?

NEAL: Honestly, going to cons and watching other independent comics make use of it with no ill effects. I used to write for the internet, and if I learned one thing writing for the internet, it was that if you do a thing and ask for money for it, you get nastygrams from people, for some reason. At least, you used to. That has changed now. As the medium grows, people start to understand if they don’t support a thing, it goes away, which sucks.
I was going to do one big Kickstarter, at the end of Cura, and try and recoup something, anything of the tens of thousands of dollars I’ve thrown into it. I saw Kickstarter as a trigger you could pull once, a fundraising tool to get a thing recognition and a printing.

Then I printed my own trades a few times, and realized I couldn’t continue to do it on my own. I debated options. Going two days a week (which would lead to pay reduction for Dex, which I didn’t want to do). Going to companies (I already have, and a few big ones passed on Cura). That’s when I started asking my other friends doing webcomics and they indicated that the model for Kickstarter has shifted. You’re not a fink for doing one once a year, it’s more of a situation like Kickstarter is a Previews for the indie world. People who like indie comics come, see things that need regular support, order it, and keep it going.

I realized I can do Year Two, and if the people like it, then it wouldn’t be the only hurrah. There is a matrix and community of people who will support a thing that you’re earnestly passionate about. That is quite a reassurance for a struggling writer, and I said to myself, what’s the worst that could happen, you fail? Then you just don’t produce the book, you keep making Cura, you don’t go into more debt, win-win. It’s really quite amazing.

ANTHONY: With only four days to go, you’re very possibly going to double your original goal. What are some of the perks backers can get if they sign on before the campaign ends?

NEAL: We’ve had two stretch goals so far, the first one is better paper, which I REALLY wanted to get for folks, and the hardbacks, which people REALLY wanted to get from me. I got a lot of messages asking for them. If we reach the $7,500 mark (and we’re darn close as of this writing) folks will have a hardback option.
The stretch goals after that are pure perks for folks. I’m going to set a new stretch goal the minute we hit that $7,500, if we’re that fortunate, but to be honest, I have been so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support that I’ve been floored. Anything after where we are now is just a way to make the book better… it’s already happening! Isn’t that fantastic?

The biggest perk that people will have if we do double our goal, outside of any material thing, is the secure knowledge that it’s setting up Cura for at least another solid year, and guaranteeing that trades will continue to be worthwhile and fought for. There isn’t much squeak between the costs and the pledges, but whatever squeak there is will go right back into the book and the comic. I went bankrupt five years ago throwing my own cash into my work, and I’m so incredibly glad that I have a support net here now to help keep this book going. It makes me redouble my efforts and believe even more in what we’re doing, as shallow as that might sound. It’s amazing what a little validation will do. My life is forever changed.

I’m going to try and manage some postcards and paper dolls, bookmarks, whatever I can manage to throw in as a bonus, depending on the final tally. This is really about the people who made this happen, and I want to reward them as much as I can for their good faith.

ANTHONY: You’re creating a “Choose Your Own Dimension” adventure for backers, right? Tell us about that.

NEAL: I used to collect all of the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid, and when I was in elementary I was fortunate enough to have a writer of those style of books come to the school and explain the process. Since then it’s fascinated me.

Once I started doing Cura, early on, I realized that it would lend itself extraordinarily well to a Choose Your Own Adventure style narrative, and I started to write one, but I stopped, for several reasons. Firstly, I wanted to make it a comic, which I hadn’t seen before outside of a book that slips my mind, the title, but it was amazing. I am embarrassed that I don’t recall. That had issues, because Dex is busy, and asking him to do a hundred page comic while he’s already doing Cura and other stuff wouldn’t work. The story is narrative enough and a handful.

I set it aside. I kept thinking about it, but I set it aside, and in the meanwhile fleshed out all of the characters I’d already outlined. Then the Kickstarter came, and Greg Rucka suggested, when I solicited his advice on my Kickstarter, that I ought to do a Choose Your Own Adventure. Recalling my earlier idea, it sounded like it might make a great novella, and so here I am, writing it. It’ll feature almost every member of Cura and Nosce that we’ve seen so far, and some other characters we may never see. You’re every Charlie, and some of the choices you can make are pretty hairy.

I did make one change to the basic formula. As morality tales, CYOA novels seem to reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. I like a more chaotic view of nature and nurture. Sometimes if you do the right thing, bad things still happen, and sometimes when you do a bad thing, there are no consequences. But sometimes it’s as you might expect, and I hope to keep people jumping.

Either way the dang thing is 15,000 words and climbing, so it’s not a minor perk, I hope. 

ANTHONY: I see this question a lot regarding Kickstarters: you’ve hit your funding goal, and passed it — why should I back it?

NEAL: That goes a bit to what I mentioned before, in my earlier answer. First off, the more books I can order, the longer Cura is supported, in multiple respects. I can go to cons and get physical books into the hands of people who have never seen it, which helps the readership, which feeds the book. I can offset the cost of paying Dex, because I believe in paying my artist even when I can’t afford it (and God, have I been stretched thin the last five years). Most importantly, however, every purchase is a vote of confidence that says this book is a thing worth fighting for outside of my own mind, which is critical. It will make my work better, which will in turn feed what I turn out, which will in turn reward those who buy even when the initial goal is met.

Also, another important factor is that the initial goal is the bare minimum to get the project done, the books alone, and anything after that is where things start to be about extra for keeping the wheels turning. Plus, y’know, perks! Stretch goals. There’s good for everyone if we can keep going.

I can unconditionally guarantee that not a penny beyond the goal will go to anything beyond Cura. Hell, if we made a hundred thousand dollars, after Cura was colored, made into a short film, got an app, got Dex a Syntique, or whatever the heck else could benefit Cura, I’d still take cash from my own wallet and put it into making the comic more.

I am a strange duck, in that I never wrote for profit (shhh, don’t tell editors). I write for love of the characters in the hopes that profit may come, that I may write for love of the characters, on and on and on. If I have a dry room and a pen, I’m good. The cash is all about the book, and always will be. If I needed money for my own fun or amusement, I’d go back to day labor moving cabinets with stoners.

i09.com described Cura as “an emotional crisis on infinite earths.”

ANTHONY: Dexter’s art continues to amaze and astound. Is he creating any special new art for certain pledge levels?

NEAL: Yes! We have just added a new “commission” level at the two hundred dollar pledge. He will make a custom tailored commission. Speaking as a guy who has several hanging in his own house, I can honestly say they’re quite a centerpiece for a geek like me. Plus you get the hardbacks and all the other goodies.

ANTHONY: How about for the book itself?

NEAL: We have an eight-page backup introducing an all-female group of Charlenes who will figure prominently in Year Four and Five. There’s a Filipina, several steampunk inspired designs, a black female Hank (Henrietta), and a few members that will likely surprise you. Let’s just say Mrs. Arntzen doesn’t always die.

The backup has been a lot of hard work while producing the regular pages, but it’s absolutely worth it, and probably one of the best arguments to get the trade or the PDFs.

ANTHONY: The print collections cover Year One and Two, but the webcomic is well into Year Three now.  Has anyone come to CURA from reading the print editions first?  Do you find a different reaction to the story (or characters, or pacing) between print-first readers and web-first readers?  Or even a difference in reaction for people reading it in print after reading it as each page first appears online?

NEAL: Absolutely, in answer to both questions. People have come to print first through cons, and there is a huge reaction when people read it day-to-day as opposed to in a big stream, both in print and digitally.

The comic is written with a very known sense that days are passing between pages. The comic leaps a bit, and I have wrestled with it quite a bit. Some people are annoyed by it, but some love it. I stand by it, in that it is supposed to bring that feeling of jumping around in space and time that these characters are going through. That said, the story is becoming more and more linear as it moves on, perhaps as I learn, perhaps as the ending becomes more and more clear.

Either way, thankfully, I haven’t received any email from anyone calling it a pile of turds. The readership, to a man and woman, have all been incredibly kind and respectful and awesome.

ANTHONY: What is it about the story of Charlie Everett that resonates so well with fans?

NEAL: I’ve been told it’s the fact that he’s optimistic, and also the tension of whether or not he will become the Dark Everett, but I don’t want to speak for the audience and put words in their mouth. Maybe that’s just the things I’ve heard that I want to be true, and for other people it’s that he’s dreamy, or they love tweed, or hey, shout out to the guidance counselors out there who need representation!

That is my tongue firmly in cheek, for the record.

I can speak for myself. Charlie resonates for me because I wanted to write from the age of twelve, twenty long years ago now, and everywhere I went it was like that Dewey Cox movie, a parade of family encouraging me to have a fallback, get a job, stop being such a lazy waste. A relative said, I quote, that I contribute in no meaningful way to my family, doing what I do.

I disagree. And Charlie didn’t. Charlie thought people like that were right for so long, and he cast it off, and even better, he did it for himself. He found hope, he found courage, and through that power. That’s what I see in him, and that’s what makes me love him.

ANTHONY: What glimpse can you give us into the near future for the CURA cast?

NEAL: I’ll be cryptic, and maybe a little scary. A latin demon. Origins. The smell of the person you love the most. Power beyond reckoning in the hands of a madman. The explanation of that moon. Junior’s origin. The House of Cindy. God, now I’m getting creeped out. Soon!

ANTHONY: And a twist on my usual closing question: What is Charlie Everett’s favorite book, and what would he say to convince someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

NEAL: Charlie’s favorite book is Richard III, and he would say that one should read it because even though this man, Richard, in attempting to find his way, becomes a terrible villain because of how he is perceived, he also says one of the most important things any human being ever has in history:

“Shall I live in hope?”

Charlie does, and you should too.

You can follow Neal and Dex on Twitter @nealbailey  @dexterwee. You can find the comic CURA TE IPSUM on the web. But most importantly, you can find the final days of the Kickstarter campaign and donate by CLICKING RIGHT HERE.  If you decide to back, please leave a note here letting me know you did so.

MICHAEL COLEMAN, Actor - Interview

It’s no secret I’m a big ONCE UPON A TIME fan. I follow most of the cast on Twitter, and Michael Coleman, who plays Happy, is one of the friendliest and out-going of an incredibly friendly and out-going cast. Michael’s face is easily recognizable to genre tv fans not just from ONCE, but also SMALLVILLE, EUREKA, STARGATE ATLANTIS and others, and his voice can be heard on a number of fan-favorite cartoons, including HAMTARO.  I was flattered when he graciously agreed to an interview.

ANTHONY: Let’s start with a fairly standard question: how long have you been acting, and how did you get your start?

MICHAEL: This is never an easy question to answer. I think we’re all actors from birth. We all master the art of play, self-delusion, suspending disbelief, and/or behaving truthfully as children playing together or with imaginary friends. Somehow, somewhere down the line I just started getting paid for it. My foray into the professional world came during my days as a stand up and improv comedian. A professional actor in the audience saw me one night, had a good time and bridged an introduction to his agent. Asking only that I pay it forward someday. Which is coincidentally a major reason I started my acting schools. (I wonder if that actor knows what an impact he had on my life or career?)

ANTHONY: Looking over your website, it seems like you’ve done it all: stage, radio, voicework, television, movies. Is there any form of performing you haven’t done that you would like to?

MICHAEL: I have been fortunate to have a curious mind. I have performed in every fathomable kind of performing imaginable but there are always new stories, new stages and new artists to collaborate with that motivate me to always want to go deeper, bigger and venture into further unexplored territory.

ANTHONY: You’ve done quite a bit of voicework for animation. Who have been your favorite characters to voice? 

MICHAEL: While they are all like my children, and choosing one would seem unfair, I loved voicing a character named Stan on a series called Hamtaro. It was an incredibly cute series, where we sang, told cheesy jokes, had our own language… AMAZING! In recent days I have been auditioning for iconic characters I have loved since I was a young boy. Due to non-disclosure agreements I can’t offer specifics at this unfortunately, but I recognize the incredible opportunities I’ve been afforded in life. Living proof that hard work can pay off and all of your dreams can come true.

ANTHONY: Other voice actors I know have talked about how hard it is to get a “starring” role in animated television and especially films these days. Your demo reel for voicework on your website has so many recognizable character types and accents. What’s your experience been? Is it just as tough to transition from character actor to lead in animation as it is in live action work?

MICHAEL: I really approach every character in the exact same fashion regardless of the size of the role. They all have common framework in their construction and the work needed and regardless of the size of role you play, we truthfully are all smaller pieces and serve the real star…. which is “the story”. Regardless of the number of lines or scenes we have… we all want something from someone, get it or don’t, have strong feelings about it,… risk losing something if we don’t get it… Apologies for getting all actory here LOL.

ANTHONY: As someone whose career has been so varied, is there any noticeable difference in the way you prepare for a tv or movie role versus cartoon voicework?

MICHAEL: The voice work often has far less prep time and requires instincts and training to be at an all time high. You need to be incredibly sharp and work your voice every day because you often get way less time with the scripts, you move through the material much faster, you often play multiple characters in a scene or show… That being said you can show up literally in your pyjamas and once you get started you’re pretty much the focus until it is all said and done.

ANTHONY: Once Upon A Time. Smallville. Stargate. Fringe. Eureka. I’d bet that you have one of the most recognizable supporting character faces in American genre TV (even though you’re Canadian). Do you gravitate to sci-fi/fantasy shows by choice?

MICHAEL: I am without question a sci-fi/fantasy fan at heart and always have been this way. It is surreal sometime to play characters in stories you would love regardless of from a cast member or fan point of view. In fact, I think it is always special when you are both a fan and a cast member. Those shows are always incredible to work on. Once Upon a Time is most certainly one of these cases. Most of us are enormous Disney and Fairy tale fans and our reverence for the iconic roles we play is hopefully transparent to those who watch the show.

ANTHONY: Why do you think genre fiction, from fairy-tales to comic-books, is still such a powerful draw for people?

MICHAEL: A great question. Stories, all art truthfully, provide society many, many gifts. It is a chance to see how our moment in time perceives the past, present and future. The artist’s mandate is to educate and/or entertain, hopefully achieving both. Recent times in America, and throughout the world, have seen an increase in fear politically, spiritually, philosophically… The discussions that are happening are BIG world issues with very few sitting on the fence, choosing to take a strong position in either direction. When this happens we often see a rise in opportunities for escapism or desires to be lost in other worlds that champion the ideals and characteristics we wish to see in the world. Sci-fi/Fantasy have always created ground breaking opportunities to safely explore “better” or “different” worlds we wish we could live in, cheering on leaders we would follow. You may have also coincidentally noticed a resurrection in Zombie films/shows in recent years as a direct correlation to the societal perception of masses losing individual voices, over-comsumption at record highs, disregard for anything but wanting MORE MORE MORE… Our stories, our “art”, allows society a break from reality to reflect on who want to be, who want to know, who we want to lead… So, I will take this time to offer you a first scoop exclusive… I nominate GINNIFER GOODWIN for President of the United States of America 

ANTHONY: I have to ask about your experience on Once Upon A Time over the past two seasons. The dwarves are break-out fan-favorites who could probably support their own show (or at least mini-series). There’s even an official Twitter hashtag, #Team7.  Is the cameraderie as strong in real life among the actors?

MICHAEL: We get along like real life brothers. I have three younger brothers in real life and this is all very familiar territory for me. We have always joked about a web or mini series during the hiatus of “The Hovel” so fans didn’t have to wait so long between season.

ANTHONY: What was your favorite Happy scene to work on over the past two years?

MICHAEL: Episode 21 in season one. Where we stormed the castle. No matter what else happens in life I can say that happened. I think the cast grew stronger as a community during this time too. And they let me shoot a flaming arrow, a crossbow and do some Kick axe sword and axe play!

ANTHONY: I saw a tweet from Lana Parilla that filming on OUAT season three begins in mid-July. I’m sure you can’t answer this directly, but we’re all dying to know: any word yet on whether we’ll see the dwarves back soon?

MICHAEL: The fans often know before I do. Happy is always Happy to hear from fans who give him the scoop on when he’s back on the show! LOL And we’re all excited about the spin off too. Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has some amazing talent behind it and will give everyone twice the love next year!

ANTHONY: You also run the Vancouver Acting School. Tell us a little bit about the school’s history and goals.

MICHAEL: As I mentioned above, I opened it as a means to “pay it forward” to an actor who helped me early in my career. Our goals are to provide the most elite level training available in film, television and voice-overs by giving students a chance to work with some of the smartest, most working actors/coaches in the industry. We have several Once Upon a Time actors as coaches… The Fairy Godmother (Catherine Lough Haggquist), Stealthy (Geoff Gustafson), Granny (Beverly Elliot), as well as many other coaches who have appeared as other non fairy tale characters throughout the series; David Nykl, Alex Zahara, Nicholas Carella, Tony Alcantar, Ingrid Torrance, etc. etc. We have many of the other cast members; Michael Raymond-James, Lee Arenberg, Meghan Ory as regular guest coaches and speakers… and this year we have Josh and Ginny coming by as special guests!

ANTHONY: What other projects have you been working on? Where can audiences (US and Canadian) expect to see you in the near future?

MICHAEL: I also work as a screenwriter and I am developing a film with various friends from various sic-fi/fantasy series… I can’t leak official casting decisions but look for familiar faces from Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, etc. all in one crazy film.

ANTHONY: Because I’m a writer, I always close with this question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

MICHAEL: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy… and the reason? Because you will learn the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything… (Spoiler Alert! The answer is 42 LOL)

ANTHONY: That’s one of my favorite books, too. Thanks again for your time, Michael!

MICHAEL: Anytime! Thank you.

You can follow Michael on Twitter @1MichealColeman. You can learn more about Michael and view clips from some of the shows he’s been on by visiting his website, which has one of the most fun home-pages I’ve seen in ages. And you can find out more about Vancouver Acting School at their site as well.

WILLIAM MIEKLE, Author - Interview

William Miekle is a Scottish author who works largely in the horror, dark fantasy and urban fantasy realms. He recently launched an anthology project similar to the one I’ll be putting out later this year, where the profits will go towards cancer research. My own project is a mix of genres and authors, while William’s is straight-up horror with stories provided by some of the biggest names in the business. So I thought now was a good time to chat with an author I seem to share a lot of common interests with.

ANTHONY: The Unspoken is an anthology intended to raise funds for cancer research. How did the project come about?

WILLIAM: Cancer is a monster. I can’t fight it. But as a writer and as an editor there is something I can do. I rallied up some friends, and friends of friends, and asked them for some stories. They responded brilliantly. We’ve put them together in a wee book. And now it’s out there, earning money for cancer charities. I’m very proud of everyone involved.

ANTHONY: What’s your personal connection to cancer?

WILLIAM: My Dad has cancer. More than one kind in fact. He’s fighting hard, but cancer is a devious bugger. It hides, it lurks, and it pounces when you think it’s down and defeated.

It has been a presence in my life for as long as I can remember. I first came across it in the late Sixties. My Gran’s brother came back to town to die with his family. I was fascinated by this man, so thin as to be almost skeletal, wound in clothes that were many sizes too large for his frame, his skin so thin that I could see his blood moving… not pumping, for it had long since stopped moving enough to keep him alive long. He rarely spoke, just sat by the fire as if trying to soak up heat, his eyes frequently wet from tears, not of sadness, but of pain. He lasted for months in that condition until it finally took him and I knew then that cancer was a monster.

Since then it has taken others, both friends and family, a young mother with two pre-teen children, a cousin who was like a big brother to me, and a girl I never got to know for she was taken before her twentieth birthday. Other family members are still fighting. There’s my Dad, who meets it all with a good humour that is humbling, and my godmother who has battled bowel cancer into remission twice.

ANTHONY: Why call the anthology “The Unspoken?”

WILLIAM: There is a taboo in talking about cancer, and death. I remember it well as a child, watching my mum and aunts whisper, taking care that we, the children, were kept distanced from it, kept away from the horror, as if in fear it might somehow be contagious. Couple that with the reticence many people feel when talking about things that affect their bodies and there is definitely a lot left Unspoken.

ANTHONY: What authors are involved in the anthology, and did their personal experiences with cancer influence the stories they chose to tell?

WILLIAM: The lineup is stunning.

Ramsey Campbell – Introduction

Tim Lebbon – Just Breathe

Simon Kurt Unsworth – Photographs of Boden

Steven Savile & Steve Lockley – The Last Gift

John Shirley – Where the Market’s Hottest

Anna Taborska – Underbelly

Stephen James Price – Pages of Promises

Scott Nicholson – Heal Thyself

Stephen Laws – Harbinger

William Meikle – The Unfinished Basement

Nancy Kilpatrick – Alien Love

David Riley – A Girl, a Toad and a Cask

Barbie Wilde – Polyp

Johnny Mains – The Cure

Guy N Smith – The Big One

Pete Crowther – Cankerman

Steve Duffy – X for Henrietta

Gary McMahon – Bitter Soup

Cover art by Simon Marshall Jones

I know from private correspondence that each one has been touched in some way by cancer, whether it be personal, family or friends, but I’ll let their stories speak for them – the rest is a private matter for them to speak about if they wish to.

ANTHONY:  Tell us about your story in the anthology.

WILLIAM: The Unfinished Basement is a cancer metaphor story – there’s several in the collection.

I write about monsters, and have been doing so for a long span of years. Just recently I’ve started thinking more about why and taking a harder look at my motivations. A look back at several recent things I’ve done was revealing. THE INVASION features an alien invasion that comes in the form of an organism from space that eats anything in its path, transforming it into something different and unnatural. My short story THE COLOUR THAT CAME TO CHISWICK features a colour out of space that gets into beer and, when consumed, eats the drinker away from the inside out. THE UNFI|N|ISHED BASEMENT features gross body changes and loss of identity, and even my current work in progress, ostensibly just a little creature feature disaster story, features genetic modification leading to crawling chaos. I may not have been consciously aware of it, but it’s obvious to me now that the Big C has been on my mind.

ANTHONY: You write short stories and novels. Does your writing process change at all from one format to the other?

WILLIAM: To me it’s all just writing. The story itself dictates its own length. The end format is just another method for me to deliver the story. I’ve been published in all lengths, in print, ebook, audio, and on film and I’ve read stories at storytelling evenings in a variety of bars. I’m sure when the time comes for media to get delivered straight into people’s brains that I’ll be ready with something to publish that way too.

ANTHONY: You also are known for writing stories with characters like Doyle’s Professor Challenger and Sherlock Holmes, Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos and Thomas Carnacki. What draws you to these classic (and somewhat public domain) characters over and over again?

WILLIAM: Nowadays there is a plethora of detectives in both book and film who may seem to use the trappings of crime solvers, but get involved in the supernatural. William Hjortsberg’s Falling Angel (the book that led to the movie Angel Heart) is a fine example, an expert blending of gumshoe and deviltry that is one of my favorite books. Likewise, in the movies, we have cops facing a demon in Denzel Washington’s Fallen that plays like a police procedural taken to a very dark place.

My interest goes further back to the “gentleman detective” era where we have seekers of truth in Blackwood’s John Silence, Sherlock Holmes and William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, and, mixed in with that, a deep love of the American PI books and movies of the ’40s and ’50s.

I’ve written numerous stories set in the late Victorian / Early Edwardian era, for Sherlock Holmes, Carnacki, and Professor Challenger. I was raised on Doyle, Wells and Robert Louis Stevenson and I love that historical period they covered in their work. It’s also the time period I’ve come to prefer for my own writing and I can see me settling in there for a long time to come.

ANTHONY: You also have your own continuing series, like The Midnight Files. Tell us a little bit about them.

WILLIAM: I read widely, both in the crime and horror genres, but my crime fiction in particular keeps returning to older, pulpier, bases.

My series character, Glasgow PI Derek Adams, is a Bogart and Chandler fan, and it is the movies and Americana of the ’40s that I find a lot of my inspiration for him, rather than in the modern procedural.

That, and the old city, are the two main drivers for the Midnight Eye stories.

When I was a lad, back in the early 1960s, we lived in a town 20 miles south of Glasgow, and it was an adventure to the big city when I went with my family on shopping trips. Back then the city was a Victorian giant going slowly to seed.

It is often said that the British Empire was built in Glasgow on the banks of the river Clyde. Back when I was young, the shipyards were still going strong, and the city centre itself still held on to some of its past glories.

It was a warren of tall sandstone buildings and narrow streets, with Edwardian trams still running through them. The big stores still had pneumatic delivery systems for billing, every man wore a hat, collar and tie, and steam trains ran into grand vaulted railway stations filled with smoke.

To a young boy from the sticks it seemed like a grand place. It was only later that I learned about the knife gangs that terrorized the dance halls, and the serial killer, Bible John, who frequented the same dance floors, quoting scripture as he lured teenage girls to a violent end.

Fast forward fifteen years, and I was at University in the city, and getting an education into the real heart of the place. I learned about bars, and religious divides. Glasgow is split along tribal royalties. Back in the Victorian era, shiploads of Irishmen came to Glasgow for work. The protestants went to one side of the city, the catholics to the other. There they set up homes… and football teams.

Now these teams are the biggest sporting giants in Scotland, two behemoths that attract bigots like bees to honey. As a student I soon learned how to avoid giving away my religion in bars, and which ones to stay out of on match days.

Also by the time I was a student, a lot of the tall sandstone buildings had been pulled down to make way for tower blocks. Back then they were the new shiny future, taking the people out of the Victorian ghettos and into the present day.

Fast forward to the present day and there are all new ghettos. The tower blocks are ruled by drug gangs and pimps. Meanwhile there have been many attempts to gentrify the city centre, with designer shops being built in old warehouses, with docklands developments building expensive apartments where sailors used to get services from hard faced girls, and with shiny, trendy bars full of glossy expensively dressed bankers.

And underneath it all, the old Glasgow still lies, slumbering, a dreaming god waiting for the stars to be right again.

Derek Adams, The Midnight Eye, knows the ways of the old city. And, if truth be told, he prefers them to the new.

He’s turned up in three novels so far, THE AMULET, THE SIRENS and THE SKIN GAME, all out now in ebook at all the usual online stores and in shiny new paperback editions from Seven Realms Publishing in 2013.( All three books will also be appearing in Portuguese language editions in 2013/14.) The Amulet is available in audiobook at Audible.com, and there’s also a film company looking for funding to bring him to life, several short stories, and an anthology appearance in the forthcoming CTHULHU 2012 anthology from Mythos Books.

Derek has developed a life of his own, and I’m along for the ride.

ANTHONY: The e-book of The Unspoken has been available for a short while now. What’s the response to the book been like from readers?

WILLIAM: Slower than I hoped actually. Anyone who has read it has been very positive, but sales are sluggish. I’m hoping interviews like this one will help raise the profile.

ANTHONY: When will the print version of the anthology be available?

WILLIAM: It should be along later this year, funds permitting.

ANTHONY: Where does the money raised by the anthology go?

WILLIAM: The money is going to The Beatson Cancer Research Institute, an organization who have done a lot of tireless work in helping sufferers for many years – including my dad.

The US Kindle edition is available on Amazon: The Unspoken. And if you’re interested, here’s the link for Amazon UK.

You can learn more about the Beatson Cancer Research Institute by visiting their website.

You can also learn more about William’s writing on his website, and follow him on Twitter.

JOHN RUSSO OF REVERSE ORDER - Interview

I had the chance earlier this week to sit down with John Russo, the lead singer of one of my favorite up-and-coming bands, Reverse Order. The rest of the band had other obligations (probably a good thing; the interview might have been an hour long if they’d all be there), but John filled me in on their upcoming tour, new music, a new video, and even answered a fan’s Twitter question.

Reverse Order came together in 2008 and consists of brothers John (vocals, guitars) and Cruise Russo (vocals and drums), bassist Frank Spangler and guitarist Drew Katsock. They’ve opened for Action Item, Allstar Weekend and others, and through Twitter and Youtube their fan-base is growing nationally.  You may have seen them on AMERICA’S GOT TALENT last season, and that’s where our chat started:

ANTHONY: So the last time I interviewed you, via email, was before you were on America’s Got Talent.

JOHN: Okay, That was a while ago.

ANTHONY: Yeah. What did you guys learn from that experience and how did you apply it moving forward?

JOHN: That’s definitely an interesting question. That’s the first time that’s been asked. I mean, being on America’s Got Talent, you have to be very professional, very punctual, things were a lot more complicated than people think they are; you have be there 9 days beforehand, every single day you’re training with music directors, different vocal coaches, you’ve got b-roll taping, all the different cameras are outlined, they place you along the whole thing, you practice your exact positions you have to move into because there’s like 100 cameras programmed around the stage that you have to hit your marks at the right times because the cameras are programmed to switch. I mean, I guess it was more just learning more professionalism in that kind of environment. So that was definitely a good thing for us.

ANTHONY: And I remember Howard was not as impressed as we hoped he would be.

JOHN: Yeah.

ANTHONY: So how did you respond to the criticisms? There were little snippets of post-interview with you guys, but now that you have some perspective on it?

JOHN: Yeah, I mean the best – the only thing you can really do is take what they say and try to apply it as much as you can. Certain things you just kind of ignore (smiles) because you really don’t connect with what they’re saying, but other things you try to apply to yourself and at least do something to better yourself.

ANTHONY: True. So let’s talk about the new music. When is it coming out?

JOHN: We’re trying a new approach this time. Instead of just releasing one cd at a time … because we’ve found, nowadays at least, when you release a cd, everyone’s really into it for about a month, they’re really excited about it, and then the rest of the year, you don’t have anything to offer them. What we’re doing this time is we have about six songs recorded but we’re going to release them slowly. We’re going to release them maybe once a month. So this month people will be into this song, next month they’ll be looking for something new, we’ll release another song. So that’s kind of how we’re doing it. Three of the songs were recorded with Rob Freeman who did a lot of production on like Warped Tour bands, he was in a band called Hidden In Plain View, he produced Hit The Lights, he on “Stereo Hearts” by Adam Levine and Gym Class Heroes, so he’s doing some songs.  There’s a guy in Staten Island named Armando who’s doing a song for us; a guy named Mike Lisa and a guy named Kevin Kumetz. Kevin is actually the guy who recorded our last cd, so we’re working with him again. The music’s … for the most part it’s still rock, it’s still alternative rock but it’s slightly different from what we’ve done before. Right now, there’s a lot of our stuff that is very pop-punk and then there’s some pop-dance and there’s like keyboard and stuff like that. This is more alternative rock, you know, Fall Out Boy, One Republic, The Fray, so it’s more Top 40 alternative rock than like Top 40 Pop. So it should it be good.

ANTHONY: So you’re doing away with keyboards and stuff like that? Stripping it down to the basic instruments, or..?

JOHN: No, we have the keyboards and synthesizers and stuff, but whereas like Save For … is a dance song, synths in that respect, it’s going to be more synths and keyboards in the respect of like One Republic, big sound arena rock, or like The Killers, kind of like that.

ANTHONY: It’s funny, the other band I talk about a lot, The Dalliance, who are guys I went to high school with, that’s how they released their music. It was almost a year’s worth of “a song a month,” and then they culled from that to release the album they released last year, and rerecorded some stuff. I don’t know if they’re going to do the same thing with this next EP.

JOHN: They put all the same songs together on one EP at the end?

ANTHONY: Yeah, although they did remaster and retrack some stuff.

JOHN: That’s what we’re planning to do, put it all together on cd at the end.

ANTHONY: And that way, people who wanted a physical CD could still get one at their cd release party or later. And yeah, that seems to be the way lots of bands are doing it now. Seems to be the smarter marketing.

JOHN: Plus it gives you more time, while you’re working on other stuff, to still fix some stuff. You know, all the big bands on the radio, they have the luxury of having other people write their stuff so they can tour, release, tour, release, tour, release. Where we don’t have that luxury so you have to time it out.

ANTHONY: Exactly. So, the video you’ve been working on. Let’s talk about that.

JOHN: Yes.  The video we actually recorded in February. A friend of mine who I met years ago in California goes to film school so he decided to film us a video. And it’s just taking long to edit because he lives in California and I live in NJ, so we’re at that point in the communication where he sends me an email and it takes me five days to get back to him, so…  The video is actually for “Go,” so we’re really hoping to get that video out before we release any new songs. It looks weird releasing a new song then releasing a video for an old song, so we’re trying to do that. I’ve seen it, there’s only three small things that need to be edited.

ANTHONY: When it comes out, I’ll come back to this interview and add a link or embed it.

JOHN: Cool.

ANTHONY: Okay, so you’re about to leave on tour.

JOHN: Yep. We are leaving … our first date in June 25th, so we’re leaving June 24th and it’s essentially a full month so we should be coming back home around the end of July. We’re going to the Mid-west and the South. Our route: we start out in New Jersey, obviously; we’re going to hit Pennsylvania, like the Pittsburgh area; then [zig-zagging back and forth through] Ohio, Illinios, Indiana, and Michigan; and then on to Saint Louis, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Delaware, and then once we get back home the regular New Jersey and PA and New York shows again.

We actually have a show in New York though, before we leave, it’s our last local show June 15th at The Vibe Lounge in Long Island. We’re excited to hit the road. We’re going to a lot of places we’ve been to before, venue-wise, and some places we haven’t. We’re playing at a bunch of Six Flags, a bunch of regular venues, “concerts in the parks” that some towns throw where they have like big bands and stuff. A nice mix of shows, doing some nightclubs here and there since we have some nights off.

ANTHONY: And then living room shows.

JOHN: Oh yeah, we always leave time for the living room shows when people are interested. So we’re doing all of that, and the show on Long Island before we leave, and then the Stage-It show on June 2nd.

ANTHONY: Perfect lead-in. Let’s talk about that. How did that come together? I’ve seen a couple of things on Stage-It and they seem to be wildly variable in quality.

JOHN: Yeah. I’m going to try to make ours be quality. I have professional microphones upstairs just because we record our own demos here. So I’m going to see if I can work that into the computer without accidentally muting the volume, because that would be terrible. But a friend of ours … we’re friends with a band called Before You Exit and they had done one and they were telling us about it and we always try to do different things to keep our fans interested and they suggested this. It’s no cost for us to do, why not try it? So we figured we’d do a very small concert, limited to a small amount of people, try it out. It’s kind of a cool way for us to do a show for all those people that – you know, we have fans in Canada and Brazil and other places who can never see us, so it’s a way for them to see us, and I’m hoping it’s good. We’ve never done one before so it’s new for us.

ANTHONY: How do people connect with the Stage-It?

JOHN: They can search for it through the Stage-It site, but there is an actual link, and it’s on our Facebook right now.

ANTHONY: And I’ll post that link right here. So people reading, click here: REVERSE ORDER – LIVE FROM OUR LIVING ROOM and buy a ticket for Reverse Order’s Stage-It. The show starts at 7:30pm, on your computer, at that link.

I have a question for you from Twitter, from a fan in Houston, Texas.

JOHN: Houston!

ANTHONY: Yeah, I think she knows of you guys because she’s a big Before You Exit and Hollywood Ending fan, and she knows you’ve played with both of them. So when I asked on Twitter if anyone had any questions for you, she wanted me to ask you how you went from playing in the garage to the venues you’re playing, and any advice you might have for a singer-songwriter, who is also a teenager, as far as getting into playing the local venues, opening for bigger acts, etc.

JOHN: It’s a lot of work. (laughs) I mean, every local venue now, they want you to sell twenty tickets to play a show.  Our first thing was school talent shows, school Battle of the Bands. You kind of have to just go to a local venue, for us it was Croc Rock in Allentown, that’s where we got our start opening and playing bigger shows, ask the promoter “we’re a local band, do you have any shows coming up that we can get on,” and they’ll start you out with shows that are like five local bands in one night, no big headliners and they build you up from there. They say “sell twenty tickets,” well the first show, you’re going to be selling those to Mom, Dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents. But from that show, maybe you’ll get five fans from another band, and the next show you play maybe fifteen are family and five are fans, and you kind of build that way.  It’s a long building process, and it takes a while but you gotta do it.

ANTHONY: If Cruise had been here tonight, I was going to end the interview with a “dueling super-heroes” thing. You know, “who would win…” Since like me you’re both big comic book fans.

JOHN: Marvel, clearly.  We actually have a thing we’re doing with a guy who just graduated from the Kubert School. Right now he’s submitting to DC and Marvel, we met him at Free Comic Book Day and he did like four of the covers I have upstairs. Probably the best artist I’ve ever met. But he’s actually drawn us individual trading cards, like Pokemon cards but in super-hero uniforms. He’s going to do a card for each of us but then blend the background so they merge into one big card. So he’s drawing that for us and since it’s like Pokemon we’ll have like cheesy power moves and stuff, how much Damage we do, etc. And we’ll have them at the shows, the only way to be able to get them will be from us.

ANTHONY: Pretty soon we’ll be able to play the Reverse Order Game. You’ll need arch-enemies, though, so you’ll have to work on that.

One more time: the link for REVERSE ORDER: LIVE FROM OUR LIVING ROOM, the band’s online concert on Stage-It Sunday June 2nd at 7:30pm. Tickets are still available.

You can find the specific dates for their Midwest-and-South June Tour right HERE.

You can buy their most recent EP, RIGHT NOW, from iTunes.

You can also join the band’s Facebook page, and follow them on Twitter: @ReverseOrder @ReverseJohn @CruiseRusso@FrankSpangla and @ReverseDrew.  They also have a Youtube channel, and of course I have to end the interview with one of their older videos, until the new video for “Go” comes out:

OOOPS, I DID IT AGAIN - Britney Spears Cover

Yeah, I did. Another cover video.

This time, it’s to fulfill a promise I made to the good folks at Crossed Genres (Kay Holt and Bart Leib) for their Kickstarter for the LONG HIDDEN anthology to be edited by Rose Fox and Daniel Jose Older.  They had reached their initial funding goal, but were really trying to reach a stretch goal that would enable them to include artwork for every story in the anthology. To motivate people to contribute, Bart promised to die his long dark locks all the colors of the rainbow, and I promised that if they hit the stretch goal, I’d record another cover video, of an artist of their choice. Of course, they chose Britney Spears.

So this weekend it was back to DisGraceLand studio, home of The Dalliance with producer Darrell Long, a.k.a. Floopjack, to record and film. This one was tougher than the Bieber. The song as written (and when you’re using karaoke tracks for the instruments and backing vocals, you have to sing it as written) doesn’t really sit comfortably in my range, but I muddled through and near the end even give my full falsetto a work-out.  There are some awkward notes, but as Darrell pointed out: a) it’s all for fun, so let the warts show through and b) it proves that it’s all me.

So, whether you donated to the Long Hidden Kickstarter or not, here it is: my cover of Britney’s “Ooops, I Did It Again,” minus the awkward skit interlude about the diamond necklace…

NEXT BIG THING - Anthony Cardno Works In Progress

This blog post is part of the NEXT BIG THING meme. No, not Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing — I know a number of former contestants on that (Hollywood Ending, Kicking Daisies, Matt Johnson, Palaye Royale (back when they were “Kropp Circle”)), but that’s a music competition, and this NBT is about writing. The idea here is to talk about a book you’re working on, to generate interest in it and perhaps jumpstart your creativity a bit. I was tagged to be a part of this by my friend Shay Darrach, who in turn was tagged by our friend Sabrina Vourvoulias, and our friend Kay Holt has taken part as well. Our other friend Day al Mohamed was also tagged by Shay, and when she posts her installment, I’ll add the link to this.  They are all wonderful writers who regularly blow my mind, so check their blogs out for what they’re working on.  And then scroll down the bottom to see who I’m going to tag (and if/when they post their responses, I’ll link to those from here as well).

But first, my responses to the 10 questions asked of every Next Big Thing participant:

1.What is the working title of your next book?

THE MANY TORTURES OF ANTHONY CARDNO

2.Where did the idea come from for the book?

Last year, Brian White ran Kickstarters for each individual issue of FIRESIDE magazine. Among the “perks” for backing was the chance to be tuckerized into an author’s story as one of the main characters – not just a one line mention, but an actual part of the story. I chose this option for all three issues, and ended up in stories by Christie Yant, Damien Walters Grintalis and Mary Robinette Kowal. In the fall of 2012, Brian was teasing me and said that if I backed enough projects, we could put together a whole anthology of such stories. I thought the idea was so good that I asked a bunch of other authors if they’d be willing to play along and donate their stories so that the proceeds from the book could be donated to the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life, in honor of author Jay Lake. This was before Jay officially got his terminal diagnosis, of course.

3.What genre does your book fall under?

Short Stories. Haha. That may seem like a cop-out answer, but the stories in the book are covering almost every genre – time-travel, horror, crime, hard sf, fantasy, even “literary fiction.”

4.What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Oh man. That would depend on the story.

In my own contribution, “I’m” a teenager, and I’d have to choose Austin MacDonald, whose most recent credit is as a teen serial killer on the episode of HANNIBAL that NBC famously pulled in the wake of the Boston bombings, as “me” and Brandon Tyler Russell (from the movie SMITTY) as the other main character.  In other stories? I see John Krasinski as the “me” in Damien Walters’ Grintalis’ story (as a husband who is largely clueless about what his wife is going through), and Neil Patrick Harris as the “me” in Christie Yant’s (a drunk in a “dry” town in the California of the late 1800s). I think Mary Robinette Kowal’s story would call for someone a bit more pompous, John Laroquette, maybe (an egotistical actor partaking in an “extreme dining” adventure), while Sabrina Vourvoulias’ version of me conjures up images of Robert Carlyle (a US government operative in Central America who has seen things one shouldn’t see). In Jay Lake’s story of a young man drawn back to the ocean he was forced to leave as a child, I picture Freddie Highmore. In Joseph Pittman’s latest Todd Gleason crime story, Stephen Fry would be perfect. I could go on.

5.What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

To paraphrase Parke Godwin: “Who you are depends on who’s telling your tale, and boy do these authors have tales to tell about me.”

6.Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self-published in e-book format only so that we can get the largest number of stories into the book. I’d love to be able to do a run in print, but that’s going to be expensive (unless some lovely publisher reading this would like to donate a small print run as a collector’s item…). I currently have folks donating their time to do the e-book formatting and such to help me out.

7.How long did/will it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Technically, it’s been over a year since Christie’s story appeared in Fireside #1, but really the idea came into focus in November of 2012 and I anticipate offering the book for sale in September of 2013, so about a year.

8.What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I’m not really sure.  There’s been a push lately, with anthologies like Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrontonio’s STORIES and magazines like Fireside, to move away from “genre” boundaries and just publish good stories across the spectrum. This anthology falls in line with that goal.

9.Who or what inspired you to write this book?

If I was going to do this, it wasn’t going to be a self-aggrandizing attempt to make money for myself. I knew immediately the proceeds would go to cancer research, in honor of not only Jay Lake, but so many other friends and relatives who are battling or have been lost to cancer: my friends Karen Jenkins, Kristin Meyer, and M. Denise Barnoski, all taken too soon. My cousins Chrissy and Jimmy Hajkowski and my almost-sister Michelle Moklebust, amazing fighters. And of course my parents and maternal grandparents, all lost to one form of cancer or another. Folks like Jay and my cousins inspire me with their willingness to share the details of their fight, even the bad times, and how they do their damnedest to not let cancer rule them.

10.What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

Hopefully, it’s the variety of authors involved that will bring people in, as well as the good cause. Jay Lake, Mary Robinette Kowal, Christie Yant, Damien Walters Grintalis, David Lee Summers, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Joseph Pittman and Kaaron Warren are the most well-known among the authors who have already sent stories, as well as songwriters Barry Mangione (of The Dalliance and Apply The Graft) and Frank Dixon. It occurs to me that with Kaaron and Frank in the mix, we’ve got authors from two different continents involved, another nice selling point.

I don’t typically do the “I tagged you, so you HAVE to play” thing. However, there are a few authors I hope will play along. I’m not giving them specific dates to post, either.

1. Dennis Miller, author of  ONE WOMAN’S VENGEANCE, a wonderful Western with a female protagonist who, yes, starts out as a victim but who does not allow the label of “victim” to become her identity. Dennis’ book is brutal and beautiful at the same time.

2. Sidney Bristol, author of UNDER HIS SKIN and other erotica. Sidney is one of the “Crazy Writer Ladies of DFW” who I adore, and her work is so completely different from mine and Dennis’ that I cannot resist tagging her.

3. Bryan Thomas Schmidt, author of THE DAVI RHII SAGA, a great space opera based on the story of Moses. Again, someone completely different in style and tone from the preceeding two authors.

I hope all three authors will play along!