PRIDE 2020 INTERVIEWS: David B. Roundsley

Today’s Pride Month interview is with musician, designer, and memoirist David B. Roundsley:

Hi, David! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during the current pandemic lockdowns. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

Hello Anthony. We’re definitely staying safe. We generally work from home, so there were no big shifts there, but I found my productivity and creativity were suddenly in high gear without much prompting.

Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being gay influenced or informed your art/craft?

Knowing I was gay from a very early age (and knowing it was neither approved of and under no circumstances ever discussed) definitely influenced me and my art. Being born in Southern California at that point in time, there was definite pressure to conform and not stand out. My earliest creative efforts were in art: oil painting, watercolors, pen and ink. Very bland. After moving to the bay area in my teen years and seeing the self-assurance and bravery of much of the gay community living their lives openly showed me a path that you don’t have to hide in the shadows or pretend that you’re something you’re not.

The real turning point was the late 70’s collision of gay pride / dance music / punk and the whole D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) ethos where people were allowed to overlap in areas that might be discordant or seemingly incompatible. While going to see gay cabaret and the disco scene, I was also a regular at Winterland (there were weeks where I was there six out of seven nights) seeing everyone from Blue Öyster Cult, KISS, Bowie, Styx, Judas Priest on through to the Sex Pistols combusting. At the time it would seem like the hard-rock part didn’t mesh, but now with historical hindsight, there was a lot of gay subtext lurking there.

What is your process like for creating a Munich Syndrome album? Has it changed at all over the years?

The first era of Munich Syndrome was two synths, a drum machine, a mixing board and a Tascam PortaStudio. I’d generally play the bass part on one keyboard, melody or chords on the other, and set up a rhythm. I played it live, and then would mix things down, to open more tracks. This was time consuming and painstaking, but it always fell a bit short of what I wanted it to be.

The second era worked much better. I started out with ProTools and was making some headway when an acquaintance suggested Logic, saying it might suit what I was doing better. It was a much better fit.

 My creative process for the most part is to go into the studio with no preconceptions. I fail miserably every time I sat down and said, “I’m going to do a “fill-in-the-blank” song”. If I had it in my mind to do a dance song, more often than not, I’d end up with something atmospheric, downtempo and significantly slower. The same when I sat down to do something introspective. Now I just start exploring sounds, playing with tempos and beats and let them take me where they want me to follow.

You’ve recently completed work on a memoir about your search to know more about your birth parents, which took some wild twists and turns. How did you approach writing the book? Was there anything you initially wanted to include but decided it was too much of a tangent?

I honestly never saw myself writing a proper book when I was younger. Ironically, my adoptive mother always used to say I’m a great storyteller and should write a book. If she wasn’t already deceased, I think this book would do her in. The search for my birth parents was a fluke, but within 48 hours of starting, I was suddenly in quite deep. Several months in and talking to people, everyone started saying “oh, you should write a book about this. I’d read it.” I thought, “yeah, right.” About 8 years in (I just had the 13th anniversary of when this all started) I seriously thought about it and made some attempts. I started with a fairly straightforward retelling of my birth parent’s history. It felt clunky. It read like a very dry history book and I put it away. Well, not that dry, with the drugs, swinging, organized crime, a possible Zodiac link…

Around Christmas of 2017 I received a holiday card from the woman who got me started, who was incredibly helpful in providing me with information and introducing me to other sources. She kiddingly said, “I’m still waiting for the book”, so I decided it was “do-or-die” time.

Ultimately the only way I could really tell it was chronologically as it unfolded for me. So, there are a lot of jumps back and forth in time, but I think it makes sense. The only area I had to think about a tangent on was giving my disabled half-sister a chance to tell her story. It’s rather unorthodox and probably breaks most rules of literature, but I felt it gave substance to the story and an insight to who my birthfather was at that point in time.

I didn’t hold back too much and hopefully my conclusions are substantiated with the hundreds of hours of interviews and calls that took place over the last 13 years. I will say, some of the conclusions surprised me. 

You’ve also created/curated a “soundtrack” of sorts to the book. Talk about that process a little bit, if you could.

This kind of ties back into the first question about creativity. At the start of the year, the book most definitely felt done. As we are nearing the point of launching a Kickstarter campaign, I thought doing a song for the book would be appropriate. The song “Bad Blood (The Ballad of a Bad Man)”, is a distillation of my birth father’s life, but also opened me up to stretching out musically. Munich Syndrome originated from the synth pop / electro new wave in the 80’s, but mentally, I never saw Munich Syndrome in strictly defined musical terms. My first stabs at music were teaching myself the blues on the piano. I felt the book had some David Lynch overtones, so for a few of the songs I anchored things in acoustic and electric guitar and went for a more cinematic feel in spots. At this point, I recognized some songs dating back to 2007 were written specifically about what I was going through with the journey and thought about a curated listening experience including past songs. But as I moved into this, I felt some of the older ones weren’t quite the right fit sonically, so I ended up remixing, re-recording and re-envisioning some of the tracks. Also, there was one piece of music, “Out of the Blue” from Alan Parson’s 1999 album, “The Time Machine”, that really resonated with me. It came up often while we were on the long drives out to Montana and beyond. The theme of the album was time travel and it was definitely something I was doing at the time. Much like the book, I felt the album was done, until I redid the ending of the book at the start of the year. I went back and added one more song, “Goodbye”, about letting go of expectations, the past and any pain or regret associated with it.

The book/soundtrack project will be on Kickstarter in the near future. Where can people go to be informed when the project launches? And where else can they find you and your work online?

This will be my first attempt at a Kickstarter campaign, and it’s not for the faint of heart. As we’re getting nearer to formally launching it, we’ve set up a page to subscribe on MailChimp: https://david-b-roundsley.mailchimpsites.com/

In the meantime my main website, which started out to be strictly about my graphic design work now is a central location for my art, music and the book: <https://dbrdesign.com/>

My music with Munich Syndrome is available on all major music websites and at BandCamp: https://munichsyndrome.bandcamp.com/

And lastly, my YouTube Channel for Munich Syndrome: https://www.youtube.com/user/munichsyndrome

I appreciate you including me in your interviews for Pride Month!!!

It was my pleasure!

David B. Roundsley has been involved in a wide array of artistic disciplines ranging from fine art (painting, pen & ink, watercolor), to graphic design, multi-media, writing, video, and music (composing and studio production) over the past 50 years. He has run an independent design company since 1994 as well as having held the Creative Director positions at GetSmart and Fast Find, and has released 11 albums under the moniker Munich Syndrome.

LINDA POITEVIN "SINS OF THE LOST" - Interview

It’s always a pleasure to welcome Linda Poitevin back to the site to talk about her latest. This time out, we’re discussing SINS OF THE LOST, the third book in her four-part series The Grigori Legacy. Linda is also the author of the contemporary romance GWYNNETH EVER AFTER. You can read all of my previous interviews with Linda, and get a sense of how The Grigori Legacy series has developed, by clicking HERE.

ANTHONY: SINS OF THE LOST, book three of The Grigori Legacy, comes out this month. Now that you’re several books into the series, what roadblocks or character moments did you hit while writing the new book that caught you by surprise in comparison to the earlier books?

LINDA:  I was actually surprised at how difficult the entire book was to write, to be honest…probably because I had to do so many awful things to my characters. I’m not sure I’ll ever recover from the trauma, lol!

ANTHONY: There’s been a bit of a gap from the publication of book two, SINS OF THE SON, to book three. You published GWYNNETH EVER AFTER, a stand-alone romance, in between.  What caused the long break from TGL?

LINDA: There were a number of reasons for the gap: (1) it took a while to settle on a contract with my publisher; (2) when I’m not under a fixed deadline, I tend to drag my heels on writing; (3) this really was a tough story to write; and (4) I met with a dog-walking accident (hint: one should not have the leash of a 127-pound dog wrapped around an index finger) that put me out of commission for almost a month with a bad sprain.

ANTHONY: OUCH! How much time has passed for the characters, and where do we find them at the start of the new book? (And can you answer this question without major spoilers, haha?)

LINDA: Very little time passes between the books; Sins of the Lost picks up a scant two weeks after Sins of the Son left off. Alex and Seth are back in Toronto, struggling to make a go of their fledgling relationship in the aftermath of the events in Vancouver, and Alex is just returning to her job.

ANTHONY: Assuming we will be spending plenty of time with Alex, Aramael, Seth, Lucifer and the rest … are there any new characters we should be excited for / wary of?

LINDA: One very important new character is hinted at in Sins of the Lost, but you won’t actually get to meet her until the fourth and final book. Apart from that, there’s a return of an old enemy and more of the Archangel Michael…who really is one of my favorites. 

The Grigori Legacy, Book Three

ANTHONY: Color me intrigued! SINS OF THE LOST is only out in e-book format, right? Why the change from the print versions we got for books one and two?

LINDA: Sins of the Lost is what my publisher is calling “digital first” — which essentially means that there’s a possibility of print, but no guarantee (it will depend on sales figures). The change occurred because sales on book 2 slumped a little, as second books often do, apparently. But, while that slump generally spells death for a series, my publisher (and my amazing editor) really likes the series and wanted to give it another chance. Talk about a vote of confidence! 

ANTHONY: That is a great vote of confidence. Please thank the publisher for giving it another go. So many fun urban fantasy series do seem to fail with book two. Now, the cover art is also a bit different. It seems that Alexandra Jarvis is not on the cover for the first time. Does this bode unwell for our heroine?

LINDA: LOL…Alex is safe, Anthony, I promise. Horribly tortured, perhaps, but safe. The change in art was made because of the switch to digital-first. Too much detail doesn’t show up well on the widgets you see online, so we needed to simplify the design a bit. We also wanted to place more emphasis on the angel aspect of the story.

ANTHONY: Which makes sense, given the events of the book.  And not that I’m rushing you, but what will book four be called and when will it be done? No, like, seriously. When? 

LINDA: This book is going much faster than the last one, lol. It’s tentatively entitled Sins of the Warrior (expect a lot more Michael in this one), and I plan to have the first draft done by the end of March. No word yet on publication, however…sorry! 

ANTHONY: Well, you know, if you need a beta-reader for it, you have my email address.   Instead of my usual “what’s your favorite book” question, which I think you’ve answered several times, tell us what your resource on Angels and their mythology has been most helpful/influential on you in creating the Grigori series.

LINDA: Google was my best friend when it came to research for this series. Because I knew I would be twisting angel mythology to fit with my own nefarious purposes, I didn’t need accuracy as much as I did inspiration—and the Internet is rifewith sources for that. I read extensively on Bible study, Catholic, and new age sites, taking bits and pieces from all over in order to construct my own world for the series. The diversity in the takes on angel lore was utterly fascinating and made for great fodder…and I barely even scratched the surface of what’s out there.

THE GO TO - Interview

A few months back my pal Cruise Russo turned 21 and his band Reverse Order played a Birthday Show for him at The Architekt in Butler NJ. A bunch of bands I wasn’t familiar with were on the bill, including a New England based quartet called The Go To. They impressed me with their energy and stage presence and the sound of their originals, and they did a pretty damned fine cover of Neon Trees’ “Everybody Talks.” I contacted their manager, set up an email interview, got their answers … and finally, a month later, I’m posting the interview here. Hopefully, the new music they talk about in this interview will be available for purchase soon. Meantime, here’s our chat.

ANTHONY: Hi guys!  Thanks for taking the time to chat with me.  Let’s start with the usual: how long has the band been together and how did you form?

MAT:  Hey!  The current line-up of TGT (Mat, Austin, Cory and Alex) has been together a little under a year now, but TGT has been around about a year and some change.  I have been writing music and performing for such a long time, and then Austin and I started jamming around three years ago.  We just decided that we wanted to bring what we were doing the public, so that’s really where the heart of TGT began.  Then we found Cory on YouTube playing a RHCP song on bass and knew we had to have him, and also met Alex around that same time.  Ever since the four of us started playing, it just clicked and we knew that this is the band we wanted to take to the top.
ANTHONY: I know you were asked this question at the show where I first saw you, so I have to ask: how many times have Mat and Cory been asked if they’re brothers?

MAT:  Haha, well it seems like every time we play a show in a new area to people who haven’t seen us live yet we get asked that, so I’d say at least a thousand times by this point.

CORY: I’m asked at least once every show if I’m Mat’s brother. It’s gotta be at least 50 times.

ANTHONY: And honestly, how many times has Mat been told he looks like (and has the stage presence of) a young Ricky Martin?

MAT: This is the first time anyone has actually given us that comparison…  But now everyone is on to me.

ANTHONY: For a while you were posting bi-weekly cover song videos on Youtube. The first cover video you did in that project was “Everybody Talks” by Neon Trees, which I saw you do live at The Architekt. It struck me that song really fits your style and Mat’s voice and stage presence, better than almost any other song you’ve covered. How do you guys decide which songs you’re going to cover, and is there any song you absolutely would never cover?

MAT:  As a band we have a tendency to obsess over certain songs together.  It’s almost like every week we’re all running around each other singing a new song, old or now, non-stop.  Like right now we’re currently hung up on Rap God off Eminem’s new album, but like a month ago Wrecking Ball was the newest one haha!  I guess our method to picking songs to cover is which ever non TGT has gotten our total intention.  As for songs we’d never cover, I guess you can say we’d cover anything we possibly could.  I mean, just this past weekend we playing a Johnny Cash (Cocaine Blues) cover to a packed room at Pearl Street in Northampton MA.  It was a total fake out before our on encore, but it still counts!

ALEX: We pretty much just all throw out song suggestions until we all agree on the best one, and we are pretty open to our cover suggestions.

CORY: Usually during practice if we need a new cover, well all throw out ideas. Other times we might hear a song we all love and just need to cover it. I don’t think Mat would EVER do a one direction song because of how often he gets compared to Harry.

ANTHONY: Okay, of all the singers Mat reminded me of, Harry Styles didn’t come to mind at all! Will you be doing more cover videos, and what songs can we expect?

MAT:  Right now since we’ve released the “Too Sore” music video, most of our YouTube efforts are being out into promote that, but we plan on doing some higher quality cover videos soon, and also releasing some great live footage.  Just gotta stay tuned. 

ANTHONY: Your self-titled EP has been out for a while.  The five songs on it are all originals. What was the song-writing process like for those songs?

MAT:  It’s funny, most of the songs on the EP are songs I had written a long time ago and finally got the chance to start sharing so I jumped on those first.  Back then I would simply grab my guitar and a note pad and scribble down lyrics and chord changes and commit it all to memory.  Now my process is much different because I record ton and tons of demos on my iPad with all the instruments I have in mind, and send them to the band.  They get a few every week!
ANTHONY: I like the whole EP, but “Me Oh My” and “Too Sore” are probably my favorites. As a writer, I hate when people ask me the “where do you get your ideas from” question, so I won’t ask that. But I am curious how extensively you draw from life experiences versus just thinking “hey, that would be a great story to tell.” (I always tease my family and friends: be careful what you say, or you’ll end up in a story.)

MAY:  I draw a lot from my personal life!  Sometimes I tell stories of things I’ve gone through, or elaborate on a certain emotion.  An example of the latter is one of our new songs “Upside Down” which is a song I wrote totally on the idea of feeling like I was watching the world from the outside in.   But on the other hand, another new song “Conundrum” is me singing about dealing with a relationship when one person has moved on and the other is still hung up on it, which is something I personally was going through at the time.

Alex, Mat, Austin, Cory

ANTHONY: The “Too Sore” video has hit 21,000 views (which is about 20,700 more than either of my cover videos). Congrats on that. Are you planning videos for any of the other songs on the EP?

MAT:  Most likely not from the EP, but we are working on some new tunes and have a pretty cool game plan coming up that may entail another video!

ALEX: We haven’t quite decided if we are going to do another video from the EP yet but we are definitely going to be shooting a video for one of our newer songs hopefully in the near future.

ANTHONY: I know you’re answering these questions during a weekend in the studio, so what can you tell me about the new stuff you’re working on. With one EP under your belts, has the songwriting process changed at all? How about your sound?

MAT:  As I stated before, I have a home studio that I used to record demos and such to send to the band, but this has also opened me up as a song writer.  I have the ability to add as many instruments and experiment with new sounds.  It’s so great, and it’s much more expressive then some of the older stuff.  However, it’s still just as catchy, and hopefully you’ll still be singing all the new ones too!

AUSTIN: Our sound has matured incredibly in the past few months! The only way I can prove this is by telling you to come out to a live show. It’ll change the way you look at us. I can almost promise you that.

ALEX: The new songs that we are working on sound incredible! They are very strong and catchy tunes. And as far as sound goes, since our first EP dropped our music has matured into more of a Rock feel with that little bit of a pop feel still there.
ANTHONY: How extensively have you toured, and when are you headed back on the road?

MAT:  Actually, TGT has never done any extensive touring, but have played ALL OVER the north east!  We do have some plans for the summer though… But that’s all I can say.

ALEX: We are hoping to go on our very first tour very soon. We have been working very hard to get to where we are now.

CORY: We’ve gone out to New York, Cape Cod, Connecticut and a few other states around here but we haven’t gone on a full blown tour yet.

ANTHONY: And my usual closing question: Since I’m a writer, I’m always curious to know — what is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

Mat:  I’m actually a huge fan of Stephen King, and my favorite book is “Pet Semetery”.  Crazy book, man.  That’s all I can say, don’t want to spoil it at all.

ANTHONY: Thanks, guys!

THE GO TO:  Thank you too!

You can follow find The Go To on Facebook, Instagram,  on their own website, and follow them on Twitter: @theGoToBand,@TheGoToMat, @TheGoToAlex, @TheGoToCory, and @TheGoToAustin.

And of course you can subscribe to their channel on Youtube.  Here’s their video for “Too Sore” to whet your appetite:

J.M. LOFFICIER - Author

I’ve been a fan of publishers J.M. and Randy Lofficier’s writing for decades now, and I was honored in 2013 to become one of the authors published by Black Coat Press, their small press focused on new and reprinted adventures of classic French pulp magazine characters such as Harry Dickson, Judex, Rouletabille, the Black Coats and more.  I conducted this interview with J.M., about Black Coats’ history and mission, months ago and owe him an apology for how long it’s taken to post this.  Read along as we discuss French pulp characters, Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton concept, and the overlap between the two, among other subjects:

ANTHONY: How long has Black Coat Press been in existence, and where does the company name come from? What was the company’s first published title?

JM: We started Black Coat Press in the Summer of 2003, just in time to be able to release our first book — Arnould Galopin’s DOCTOR OMEGA — for the San Diego Comicon of that year. The name “Black Coat” was taken from Paul Féval’s ground-breaking criminal saga which we intended to translate and publish at some point. I’m pleased to say that, thanks to Brian Stableford’s industriousness, we were able to release all seven volumes (plus a few related titles). The last one was released in 2011, so it did take about eight years!

ANTHONY: Where did you love for the pulps in general, and French pulps in particular, start?

JM: Like most of us, during my childhood and teen years. There is one major difference, however, which is that most English-language “classics” were readily available to me in the same paperback imprints as their French counterparts. For example, the Livre de poche imprint released editions of Holmes and Lupin, Fantomas and the Saint, Poirot and Rouletabille. Marabout published the Black Coats and Rocambole next to the Scarlet Pimpernel, Doc Savage next to Bob Morane. So the “universe” of pulp literature to which I had access was vastly greater than the ones accessible in the US or the UK.

ANTHONY: It seems, in the US at least, we’re experiencing a “pulp resurgence,” with publishers like Meteor House, Dynamite, Moonstone and others bringing back every 1880s to 1940s adventure character they can get their hands on. What is the attraction for modern readers to these classic, and sometimes campy, pulp characters?

JM: Some of it is nostalgia, of course. But I think there is a perennial aspect to the best pulps that transcends time and changing fashions. Sherlock Holmes, The Three Musketeers, Tarzan, The Count of Monte-Cristo, The Shadow, Arsene Lupin (to name but a few) have survived the test of time and will likely be remembered forever; their modern-day descendants are to be found on television. The TV series, especially today with its complex plots, character arcs, etc. is the inheritor of Alexandre Dumas and Paul Feval. The same people who rushed to the New York harbor to get their next installment of Monte-Cristo in the French papers (at a time when a lot of educated Americans knew foreign languages) are the same today eagerly waiting for the next episode of LOST or MAD MEN.

Tales of the Shadowmen includes a short story by Anthony R. Cardno

ANTHONY: The idea of having classic characters meet up is not a new one in world literature, although in the modern day I think Philip Jose Farmer deserves a lot of the credit, through his Wold-Newton Family concept, for making such crossovers more than just fun mash-ups. In your TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN anthologies, you encourage writers to cross the French pulp characters who are your forte with just about everything else in the pop culture canon.  What criteria do you follow for those stories?  Is any “crossover” concept just too out there?

JM: Jess Nevins wrote authoritatively in his intro to Win Eckert’s CROSSOVERS about the history of “crossovers”, going back to Jason and the Argonauts, the Round Table tales, etc. So yes it is hardly a new phenomenon, although I think Maurice Leblanc’s bold initiative of having Lupin cross swords with Holmes deserves a lot of credit. Regarding TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN, my only two criteria are: (1) there has to be a character from French fiction (being Black Coat Press, this comes with the territory) and (2) the story has to be in continuity and respectful of the original materials. No funny ha-ha pastiches, no killing off heroes, no dark reinterpretations. That’s all. Other than that, I welcome any crossover, the more outré, the better. To quote but a few of the more unexpected crossovers, we had stories featuring The Little Prince and Doc Savage, Zorro and Jean Valjean, The Wizard of Oz and Richard Matheson’s Born of Man and Woman, Jerry Cornelius, Pere Ubu and the movie Alphaville… This year, for example, we have a story that conflates Boulgakov’s Master and Margarita, Jean Ray’s Malpertuis and Marie Nizet’s Captain Vampire… As you can see, we roam pretty far and wide.

ANTHONY: What’s the weirdest crossover you’ve seen submitted to you, the type of thing that made you think ‘this can’t possibly work’ but then it did?

JM: The ones I mentioned above all fit the bill. I myself wrote the one mixing The Wizard of Oz with Richard Matheson’s horror tale Born of Man and Woman because someone challenged me to do it. I have another one mixing Enid Blyton’s Famous Five with the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom, but I haven’t written it yet.

ANTHONY: I’m sort of excited but disturbed by that concept. Did you intend TotS to be an annual anthology event when you put the first volume out?

JM: Yes, I always did, which is why I put a #1 on the spine of the first book!  That’s a clue.  Since then, we’ve also released some character-themed anthologies that include about 50% of already published stories (usually from TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN) and 50% new stories. We’ve had anthos dedicated to Arsene Lupin, Dr. Omega, the Nyctalope and Judex, and I’m preparing one on Harry Dickson.

ANTHONY: The 10th volume came out a few months ago. Has your process for choosing stories or putting the book together changed at all?

JM: Not in the least.

ANTHONY: Do you have any plans to bring the TotS books out in ebook format in the near future?

JM: Yes, I have been slowly making our catalog available as ebooks, but it is a slow process. I still have the Black Coats series to do and then I’ll tackle the Shadowmen. I’m also working on converting our huge library of comics (in French) for Comixology, and that is a long and time consuming process, and there are only so many hours in the day — and I’m basically the only person doing all this.

ANTHONY: I really need to get a tablet I can read comics on. Right now I just have the Nook Simple Touch (I’ve been slow to move to e-readers) and it’s not really good for comics. I want to circle back to the Wold-Newton concept for a moment. Farmer created a pretty distinct family tree and linked them to a particular event, the crash of the meteor at Wold-Newton.  People have referred to Black Coats’ output as “The French Wold-Newton Universe.”  Have you ever posited an event similar to the WN meteor to explain what Farmer would call “a supernova of genetic splendor” in France?

JM: No, not at all. At best, I piggybacked on Farmer’s concept; he already had ancestors of Arsene Lupin and Monsieur Lecoq at Wold Newton, because there were the two French characters he knew best. So I merely suggested a few more, a notion that has since been coopted by a few other authors. I also added some French historical content (as it were) by suggesting that the French characters at Wold Newton had a political agenda, which resulted first in the French Revolution, then, later, the ascent of Napoleon. That notion was first put forward by Alexandre Dumas, so it is not mine, entirely, but it blended rather well with Farmer’s. You can read it in greater detail here:
http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/wnu7.htm

ANTHONY: In addition to “new pulp” books like the TotS series, you also publish a large number of translations of French pulps into English (the Harry Dickson and Madame Atomos books, most notably, but too many others to list here).  How do you decide what to translate and what authors to use to do the translating (when, that is, you don’t do the translating yourself)?

As far as deciding what deserves to be translated (or in some cases retranslated), obviously, I use my own judgment of what is really important. If you were doing it the other way, you would translate Doc Savage, but perhaps not Jim Anthony. So I think characters like Mme Atomos, Lupin, Fantomas, Harry Dickson, Doctor Omega, Sar Dubnotal, Rouletabille, etc. deserve to have at least a reasonable sampling of their adventures made available in English. I’d like to do Jean-Claude Carriere’s six remarkable Frankenstein novels but they’re not in the public domain and the rights aren’t available. Rocambole is something I’d like to do too, but someone else already put out a good series of abridged / condensed versions that pretty much cover it. I rely on Brian Stableford, Michael Shreve and a few more hand-picked folks to help me with the translations. The great majority of the books we publish ARE important; they all contain some ground-breaking idea, some new stylistic inventions… Whether we’re talking vampires or space travel, mystic heroes or cloaked avengers, criminal conspiracies or super-detectives, French popular literature contains a huge number of truly wonderful works which deserved to be made accessible to the English-speaking audience.

ANTHONY: What is upcoming from BCP in the near future?

JM: We tend to plan ahead, so for what’s coming up, you can check this link:
http://www.blackcoatpress.com/catalog.htm#SOON

Pulp-wise, in 2014, we’ll have all 18 MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR CORNELIUS novels released in a big, fat trilogy of books; hopefully the last two never published before in English FANTOMAS novels; the last two DOC ARDAN stories (a French young Doc Savage-type hero), the end of the MADAME ATOMOS saga; a new FU MANCHU novel; a series of books from the early 1900s about DR. CARESCO and PROFESSOR TORNADA, two mad scientists and another early Martian saga.

ANTHONY: I think the sound we hear in the background is my bank account collapsing. So let’s go to my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who has not read it to convince them that they should?

 JM: If you’re a pulp mystery fan, the BLACK COATS (INVISIBLE WEAPON would be my recommendation) or JOHN DEVIL by Paul Feval; if you’re more sf-minded, anything by Maurice Renard is really quite good — he wasn’t nicknamed the French HG Wells for nothing.

SEAN ASTIN: THIS SHOW NEEDS AN APP - Interview

If you had told me ten years ago that I’d have a chance to interview Sean Astin, someone I’ve been a fan of since The Goonies, I’d have laughed. Honestly, if you’d told me even two years ago, when I started doing interviews for this site, that I’d interview Sean, I’d have been skeptical. But it’s happened. Sean recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for his radio show Vox Populi: The Voice of the (Occasionally Interested) People. I’ve listened to the show, and I think Sean does exactly what he says in the show’s mission statement: he brings people together to talk civilly and calmly about the hot topics of the day, without regard for sound-bytes or better ratings. It’s about talking, and about listening.  So I backed the Kickstarter, and took a chance to ask Sean if he’d do an interview for my little personal website. He agreed to it, “after I run the Chicago Marathon.”  So here it is. It’s a short interview, but hopefully we get across why Vox Populi is a project worthy of being funded and more. As of today, there are 4.5 days left in the campaign, and it is funded… but Sean would like to hit the $60,000 stretch goal to build the show an app. The video at the end of this interview explains why he’s so passionate about this despite adding it late in the campaign.  I’ve seen KS campaigns raise much more than $20,000 in much less than 4 days, so like Sean I believe it can be done.  But enough of me …

ANTHONY: Let’s start with an easy one: After such a strong acting career, what led you to start a political radio talk-show?

SEAN: Well, I think I would have done some kind of political show regardless of my career. My mom was president of the Screen Actors Guild and hosted a morning tv show in LA when I was a kid. So, the desire for citizenship and using my voice was placed in me by my family. The fact that I’ve been blessed with a long career, just makes the transition easier. Lots of people are familiar with my name, so it’s easier to build an audience. At least on paper, encouraging people to see someone in a different light, particularly when it’s politics, takes work. Also, it’s not the only thing I do. In fact, it’s a hobby for me at this point; a hobby that I’m extremely passionate about, but it’s not about money, yet. It might be in the future. I am currently acting in a show for FX with Guillermo del Toro directing. So, life, particularly with my wife and three daughters is sailing by. The political show gives me the satisfaction that on some level, I hope, I’m making a difference!

ANTHONY: Your focus is on “civil discourse,” and I really admire the way you let people have their say, even if you disagree with them. But I’m sure people wonder: what would make you cut a discussion short or lose your cool with a guest?

SEAN: Ha! Fun question. Well, as the HOST I get to disconnect the call if someone flouts the premise of the show and behaves in an uncivil manner. I might get nervous about doing that, but I would do it because I must protect the integrity of the show. I think in most instances, when people are directed to “be nice” and then given the time and space to express themselves, they usually become the best contributors. I lose my cool sometimes at events in the world, Sandy Hook, Benghazi… but I believe that the HOST role carries responsibilities and I like to be responsible.

ANTHONY: I’m sure you get this all the time, but I have to ask: what was your favorite part of filming The Goonies (one of my top five life-time favorite movies)? And, more seriously: can you tell my readers about your marathon experiences and the #Run3rd movement?

SEAN: One of my favorite things about making The Goonies was driving onto the Warner Lot and feeling like a big shot. The pirate ship, Dick Donner, Steven Spielberg, My Goonies friends, the Crew, Waterslides…it was a great adventure. I love talking about running. I would direct your readers to my Mission Statement and our official Run3rd.blogspot.com site. Just know that I choose now to dedicate my runs to people, causes, ideas. I declare before 5k’s,10k’s, 1/2 & Full Marathons that I “#run3rd for (insert person etc..)” It started as a twitter campaign, which offers a prompt to people to make dedications themselves. When I or you or anyone dons the emblem #run3rd on their clothes or whatever, they are said to be running on behalf of all of the dedications. I ran 3 marathons this year, LA, SF & this month, Chicago. These events inspire the heck out of me. I just love the challenge, the community everything. Running is more than a sport to me, it’s a sacred experience!!!

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 that they should?

SEAN: I don’t know anymore. I studied English and History at UCLA. At certain periods of my life, I was a voracious reader. In recent years, I haven’t dedicated myself to reading very much. It saddens me to say so, but it’s true. I think when I was kid, I was probably A.D.D. That may have come back. My usual answer is Candide, by Voltaire. It sound high faluten, but basically it’s a great adventure story with a powerful bit of philosophy and morality mixed in for good measure.

ANTHONY: Thank you again, Sean!  Now, what’s all this about “The Show Needs An App?”

And finally, most importantly: the Kicstarter page. All you need to do is go to www.StartTheVox.com.  That will take you directly to the Kickstarter page where you can see all the Backer Rewards Sean is offering, as well as Sean’s original video explaining the show and the project, and of course, where you can back the project yourself. Every little bit helps!

MIRA GRANT, Author of "PARASITE" - Interview

Mira Grant, author of the NEWSFLESH trilogy (one of the few zombie books I’ve enjoyed) has a new book out today: PARASITE. She’s graciously agreed to answer a few questions….

ANTHONY: Let’s start with the basics: What is PARASITE about?

MIRA: Parasites.  No, that isn’t fair, even if it’s accurate!  It’s about genetic engineering, and the uneasy marriage of science and profitability, that place where smart people do stupid things in the name of making a buck.  It’s about finding yourself.  And it’s about that sharply indrawn breath before the end of the world.

ANTHONY: I had the chance to read the first chapters, which were included in the ebook edition of LIGHTSPEED magazine’s October issue. And I have to say:  even in that short space, you managed to make me shiver. I anticipate a lot more seat-squirming before the book is done. Should readers expect a lot of bodily fluids to fly, since we’re dealing with intestinal parasites?

MIRA: Not as many as you might think!  Parasite is an intentionally ‘dry’ book in the body fluids sense, because there’s so much horror inherent in the concept that dumping buckets of blood on top just seemed, well…silly.  Like, why would you bother, when everything has already been ruined forever by the sheer existence of intestinal parasites?  I brought a big box of nope to page one, and spend a lot of time unpacking it.

ANTHONY: One of the things I love about your writing is the strong, but often emotionally damaged, female protagonists. Can you tell us a bit about Sally Mitchell?

MIRA: Sally Mitchell–who prefers to be called “Sal,” thank you, Sally was another country–was in a very bad accident several years before the start of the book, and she’s still dealing with the after effects, which are mostly psychological at this point.  She’s dyslexic, she has a severe fear of cars, and she has no memory of her life before the crash.  She’s a very kind person.  She wants to be good.  She’s just not always completely certain that she understands what that means.

ANTHONY: This takes place only a decade in the future, correct?  I know you love to research, so I’m curious as to what current medical breakthroughs you see leading to this potential future?

MIRA: I think that the breakthrough described in this book, harnessing controlled parasites to deal with certain allergies and auto-immune disorders, is coming.  I think we’re a little bit more, well, balanced about it than the people in this book.  I also think that we’re sort of holding our breath right now, because we need to get the politics out of science and really look at the human body–male and female–without ideological blinders getting in the way.

ANTHONY: If memory serves, this is the first Mira Grant book to debut in hardcover. How does that feel?

MIRA: Terrifying.

ANTHONY: PARASITE is the first of a duology called “Parasitology.” Any hints as to when we can expect the second book and what it will be called?

MIRA: Nope!  I don’t mean to be stubborn, but I can’t really say much about the second book without giving spoilers for the first, and we’re still debating the title a little bit.  I’m hoping it’ll be sorted soon.

ANTHONY: You know I have to ask at least one question related to your Newsflesh universe. As we discussed on #sffwrtcht on Twitter a few weeks back, Mahir Gowda has become a fan favorite. What is is about him (as opposed to, say, Georgia and Shaun Mason) that people seem to gravitate to?

MIRA: Mahir is the Horatio of the piece.  He’s the guy who exists to see things unfold, and he’s not untouched by them, he’s not some omniscient narrator: he’s a part of the story he observes.  He just doesn’t get to have a glorious death or an unequivocally happy ending.  He’s us.  He’s still searching for his answers, and he always will be.  I love him so much.

ANTHONY: Okay, two questions. The novella “How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea” was released in July, featuring Mahir exploring how the Uprising affected Australia. Can we expect more world travels in novella form in the near future? Perhaps next summer?

MIRA: There are currently no further Newsflesh novellas under contract with Orbit.

ANTHONY: The internet cannot see the Sad Face I’m making, but I’ll hold out hope that there’s an unspoken “yet” at the end of that answer.  Now, we’ve chatted so many times now that my usual “favorite book” closing question is probably a bit played out. So here’s a variation: What one text on virology/parasitology would you recommend to someone who becomes interested in the topic because of reading PARASITE?

MIRA: Carl Zimmer’s Parasite Rex is probably the ‘pop science’ work on parasites.  It’s factual but accessible, and will provide an amazing jumping-off point if you want to learn more about the factual world of our intestinal buddies.

Want to know more about the SymboGen company and their work? Go to Symbogen’s website.

You can follow Mira Grant, aka Seanan McGuire, on Twitter @seananmcguire. You can check out both her Mira Grant and Seanan McGuire websites. And of course you can buy PARASITE on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble as well as purchasing it from all respectable (and probably some not-so-respectable) brick-and-mortar bookstores.

ZACH CALLISON - Interview

Through my interviews with Sam Lant, Brandon Tyler Russell and Austin MacDonald and my friendships with their parents, I’ve become connected to a small group of young actors who have interesting projects (film, radio, television and charity work) to share. My latest interview from this “Burbank gang” is with Zach Callison. Zach has a great number of voice-credits under his belt that may be familiar to any of my friends with small children who watch Disney Channel. Zach’s also heavily involved in charity work. Since Zach’s celebrating his 16th birthday today, it seemed like the right time to post our interview.

ANTHONY: What was your first professional acting job?

ZACH: I began working in St. Louis when I was eight years old.  I booked a local grocery store commercial.  Following that I booked a small role in an independent film entitled ‘Kingshighway’. It was then that I knew I wanted to work in film and television and began working on my parents to help me pursue my dream.

ANTHONY: What is your favorite type of performing?

ZACH: While I love voice over work and have done quite a bit of it, my first love is on camera film and television. I am so excited that I just recently booked and worked on camera role.  It is my first love.

ANTHONY: How did you book the role of Prince James and did you work with the director on creating the character?

ZACH: Booking any voice over role requires recording an audition and sending it in. The studio will usually do a call back session and put you through the paces by giving direction to see if you can follow it and still deliver what they need. Prince James’s voice is my natural voice only with a little more energy.  James is a positive character with a lot of spunk.  It is usually the actor who creates the voice for the audition and gets the job if the director and studio likes what they hear.

ANTHONY: Has anything in your approach to the character changed as you moved from the movie script to an on-going series?

ZACH: Not really.  Doing a voice over role requires consistency so that the character is recognizable throughout.

Zach Callison as Prince James in Sofia the First

ANTHONY: Do you think “Sofia The First” is not only entertaining but also educating younger children? If so, what lessons is the show imparting?

ZACH: ‘Sofia’ is an amazing show in so many ways.  It is teaching lessons through stories.  It is a departure from the recite and repeat formulas of so many shows targeting young children.  The lessons imparted are morally based like kindness, sharing and belief in oneself.  I hear from parents all the time how much they like watching the show with their children and the lessons they learning.

ANTHONY: Who do you play in the upcoming DreamWorks feature film “Mr. Peabody and Sherman”? What was it like to record it?

ZACH: I play King Tut in the film.  I love the voice I created for this film.  It was so much fun to record and Rob Minkoff who directed the film was amazing to work with.  My mom is so excited about this film as she remembers the original cartoon and the episode with King Tut.

ANTHONY: It was one of my favorite cartoons, too. Can’t wait to see the movie. You’re not always acting. What do you like to do in your spare time?

ZACH: I am a big gamer.  Right now I am obsessed with League of Legends.  I play online with my friends and I am looking to begin league tournaments soon.  I can’t get enough of it!

ANTHONY: What charities/causes are most important to you?

ZACH: I am a Youth Ambassador for Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.  I promote the organization and educate others about the importance of protecting our oceans and ocean life.  Sea Shepherd campaigns in the Southern Ocean have been filmed and documented by the Discovery Channel for the show ‘Whale Wars’.  They are a direct action organization making a real difference!

Other causes that I support are helping the homeless via ‘Little Red Wagon’, ‘LA Mission and Habitat for Humanity, as well as children’s charities like ‘Ronald McDonald House’ and the Children’s Hospitals of LA and Orange County.

ANTHONY: I’ve interviewed Zach Bonner recently about how he started the Little Red Wagon Foundation. How did you get involved?

ZACH: Zach Bonner and I met when I went out to support him when he was finishing his walk across the country.  I made the last 3 mile journey with him to the Santa Monica Pier.  We have become friends and I have been supporting him and his organization in any way I can.  I recently arranged the space and rounded up some of my friends to help him stuff backpacks with school supplies for homeless and under privileged kids.  We are also looking for more projects in the future to work together and bring funds and awareness to homeless youth.

Steven Universe

ANTHONY: What other acting or charity projects do you have coming up?

ZACH: I am so excited about my new show on Cartoon Network titled ‘Steven Universe’.   I play the role of Steven.  The show is hilarious and I laugh in the studio every time I record.  The show is airing later this fall.  Rebecca Sugar is the creator of the show and she holds the title of the first female show runner.  She is incredibly talented and our cast is fantastic.

I am also working on a new project that I can’t say much about at this time. It is being produced by Sean Hayes and Todd Milner and it is hysterical.  I will share more when I can, but I am thrilled to be working on camera again with an amazing cast and crew.

ANTHONY: And my usual closing question: What is your favorite book?

I haven’t had a lot of time for recreational reading lately but one of my favorite series of books is the ‘Hunger Games’.   I loved the action and the character development of the books and the theme of the story is semi-original.  Only second to a Japanese film titled “Battle Royale” released in 2000.

ANTHONY: Thanks for chatting, Zach!

ZACH: Thanks Anthony for the opportunity!

5 ODD QUESTIONS FOR JEREMY C. SHIPP - Interview

It’s been a while since I’ve interviewed my friend Jeremy C. Shipp (he of such bizarro fiction as Vacation, Sheeps And Wolves, the Stoker Award nominated Cursed,  Attic Toys(editor) and Always Remember To Tip Your Ninja, among others). His shorter tales have appeared in over 60 publications, the likes of Cemetery Dance, ChiZine, Apex Magazine, Withersin, and Shroud Magazine. Jeremy enjoys living in Southern California in a moderately haunted Victorian farmhouse called Rose Cottage. He lives there with a couple of pygmy tigers and a legion of yard gnomes. The gnomes like him. The clowns living in his attic–not so much.

He’s doing a blog tour throughout October, with each interviewer asking him FIVE ODD QUESTIONS. Here are mine:

ANTHONY: What’s the best recipe for Smurf you’ve found?

JEREMY: Smurf brain tacos. First you break open the skull with a nutcracker shaped like Gargamel, and you remove the brain. Put the brain into cold water with a tablespoon of vinegar. Leave the brain submerged in the water and then gently remove the membrane. You can check out the rest of the recipe in my cookbook HOW TO EAT SMURFS AND OTHER TINY CREATURES.

ANTHONY: Attic Clown or Bozo the Clown: Who would win in a fight?

JEREMY: The Attic Clown has a lot of respect for Bozo, so I doubt any argument they had would actually resort to fisticuffs. But if they had to fight each other in a Battle Royale-type situation, the Attic Clown would definitely win. The Attic Clown is a demon equipped with a whole arsenal of silly weaponry, such as exploding balloon animals and rubber chicken nunchakus and flaming pies.

ANTHONY: Complete the sentence: “Green is the color of ___________.”

JEREMY: Green is the color of projectile pea soup vomit. Green is the color of Vulcan blood. Green is the color of retromutagen ooze. Green is the color of Piccolo’s skin. Green is the color of Good Luck Bear’s fur.

ANTHONY: What really lurks in the subsurface strata under Denver ?

JEREMY: Underneath the substrata exists Bizarro Denver, a place devoid of sun, snow, and breweries. It’s an awful place.

ANTHONY: Why are Garden Gnomes so misunderstood?

JEREMY:

MYTH: Gnomes eat children.

TRUTH: Gnomes are vegan. Some Gnomes simply cook children for ogres, to exchange for shoe horns.

MYTH: Gnomes use urine to clean their windows.

TRUTH: That’s disgusting. Gnomes actually use chupacabra vomit as a cleaning agent.

MYTH: Gnomes can’t read.

TRUTH: Gnomes can read, though only after slaying and eating a fresh bookworm.

MYTHS: Gnome hats are silly.

TRUTH: That’s a matter of opinion, buster!

MYTH: Gnomes will murder you if you shave off their beards.

TRUTH: Actually, that one is true.

Clearly, Jeremy’s brain is a land of oddities and mundanities mixed in all sorts of delightfully clever ways. You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook, his website … and most importantly, you can find his latest collection, Monstrosities, available at Amazon for the Kindle.

HARRY CONNOLLY - Interview

Harry Connolly is the author of the TWENTY PALACES urban fantasy series featuring Ray Lilley. He’s also about to conclude a very successful Kickstarter campaign to self-publish a new epic fantasy series, so I grabbed the chance to chat with him about that and help boost his signal as the campaign clock winds down.

ANTHONY: You’re currently in the closing days of a Kickstarter for a new epic fantasy trilogy called The Great Way, and the project has an interesting origin. Can you share that genesis with us?

 HARRY: This whole trilogy started as a homeschool project with my son. When he was nine, almost ten, I dug out a book I’d bought years before, written by a LAUSD elementary school teacher, that promised to teach kids to write a fantasy novel. It was also full of lessons on grammar, punctuation, word usage, narrative structure, and so on. Lots of work sheets. I wrote about it here: http://www.harryjconnolly.com/blog/index.php/a-special-project/

And my son being who he is, I had to do the exercises along with him.

He finished his “novel” (actually a comic fantasy about 10K words long) the next summer. For me, the book I was writing ballooned into three books and took me much much longer.

ANTHONY: You said that your project “ballooned into a 350,000 word trilogy.”  Can you give us your take on the tropes of epic/high fantasy and why it lends itself to books of such size? Is it even possible to write a “short epic fantasy?”

 HARRY: I do think it’s possible to write short epic fantasy. People used to do it all the time, and some still do it now. However, I think modern epic fantasy fans prefer very long stories. At least, those are the books that dominate the bestseller lists.

ANTHONY: The Kickstarter for The Great Way has been super-successful. Initial goal of $10,000, and as of when I’m typing these questions, you’re at $36,000.  What are some of the stretch goals you’ve added in to enhance the project as that pledge amount has climbed?

 HARRY: So far we’ve unlocked two stretch goals: Thanks to the enthusiasm and generosity of my backers, all three books in the trilogy will be getting covers by Chris McGrath. That’s a pretty big deal for self-published novels.

The other goal we’ve unlocked is for extra ebooks: one is a pacifist urban fantasy called A KEY, AN EGG, AN UNFORTUNATE REMARK (working title: The Auntie Mame Files). Basically, it’s an urban fantasy with a protagonist who is in her mid-sixties. I think the world needs more books like that. Folks can read more about that book here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1179145430/the-great-way-an-epic-fantasy-trilogy-by-harry-con/posts/628459

Also, unlocked is the ebook for TWENTY PALACES, which is the self-published ebook that kicks off the books (published by Del Rey) that earned me so many fantastic readers. Folks who are new to my work might be interested in that. And there’s some other work, too.

The next stretch goal in sight is an rpg supplement that would allow gamers to play in the KEY/EGG setting with FATE Core rules. I have already promised a FATE Core supplement for The Great Way, for folks who pledge at that level.

ANTHONY: What are some of the rewards backers can still sign up for, in the closing hours of the Kickstarter?

 HARRY: Well, at $12 they’ll get KEY/EGG, TWENTY PALACES and the first book in the trilogy, THE WAY INTO CHAOS. At $25 they’ll get the two extra novels plus the entire trilogy. That’s three or five books, which is a pretty decent deal if you like ebooks. Gamers who play FATE can add $5 to get the supplement.

There are also trade paperback editions of The Great Way (which will have the McGrath covers) and a hardcover omnibus edition. The omnibus edition is for Kickstarter backers only. Once those rewards are sent out I won’t be making any more of them.

There are also other rewards like a fiction critique. And cookies.

ANTHONY: In the 1,000 backers Stretch Goal, you mention that your upcoming short story collection will include a new Twenty Palaces short story. So I have to ask, as a fan: after this successful Kickstarter, have you considered doing one to continue the ended-too-soon Twenty Palaces series?

 HARRY: Sorry, but no, I don’t.

I know people hate to hear that because they love those Twenty Palaces novels. I myself am amazed at how devoted the books’ fans are.

But the truth is that Kickstarter, for all its benefits, is just a way to *start* working toward success. Yeah, my KS campaign has been astonishingly successful–certainly more successful than I ever expected–and right now the number of backers I have is climbing toward 800.

However, my real goal is to grow my readership to a thousand times that number, or more if I can. If I wrote another Twenty Palaces novel now, while my readership was still too small to sustain a series, I would never find the kind of success I’m aiming for.

I have ambitions, let’s say. I talk about it in depth here: http://www.harryjconnolly.com/blog/index.php/let-me-tell-you-about-my-ambitions-and-why-they-dont-include-kickstarter-right-now/ but the gist is that I tried Twenty Palaces novels out in the market and they came up “devoted fanbase that is too small to sustain a career.” Writing another now would be treading water.

Besides, I’m hoping that my new books will please those readers just as much, if not more, and they won’t mind missing Ray and Annalise too much.

ANTHONY: I’d forgotten about that essay, but I’m glad asking you the question might direct people to it who missed it when you first posted it. Speaking of posting: you published your son’s project on your website. Any plans to bring it out as an ebook or limited print run, as part of the stretch goals for your Kickstarter?

 HARRY: There is! Above, where I was talking about backers receiving “other stuff” in that unlocked stretch goal, one of the things I was talking about is the comic fantasy my son wrote. It’s, you know, a novella written by a kid, but it’s very funny (deliberately funny, I mean) and I’ve already convinced fine artist and children’s book illustrator Kathleen Kuchera to make a cover for it. http://www.pinterest.com/kathleenkuch/my-art/

I’m a big fan and I think readers will be delighted by how bright and beautiful her work is.

ANTHONY: Once the Kickstarter is over, how can people who didn’t back the project purchase The Great Way?

 HARRY: The current plan is to offer it as ebooks in All The Usual Places, plus POD editions. In fact, I plan to make the POD editions returnable and high discount so bookstores can stock it, if they want. I know there are a few Twenty Palaces fans out there who are booksellers.

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

 HARRY: Hah! My normal answer to this question is that I don’t have favorites and don’t believe in them, but I won’t do that here. Instead I’ll just recommend RED HARVEST by Dashiell Hammett. It’s a mystery and a crime novel and yeah, it’s nearly a 100 years old now, but the story is compelling as hell. Hammett may have invented a new plot when he wrote that book.

And while it doesn’t have the sf bling or fantasy magic, it does have one character, a flawed but Competent Man, who risks his life to stand up to corruption. The protagonist is tarnished but heroic, and my first novel sale came about because I was trying to translate the frisson of that book into contemporary fantasy.

You can follow Harry on Twitter @byharryconnolly, check out his website, livejournal, Facebook … and most importantly, you can journey over to The Great Way Kickstarter and help Harry reach some of those stretch goals … and get some solid fiction in return!

THE ROLE CALL - Interview

The Role Call is another band I first came across on Twitter, and got to build a connection with. They’ve been featured here before, in a guest post they wrote about the Kickstarter they did for their most recent EP. We finally connected for an interview. Hailing from Minneapolis, MN, The Role Call consists of Joey Russ on drums, Kristoff Druva on bass, Joe Jorde on guitar, Max Young on guitar, and Steve Zerwas, who answered these questions, on vocals. I really enjoy their sound, especially this most recent EP.

ANTHONY: Hello, The Role Call! The last time you visited, it was in a guest post to promote the Kickstarter for your second EP. So let’s start there: how much did the Kickstarter raise, and how quickly were you able to start on the new EP?

THE ROLE CALL: Hey! The Kickstarter raised a little over $2,500 for us which was amazing and helped us put together such an amazing EP. We were actually able to start recording it a couple months later!

ANTHONY: What differences are there between the first EP and the new one?

TRC: The first EP was more of a safe bet, it had some diversity in it but overall it had the same sound and was more of an older feel to it. The new EP hits all sorts of bases with each song being completely different than the one before it. “Like I Do” is filled with songs that almost everyone can enjoy.

ANTHONY: Let’s talk about your songwriting process for a moment. How do you approach songwriting, either individually or a group?

TRC: It’s kind of a combination of both, we will write on our own and then come to practice and lay down the idea’s we’ve come up with and see what we can come up with working on that idea as a team. This was the writing process from our last EP and we might do something new this year when we go to write new music. We are a growing band both in fans but also in how we work together so the way we do things is definitely subject to change as we learn more about how each other works.

ANTHONY: Who brings what to the table, both in songwriting and in production?

TRC: We all bring a little bit of everything to the table. Each person is equally capable of writing instrumentals or saying “this would sound cool here” both in production and recording. I’m (Steven) also perfectly fine with suggestions as to the direction of a song lyrically or suggestions of lines that they like as well. A band is more than just one person so the music should be writing by more than one person, ya know?

ANTHONY: You’ve had some membership changes since the first EP, correct? Tell us about the new line-up.

TRC: Yes we have! Zach our old guitarist had left (on very good terms) to pursue other things and we fully support that. Since his departure we picked up Joe Jorde on leads and have been playing with him since. He’s a pretty unique guitarist, he actually never uses a pick and I thought that was really interesting!

ANTHONY: I wonder how many of the musicians I’ve interviewed can say that. The first single and video off of the new EP is “She’s All I Think About.” Where and when was the video filmed?

TRC: It was filmed partly in a studio in a suburb of Minneapolis and then the performance part was a filmed in a studio at the University of Minnesota. It was all filmed in a couple days. One in March and the other in April!

ANTHONY: The new EP also features “Indestructible” (perhaps my favorite track, tied with “Like I Do”), which features guest vocals from the incomparable Sam Miller of Paradise Fears. How did that collaboration come about?

TRC: We have known Paradise Fears for a long time and as we were writing the song in Nashville we decided it would be amazing to have some guest vocals on it. We started talking about who and then Sam Miller came up and we stopped thinking of anyone else because we knew he would be perfect. We sent it over to Sam and he was happy to do it!

ANTHONY: Is there a tour in the near future? Another video?  What’s coming up for The Role Call?

TRC: We are definitely planning on going out on tour very soon because it’s been a little while since the last one. We are planning on coming out with all sorts of videos, so be sure to look out for those in the future! Other than that, we are planning on writing a new EP and probably touring on that within the next year.

ANTHONY: I’m looking forward to all of that, and you guys are always welcome back here to chat and promote. Now for my usual closing question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who has never read it to convince them that they should

TRC: My favorite book (Steven) is The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it’s definitely a must read. The characters are all amazing and it’s a very interesting book. I don’t read very often but that book captivated me.

You can find The Role Call on Facebook and their own website, and follow each member of the band individually on Twitter: @JoeyTRC, @KristoffTRC, @JordeTRC, @MaxTRC, and @SteveTRC or follow the band account @TheRoleCallMN.
Of course, you can also find them on their Youtube channel, where you’ll find this video, among others: