Thank you, Kristina. Always a pleasure.
*Readers may not know that this novel started as a graphic project. So, tell us, first, where the idea came from, and second, how it came to evolve into a manuscript.
Originally, I did a lot of simple goofing off with creating characters for friends, mostly fantasy and “furry” artwork; character studies, things like that. That was in high school. I had even made a coupe of simple comic books of my own that folks seemed to like. They were amateurish and sophomoric, but I got enough attention from them to do some artwork in the school paper.
I kept doing my comic stuff at home, more requests for character pictures to scan for friends online.
One day I drew this one character that was sort of my own version of Marvel’s Doctor Strange. He has stayed pretty much the same from that original set of pictures to the translated character that’s in my first book. What was getting more interesting about that character was his familiar, a black cat that could transform itself into an immense black tiger. Like with most cartoons and some comics, the sidekick is the comedy relief. I didn’t like that. It’s never really explored how a being of such enormous power becomes the thrall of another character.
Then the wheels really started kicking in. I found an image I’d done and thought what if THIS guy became this other character and the whole ideal of werewolves started rambling about in my head. Well, I did a lot of research and found that many cultures all over the word have their own legends about were beings.
The cascade effect from all of my research was growing stronger until I had this complete universe overflowing in my mind (and my art folders.) After about a year or so I had all of these random people rummaging around in my head, looking for something to do or some outlet to be used for.
It was there that I decided to put it all down in one cohesive format and give all of these beings a purpose, if that makes any sense. I sat down and “drew my fingers off” and when the smoke cleared, I had about a third of what appears in my first book penciled in.
When the time came to shop the project around, too many companies were preferring art from guys like the late Michael Turner, Mike Deodato, Todd MacFarlane - guys that had a sleeker, more organic flow to their work. I tend to be a bit more retro or photo-realistic with my pictures. What I had finished would have flown, art-wise, in the late 70’s and early 80’s. The stories were what companies wanted, but were turned down because they weren’t violent enough. Scenes where there is blood and gore, in the graphic work was more as being suggested (seen in shadow or reactions from other characters in the scene like a lot of films from the 50’s – the 70’s). So I accepted that what I had wasn’t what companies felt their readers would read and put my toys away.
*What do you find hardest about writing this kind of fiction?
I think the hardest part about working with this type of fiction is trying to be truly distinctive when there are already ‘established’ universes that everyone knows about, and how folks tend to debate that something else should have been done “this” way or “that” way when their favorite character would do “this” in the same situation.
For example, everyone knows about “Star Wars”, “Star Trek”, “Stargate”, “Doctor Who”, and a few others I could continue naming.
Now, say Captain Kirk gets caught in the middle of a rabid, evil stampede of space cows. What’s he do? He whips out the phaser, sets it to “deep fat fry” and zaps the rabid space cows. His reaction is vastly different from what Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars would do, or what Colonel O’Neill from Stargate would do, okay?
Now say one of my characters is about to get trampled in the same stampede. My character would react differently just as these other characters do. Some folks might say, “Well, he’s has a phaser gun, just broil ‘em all?” or “He should whip out his lightsabre and mow ‘em all down like wheat.” That’s the whole reason for writing, being creative and using one’s imagination to fill the reader’s minds with alternatives, with adventure, and most of all – fun.
*Did you always have an interest in the genre?
I grew up with Star Trek reruns. That was always a treat. I remember going to my grandparent’s house every weekend and watching George Reeves as “Superman”, Adam West and Burt Ward as “Batman and Robin”, “The Lone Ranger” starring Clayton Moore, I could keep going. The whole fantasy and adventure ideal has been a very powerful influence in my life. As naive as it sounds, I firmly believe that the good guys should win, the bad guys should get what they have coming to them, and everyone can sleep better at night knowing that there are people out there looking out for us.
Then along came “Star Wars”. That threw a whole new wrinkle in what I knew, or thought I knew. That was it for me. I knew from then on I was hooked on the genre as a whole. The newer and neater the story, I was there to see or read or experience it.
*This is a big book. How long did it take to write?
I don’t really think of it as a large book, there are others out there that dwarf mine by leaps and bounds. The initial manuscript took about 4 years to write. I had everything I needed to translate the graphic version to novelization, but there were other things that I felt needed more exposition on (character motivations, history to consider, etc) so there was a lot of adding into the manuscript than what I originally had. Plus, as everyone knows, things happen in real life that takes precedence, like children, accidents, injuries, etc.
One such difficulty was about 4 years ago. I was caught in the middle of a 20 foot fireball, burnt my hands up pretty well. You can imagine the problems that generated, so writing was put off for a while. Once that was taken care of, I was right back to it.
*Any intent to shop the graphic version?
The original material, probably not. If there is any interest in converting the novel into a graphic novel or comic book series, then I’m open to that possibility. As long as the company that takes it on remains faithful to the source material, then there’s that opportunity.
I actually would love to see Ed McGuinness, an artist known for his more cartoony/anime styled art; tackle the book as a comic. The guy has talent.
*I find I ask this next question a lot. What do you least like about the industry?
That’s a hard question. It’s like asking what it is about breathing you dislike, you know? With any career or hobby or whatever you want to throw in there, there’s always plusses and minuses that one can consider. With this industry, it’s mostly time. I wish I could have more time to devote to writing, but real life always intrudes. I love being able to lose myself in my little world and create whatever I want, throw some really wild situations at my characters, or just imagine the beauty of another world. Then the phone rings and it all vanishes like mist. I wish, sometimes I was blessed with hyper speed like The Flash. I could work and work and work and have everything done almost instantly.
But that presents its own problems so I won’t dwell on that too much.
And then there’s the frustration of thinking you are being 100% original and you discover that there is something identical or similar to what you’re working on. For example, I was doing a search on my book. All I did was enter the title into my browser and I got the title all right, it was another book by another author who’d used the same title about a year before I thought of it. Talk about having a panic attack! Scrambling around to get something different and avoiding a lawsuit was a pain in the rump! But it all worked out in the end.
Many thanks to Mr. Cash and wishes for much success with his soon-to-release novel The Mythidria Chronicles : Rise of the Nightmare.
