| Name: Brian Barr, aka Aghori Shaivite Down and Dirty Questions: 1. What is one image/idea that represents you? Fertile earth 2. What is a theme you cover and explore within your writing? Cults 3. Tell us about a character. I love and admire Wei from Carolina Daemonic. She’s a strong, smart character, and she isn’t afraid to speak against societal wrongs. 4. Tell us about the cover: Michael Fish Fisher did the cover for my Carolina Daemonic book. The cover features a rendition of my main character, Titus, in steampunk gear, since the novel has steampunk elements. Michael was kind enough to make a cover for me, since he was one of the editors for the book. I had a previous cover I did for the novel, but Michael’s was way better. He brought Carolina Daemonic to a whole new level. 5. What is publishing like? Is it difficult? Easy? Why? Both easy and difficult. It’s a process, with different parts easier than others. Easy to write when you’re in the flow, hard to edit and format, and sometimes hard when you’re writing and not in the flow. 6. In 10 years, what do you want readers to say? I want people to say that I love writing and don’t just write books that I think are popular or an easy sell for a “target audience”. I write books I really care about, and I love being a writer. 7. Do you have favorite words to use in writing? Surround. Whenever I use it, I think “oh no, I use that too much!” so I try to switch it up with envelop and other words relating to the context. 8. What is the funniest writing experience you’ve had? I had a poetry workshop class once. The teacher had a very strict idea of how to write poems. One day, the teacher and the students analyzed one of my poems, saying it needed more concrete images and they weren’t sure what my poem was about, etc. I didn’t say anything or defend myself, just listened. Then, a fellow student spoke and completely broke my poem down to the other students, talked about how good it was and how narrow minded they were about what made good poetry. The entire class went speechless. I was always thankful to her, and found it humorous. |  Coming Soon 9 How do you title a book? Where does it come from? I think about the story and what title relates to the tale, as well as what sounds cool. 10. What are your strongest abilities in writing? I’m heavily influenced by Dostoyevsky and Burgess, so I think my characterization can be pretty strong. Creating characters. Psychological writing. |
| Name: Sam Reese Titles: “Immolation”, as well as short stories in “Inanna Rising” and “Autumn Burning”. Down and Dirty Questions: 1. If you had one image/idea to represent you, what would it be? A strong woman. For whatever reason, even if they’re not the protagonist, they tend to show up in my work. 2. What s one theme you cover and explore within your writing? The transforming of the perceived weak to become strong. In other words, I write about how people who are very flawed-and not necessarily heroes in the traditional sense-overcome insurmountable odds to effect great change, even if that change is within themselves. 3. Give us one (or 2) character (s) (tell us the book(s)) and tell us why you admire/hate/ love that person. Lavender (the protagonist in the short story “A Raven’s Blessing” from “Inanna Rising”). I admire her for her sense of duty and honor. Despite being grossly unqualified and untrained, as well as terrified, she did what was asked of her because she realized that to refuse could mean death for those she loved. Lydia (I sense an “L” pattern here) from my novel, “Immolation”. I love Lydia, because for me she represents every person-male or female-who keeps getting knocked down but stands right back up. Throughout the horror that is her life, she remains strong and, in the end, does what I think very few of us could do given her same set of circumstances. 4. Pick one of your covers and tell us how that represents your book. Since I only have one book that is truly “mine”, I’ll go with the cover to “Immolation”. It was started by Susan Simone and completed by Michael Fisher. It was a wonderful experience, working with both of them. The planning was pretty straightforward. I gave a description of what I envisioned, and they ran with it. Fish, who completed it (and, I think, did most of the work) made sure to send me updates and ask what I thought. I always felt like it was “mine”, even though he did all the artwork. My only complaint is that it’s too scary for some people. Oh well, they’ll need to quit being such wimps, lol. 5. What is publishing like? Is it difficult? Easy? Why? Self-publishing is irritating, truly. Too much work, and I’m too anal to do it without having a figurative aneurysm. Publishing with JEA is wonderful, because all of the annoying stuff is taken out of my hands and put into the hands of people with my best interests at heart. The professionalism is amazing, but so is the camaraderie. Now if I could just get a publicist, since I really suck at promotion. 6. In 10 years, what do you want readers to say about your work/you? While I’d love to make lots of money writing, I’d like for people to say that my work helped them make it through a tough time in their lives. C. S. Lewis said the following: “Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” For me, my primary purpose in writing is to tell it like it is, but to provide hope that people do make it through to the other side. 8. What is the funniest writing experience you’ve had? I don’t know. Probably when a guy who hadn’t read “Immolation” said, (cont) | 
(cont) “I liked it better when it was called “Carrie”. For some reason, that just made me laugh, because it is nothing like Carrie except very superficially. I didn’t even read Carrie or watch any of the movies until probably a year after I finished the book. . How do you title a book? Where does it come from? I wish I knew. It just sort of comes out. Sometimes, I write a story based on a title I’ve thought of, and other times I finish the thing and rack my brain forever trying to find a title. A good example of the former is a short novella I wrote that I hope to get published entitled “Closing Time”. It was inspired by a comic book store I used to frequent in college. It was this little place in the middle of a small town. Nothing really special in it except the comics and the proprietor. I was talking to him one day, and he got up to lock the door and said, “Well, I guess it’s closing time.” Suddenly I had my title, and the story just went downhill-or uphill depending on your perspective-from there. 9. What are your strongest abilities in writing? Getting through the first draft without editing. Not everyone can do that, at least without constantly editing. It might take me a hundred years to finish the first draft, but I rarely edit as I go. Also, I’ve been told my dialogue is phenomenal, as are my character interactions. People tell me I write people the way they really are, and that they never feel fake or contrived. That’s important: my characters are real people, they just happen to live in a fictional setting. |
7. Do you have favorite words to use in writing? What are they? I like using “as if” and “as though” in describing events, thoughts, and environments through metaphors. 8. What is the funniest writing experience you’ve had? A crossover fan-fiction between Warhammer 40,000 and SpongeBob Squarepants (courtesy of being a parent). No, you cannot see it. 9. How do you title a book? Where does it come from? More often than not, I have a book title before I have even a single word written. Books typically come to me as concepts, and title is usually deeply embedded within such a concept. In fact, it is not uncommon for me to see a story grow out of a title, which may represent a setting, an underlying concept, or perhaps other inspiration for the story. A title is a summary of what the story is about, perhaps a quick imposition of its message, and maybe even a homage to one of its underlying themes. For example, “Bring Out the Dead” has nothing to do with that one Nicholas Cage movie, was inspired by everything I read about the Stalinist “repressions” in the Soviet Union, the stories of the labor camps mining precious metals from the frozen ground – and the untold victims of those heartless exploits. Thus, when the winter brings out the dead, it is the living who would suffer the consequences of their one time misdeeds. 10. What are your strongest abilities in writing? I like to think that my greatest strength as a writer is creating characters with a degree of moral ambiguity. This always helped me both in creating more dystopian settings that I tend to enjoy, and in giving my characters a measure of realism. | Down and Dirty Questions: Alex Shalenko 1. If you had one image/idea to represent you, what would it be? A long time ago, someone told me that I was here to be a storyteller, and it has been an idea behind both my writing and music. While I would love to come up with some kind of a grandiose, pompous, or otherwise pathos-filled image, I hope that the image and the idea that represents me is the sum of my creative endeavors, the atmosphere I created in them, and ultimately the stories that meant something to my readers and listeners. Perhaps, then, this is it – creating a meaningful message. 2. What themes do you cover and explore within your writing? Complexity of human experience. While much of our feel-good popular culture attempts to teach us the world in simple terms of pure good or absolute evil, the reality of human experience is rarely as straightforward. No one sees himself as a villain, after all, and character progression is only possible for characters who are not at the extremes of the moral spectrum, both in fiction and in real life. 3. Tell us about a charcter In writing “Bring Out the Dead”'s Jake Levin, I tried to create the character that was not only realistic, but also not exactly a knight in a shining armor. A big part of the novel is Jake's journey from a self-obsessed, ambitious, and unscrupulous state to someone who discovers a degree of humanity and, eventually, self-worth. I enjoyed writing him, and writing about his development over the course of the novel. Of course, Jake himself, at least at the beginning of the story, is not a particularly nice guy. He schemes, he plots, he puts his own immediate gratification over all other concerns, allows paranoia to guide him, and has the kind of personality that thrives in certain industries, but perhaps does not inspire trust. This facade is a reason enough to dislike Jake – his transformation, and his ability to become his own man despite everything his environment was trying to teach him, is the reason why I admire who he became. 4. Pick one of your covers and tell us how that represents your book. The cover for my debut novel “Bring Out the Dead” was done by David McGlumphy, and it was probably one of the easiest, most intuitive, yet fulfilling experiences I had as an author. It was as easy as communicating the key words from my mental image of the cover, and then reviewing the work and providing the feedback. I was hoping to incorporate the key themes of the environment where the novel is set – the depth of Siberia, where the polluted and frozen city of Severozavodsk is as much a character as any of the individuals in the novel, and David delivered! 5. What is publishing like? Is it difficult? Easy? Why? The process of getting published was a rather long affair for me; it took eight years from completing my first novel to my first publishing contract. In fact, the actual process of seeking to become published can be somewhat discouraging, especially after the euphoria of completing a lengthy work and feeling very elated. Once the contract is signed, it is a matter of patience, and, more importantly, of being understanding and flexible during the editorial process. In my case, I have to say that JEA made the process of being published very easy, both due to professionalism of its staff, and due to very supportive environment. I think I learned a lot during this process, and believe that it made me a better writer (not to mention probably easier for editors to work with!). 6. In 10 years, what do you want readers to say about your work/you? I hope that the stories I tell will be seen as shedding some light on the human experience, all of it – the good, the bad, the ugly. My ultimate ambition as a writer is to create the work that asks these existential questions, and perhaps provides an interesting perspective to my readers. If ten years from now, my readers will say “he made us think” about me, I will be happy. |
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