Author Paul Ben Jr. tagged me(and four other authors) on Facebook with a post where he answered these questions. He was tagged by Jason Brock. I was given a week to answer and tag five other authors. They have till next Wednesday to answer the same questions on Facebook/and or their blog. I am going to tag five authors who I am interested in who I think my FB friends should learn about.
Jordan Krall, Lisa Morton, Edward Morris, James Newman and Garrett Cook. Question: What is the [working] title of your book/work in progress?Answer: I'm working on three projects at the moment. The second draft of a coming of age horror novel called “Bootboys of The Wolf-reich,” and a collection pulp themed short stories and novellas with punk rock settings and characters. There are eight horror tales (all the classic tropes explored), a western, a spy story, a Fantasy and two sci-fi stories. The project I am about to dive into is a Science Fiction novel I'm co-writing with my friend Edward Morris (author of the Blackguard and the forthcoming There is a Crooked man series) called Flesh Trade. Were outlining and researching at the moment but should start first drafting soon.
Q: Where did the idea for the book/work come from?A: Bootboys was inspired by my young adulthood. Stephen King wrote about coming of age walking the tracks in 1950's Maine, my story is about being a Skinhead in late 80's Chicago. Of course I added Nazi cultists and monsters. The punk collection kinda came organically I just wrote a few punk themed stories and then I thought it would make a fun themed collection.
Q: Which actors would you choose to play the characters from your book?A: I did that a lot in my early work, but I have not thought about with these books. It is funny in my novel Hunting the Moon Tribe (2011 Little Otick press) I cast pretty much every characters with actors in my mind. The funny thing about it is that it came out about 10 years after I first seriously outlined it. A lot of the actors have aged out of some of the roles. The other thing is they are all Chinese actors, so unless your a serious Hong Kong movie fan your not going to care that I would cast Simon Yam as the master vampire.
Q: What is a one-sentence synopsis of your book?A: Bootboys of the Wolf-Reich is about Anti-racist Skinheads in a gang war with Nazi werewolves.
Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent?A: I am currently published by Eraserhead press so my books are published around the various Presses under that label. My novel Vegan Revolution...with Zombies was on Deadite the Eraserhead press cult horror line. Bootboys will be on Deadite, not sure which imprint will do the others. Edward Morris and I will probably shop our collaboration novel to an agent, but that is on down the line.
Q: How long did it take you to write the first-draft of your manuscript?A: Bootboys took me about two months, The short story collection was written mostly over five months, but one of the novellas was written awhile back. The longest a novel took me was a year and half, the quickest was 33 days.
Q: What other books in your genre would you compare this story to?A: I think of Bootboys as a coming of age novel. I know hollywood has trained us to say it's like this meets that. If I was forced to do that I would cringe and say it's like Romper Stomper meets The Howling. Oh that hurts. Honestly I am super proud of it, I grew up in the anti-racist skinhead culture. This might be my Boy's Life (Robert McCammon).
Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?A: With the punk pulp collection I was inspired by lots of authors and styles. The idea was to have punk themed stories that explored all the different genres of pulp genre fiction. The story “Reunion Show” is very Phillip K. Dick influenced yet it is about the 1980's hardcore scene in D.C. The fantasy novella “Punkupine Moshers of the Apocalypse is like an eighties pun rock Tolkien style heroes journey fantasy, and my favorite story in it “Last Show at the Mortuary Collective” is a very Clive Barker influenced psychosexual haunted house story. That being said I don't think anyone but me could write these stories. It is very much me.
Q: What else might pique the reader’s interest in your book?A: The collection has a lot of stories floating around. 'Punkupines Moshers of the Apocalypse' has been re-printed in the Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade. 'Reunion Show' will be in the 22nd issue of Dark Discoveries, and the Twilight Zone style story 'Tasha and the Foutain,' is the new seventh issue of the magazine of Bizarro Fiction.
