THOMAS FISS, Singer - Interview

First of all, I owe this week’s guest an apology. Thomas Fiss was good enough to take time from his schedule to do this interview back in early September, and due to personal commitments I lost track of the fact that I hadn’t posted it yet. His album, which we talk about, has already been released. Still, I think you’ll all enjoy the interview and go out and check out Thomas’ work.

Thomas Fiss

Thomas Fiss’ career  runs from Broadway (one of the two boys to play the son of Patrick Wilson’s main character in THE FULL MONTY) through boy bands (as a member of Varsity Fanclub) and on to a solo career ( four albums, including the current “Chasing Satellites”).

ANTHONY: Hi, Thomas, thanks for agreeing to this interview. Where in the world are you right now, and what are you up to?

THOMAS: What’s up man!  I’m always down for a good interview.  –I’m literally just getting back into my place in LA.  I was just out on a quick radio tour through the Mid-West again.  I actually head back out next week for a West-Coast run.  Always on the road….

ANTHONY: You’ve been working on the new album for a while now. When is it officially due out, and will there be a new music video for it?

THOMAS: Believe me, I know….haha.  I’ve been working on my new album Chasing Satellites for about 8 months and I’m BEYOND ready to let it loose.  I think people will be excited with these songs.  If you’re a fan of Walk The Moon, The Wanted, Coldplay, U2 and One Republic….You’re going to be all over this thing!  I’m planning on having a music video for every song.  It’s a HUGE expectation, but I’m determined to make it happen.  I already have 2 new videos ready to go and I’m really proud with what my team and I are turning out.  It officially releases September 18th, but my single “Let Go” iss available now on iTunes!

ANTHONY: What’s your song-writing process like? Lyrics first then music, or the other way around, or somewhere in between?

THOMAS: Honestly, I just write.  It kinda bugs me sometimes too…I have a really hard time shutting down and not thinking of new concepts or song ideas.  I don’t have a road map for how I write a song…normally it’s music first, but I’ve had some great songs come from a simple lyric idea.  I’m also really picky about how my songs are written and produced.  You could ask anyone I’ve worked with and they’ll tell you it’s my way or the highway when we’re in a studio.  Not out of pride or ego…I just know what I want as an artist.  I’ve worked with too many writers and producers who waste time…who are careless and lazy.  If you ever get in the studio with me, pack a lunch and bring coffee, cause we’re not leaving until a song is done.  I do a lot of work with Gabe Lopez (amazing producer), he understands, more than anyone, that a 16 hour session with me is out of a vision, not a hobby.  The studio is my second home, so I’m very protective of who I let in.

ANTHONY: Has your Broadway experience influenced your songwriting process?

THOMAS: Sure has.  It allows me to transport myself into a character when I’m writing…to pretend that I’m really living out a situation or emotion in real time…When I write a song, I live it.  Either as a true life situation or in my head….All my lyrics come from a place and have a reason for being sung.  Acting has definitely been a trick I up my sleeve compared to other writers or artists…keeps me away from singing about “Dollar bills” or “Hittin’ the club”.

ANTHONY: How does the music you’ve written for the new album compare to the songs on your earlier EPs? How have you grown/changed as an artist?

THOMAS: This new album is my sound.  It took me a while to find out what that meant really.  It’s crazy to listen back to my last EPs and hear my voice on those songs.  A few I’m proud of, like “Jealous of Distance”.  Songs like that don’t come to writers everyday….I’m going to be chasing that song for a while.  As far as my new album…I’m so proud of every song!  The writing, production….it’s all perfect to me.  Hopefully my fans, new and old, feel the same!

ANTHONY: Have you collaborated with anyone for this album? And how do the songs from those collaborations differ from the songs you’ve written on your own?

THOMAS: I spent a few months working with a lot of big A-List producers.  Which is always an honor, but I was having a hard time translating my vision with outside sources.  I think collaborations only work for me when I’m writing for an artist other than myself.  I LOVE collaborating on songs, but for this new album, I discovered I was the only one should be writing it.  A few people think that doing so is a suicide mission when you get too far into your own work.  It might be true but screw ‘em.

ANTHONY: Who are your biggest musical influences?

THOMAS: Oh man, this is a long list!  The Dream, The Beatles, Walk The Moon, Something Corporate, The Fray, The Wanted, Justin Timberlake, John Mayer….everything I listen to on the radio influences me, whether I know it or not.  I spend a lot of time on Youtube listening to bands no one has ever heard of…There’s so much good music out there…It’s painful to know what makes it to radio rather than what should.  

ANTHONY: Will you be touring in support of the album when it releases?

THOMAS: Sure will!  I’m pushing to radio now so most of my shows will be focused around radio festivals….Jingle Ball, etc.  I’ve been lucky enough to play with some amazing artists this summer.  Karmin, The Wanted, Cobra Starship, Austin Mahone, Chiddy Bang, Sammy Adams….They’ve all been super cool.  I’m working with MTV-U for a national tour at the end of this year, so stay tuned!

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

THOMAS: Haha, awesome question! My favorite book is called “The Los Angeles Diaries”.  It’s a true story about this kids life growing up during the “seedy” time of LA.  If you like a good true story, you’ll dig this one!

ANTHONY: Thanks again, Thomas, for the interview and for the great music. I’m really enjoying the new album!

THOMAS: Thanks so much sir!

You can find Thomas on Facebook, on Youtube, as @thomasfiss on Twitter, and on his own website.
And here’s the video for “Chasing Satellites:”

BEYOND THE SUN - Interview

Every now and then I like to feature Kickstarter projects that I’m particularly interested in, and more often than not those projects involve short story anthologies. Here’s the latest, a chat with frequent guest Bryan Thomas Schmidt.

Beyond The Sun

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince (2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel The Returning followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2013, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Books For Kids (ebook only) and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter- Lost In A Land Of Legends (forthcoming) appeared from Delabarre Publishing in 2012.  His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Beyond The Sun,forthcoming. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.

ANTHONY: So Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 seems to have gotten good reviews and had steady sales, and now you’re raising backers for another anthology, Beyond The Sun. Tell us how that came about?

BRYAN: Since I was a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the Universe and space travel, the idea that one day humans could go out and discover what’s out there. An anthology on space colonization seemed a natural extension of that. And with the recent downsizing of NASA and death of Neil Armstrong, I found myself remembering all the times I spent dreaming about other planets and worlds. As an adult, I’ve travelled the world, exploring other cultures, and in large part, it comes from that same drive to discover the other, the different, the new. Beyond that though, I hear about young people, particularly boys, not being into reading like they used to be, and I want to create stories kids like me would enjoy. Additionally, I wanted to create something teachers and parents might use to encourage that urge to discover in younger generations. Lastly, I love working with other writers, and I saw a chance to bring pros and newcomers together to fulfill this in a way that benefits all of us.

ANTHONY: Well, you do have some big names involved.

BRYAN: I do. Robert Silverberg gave me an old story that has not appeared much which is really good, of course. Mike Resnick is a good friend and headlined Space Battles. He’s done so much to help me, my only way to return that is to give him work, and luckily, he gladly accepts.  Nancy Kress is a new friend but she’s explored colonialism a lot in her work so she’s a perfect fit. All of these, of course, are Hugo and Nebula winners on multiple occasions. But I also have a fourth headliner who’s won the same awards and she’ll be joining us if we get the funding.

ANTHONY: Some of the lesser names, you might call them, are not unknown either: Cat Rambo, Jennifer Brozek, Jason Sanford…

BRYAN: Yeah, all of whom have become friends and are people whose work I admire. Joining them are Analog regulars Brad R. Torgersen (Hugo/Nebula nominee this year) and Jamie Todd Rubin, and Sanford’s Interzone fellow Matthew Cook, along with novelists Jean Johnson and Erin Hoffman.

ANTHONY: And then there’s the little people…like me.

BRYAN: Well, you’re not unknown, just not as much for your writing yet, but that will come. You were in Space Battles, and so were several others. But as people may know from SFFWRTCHT (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat), encouraging and helping others, especially fellow writers, is something I love to do. And to be in an anthology with people of this caliber and make pro or semi-pro rates is a huge opportunity. I like helping others achieve their dreams, but the advantage here is that, in the process, they help me achieve mine, which is a cool parallel to have. At the same time, I have to make sure the anthology is the best it can be, so I’ve invited twenty writers to vie for thirteen spots alongside the headliners.

ANTHONY: You mentioned that Silverberg gave you a reprint and I know there are a couple of others, but the plan is mostly for brand new stories, right?

BRYAN: Yes, Resnick, Kress and our fourth headliner all plan to write new stories. Resnick’s promised to use his African knowledge for it, in fact. Those Hugo winning stories are amongst my favorites of his. I have reprints from Silverberg, Jason Sanford, and Autumn Rachel Dryden, whose story, “Respite,” is one of the inspirations for this anthology. Hers and Jason’s appeared previously in early issues of IGMS and it’s a privilege to reintroduce them to people now.

ANTHONY: Like Space Battles, there wasn’t an open call for submissions. Is that going to be your modus operandi? Why not invite the public?

BRYAN: Space Battles wound up with a far more open call than this but I have novels to write and promote, freelance editing clients to please and 7 anthology projects in the works. I just can’t read that much slush and it’s hard to find someone whose sensibilities are identical enough that you can let them do it for you. I do invite new people with every project and I do look for people I’d like to work with and haven’t. But I have to face certain time limits realistically and so, at this time, an open call just doesn’t make sense. I’m not opposed to it in general though.

ANTHONY: Why Kickstarter as opposed to finding a publisher?

BRYAN: One, anthologies are a hard sale right now. Two, KS actually provides me a chance to use more up and coming writers. A publisher would want 10 headline names. Three, I get more creative freedom. Four, I can raise enough to pay far higher rates to artists and writers than a press would allow me, unless a big NY trade house came aboard, and I am still proving myself, so trusting me with a project like this, when they do so few, is a hard sell.

ANTHONY: How hard is putting a Kickstarter together?

BRYAN:  Not too bad but you do need to do your research. The hardest part is that being unemployed since May 2010 and surviving on freelance, I just don’t have much money for videos and promotion. But I found a woman who did a great video for $15 provided I did a voice over, gave her a concept and provided some images. And Mitch Bentley chipped in on cover mock ups as well as other artists. Plus the writers are allowing me to tease their stories to backers when we reach certain levels, so that will also be great to show people that we really will have not just variety but quality.

ANTHONY: Well, the headliner’s names kind of speak for themselves, right?

BRYAN: Yes, but even diehard fans may not love every story an author writes, and the new talent is a question mark for some. Sharing Jason and Autumn’s stories allows me to show stories from all three writing tiers.

ANTHONY: Very cool. Well, I’m going to write the best story I can in the hopes of making one of those open spots, but either way, I can’t wait to see it.

BRYAN: Thanks, me, too. I’m very excited. I loved the diversity I got from my writers for Space Battles, and I can’t wait to see what they’ll do with this concept.

GIBSON TWIST, Author - Interview

Concluding Canada Week here, today we ramble on with Gibson Twist, the creator of one of my favorite webcomics, PICTURES OF YOU. POI is part coming-of-age story, part relationship drama, part college comedy, and the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Gibson Twist

Gibson Twist claims to be a fictional entity. In reality, he writes several other webcomics in addition to PICTURES OF YOU, and yet somehow manages to find time for his wife and his cat.

ANTHONY: Welcome to Rambling On, Gibson. How’s things?

GIBSON: Things are ridiculously good. It’s a bit shocking how good. I know it’s de rigueur for people to be unappreciated as they roll a rock uphill, but honestly, I’m riding one of those life-highs lately, and I’m not so much of a selfish asshole not to appreciate that. People love and support what I do, solid home life with someone who challenges and excites me. If it were cool to be happy, I’d be the Fonz over here.

ANTHONY: So tell me a little bit about the genesis of PICTURES OF YOU. Why this story, and these characters?

GIBSON: The first inklings of what would become Pictures of You began during a hangover. It was an earned hangover, I’ll say that. It came after a couple days spent with some old friends, most of us hadn’t seen or spent any time together in years, and we hadn’t all parted on the greatest terms, but all the water was under the bridge and we were enjoying each other and remembering good times, remembering why we liked each other in the first place. Someone tried to climb over the table and ended up in someone’s lap, then we were asked to leave. It was that kind of night.

While I was nursing my hangover with wine, white zinfandel to be exact, I started writing down a bunch of the more memorable times I’d spent with that group, and the others who couldn’t make it. It turned into sort of a project, to document it all. The more I wrote down, the more I realized how much I couldn’t remember, why people had done certain things, who was where when what was destroyed. There were also things that, out of context, made some of us look like bigger assholes than we were, and things where the context took too much time to explain.

I still wanted to tell the story, so I decided to fictionalize the whole thing, from the ground up. I threw everyone into a blender and started building characters, and shaped those characters to the story that began emerging, and as I grew to understand the characters, the story changed as well. They are compossible, as any good story/character realization should be, I suppose.

No one character is a depiction of a real person, but of the collection of them is meant to depict the spirit of the group of people that inspired the story. The story too is just a reflection of what happened in those years, fictionalized to make for a good soap opera.

ANTHONY: I get so caught up in the story that I occasionally forget you started this with a framing device, Peter looking back on the past. So do you have a planned end-point, and an idea of when you’re going to get to that point? Or is the series more open-ended?

GIBSON: The series has a definite end-point, and it’s where everything is going. I spent years drafting the plot, and despite a few variations here and there, the storyline is fairly well set. At the risk of a spoiler, the scene in the Prologue does get reached and even surpassed in the regular story.

ANTHONY: PICTURES is clearly your baby — you write it and you draw the majority of it. What’s your creative process like? Do you fully script before you start the art?

GIBSON: I like to have stories plotted quite deeply before I begin crafting the final product, but the length of Pictures of You didn’t really allow that as much as I’d like. The basic skeleton of the story is there, and I plot more deeply on each book before I sit down to script.

I script each book in full before I begin, with the exception of Book Three for which I’d done a large amount of art before scripting the entire volume. Oh, and Book Four’s final chapter is unfinished, but I know how it wraps up. I do rewrite a lot as I go, most chapters get at least a quick retouch before I begin penciling. Sometimes I’m revising pages as I’m drawing them, and it’s not uncommon for me to rework dialogue during the lettering process. If I have a process, and I might not, it’s to start with the big picture and refine details on an increasingly smaller level as I come to them.

I’m already working on the script to Book Five in my head.

ANTHONY: Once you start a page, what is that process like, from drafting through final art?

GIBSON: Well, the first thing I do when I start a page is to ignore it. I’m no good with blank pages, they are my enemy. Almost invariably, the next step is draw a lot of terrible things that I erase. That is followed by me putting on some music or video for background, and I pencil in probably finer detail than most. This is largely due to the fact that I’m not strong as an artist, and it’s still a struggle for me to produce lines I like. And of course the inks, which are strangely my favourite part of the art.

The pencils and finishes are done on actual paper with actual pencils and actual ink, which seems to be a dying process, especially among webcomickers. I will say I notice people of a certain age are more likely to use paper and ink while people under that certain age are more likely to use pixels. I’ll be honest, while I enjoy paper, I don’t work digitally because computers scare me, and I can’t figure out how make smooth lines with them.

I do colour and letter digitally, which is a fairly painless process, and I’m able to clean up ink blunders there as well, much more easily than with correction fluid or the like. More recently, I’ve been able to go back digitally and clean up let’s just call it bad art from earlier pages, and make them look nicer.

I think the only really interesting or unique thing that I do is that I flip the page around in circles as I draw, to get angles and curves and so on. And I only know this is unique because my wife looks at me weird whenever she sees me do it, and then she pretends it’s not weird. And what I’ve noticed since then is that I flip it clockwise. I couldn’t even begin to tell you why, and I’m pretty sure it’s better for me not to know.

Michelle Cutter

ANTHONY: What tools do you favor for drawing, coloring, etc.?

GIBSON: I draw on large board, specifically Strathmore 11×17 Comic Pages and I scream myself blue in the face begging people more talented than I to do the same. It allows me to draw bigger, with more space to work, and then reduce later. I have yet to meet the artist whose work doesn’t look better reduced. It pulls all the lines together and makes a lot of mistakes disappear. But yes, 11×17 paper.

I work with non-photo blue pencil leads. Currently, I’m using Uniball’s new “soft blue” mechanical 0.5 leads, which are a dream even if they break more easily and I go through them faster. Before that, I used Pentel’s blue leads, which worked but were not technically non-photo, and I had to scan lighter, which did no favours for the line quality. Before that, for years, I used Prismacolor Col-Erase NPB pencils. I got a great line from them, but was forever sharpening, sharpening, sharpening.

My inking has been done since day one with Koh-i-nor rapidographs and Black India ink (which is not india ink) for paper and film, which I adore. I’ve never been able to ink particularly well with anything else. Before Pictures of You, I tried working with disposable pens, which dried out too quickly or just didn’t give a nice line. I’m useless with brushes or brush pens.

Colours and letters are all done with GiMP, which is a free imaging program. I just can’t afford the big stuff, and I won’t use pirated software.

Would it be strange to admit I’m picky about my rulers? I use the clear plastic ones with the beveled edge. They let me see the page while I use them, and the bevel lets me ink straight lines. I hope someone out there finds that information useful because I feel like an amazing nerd talking about it.

ANTHONY: When PICTURES started out, it was black and white. What brought on the shift to full color, and how did that change your creative process if at all?

GIBSON: Colour came about after doing a little thank you/incentive thing, and I found I was a little better at it than I thought, and I was happy with how it turned out, so I tried colouring some older pages just for kicks, and I was pretty happy with that too. I knew comics with colour did better at drawing audiences, too, so there was also a bit of marketing involved in the decision.

My inking has become cleaner since switching to colour, which is a result of having to colour in all sorts of sloppy hatch marks and broken lines, and I think that’s also moved me into refining the lines that I make, and grow the quality of my pencils as well.

Truthfully, colour made me like the visuals of Pictures of You a lot more. I thought, and still think, it brought a new kind of life to it. I got a lot of static from people, purists, I guess, when I switched to colour, but the simple fact is that my numbers tripled within a few months after. So what are you gonna do about that?

ANTHONY: Between books you run “Snapshot” segments with other artists. How does that process work?

GIBSON: Pretty simply, I ask friends of mine who are fans of the comic, whose work I enjoy, if they want to do some pages for fun. I ask them what characters they’d like to draw and if they have any preference for subject or theme, then I write them a script based on that. I try to find a range of styles, from cartoony to manga, and in one case a photo comic from one of the few people I’ve seen do photo comics really well. It was serendipitous that he bore a striking resemblance to the main character.

It’s fun for me, because I really enjoy working with other artists and don’t get to do it enough. I hope they have fun too. It seems like they do, most of them. Maybe they’re too polite to tell me I’m horrible to work with.

We’re reducing the number of guest strips for next time to three or maybe four shorter pieces. Two artists have already signed on and I’m in love with both of their work. Number three is still a toss-up, mostly on whomever is first to say yes.

ANTHONY: PICTURES is divided into books, with the books divided into smaller arcs. Have you ever started an arc, or a book, and realized it was going someplace different from where you intended? I guess what I’m asking is the classic “have the characters ever taken over and moved the story in a different direction?”

GIBSON: This happened a number of times in Book Three, which might have been inevitable considering its length. Everything ends up more or less the way I intended. The important things, at least, but things happened in different orders, some things had to be scrapped. The relationship between Peter and Kara, for one, was supposed to play out differently, in different chronology, but as I wrote other things and other characters’ storylines, it made more sense to happen the way it has. There was supposed to be more with Devon and Melanie as well, but had to be truncated, and the Devon storyline was changed as a result.

I wouldn’t say it’s ever happened that a character speaks to me, but sometimes the plotted story doesn’t mesh with a character’s personality, and the writing changes to be more true to them. I’m not someone who believes characters speak, but act and react the way they should to what’s happening, and that’s not always the way I planned it. It’s the balance of telling the story you want to tell and representing fully realized characters in their own realistic fashion.

ANTHONY: Peter is clearly the narrator and focal point of the series. Other than him, I think my favorite characters are Andy, Melanie and Wylie (who I wish would get a “front burner” storyline, honestly). Overall, which characters have garnered the biggest response from readers? Who gets the most “fan mail?”

Wiley Ryan

GIBSON: Michelle is clearly the fan favourite. She seems to resonate with both the female readers for being strong yet vulnerable, and with male readers for being good looking and kicking ass. Kara gets a lot of love too, far more so now than in the first couple books when no one seemed to like her much. The most curious and divided reaction is to Mulligan, of course. Lots of hate, a fair amount of love, no one seems to be luke warm about him.

Patrick and Wiley are also up there, at least for the cooing that happens in the comments section. Wiley definitely comes to the forefront in the upcoming books. I get a lot of messages asking what happens to Wiley, there seems to be a consensus that something bad happens to him, but I try to tell people, something bad happens to all of them. Well, except one, but I’m not telling who.

I suspect reactions will change as the books go forward and different characters are brought to the front of the story. Sam and Lauren, for instance, will certainly be given more of their due in the next few books.

ANTHONY: PICTURES isn’t your only webcomic. Tell us about some of the other projects you’ve got going on.

GIBSON: Well, there’s Our Time in Eden with artist Ben Steeves that we’ve been working on for years. I started writing the novel on which it’s based in 1996, I adapted the comic script in 2004, and we started working on the art for the comic in 2006. It’s been incredibly rewarding working with Ben on it, he’s brought a vision to it I never could.

The only other project that’s in development with an artist attached at the moment is Little Earthquakes with Rori making the pictures. This is one we’ve been working on for a while as well, the first version of the plot hit paper in late 2008. I can’t say a lot about it, but it’s going to rival, perhaps surpass Our Time in Eden for darkness. We don’t have any kind of release date for this, as we’re going to shop it around before we post it as a webcomic.

I have a wide range of projects sitting on my Future Projects list, and I’ve been itching to do some more prose work in the near future. It’s hard to say which ones will get worked on first, depends on what artists want to work with me and take a shine to which projects.

There’ve been a couple false starts in the last couple years, projects I began working on with artists who, for one reason or another, had to bail. Which is cool. Finding a collaborator is never easy. They have other priorities, they lose interest in the story, they find other stories, life steps up and demands time. I keep at it, though, there are too many artists with whom I want to work to stop, and too many stories untold.

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

GIBSON: Favourite book of all time? Comic or prose?

Prose, I’d have to say High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Fantastic read, no one shouldn’t read this. It’s the purest insight I’ve read into the mind of men of a certain age, which is good for men because it’s a mirror into which they can nod, and for women because we’re not as simple as sitcoms would have you believe. The movie was very well done and I watch it often, but the book goes deeper and tells more story than a movie ever could. The irony is that every time I’m asked what my favourite book/comic/movie/album is, I reenact a scene from this book.

Comic, that’s a tough one. If I can include a whole series, Jaime Hernandez’s Love and Rockets would win the prize. Hugely influential on my work, and just enjoyable no matter how many times I read it. If I have to pick a single volume, though, I’d probably go with Jeff Smith’s Bone. It’s hard to choose, since there are so many fantastic books out there that don’t get enough time in the spotlight. Joe Sacco, Evan Dorkin, Eddie Campbell, Chris Thompson, Marjane Satrapi…they all make brilliant comics that I love every time I read them.

You can find Gibson on Twitter as @GibsonTwist.  In addition to PICTURES OF YOU, you can also find OUR TIME IN EDENon the net. Gibson also has a Kickstarter running at the moment to get PICTURES into print form finally. Take a look at it, and consider helping bring one of my favorite webcomics to bookstores.

DAVID JOHNSTON, Author - Interview

Today, I ramble on with my good friend and accomplished playwright David Johnston.

David Johnston

David Johnston’s plays have been performed and read at the New Group, Moving Arts, Rude Guerrilla, the Neighborhood Playhouse, Henry Street Settlement, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. He was named one of Time Out’s Playwrights to Watch. Recent regional productions include The George Place at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre. New York productions: with Blue Coyote Theater Group, Conversations on Russian Literature Plus Three More Plays, a new adaptation of The Oresteia, Busted Jesus Comix (GLAAD nominee 2005), and A Bush Carol, or George Dubya and the Xmas of Evil. With director Kevin Newbury, Candy & Dorothy (GLAAD winner, 2006) and The Eumenides. Publications: The Eumenides, (Playing With Canons, published by New York Theatre Experience, Inc.) Leaving Tangier , (Samuel French, produced by Blue Coyote). Awards include Theater Oxford, Turnip Festival, Playwright Residency at the University of Cincinnati, Berrilla Kerr Foundation Grant, Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation and the Arch & Bruce Brown Foundation. Education: College of William and Mary, Circle in the Square. Member: Actors Equity, Dramatists Guild, Charles Maryan’s Playwrights/Directors Workshop.

ANTHONY: Welcome, David! Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions.

DAVID: I’m thrilled to be on the show today, Anton!

ANTHONY: MOTHRA IS WAITING is described as being about “Two Showgirls. One giant moth. A comedy of redemption and sequins.”  Can you tell us a bit more about the story?

DAVID: It’s about two sisters, who have spent years doing their musical act in a seedy club in Bridgeport.  One is convinced that a giant moth will come and rescue them from their lives of showbiz obscurity.  The other wants to move on.  It combines my love of two things: tawdry backstage drama and Japanese monster movies.  And I threw in some drag queens.

ANTHONY: MOTHRA started out as a short play, correct? Where was it first produced, and what was the audience reaction like?

DAVID: I wrote the short play about seven years ago, after seeing a revival of “Mothra” at Film Forum. I found the movie very beautiful and oddly moving and it made me cry.  Which I discovered in not considered an “appropriate” response to a monster movie at Film Forum.

I just wondered whatever happened to the two little Japanese women in the film, who do all the cheesy musical numbers so I wrote the play. Rather quickly too, it just popped out.  It won an award, and was produced at a theater in Mississippi, Theater Oxford. I went down to see the production and they did a wonderful job. It had readings here in the city, and then Blue Coyote Theater Group produced it on a bill with three other one-acts of mine in early 2009.

Audience response has always been all over the map – surprising.  To some people, it’s a movie about holding on to dreams. Other people think it’s about growing up.  Some just love monster movies so they think the play is neat.

ANTHONY: How did the movie deal come about?

DAVID: It’s all Kevin.  Kevin Newbury, who I’ve worked with several times in the past and he’s a wonderful director.  We always have a great time working together.  His opera career has been taking off for the past few years, but he was hankering to do a movie.   Both of us love movies – we’re always emailing each other with OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO SEE SUCH AND SUCH.  So, he optioned a screenplay from me two and a half years ago. We’ve just been waiting for a break in his schedule so he could do it.

ANTHONY: It’s not often that playwrights (or novelists!) get to adapt their own work for the screen. What was the process like for you, turning the play script into a movie script?

DAVID: This one was painless. The play is pretty short and straightforward.  One room, two actresses, ten minutes.  I opened it up a bit, but Kevin also wanted to keep it short. He dug the compactness of the piece.  We went back and forth on a draft four, maybe five times and then he said, “Great. It’s ready.”

I’m not by any means an experienced screenwriter, so it’s all been a big learning experience for me.  I just discovered, hey! I don’t have to have a half page speech. We can show the scene she’s describing! The character doesn’t have to say what time it is – we can just show the clock!  Movies are great.

ANTHONY: Did you make any major changes to the narrative once you started the adaptation process?

DAVID: The narrative is still very much the same.  Two sisters who love each other very much, and they can’t keep going in the same way. Something has to give.

ANTHONY: Let’s talk about the movie itself: who’s directed, who is in the cast, and how many of the cast and crew were involved in the play production?

DAVID: Well, there’s Kevin, of course, and it’s his first film.  Kevin’s a genius at bringing people together, getting them excited and getting great work from them.  We have a great DP, Simon Pauly, who’s coming over from Berlin.  Nell Gwynn is an actress both Kevin and I have worked with several times. She was in CANDY & DOROTHY in ’06, which Kevin directed. She did readings of this one several times, and she was also in my adaptation of THE ORESTEIA at Blue Coyote in ’07.  Amy Staats, who’s playing Dot, is an actress I’d seen in readings and really liked her.  Matthew Principe, our producer from CANDY & DOROTHY is on board.  Vita Tzykun, who’s this fabulous art director and production designer. Paul Carey, our costume designer.  The designers work a lot in opera and are all having a field day on this short weird film.  They’re giving the piece a really out-there look, kind of David Lynch-y crossed with 70s John Carpenter, Euro music videos and sad small town bars with mooseheads on the wall. We have some songs by Todd Almond, we have a disco remix of Betty and Dot’s act.  Kevin has really put an amazing group of artists.

ANTHONY: How far along in production are you?

DAVID: We’ll start rehearsals and shooting next week.  It’ll take about ten days.

ANTHONY: People can donate to help complete the film, right? How and where can they do that?

DAVID: Yep. We’re a fiscally sponsored project with Fractured Atlas.  You can donate at this link.  And you get a tax deduction!

https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=6597

ANTHONY: Let’s go back to discussing writing. I personally live by Christopher Durang’s comment that “the Protestant work ethic is something we Catholic boys don’t have.” What’s your writing work ethic like?

DAVID: I love Durang, but he’s full of shit with that one.  James Joyce was Catholic, and had about the most fiendish work ethic of any writer ever.  These days, I’m lucky to steal four to five quiet mornings a week to write.   If I’m really busy on a project, I’ll write in the evenings as well, but mostly it’s in the morning.  At ungodly hours.

ANTHONY: What projects are you currently working on?

DAVID: As soon as we’re done shooting, I’ll come back to New York and we’ll start pre-production for CONEY, which is the new full-length play I’m doing with Blue Coyote.  That opens at the New Ohio Theater in late October. Gary Shrader is directing – he’s directed a bunch of my plays for Blue Coyote, and also up at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater up in Cape Cod.  I’m in rewrites for that now.  Actually I just sent a new draft to Gary today. It takes place on one day in Coney Island, with about a dozen different characters.

ANTHONY: The last time we saw each other, we half-joked about an anniversary revival of your play BUSTED JESUS COMIX. Have you given any further thought to that?

DAVID: Ha! I should mention that to Gary. He directed that twice.  None of us can believe it’s been ten years since we did that piece.  And it’s since had other productions, one in London.  But I agree. It’s time to do that one in New York again.  Unfortunately – in many ways – it’s not dated at all.

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?

DAVID: That’s a tough one.  I could come up with a different answer every day.  But today I’ll say my favorite is Joseph Mitchell’s UP IN THE OLD HOTEL.  It’s a collection of his essays and profiles from the New Yorker, most of them dating from the forties and fifties.  Gypsies on the Lower East Side, bearded ladies, the old Fulton Street market.  Mitchell could write about anything and make it endlessly fascinating.  He was funny and tough and his prose style was just perfect. You can’t improve on him.  Joseph Mitchell wrote the way Armstrong played the trumpet.  It’s alive and human and gorgeous and it looks and sounds effortless.

You can also find David at his blog, THEATRE, CULTURE, POLITICS & STUFF I LIKE.

JOHN KLIMA, Editor - Interview

It’s no secret that I am a lover of the short story format. The more anthologies and print mags and online mags there are featuring flash fiction, short stories and novellas, the better. So when a Kickstarter for an anthology or magazine comes to my attention, I not only contribute, I invite the people involved to talk about it here. Today’s interview is with ELECTRIC VELOCIPEDE editor and publisher John Klima. In addition to founding and publishing EV, John has also edited the anthologies LOGORRHEA and HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

ANTHONY: Tell me a little bit about the history of Electric Velocipede and where things stand now.

JOHN: I founded Electric Velocipede in 2001 after I left publishing as my full-time job to become a computer programmer. I missed publishing almost immediately but got some inspiration from Gavin Grant of Small Beer Press to start my own zine. We’ve published two issues a year, with the occasional double issue thrown in. In 2009 we won the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine; we also received four nominations for the World Fantasy Award. We partnered with Night Shade Books in 2009, but dissolved the partnership at the end of 2010. In 2011 we moved online with issue #23. We’re currently getting issue #24 online and plan on getting out #25 before the year ends. Beyond that, we don’t have any fiction in reserve and will need to re-open to submissions in order to put together more issues.

ANTHONY:  What can readers expect in EV going forward after the Kickstarter?

JOHN: If the Kickstarter succeeds, we’ll have the funding to put out four issues in 2013. We’ve published a range of writers from new to established, including people like Jeffrey Ford, Catherynne M. Valente, Jeff VanderMeer, Genevieve Valentine, Ken Liu, Aliette de Bodard, and more. As I said above, we’ll get out issue #25 at the end of this year and start putting together issues for next year.

ANTHONY: What is EV’s policy on open submissions from authors?

JOHN: We take submissions from anyone. We’re currently closed to submission however.

ANTHONY: What made you choose Kickstarter for your fundraising efforts, as opposed to IndieGoGo or any of the other tools out there?

JOHN:  I’m using Kickstarter instead of raising the money solely on my own. It was the service I knew beforehand from backing a few projects and was comfortable using. It wasn’t until after I had myself set up on Kickstarter that I realized there were other tools available. If we find ourselves in need of fundraising in the future I’ll certainly investigate all my options.

ANTHONY: What are some of the perks people can receive for backing the Kickstarter?

JOHN: We’ve got some basic perks like an electronic copy for your e-reader of choice of issue #25 and a four-issue subscription, but we also have a few fun things available. We have a cool t-shirt (there are photos on the Kickstarter) in men’s and women’s sizes that people can get along with a four-issue subscription at the $50 level; there’s a $45 level for a custom mouse pad and four-issue subscription; at $100 you get a 2013 calendar using Thom Davidsohn’s amazing cover art and a four-issue subscription. There’s also baked goodies (I do a lot of baking in our house), editorial services, and more.

Electric Velocipede

ANTHONY: How has the Kickstarter been going so far?

JOHN: We’re at 85% funding with more than two weeks to go. It’s been going well.

ANTHONY: What other projects are you working on in addition to editing and publishing EV? 

JOHN: My agent and I are finalizing a few anthology ideas and I’m working on the first book of a YA series. I have a book I’m putting together for the American Library Association, and I’m generally doing too many things at once at my job as an assistant director at a large public library. Somewhere in there I find time for my wife and two kids.

Interested in helping support a great genre short fiction market put out another year’s worth of issues? Follow this link to the Electric Velocipede Kickstarter … and remember, the more they raise beyond their $5,000 goal, the more they can do!

And of course you can visit the magazine itself to see what all the fuss is about: Electric Velocipede.

You can follow John on Twitter: @johnklima and the magazine too: @EV_Mag.

ALEX DALE and CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL LOS ANGELES - Fundraiser

This guest post is long overdue; I made a promise to Alex Dale over a week ago to run it, and then the holiday weekend and other life stuff got in the way. So, my apologies to Alex and to the rest of the Up In Arms comedy troupe. The work they are attempting to raise money for is important; funding future episodes of their web-show will help them raise even more money for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.  Here’s the information Alex sent me about the the fundraiser:

Alex Dale

Alex Dale, 16, a Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Junior Ambassador and writer and creator of the comedy web series Up In Arms, recently donated $150 to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

The teenage mastermind behind the creation of Up In Arms was diagnosed with Scheuermann Kyphosis, a spinal deformity, in August 2010 and had to wear a back brace for nine months, which did not cure him and he continued to endure extreme back pain. In July 2011, David Skaggs, MD, Chief, Children’s Orthopaedic Center at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, performed a spinal fusion on Alex to correct the curvature of his spine.

There is currently inadequate information and research about Scheuermann Kyphosis. The Pediatric Spinal Deformity Endowment was formed to collect funds/donations to explore the disorder and to provide more treatment options for children so that they do not have to live with the effects of kyphosis into adulthood, which can leave people wheel chair bound.

In 2011, Alex launched his web series, Up In Arms, to raise money for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to help research treatment for children who are diagnosed with Scheuermann Kyphosis. It is described as a cross between The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live and is written in a humorous fashion, focused on social issues that teens are dealing with and to ultimately lend support for others who are struggling with spinal deformity.

“I want to assist other people who are suffering from Scheuermann Kyphosis and raise funds to help research alternate methods for treatment,” says Alex. Viewers can give back to the cause through the Up In Arms website, where 100% of the proceeds go directly to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Please visit http://www.indiegogo.com/UpInArmsComedyCharity?a=688746 to donate to production of the next episode and help UP IN ARMS raise money for this great cause.  Thank you.

JOE PHILLIPS, Artist - Interview

Today’s guest is artist Joe Phillips. Since 1987, Joe’s work has not only been seen in books from every major comics publisher but also internationally in advertising for a number of products. He’s also a sculptor and animator, including the music video for Air Gold’s “Where The Music Takes You.” Joe and co-creator Chad Prato are running a Kickstarter to build a new clothing line called “Vampire vs. Werewolf.”

ANTHONY: Hi, Joe! Thanks for taking some time out for a chat. How are you?

JOE: Good thanks for asking, Any day above ground is a great day right?

ANTHONY: You know I’m fan-boying a bit right now. I have several of your calendars still hanging on my wall even though the years they represent are long past.  So, let’s talk a little about you, first. How long have you been illustrating professionally?

JOE: For over 25 years, I know right. But yeah I’ve been drawing since high school. Doing fan -zines and local papers first then independent comics and working for the big boys.

ANTHONY: What have been some of your favorite projects to work on?

JOE: I did a national ad campaign for Bud Light the same year I drew the illustrations for “the Joy of Gay Sex” LOL lot of crazy projects in my time but MR. MIRACLE for DC was my first time big comic and so it stands out for me.

ANTHONY: I hate the “where do you get your ideas” type of questions, but so much of your work seems drawn from real life … so what inspires you to work on a project?

JOE: My mind is haunted with all sorts of strange things and the voices speak to me to let them out. Sometimes they are profound images or sometimes just a great butt will inspire my work.

Vampire vs Werewolf

ANTHONY: The project we’re here to talk about today is your Kickstarter for “Vampire vs. Werewolf.”  Tell us a little bit about the project.

JOE: It’s a fun project inspired by all the Vampire and werewolf fever there is in pop culture. As a cartoonist at heart I wanted to do a classic vs match between them, not so much as who would win in a fight but who is cooler. I wanted to do cool t-shirts and magnets and stuff so folks could show their love for their favorites.

ANTHONY: How did the idea for this project come together?

JOE: I was talking to my long-time friend Chad Prater who use to put on comic conventions down in Florida years ago. We have been wanting to do a t-shirt company and needed something fun to do as a first project so we came up with this.

ANTHONY: Tell me about the rewards backers will get if they support Vampire vs. Werewolf.

JOE: The pledgers get t-shirts and stickers as well as really nice prints and magnets. We will be adding new images throughout the pledge time so there will be lots to choose from.

ANTHONY: If the project does get fully funded, are you planning on doing more with the concept? Is there perhaps an idea for an animated webseries or the like?

JOE: How cool would that be maybe a web cartoon series or comic book. I’m open to suggestions.

Werewolf Problems

ANTHONY: The art style for Vampire vs. Werewolf is a different from your better-known work. How did you decide on this particular style?

JOE: Well it comes from my love of cartoons I loved the rubber legs of old black and white cartoons and the new fun stuff like Adventure time and Regular Show. The style came from that school of thought.

ANTHONY: What was your process for creating the art for this project? And how different was it from your usual creative process if at all?

JOE: With this I just open up to all the foibles of being a werewolf or Vampire. you can see my humor in how pretenses the Vamp boys are and how rowdy the wolf pack is. It’s just fun to let go and let them tell me what to draw.

ANTHONY: What else are you working on these days?

JOE: New calendars, new art books and releasing my first novel. Please check my website for more info on upcoming projects.

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

JOE: LOL my favorite book is Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis I laugh out loud every time I read it.

ANTHONY: Thanks again, Joe!

JOE: My pleasure. If we make our pledge goal we can buy the equipment to do all sorts of fun stuff. Thanks for the interest.

Vampire Problems

You can see more designs and learn about Vampire vs. Werewolf on the project’s Kickstarter page. You can also follow Joe Phillips on Twitter as @joephillipsart.

REBECCA HAMILTON, Author - Interview

This week, after a brief hiatus, I welcome author and fellow Twitter-er Rebecca Hamilton to ramble on with me for a while about her paranormal fantasy series THE FOREVER GIRL, the first volume of which is out in print and e-book formats. There’s also a novella, “Her Sweetest Downfall,” available on the Kindle.

Rebecca Hamilton

Rebecca Hamilton writes Paranormal Fantasy, Horror, and Literary Fiction. She lives in Florida with her husband and three kids, along with multiple writing personalities that range from morbid to literary. She enjoys dancing with her kids to television show theme songs and would love the beach if it weren’t for the sand. Having a child diagnosed with autism has inspired her to illuminate the world through the eyes of characters who see things differently.

Sophia’s family has skeletons, but they aren’t in their graves. THE FOREVER GIRL is the story of  twenty-two year old, practicing Wiccan Sophia Parsons, scratching out a living waiting tables in her Rocky Mountain hometown. Sophia can imagine lots of ways to improve her life, but she’d settle for just getting rid of the buzzing noise in her head. When the spell she casts goes wrong, the static turns into voices. Her personal demons get company, and the newcomers are dangerous. One of them is a man named Charles, who Sophia falls for despite her better judgment. He has connections that might help her unveil the mystery surrounding her ancestor’s hanging, but she gets more than she bargains for when she finally decides to trust him.Survival in his world, she learns, means not asking questions and staying out of the immortal council’s way. It’s a line she crossed long ago. If Sophia wants to survive the council and save the people she loves, she must accept who she is, perform dark magic, and fight to the death for her freedom.

ANTHONY: Hi, Rebecca. Thanks for joining me!

REBECCA: Thank you for having me on your blog! Great interview questions 

ANTHONY: You know, flattery will get you everywhere.  The Forever Girl moves fast: lots of time-jumps past mundane stuff to propel the story forward. Were there any “day in the life” sort of sequences that you cut to keep the narrative flowing?

REBECCA: Absolutely. My mentor always told me to skip the parts people will skim. While some people may wish they had gotten “more”, I felt the trade off was worth it: the average reader just wants to know what’s relevant to the plot and learn about the characters as the story moves forward. I do, to an extent, write for myself. But I also write for my readers.

ANTHONY: I said in my review that the book is detailed but not overflowing with details. How did you decide what details to include and what to skim out or gloss over?

REBECCA: This was difficult. I did tighten and tighten and tighten, and some people think I’ve tightened too much and some think too little, and more yet think it was a perfect balance. You can’t make everyone happy. As for how I decided, though? I tried to give just enough to bring the story to life and reveal (sometimes obliquely) details that were relevant to the story and character. The rest I left off, as much as it pained me to do 

ANTHONY: Everyone in the book not related to Sophia seems to know she’s special except Sophia herself. Will you explore this more in book two, Sophia’s sense of self-worth versus what everyone else thinks of her (including the reader)?

REBECCA: You’re full of excellent and original questions! Sophia’s journey will be revealed in three stages: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Her confidence will grow over time, and as it does she will heal from past hurts and become a stronger person for all she has gone through. In time, she will mature out of her insecurities.

The Forever Girl

ANTHONY: What was your process like writing this book? Are you an “outliner” or a “pantser?”

REBECCA: A little of both? Usually when I start writing I have a general idea for the story, and once I start writing, I get ideas (that I write down) on where the story seems to be heading. However, sometime characters like to pop up with ideas better than mine, and all my ideas get shoved aside. The story and characters take on a life of their own. I don’t mind at all 

ANTHONY: Presenting an honest and non-stereotypical Wiccan main character was important to you, wasn’t it? Can you talk about why, and what response you’ve received to Sophia?

REBECCA: I’ve always been one for “truth”. Wiccans I feel are often misrepresented my the media as well as other religions. In a novel dealing with the themes of acceptance and perceptions, a Wiccan character was an excellent extended metaphor. I wanted to show what Wicca is really about, from the viewpoint of a practitioner (Sophia, not me, since I’m asked that a lot!). Also, I know a lot of Wiccans, and I can’t imagine how any of the stereotypes can be based on real Wiccans. They’re all so different and unique. The only “stereotype” I can think of (meaning thing I see in common among most Wiccans) is that they generally don’t condemn others for their beliefs or try to “convert” people. They are just being themselves. Most really do live to Harm None.

ANTHONY: Knowing this was going to be a series, how detailed was your world-building before beginning work on the series, and how much did you end up adding/improvising as you went along?

REBECCA: The actual world building was completely improvised and then built on during revisions. My characters probably still have a lot more to teach me about their world that I haven’t learned yet.

ANTHONY: You write short stories as well as novels — is there any difference to your approach or style from one form to the other?

REBECCA: My short stories are usually lighter. Less depth, more story-led than character-led. They are meant as fast reads to pass the time. My novels on the other hand explore characters in more depth and are more thematic, with a more of a “message” to share.

ANTHONY: When is the next Forever Girl book due out, and can you tease us with a bit of what’s in store for Sophia, Charles, Adrian and the rest?

REBECCA: The next book in the series visits new characters. We won’t be seeing Sophia again until book 4! When we see them again, however, there will be a lot of sacrifice, betrayal, and overcoming of inner darkness. Sophia’s friends will be put in danger (sometimes by Sophia herself) and alliances will be tested.

ANTHONY: Readers who feel a connection to Sophia will wonder: why jump to a new set of characters for book two and leave Sophia’s return for book four? What can you tell us about the new characters to whet our appetites for their stories? 

REBECCA: The next book comes out in 2013! Not sure on the exact release just yet. Here’s a little blurb about the book.

Rose was just a teenage girl carrying her father’s baby. A teenage girl who desperately wanted to escape. Womanhood in Salem, Massachusetts 1692 wasn’t what she had in mind.

All she’d wanted to do was save her baby, to run away and start a new life. But her father packed that baby away and drove off in his pickup truck, and the spirits that had been following Rose all her life transported her to a new world. A world centuries away from her newborn daughter, where townsfolk call her Abigail and the forest calls her Cordovae.

Rose’s memories of her old life slip away. Only one memory remains: Anna.

Rose is devoted to finding a way back to the life she can’t remember . . . but going back isn’t an option. Not until she faces certain death to stabilize Salem’s community of spirits.

William’s there to help, but soon Rose finds herself falling in love with him. If that happens, she will have to choose between the only man who’s never betrayed her and a daughter she can’t remember but will never forget.

ANTHONY: I’m looking forward to it! Now, 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?

REBECCA: The Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard. Nancy is a BRILLIANT author. Her writing is simple yet poignant. Her characters are relatable and real. But where she excels in a way that EVERYONE needs to experience for themselves is her ability to build mystery and suspense. I’ve learned a lot about writing through reading her books.

You can find Rebecca musing about writing on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter as @inkmuse and join her Facebook fan page.

THE DALLIANCE, Band - Interview

This week’s interview is with my old friends Darrell Long, Gregry Gilroy and Barry Mangione, collectively known as The Dalliance. These guys have played on and off in bands together since we (well, Darrell, Greg and I) were in high school together. The band recently released their first full studio album, BIRTH LOVE DEATH. I’m happy to finally be able to interview them officially.

The Dalliance

ANTHONY:  Hello, gentlemen! Glad we’re finally getting a chance to talk. Let’s cover a little bit of history first. You’ve performed together in various combinations and with other musicians over the years. What makes now the right time for this combination of personalities to come together as The Dalliance?

DARRELL:  I’ll say that whether big or small, successful, or not, I think we’re all very proud of the music we’ve made with other projects. When we started playing music together in Brady Bastards, our previous collaboration – a pop-punk quartet – it was some of the most fun we all had playing music in years – things came together quickly and it didn’t feel like work – something that can easily take away from the reason people join bands in the first place. This is not to say that we don’t work hard at our craft, but I think we had, at that point, hit on the right chemistry of personalities – everyone brought incredible talent and musicianship, varied influences and similar goals. With Brady Bastards, we always felt a little pigeonholed by the genre. This is not to say there aren’t plenty of amazing punk bands who we revere and who define the genre – we just felt more and more that we were all writing new music that we could do better if we weren’t shoe horning it into one idiom. If we tore down the definitions and just started writing organically without any specific genre in mind, we could more easily expand our palette and define our aesthetic with a fresh start. Because we didn’t know if this new project would necessarily be THE band, or a side project, I always thought The Dalliance was a good name for it. It went from apt description to somewhat ironic, but not in an overt way – The name holds a bit of mystery – I feel a prospective listener or fan should be able to bring their own interpretation to what we are when they decide to listen to us or come to a show, etc.

ANTHONY: The new album is called Birth Love Death and has a Tarot theme. Did the theme come together after the songs were chosen, or were songs chosen from your catalog to fit the theme?

DARRELL: The album theme and artwork came last. When we decided to put together a full length recording, the first thing we wanted to do was put out the best versions of the songs we felt were the best written to that point. Once we had what felt like an album, we started playing around with the order of the tracks. There’s a white board in our studio that, despite all our tech savvy and forward thinking, gets a tremendous amount of use in situations like this. When we finally had what we felt was the order of tracks, we basically walked away for a week or two to listen to the demo mixes of everything on our own and figure out what each mix needed, how the track order felt and what we were going to call this thing. As we are a trio, we like the rhyme scheme associated with visually representing things in threes for flyers for shows and this seemed to feel a natural next step. Greg suggested Birth Love Death as the three words that could describe every song on the record. Originally, we were going to have a tarot card for each word as the cover. We struggled over not using just Major Arcana cards for this (you may or may not be surprised to know that we all have a fair amount of tarot knowledge). At one point, we thought we had hit on a perfect combination of cards and for a few weeks, that’s the layout I was working on graphically. The more I tried to make it work, the more I realized it wasn’t an authentic tarot spread, nothing was photographing right and it just felt disingenuous and maybe a little too literal. In the past we have had success finding and licensing stock images as a starting point for graphic design, so I went that route. While this task was a time consuming quest, I think we finally hit on images that expressed the theme with a little more mystery (there’s that theme again) as well as a little more authenticity. And, there’s still the undercurrent of ‘threes’ throughout. OK, I guess the three of swords as the cd image isn’t much of an undercurrent – but the card also represents the band well in its interpretation.

ANTHONY: Several songs on Birth Love Death also appeared on your 2009 EP and as single releases, but the BLD versions range from almost the same (“Leave It All Behind”) to subtly different (Greg’s singing in a slightly higher key on the BLD version of “I Need A Relgion”) to very different (a new take on “Minor Disturbance”). Why go back into the studio and continue to tweak songs that have already had some limited release instead of crafting an album of all new material?

DARRELL: The EP was the first formal recording session we ever had as The Dalliance. We all have tons of experience working in other people’s studios, but we made a decision to do everything ourselves with this band and that included complete DIY recording – not something I recommend to every band. I had some experience with engineering, but to this point it was still a trial and error kind of thing. The EP was made in a weekend, in Greg’s basement, before we had a space to call our own, and with a limited budget. We were literally unboxing gear and throwing up blankets for sound dampening while recording. Next, we endeavored to put out a new song every month for a year. In lieu of having tons of promotion money, we felt if we gave the fan base that we were building something new every month, we would keep their interest in this digital music ADD world that we live in. During that time we started renting space in Meriden, CT and building a proper project studio. The space was in an historic building and it was nice to have a place where all we did was make music. Since this was really designed as practice space and not recording space by its current owner, the downside was the 30 other bands also making their home there, the resulting noise and the sometimes one hour drive to get there. Given the opportunity to move much closer to our homes into a new, slightly larger space, we jumped and built Disgraceland, our current studio. Over time, we added pro gear from Cascade, Oktava, Focusrite, KRK and more. As we started talking about a full length release, we went back to our existing recordings and realized we had not always made the best versions of those songs, especially given the resources that we now had at our disposal. Add to that the inevitable way our music changed as we played it more and more in live situations. We felt that, before we did all new songs, we owed it to ourselves and to the music to put out the very best versions of everything we had. Many songs needed a complete re-recording, while others had salvageable parts. Everything needed to be remixed in the interest of continuity. In that regard, making an album is a lot like making a movie. Once we did all that, we had the whole of the new mixes remastered. Mastering is an art that we believe is so specialized, we’re not going to take that on. It also puts fresh ears on your music when you send it out for mastering. We have been very fortunate to find Memphis-based Channel Fuse Media. They’re thorough, fairly priced, easy to work with and the masters come back sounding incredible almost always on the first try. If I can give one bit of advice to DIY artists, it’s to never master your own music. We could never do the job that someone who specializes in this art can. Believe me, I’ve tried.

ANTHONY: What is your songwriting process like, both as a group and individually?

Darrell Long

DARRELL: Both as a group and individually, when we write music that might work for the band, we’ve established a strong, honest peer review process, for lack of a better term.  What this means is that, whether one of us comes in with a finished song, or just a skeleton, we encourage and expect that the other members of the band will be brutally honest with what we’ve brought in, help tear it apart and put it back together as a song we all buy into as something that is, The Dalliance. Not every band has a democratic process like this – many work differently, but this is our process and it’s definitely what’s best for us.

BARRY: I like to try different methods to keep the creative process fresh. Sometimes I’ll start with lyrics and then write the chords & melody to match the meaning of the lyrics. Sometimes I’ll have music in my head first and then write the lyrics to match the music. I also try to follow Steven Pressfield’s advice of sitting down & writing regularly to strengthen that creative writing “muscle.” I often will wind up throwing away a lot of the ideas I come up with this way, but sometimes I get a gem, and in those moments when inspiration hits out of nowhere and I have to pick up a guitar or notepad & write it down, I’m much better at translating the idea into words & music.

When it comes to writing as a group, when I bring a song or song idea to the table, I try to bring just guitar and vocals and let Greg & Darrell do their magic with the rest. The beautiful thing about writing with these guys is that we’re able to tell each other if something doesn’t fit. I think that because we’ve created a catalog of songs that we’re proud of, we now have trust in each other that we’re going to respect each other’s visions and elevate each other’s ideas. When I brought “A Quiet Cam” to them as a demo, for example, it was just my vocals and a ukelele. I never heard anything else in that song, but when they added the bass line, the drums, the piano and the vocal harmonies, it elevated the song to a whole new level.

GREGRY: I tend to come up with subject matter or a song title first and it sometimes sits in my brain for a lonnng time before it becomes a song. I will usually wait until the music either presents itself either from myself or from the other band members before I write all of the lyrics. Perfect examples are the two songs I sing on the album. “I Need A Religion” I have been playing that progression on guitar forever, but in all of the other projects I’ve been in prior to The Dalliance It was just never a good fit. When I came up with the title and theme for the song and we were all writing for the new album I thought “I wonder if I can use this music finally for this idea?” then I came up with the melody and wrote the lyrics around that piece of music. “Ghost..” all I had was the subject matter, the song title and the first line as an idea “There’s a ghost in the bedroom where your body used to be” and that was it. Barry had given me a CD full of music ideas that he didn’t have lyrics for and one of the songs he had on there when I sang back that first line, it fit perfectly so I wrote the lyrics around that music. It’s funny, when I write lyrics it literally takes minutes since most of the time I’ve had the idea in my head for ages and it tends to just spill out on the page very stream of conscience. I often get picked on for not knowing my own lyrics when we play live since when I write I seem to spit it out and it’s gone.

As far as the group, what’s been interesting about this band is since we have our own rehearsal space and studio I’d say like 95% of the songs were written in the studio. In the past the way I’ve always written is you sit in the room, throw out riffs or ideas and you bang it out in the room live until you have something. With this band we demo a lot and each of us come in with ideas recorded already. So if Barry comes in with a song like “Ghost..” or “Pain Has Gills” we can listen and if we like, we can sit down and write our parts and add our individual personalities to the song whether it’s a harmony, bass line, whatever. You almost put on a producer hat where you listen and say “I think that should be a C” or “I think this should be faster”. Another cool thing is because Barry writes in a lot of alternative tunings, it has forced me to listen and write my part by ear instead of jamming in a room, watching his hand and following what he is playing. It’s helped me become a better musician and come up with some of the best bass lines I think I’ve ever played in any band prior.

DARRELL: When I write, sometimes I’ll bring in either just a quick idea or a chord progression for us to all work on together.  Or, I’ll bring in a more complete composition often, to everyone else’s confusion, complete with sheet music.

When we work on a new song together, I think we often try to take each other out of our comfort zone. I once suggested that Barry play guitar in an alternate tuning for a song or two and have since created a monster – but in a good way. Since nothing is truly created in a vacuum, a result of that has been Greg organically writing amazing bass guitar parts by ear, since alternate turnings mean not being able to follow what Barry is playing by following his hands.

Barry often records ideas with a drum loop. What this does for me is often polarizing – I will often run toward the beat I hear in the loop or I’ll consciously play the opposite.

ANTHONY: What are your favorite tools to write and record with?

Barry Mangione

BARRY: My most frequent method is probably writing the music first. I use GarageBand to record my demos. I find it’s quick & easy. I record my guitars into GarageBand through a USB amp interface. From there, I’ll upload it to my iPhone and listen to it in the car while I’m driving. I’ll play it over & over again, writing the lyrics in my head as I’m driving. With the iPhone 4S, I can talk-to-text lyrics onto the notepad app as I go, so I don’t lose any ideas. When it comes time to record my vocals onto a demo, I use a Blue Snowball USB microphone. It’s got surprising sound quality.

GREGRY: Like I said earlier, I’ve always been old school in the past where I would just bang out song ideas in a practice space so I would never demo anything or record ahead of time. It was only within the past year where I got an IPad and started using GarageBand and now I love it. It’s amazing  it used to cost hundreds of dollars to purchase a 4 track recorder, drum machines, etc. and now for a $5 app download for GarageBand and like $40 for an IRig (which is an adapter where you can plug your guitar right into the IPad and software) you have an easy little home studio with drum loops, samples, everything that sounds amazing. Once you record something, it’s as easy as hitting “send to dropbox” and it goes right into our band account where the guys can open it up and listen on their end.

Actually I shouldn’t say that I have never tried recording in the past on my own, I just dug up an old Fostex 4 Track and Alesis Drum Machine which I will never throw out since it holds so much nostalgia for me. Some of the first songs I ever wrote on my own and even some of the early Brady Bastards tunes I came up with are on that cassette sitting in the deck.

DARRELL:  Most often, I write with a keyboard, though sometimes I write music on guitar. Often, I use composition software, like Finale, to get things into sheet music –  I visualize and hear and understand things best when I can see them in standard music notation. This is what music school does to you and it’s good to have a universal language, but it then often takes collaboration to put emotion and drama, style and substance into what’s on the page.

In terms of recording, we record on a Mac using Logic Studio. Because it’s not as strict on hardware requirements as ProTools, we could build the studio that we could afford with the elements we wanted and always feel confident that Logic can work within those parameters. A great result is the live performance part of Logic – Main Stage can easily use all the sounds we used to record in Logic so that we can duplicate what we did in the studio quickly and easily for the stage.  We can’t duplicate everything live, of course, but our sound is bigger thanks to what Logic can do.

ANTHONY: Who brings what talents to the table, not just in terms of songwriting but band organization, booking, etc?

DARRELL: I think we all play enough of each other’s main instrument to be dangerous. That’s great, because we never spend 20 minutes trying to articulate something we hear in our head – it’s articulated clearly and then we can ‘try it that way.’ I definitely bring the most engineering and recording knowledge. It’s a discipline that I’m self taught in, but they say anyone can be an expert in something when they put in more than 10,000 hours. I’m getting there. I’m also the Band Den Mother. By that I mean that I’m the guy printing the set lists, organizing the merchandise, bringing extra cables, figuring out logistics with how to pull something off live and the like. Usually if someone needs duct tape, or a flashlight, chewing gum or a quarter inch cable – I’m there with it.

BARRY: Darrell is definitely the Den Mother of the band. I feel like my job is to bring inspiration & ideas to the band, because the other guys have WAY more knowledge of music theory than I do. Often when I bring a song or idea to the band, it’s Darrell & Greg who have to figure out what chords I’m using & what key it’s in so they can make sense of whatever they’re going to add to it. I’m probably the last guy out of the three of us to book gigs. Darrell & Greg are much better at that and have more connections. If I do book a gig, it’s usually an “outside the box” kind of gig, like our recent album release event where we rented a private space. I’m usually the one booking acoustic shows or coffeehouse-type gigs. I also create a lot of the band’s videos for YouTube, and I try to help out as much with online promotion via social media.

GREGRY:Darrell is really the “evil mastermind Band Mother” to this whole band where not only is he an amazing musician and songwriter in his own right, he is responsible for all of the recording of the album, artwork, basically all of the technical aspects of the group. I walk on the stage or in the rehearsal space and the microphone is set-up, working great with a printed set list on the floor and a cold beer in the fridge. To watch him play is quite remarkable not only is he playing the drums he’s singing harmonies, hitting samples (that he recorded of course) and playing keys in some parts! Plus it’s awesome no matter what hair brained ideas I come up with he knows exactly how to do it and executes it to a T. Barry and I honestly would be completely lost with him.

Greg Gilroy

Barry I think to me is definitely the “singer/songwriter” of the band where he comes up with the most of the song ideas. I tend to write very slow, sometimes only 2-3 songs a year where Barry will come up with sometimes 10-12 and dammit, they are all good ideas (laughs). Plus all of the funny You Tube clips and video you see about us online, that all comes from Barry. He is like the “documentarian” of the band where he always has a video camera running capturing all of the comedy that goes on during the recording process.

Myself? I think where Darrell is the high-tech aspect to the band I bring in that low-fi, almost punk rock swagger to the music and attitude. This is in no way a jab at my band brothers, but where they are tweeting pics of their fancy meals they are making or eating and talking about Apple programs or software, I am in the corner eating 7-11 nachos, drinking cheap beer, cutting my hair in a Mohawk and trying to fix my bass with duct-tape and spit (laughs). I cut my teeth playing in hardcore, punk and metal bands for decades and although I love this type of music and like a lot of the same artists as Barry and Darrell, I still inflict that percussive, heavy thumping attitude to my playing and persona on stage. Plus I love coming up with concepts and ideas for the band whether it’s an album title, artwork, stage look and promotion/booking shows. Also, I love to make those two laugh. I’m always cracking jokes and being a goofball.

ANTHONY: Have you ever just roundly rejected a song because it “wasn’t Dalliance enough?”

DARRELL: Yes. I think when we were first writing the EP and the subsequent singles this happened more. There are no hard feelings – One day, we’ll probably all release solo music like KISS did in 1978 and that’s not entirely tongue in cheek… But, yes, there’s plenty of music we’ve either tried and rejected or rejected outright. It rarely means we don’t like those songs – just that we feel we have a pretty good handle on our aesthetic and what works. As we grow more as a band, future releases will not all sound like Birth Love Death, but there will still be that glue that makes them a part of this band.

ANTHONY:  A lot of the songs on BLD are very dark subject matter. Will we ever get to hear a “shiny happy” Dalliance song?

DARRELL:  Don’t rule it out. The songs come from real places and real experiences. Dark is not our shtick – its where some of us were when we wrote a lot of the material and lives and experiences tend to evolve. I think that if one of us writes music about a positive life experience, you’ll get that shiny happy song. We wouldn’t write dark for the sake of darkness and we won’t write happy and shiny without a tangible experience that matches those emotions.

ANTHONY: What’s the most unusual instrument that’s made its way into a Dalliance song?

DARRELL:  I think this depends on your musical experiences before listening to us. To me, nothing is out of bounds, so I don’t find too much unusual. Some people might listen and pick out the ukulele, but so many bands have used it and artists like Amanda Palmer brought it to the fore long before we wrote anything on uke. I picked up my ukulele on EBay because I wanted a portable instrument and it was shaped like a Gibson Explorer guitar. Barry added a pick-up and guitar strings and the ‘rock-ele’ was born. It shaped the sound of some recordings, but in the end, we actually recorded with a more traditional uke to get back to a more organic sound. We use glockenspiel in Broken Ballerina – That’s also something being used and sometimes overused by a lot of bands, although, Los Campesinos are a great example of a band using that sound to perfection. I think that we sometimes have more unusual ways of recording than unusual instruments. I’ve made a tent with moving blankets and had Barry sit on the floor, inside the tent, in the dark, to record vocals. We used the smallest guitar amp we own to track those big guitars you hear on Leave it All Behind. We tracked Drown With Me almost completely live and in one take, just to see if we could do it and, in my opinion, it’s a much better version than the studio version we did with Brady Bastards that took more than a day to complete. Yes: that song is the bridge between the two bands – Its our Beethoven’s 9th, but with only 3 chords  I think we like to experiment when we can’t get something to work the way the book says that it should, but we’re not going out of our way to bring in unusual instruments.

ANTHONY: Where will you be performing in the near future?

DARRELL: We’ll be at Red Star in Brooklyn on September 8th and there will be some more show announcements in the next few weeks. We’re trying to play out about one or two times per month, so that we can continue to write new music AND we’re very excited about starting a regular podcast where we will talk with anyone who is an independent artist about anything as long as its got more depth than promotion only. We are actually looking for guests – With the magic of Skype, this doesn’t mean they need to come to our studio, so, dear readers, if you want to join us as we get this thing off the ground, contact us and we’ll make it happen. Please be interesting and articulate.

ANTHONY: Possibly the most important question of the interview: When will the video for “Minor Disturbance” get made?

DARRELL: We had hoped to start getting this going this Summer, but there may be a few obstacles to making that happen right now. That said, we really WANT to do it and we will. We may use the podcast, as well as this interview, to reach more people who have the expertise we need. We could do this ourselves, but if someone has access to better cameras, can edit better than we can, can direct, etc. we’d love to talk to you. Of course the issue is always money, but nothing rules out the possibility of crowd funding it. To this point, we’re proud of the fact that we have made everything with our own hands and our own money, but there’s no reason to explore all avenues to get the video made, as well as future recordings, promotion, etc if there’s a good fit.

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

BARRY: I have a lot of books that I love. I don’t often read fiction, but when I do… I read Chuck Palahniuk. Fight Club is amazing, and Haunted is a great read if you want your guts wrenched. I enjoy reading anything by Russell Simmons. He has a unique mix of spirituality, social responsiblity and business savvy. I read a lot, I mean a LOT of Deepak Chopra. My most recent favorite is The Shadow Effect, which he wrote with Marianne Williamson and Debbie Ford. I think everyone should read it, but especially anyone who struggles with their “dark side” like I did for many years (those Dalliance lyrics had to come from somewhere, folks). It’s about accepting yourself as a whole, shadow and all, and learning to live as a complete, loving human being. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Super Heroes was also a great read. If I knew anyone who was into super heroes, I would highly recommend it. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. Against the Stream by Noah Levine was also an important book for me. Noah Levine is a former skate punk/addict who got himself clean & sober through Buddhism, and he presents the principles of Buddhism in a language and style that’s accessible to people who’ve lived hard or self-abusive lifestyles. The book I’m currently reading is The Laws of the Ring, by Urijah Faber. He’s a former world champion MMA fighter who also has a degree in human development. It’s an inspirational/motivational book made up of many short chapters that are easy, quick reads. I try to read one every day as a tool to motivate and inspire me.

DARRELL: Favorite Books as in, of all time, is far too daunting a question for me to take up. In terms of recent reads, I would recommend just about anything from Malcolm Gladwell. No one makes sociology, psychology and social psychology an incredible journey like this guy. Examining unexpected outcomes in experiments, understanding why people born in a certain year or month are more successful than their peers, and exploring the adaptive unconscious was never this much fun. I’ve read every book, every New Yorker Article, repeatedly watched his two TED Talks and seen him speak live at the 92nd Street Y. I am that into him.

GREGRY: I really don’t read as much as I like or used to, but when I do I love to read autobiographies especially on musicians because it really gives you a detailed look into how they got to where they are and how it is to be a famous working musician. Boy George’s Take it Like A Man was an amazing account of what he dealt with from being not only a famous musician out of nothing, but his descent into heroin addiction, his relationship with the drummer and how he dealt with his image and sexuality in the 80’s. I read that from a recommendation from a friend and literally bought every Culture Club and Boy George solo album during and after reading so I had a soundtrack while I was reading.

On the other spectrum was David Lee Roth’s Crazy From The Heat. When you are reading it the chapters are all over the place (meaning in real no chronological order) and the way it’s written you can literally hear him in your head because it’s written exactly how he talks in almost that scatting type of rhythm. People take him for a nut-job, which he kind of is but he was sooo important in making that band as big as they became because he was the flashy front man and was responsible for a lot of the image and attitude of Van Halen.

Last big one for me was Henry Rollins’ Get In The Van. I read this while on tour with one of my former bands in the 90’s and it was an awesome account on the early days of his band Black Flag and the touring they used to do. These guys were a major influence on myself and punk rock/hardcore in general and these guys never had a massive tour bus, groupies or stadium arena tours it was all DIY and hard living. It was a very good read and the fact that I was reading about Rollins toughing it out, sleeping in a Ryder truck with the equipment going to the next dive bar while I was doing the exact same thing while reading was amazing.

I can go on and on with others, but those three along were the biggest. Plus I’ve always loved the overall works by Hunter S Thompson, William S. Burroughs, Nic Cave and I hear that guy who wrote The Firflake is quite the humdinger J

ANTHONY: Well, if Gregry doesn’t know how to end an interview on a good note (sucking up to the interviewer), no one does! Thanks again, guys, for taking time out to give such detailed answers.  Now, let’s get going on that “Minor Disturbance” video, shall we? The guy who wrote the script isn’t expecting to be paid, but he’d like to be able to show it to people….

You can find The Dalliance on their own website and on Facebook. You can stream or purchase their music on Bandcamp. You can follow them on Twitter collectively (@thedalliance) or individually (Darrell – @floopjack; Gregry –  @Gregry13; Barry – @BarryMangione). For general inquiries, email Info@thedalliance.org and for booking email Booking@thedalliance.com.

 And of course they have a Youtube channel, where you can find concert videos as well as the official video for LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND: 

CHRISTOPHER PAUL CAREY, Author - Interview

This week, I’m happy to be rambling on with fellow Wold-Newton afficianado Christopher Paul Carey.

Christopher Paul Carey

Christopher Paul Carey is the coauthor with Philip José Farmer of Gods of Opar: Tales of Lost Khokarsa. He is an editor with Paizo Publishing and the award-winning Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, and the editor of three collections of Philip José Farmer’s work: Up from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories, Venus on the Half-Shell and Others, and The Other in the Mirror. His short fiction may be found in such anthologies as The Worlds of Philip José Farmer, Tales of the Shadowmen, and The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files. Visit him online at www.cpcarey.com.

ANTHONY: I know you’ve told this story elsewhere, but let’s start out with the basics: How did you get involved with Philip José Farmer and come to collaborate on THE SONG OF KWASIN, the conclusion of Farmer’s Opar/Khorkasa Trilogy?

CHRIS: Back in 2005, I was serving as editor of Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer, a quarterly digest dedicated to printing rare and previously unpublished material by Farmer, as well as articles on his life and work. Michael Croteau—Farmerphile’s publisher and Phil’s webmaster—and author and Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert were in Peoria searching through Phil’s archives looking for material to print in the magazine when the outline and partial manuscript to the third Khokarsa novel turned up. I was contacted because I was editing the magazine, and I pitched the idea of completing the novel to Phil. I’d known Phil since 1998, and we’d corresponded before that. He was familiar with my writing about his work, and he told me he was confident I’d do a good job with the story. I think that, because of my writings on his work as well as our similar backgrounds in Haggard, Burroughs, and other adventure writers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he felt I’d be faithful to his vision. We also shared a love of anthropology, which figures heavily into the world building for the Khokarsa series.

ANTHONY: What was working with one of your heroes like? And how heavily was he involved in the process?

CHRIS:  Wondrously terrifying! Phil gave me some specific input on how he wanted the third book and the trilogy to wrap up, but largely left how I would handle things up to me. That said, I followed his original outline as closely as I possibly could and kept him up to date on everything I was doing as the book progressed. He approved the expanded chapter-by-chapter outline that I wrote based on his own outline, and I mailed chapters of the novel as I wrote them to Phil so he and his wife Bette were apprised of what I was doing.

ANTHONY:  I asked Win Eckert this question too, in relationship to THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE: How hard was it merging your own distinct voice with Phil’s, especially considering you were wrapping up a trilogy?

CHRIS: I’ve been immersed in Phil’s writings for many, many years, so I think a lot of his phraseology has rubbed off on me, and some of that probably comes through in The Song of Kwasin. Phil had a unique style, brilliant really, in that it’s very simple and clear and yet conveys sophisticated nuances. I’m not sure anyone can completely replicate another writer’s style. One can come close, but style is always translated by the particular spirit of the writer.

I did, however, very consciously write the novel imagining that I was in 1976, when the last installment of the series was published. So I tried to limit myself to the modes of mid-1970s heroic fiction precisely because I didn’t want the reader to sense a hiccough between the second and third books. But it’s not up to me to say whether I succeeded.

Gods of Opar

ANTHONY:  Subterranean Press has published an omnibus edition, GODS OF OPAR, that includes THE SONG OF KWASIN. The limited edition of the book has some extra special features, correct? Can you tell me about them?

CHRIS: The signed limited edition sold out in preorders before publication, so I hope what I’m about to say won’t be too frustrating to someone who reads this now and wants a copy! In any case, the limited edition includes an entire signature of background material about the Khokarsa series written by Philip José Farmer. These include Phil’s original typed outline to the third novel, a detailed article on the Khokarsan language, a Khokarsan glossary, the Khokarsan calendar, and an article called “The Plants of Khokarsa.” None of these items have ever been published before, and they go a long way to sampling the meticulous world building Phil worked out for the series.

ANTHONY: There’s another Khorkasa tale coming out, written completely by you. Where can readers find it?

CHRIS: Exiles of Kho is a signed limited edition being published by Meteor House. The story is set several hundred years before the main trilogy and tells the story of the heroine-priestess Lupoeth as she explores the southern inland sea in the hinterlands beyond the empire of Khokarsa.

ANTHONY: Okay, let’s back up a bit. You are a huge “Farmerphile.” What was your first exposure to Phil’s work?

CHRIS: The first books of his that I read were The Maker of Universes, Tarzan Alive, and, fittingly, Hadon of Ancient Opar. I was twelve at the time, and I never viewed literature the same way again.

ANTHONY:  How heavily has Phil’s work influenced your own writing? And who else do you consider your biggest influences / heroes?

CHRIS:  Well, I’ve now written a novel, two novellas, and a short story, all set in his world of Khokarsa, if that answers your question!

As far as other influences and writers whose work I admire, there’s Frank Herbert, Hermann Hesse, H. Rider Haggard—hey, that’s a lot of the letter H! Another one: David Herter, who I think is one of the most brilliant voices out there today, and who heavily influence my short story “Caesar’s Children,” which I one day hope to expand into a novel.

ANTHONY: What is your own writing process like? Are you an “outliner” or a “pantser” when working on your own projects?

CHRIS:  I’m an outliner. Then I invariably diverge from the outline as needed and become a “pantser.” I also usually immerse myself in months of research before I start writing. For instance, the story I just mentioned, “Caesar’s Children,” was the result of about a year of surveying nineteenth-century utopian fiction. And that’s just a short story. It’s easy to get lost in the research because that’s the fun part of the process for me.

ANTHONY: You’ve written short stories and novels … does your process change at all from form to form?

CHRIS: It’s generally the same for me, except occasionally I can crank out a short story with the outline only in my head.

ANTHONY: You’re also a leading “Wold-Newton” scholar. What is it about Farmer’s Wold Newton concept that continues to fascinate new readers?

CHRIS: The Wold Newton family is a genealogy of literary characters proposed by Farmer in his biography Tarzan Alive, in which he attributed the extraordinary heroic and sometimes villainous characteristics of the family members to a 1795 meteor strike at Wold Newton in the East Riding of Yorkshire. I think the concept still resonates forty years after Farmer created it because the heroes, heroines, and villains from literature compose a sort of modern-day mythology. We want to believe in these characters, and seeing them as part of a family tree makes them more real to us. There’s also the ingenious way Farmer executed the genealogy—not merely as a series of dry literary crossovers, but rather through his intimate understanding and genuine love for the characters, and often with great humor.

ANTHONY: What projects are you working on now?

CHRIS: Right now I’m putting the finishing touches on Exiles of Kho. Then it’s back to my historical dark fantasy novel set in 1888, which I’ve spent the past few years researching.

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?

CHRIS: I can’t answer that—too many! But one I’ve returned to many times in recent years is David Herter’s Vernean fantasy Evening’s Empire. A composer dealing with the ghosts of his past and slipping into irreality as he’s working on an opera of Twenty-Thousand Leagues under the Sea—what could be more tantalizing than that?

ANTHONY: Thanks, Chris!