Talking to Myself (Part 2)

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Continuing a previously unprinted interview that I did for another Web site. (Part 1 ran yesterday.)

What was your big break?

As much as I hate this kind of thing, it really was a case of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”

In the late nineties I was an editor for a publisher/book packager named Byron Preiss, who had a license from Marvel Comics to publish original novels based on their characters. Having edited some of the books, and written short stories for a couple of anthologies (Untold Tales of Spider-Man and The Ultimate Hulk), I was offered the chance to take over a YA novel titled Spider-Man Super Thriller: Warrior’s Revenge—Marvel had rejected the manuscript delivered by a mystery and fantasy writer named Neal Barrett Jr. Basically, I was in Byron’s office when news of the rejection came in and he turned to me and said, “So, you want to write it?” Of course I said yes!

The only problem was, the cover for the book had already been printed for advance sales purposes, so I wound up ghostwriting the book for Neal, who was amazingly gracious about the whole thing.

So, if you ever come across a copy of Warrior’s Revenge, just remember: it might have Neal’s name on it, but it’s actually my first novel!

A couple of years later, a similar situation happened: two established writers were supposed to do an original X-Men novel trilogy, except Marvel rejected their proposal. And again Byron asked if I’d be interested in taking it over. Well, who was I to say no?

The result was X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy, in which the X-Men fight their archenemy Magneto, Doctor Doom (from the Fantastic Four), and the Red Skull (from Captain America) for control of the Cosmic Cube, a device that allows them to alter reality. All three books sold really well—helped in no small part by the fact that Book 1, X-Men/Dr. Doom, came out in time for the first X-movie. I think that’s when people really started to recognize my byline.

What authors have influenced you the most?

Well, Stephen King is probably my biggest influence. There’s comics guru Stan Lee (with whom I got to collaborate on a comics project!) and H. P. Lovecraft—an early twentieth century pulp-magazine horror writer who influenced guys like King. And there are some others who’ve influenced me: comic writer Alan Moore, mystery writer Robert B. Parker, Harlan Ellison, and Ray Bradbury. (I’m sure there’s somebody I’ve forgotten.)

The trick, though, is finding a way to blend all those influences into something that eventually becomes your own, unique writing style.

What are some of your hobbies?

I used to be a major comic book fan, but over the years I got tired with all the superhero stuff—which is kinda funny, considering my professional writing career started with me writing short stories and novels about Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Incredible Hulk. Now I just spend all my money on Doctor Who merchandise! I’ve been a Who fan—Whovian?—since high school. I even got to write a story for an official Doctor Who anthology!

What’s your favorite movie?

When I was a teen it was the original, un-messed-with Star Wars. (The one where Han shot first.) Somewhere along the way it became The Blues Brothers. Must’ve been all that great blues music—well, that and the insane car stunts…

If your book, Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, was turned into a movie, who would you like to play the main characters?

At conventions I often describe the Pandora Zwieback series to folks as “Ellen Page and Salma Hayek in a Hellboy movie.” They’re a little too old at this point to play Pan and Annie, but when I was trying to land the series with a publisher back in 2005/6, I thought they’d be perfect.

For me, Salma Hayek had been Sebastienne Mazarin since 1995, when her big-screen debut in Desperado coincided with Annie starring in the Heartstopper comic series I was writing. And when Ellen Page was running around in X-Men: The Last Stand, dressed in leather and calling Vinnie Jones’s Juggernaut character a dickhead, I thought, That’s Pan!

Oh, and Bruce Campbell for Pan’s dad!

Tomorrow: Advice for writers, and suggested reading. Be here for the thrilling conclusion!  😉

Talking to Myself (Part 1)

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Sure, it’s said that the first sign of madness is when you start talking to yourself, but I’ve been doing it for years and I turned out okay.  😉

While I’m working on my convention report about this past Sunday’s Brooklyn Book festival for the StarWarp Concepts blog, I thought over here you might like to pass the time reading an interview I did that was meant to run on a review site to coincide with Blood Feud’s publication. “Meant to” being the operative phrase. Unfortunately, there was a change in policy—the site’s bosses decided to discontinue reviewing self-published books before the interview could be posted.

(What, you didn’t know I was also the publisher of StarWarp Concepts? Gee, I must’ve forgotten to mention that…  😉 )

Anyway, that was the end of the interview—until now, that is. I found it on an external hard drive last week and, after some tweaking, thought you might find it of interest. I broke it into three parts because some of the answers are a bit long—but hey, more reading for you. And you’re here because you like to read, right?

We join the interview already in progress, bypassing the introductions…

Did you always want to be a writer?

Oh, yeah! Back in grade school and high school I was always writing stories and doing comic strips. I was even appointed fiction editor of my high school’s magazine after winning a short-story contest. But when I started out as a professional writer I wanted to write comic books; in fact, I’ve been writing comics and graphic novels for a good while now. But it wasn’t until I was actually working in the book-publishing business that I began thinking about becoming more of a novelist.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

Probably what I am right now: a freelance proofreader and copyeditor for a number of publishing houses. The hours are flexible and the money’s decent, and the work keeps me in touch with the industry.

What is your working style?

You mean when I’m forcing myself to sit down and write, instead of finding anything else to do that won’t involve staring at a blank computer screen until the words come into my head?  😉

My writing tends to be very fluid, changing as a new idea or better way of presenting something pops into my head, so I’m always going back and tinkering as I move ahead; usually it involves dialogue. It’s why, when I hand in a manuscript, my editors have always considered them tight first drafts (sometimes the only drafts, depending on their deadlines!).

Sometimes I’ll listen to specific pieces of music, for inspiration or scene pacing or emotional depth. I’ll give you an example: In Blood Feud, one of the most emotional scenes toward the end of the book involves Pan racing to rescue another character and then attacking the main bad guy, a fallen angel named Zaquiel. While I was writing it I kept playing on a loop a track from one of the recent Doctor Who soundtracks: “This is Gallifrey—Our Childhood, Our Home,” composed by Murray Gold.

Now I can’t listen to this piece without seeing Pan’s confrontation in my head.  😀

Do you prefer to write longhand, or on a computer?

Everything starts out longhand in notebooks—sometimes even on Post-its, if a good line pops into my head that I need to write down. And even after I transfer that handwritten material to my computer, I’ll still print out the pages and continue handwriting on those.

Do you believe in outlining?

For my own projects? No, but I’ve had to do that when working with licensed properties like the X-Men and Final Destination, and that’s because the editors and licensing agents need to know what you plan to do with their franchises. But even then I had a tendency to wander away from the outline and let the story write itself.

I know outlining works for other writers, but I’ve always found it too restrictive. I don’t even like working out a full plot because things change as I’m writing. My approach is: I know where I’m starting, I know where it’s gonna wind up—let’s see how we get there.

That’s probably not the best way to go about doing it, but it’s worked for me (so far).

Tomorrow: My big break, writing influences, and who I’d like to have seen starring in a Pandora Zwieback movie!

We Are Looking for the Brooklyn Queens

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Spread the word: The Brooklyn Book Festival is being held this Sunday, September 18th, at Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza—and StarWarp Concepts will be in attendance!

BOOTH # 115 is where you’ll find me hawking all the Starwarp Concepts titles, accompanied by my buddy J. D. Calderon, author of the fantasy webcomics The Oswald Chronicles and Tall Tails. (J.D.’s just there to hang out, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking out his site.) It’ll be a good time for you to purchase copies of Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1, Carmilla, and The Bob Larkin Sketchbook in case you’ve had any trouble tracking them down.

Swing by and pick up a free copy of the Saga of Pandora Zwieback #0 comic book (print version) and Pan bookmarks—while supplies last, of course.

BOOTH #115 is located right in front of the Columbus Statue Garden, in the shadow of the Kings County Courthouse—and steps away from the Borough Hall subway entrance. You couldn’t ask for a more convenient location. Hope to see you there!

The Secret Origin of Sebastienne Mazarin (Part 1)

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Back on August 24th you were introduced to Pandora Zwieback 1.0—the original, non-Goth version of Pan that I created for an unfinished screenplay in 1984. But how about her mentor, Sebastienne “Annie” Mazarin, 400-year-old shape-shifter and professional monster hunter—where did she come from?

Would you believe from comic books? Yes, indeedy.

The project began in 1993, with a comment made to me by artist Louis Small Jr., who at the time was being heaped with praise for his work on Harris Comics’ new Vampirella series (recently reprinted in Dynamite Entertainment’s Vampirella: Masters Series, Vol. 5). Although comic fans loved his art, he wasn’t feeling much of that love from his bosses at Harris—in fact, they’d already started promoting the artist scheduled for the next story arc! Understandably annoyed, Louis wished he could create his own Vampirella-type character, to show Harris what they were missing out on by ignoring him.

A few days later, I presented him with Heartstopper, a proposed series about a shape-shifting monster hunter named Sebastienne Mazarin: half French, half Brazilian, all badass.

As I explained to Louis, having Annie as a shape-shifter instead of a vampire would deflect any negative comments about how he was just trying to rip off Vampirella by drawing another female bloodsucker. And making Annie a Latina would help her stand out from the multitudes of white superhero women that dominated the market. Louis agreed, and got to work sketching.

The first thing you probably noticed is Annie’s wearing a lot less than today’s version. Such was the state of the industry in the 1990s—a decade when having a half-naked female character in your comic practically guaranteed it would get published. And sell phenomenally well. It’s a period now known as “the bad girl era.”

(Bad-girl comics—for those of you unfamiliar with the term—starred heroines who possessed a lot of attitude but very little clothing; a bikini and thigh-high boots with stiletto heels were the basic uniform. Vampirella, Catwoman, Lady Death, Shi, Flare, Witchblade—the list was endless. And the one thing they had in common was that they sold insane amounts of copies—because fanboys DO luv their scantily clad fantasy women…)

True to form, the bad-girl approach worked. Louis and I had gotten a bit chummy with Joseph Monks, co-creator (along with artist Joseph Linsner) and former writer/publisher of the horror comic Cry For Dawn. After a creative-differences split with Linsner, Monks planned to continue publishing and was looking for projects. When I pitched Heartstopper he said it was definitely something that would make for a good series, and wanted it to be one of CFD Productions’ new titles. (I’m pretty sure it was Louis’s sketches that sold him.)

First, though, he wanted to tease the series in the first issue of his anthology series NightCry.

That sounded like a good plan, so Louis and I got started. I wrote the first-issue script, and Louis…ran into scheduling problems. Apparently those Vampirella issues he drew proved to be more popular than expected, and now he was being flooded with art commissions and offers to draw comics for other, larger publishers. And when you’re a freelance artist trying to make a living from drawing comic books, you’ve gotta go where the money is. (Being a freelancer myself these days, I understand that logic all too well.) It was easy to see that Louis would never have the time to focus on Heartstopper.

That didn’t stop him from trying, though. He managed to complete eight penciled pages as the deadline for NightCry #1’s trip to the printer drew ever closer. Then Monks—realizing he had room for only four of those pages (one of the other stories ran long)—handed them off to an inker to make that deadline, rather than give Louis time to ink them himself.

The problem was, the new guy was a rookie inker. Never been published. Never really inked anybody before, either. The results were…pretty ugly.

In the end, between the bad art job and Louis being unavailable to work on the series, it was decided that Heartstopper was not going to be one of CFD’s new titles. In retrospect that was just as well—the company folded two years later—but I was still disappointed.

But, I thought, maybe if I can find another artist who’s as good with the bad-girl stuff as Louis is, I can try and place the series with another publisher.

And that was when an equally talented artist named Uriel Caton entered the picture…

We’ve Got E-books!

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That’s right! Available for purchase right now from DriveThru Horror is the PDF edition of Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1!

Well, no, you can’t buy it for a dollar, but the low, low price of $4.99 is just as good, isn’t it? Of course it is!

Also available is J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s vampire classic Carmilla ($3.99!), which features six beautiful illustrations by resident Pandora Zwieback artist Eliseu Gouveia.

It’s a baby step into the 21st century for StarWarp Concepts, but we are working on other platform editions (Kindle, Nook, Kobo, etc.); I’ll have news on each one as they become available. For now, just click on the DriveThru logo above to check out the first two SWC releases!

I Think I’m Seeing a Pattern, Here…

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The good news keeps on coming for Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1! If I’m not careful, I might actually start thinking I’m some amazing, big-time writer!  😉

Lady Kell of the UK’s BCF Book Reviews has posted a rave review:

“Attention all monster maniacs, vampire victims, Goths, fans of the macabre and all-out urban fantasy, paranormal and supernatural snapper-uppers—there’s a new series on the market and you’re gonna love it!”

Read the entire review here.

This Just In: Superdogs Love Zwieback!

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Hey, everybody—it’s the first-ever review of Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1!

Ashleigh Mayes, founder of the blog Krypto Dies, has posted her review of Pan’s first adventure, and I think it’s safe to say she really liked it:

“This book absolutely sucked me in and didn’t let me go! I found myself being late to work and class and ignoring the rest of the world. The characters are beautifully developed and relatable. Pandora is so three dimensional that you feel like you’ve known her your entire life…. No matter what genre you’re into, Blood Feud has something to offer any reader of any age.”

Read the entire review here.

Even the Undead Love Zwieback!

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Another day, another fantastic review of Blood Feud: The Saga of Pandora Zwieback, Book 1!

The vampire-fan blog Taliesin Meets the Vampires—which recently enjoyed the StarWarp Concepts release of the classic novella Carmilla—has posted their review:

“Blood Feud is a young adult book that does the all-important job of translating well to an adult audience…. Roman’s writing is wonderfully crisp, drawing us into a hidden world that is great fun.”

Read the entire review here.

You’re Supposed to Encourage Them, Y’know…

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Ever since I got involved in book publishing, I’ve subscribed to the Publishers Weekly newsletter. (PW is a magazine that’s the bible for the industry—sort of a combination New York Times Book Review and literary Entertainment Weekly.) In one of the recent newsletters, there was a link to an article by bookstore owner Josie Leavitt, titled “She’s Not a Strong Reader”

“…after two failed attempts to get the book [the teenage girl] wanted, she finally let me help her. I got her a wonderful stack of Libba Bray and Sarah Dessen and left her alone, only to have her mother announce to me, ‘She’s not a strong reader.’ As if that explained why her daughter was taking her time to choose the right book.”

And that reminded me of a similar encounter I had at the 2005 San Diego Comic Con, only in this case it involved a young boy (maybe 10 years old) and a copy of a Young Adult novel that I was selling at my booth: Spider-Man Super-Thriller: Warrior’s Revenge.

Now why, you ask, would I be selling copies of a book written by Neal Barrett Jr.? Simple—because Neal didn’t write it, I did. In fact, it was my first novel! (Long story short, Neal’s manuscript had been rejected by Marvel Comics’ licensing division, and I was brought in to write an entirely new manuscript. Problem was, the covers had already been printed, so no author credit for me.)

Anyway, the boy’s eyes made a slow pass across the table and then locked on the Spidey cover. (It is pretty eye-catching, thanks to the great work of artists Mike Zeck and Phil Zimelman.) He picked up the book.

“It’s a novel,” I told him. “Spider-Man and the Hulk fight the Super-Skrull.”

His eyes got real big. He thumbed through it, liked what he saw, and told his father he wanted it.

And Dad balked.

“I don’t know…” He thumbed through it, too. “It’s not a comic book. Are you sure you’re gonna read it?”

“Yes!” the kid said. “I really want it!”

Dad frowned. “I don’t know…”

I was a little surprised by his reaction. I mean, after a dozen or so years of exhibiting at comic cons I’d gotten used to teens and adults grimacing when they realized that things like my other Marvel project X-Men: The Chaos Engine Trilogy and this Spidey adventure were actual books, with lots of words on the pages. Gah! How horrible that I actually expected them to read something without pictures! (Not that there weren’t some pictures—for Warrior’s Revenge, artist James Fry had provided ten fantastic illustrations.)

But here was a boy who saw all the words on the pages and still wanted to read it—and Dad was trying to discourage him? WTH, Dad?

“Y’know,” I said to the dad, “if he likes to read, that’s really not a bad thing.” The unspoken nudge being it would be a good thing to buy it for his son. (Besides, I was charging only three dollars—what a bargain! I mean, I recently saw a copy of it for sale at Amazon.com for $121.00!)

Dad sighed. “I guess…” He shrugged. “All right.”

He paid for the novel, I autographed it, and off the kid went, happily clutching his new book. And I stood at my booth and shook my head, wondering why any parent would want to discourage their child from reading.

Enter: The Girl With the Cookie Name

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So now that we’ve wrapped up “The 13 Days of Pan-demonium,” I think it’s safe to say you’re familiar enough with our resident Goth girl to know what she’s about—especially if you’ve bought a copy of BLOOD FEUD: THE SAGA OF PANDORA ZWIEBACK, Book 1. You have, haven’t you? (No, the book plugging never ends around here—we got books to sell!)

But where did the girl with the unusual name really come from…?

 FADE IN:
1. EXT: NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE – NIGHT
The hour is late on this warm summer evening, and traffic along the
New Jersey Turnpike is light and brisk. A light rain spatters down on
the asphalt, the droplets blurring approaching headlights, transforming
them into multipointed blobs of light.
Through the lines of traffic moves a Greyhound bus, the sign above its
large windshield proclaiming “NEW YORK” as its destination.
2. INT. GREYHOUND BUS – TRAVELING – NIGHT
Within the cramped confines of the bus sit no more than ten PASSENGERS,
all but two of them dozing in their seats. In the rear left-hand corner
of the bus sits PANDORA ZWIEBACK, an attractive, auburn-haired,
sixteen-year-old girl. Dressed in colorful, baggy clothing, a bright
green beret perched on her head at a rakish angle, Pan has the look of
a free spirit about her.
Pan gazes out the window and stares at the skyline of Manhattan, ablaze
with the lights of the towering buildings. Pan’s eyes seemingly light
up as she smiles broadly.
3. EXT: NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE – NIGHT
The bus continues on its way, entering the Lincoln Tunnel.

And that was how the original—and very different—version of Pan was introduced, in a screenplay called The Nightlife Ain’t No Good Life that I started writing in 1984 but never completed. (The title, BTW, comes from the song “Night Life,” written by Willie Nelson. I didn’t know that at the time; all I knew was that blues legend B. B. King sang the hell out of a cover version of it—look it up on YouTube.)

Inspired by the viewing of perhaps one too many movies by director John Sayles (Eight Men Out, The Brother From Another Planet), Nightlife was the story of a pregnant, teenage runaway who winds up at New York’s notorious Port Authority Bus Terminal, and the people she meets—no supernatural elements, just the character-driven tale of a troubled girl trying to make sense of her life.

“A troubled girl trying to make sense of her life.” Okay, so maybe not all that different from the Pan Zwieback of today… Well, except for the red hair and the unplanned pregnancy, of course.

So, why didn’t I finish the screenplay? I can’t remember; in fact, I’d forgotten all about it until I was cleaning up the basement a few years back and stumbled across the original typewritten pages and handwritten plot notes. Imagine my surprise when I realized just how long ago I’d come up with Pan’s name! 1984? Wow.

As for why “Pandora Zwieback”…

“Pandora” because the idea was that at the end of the screenplay, after all the troubles she’d been through, she’d still be hopeful about her future. “Zwieback” because…well, because I’d flipped open the dictionary toward the back and looked for a word that I thought would sound good when combined with Pandora. And I did like how “Pandora Zwieback” sounded.

So there you have it. Greek mythology + hard cookie = weird name for an odd but lovable girl who over the years evolved from pregnant runaway to Goth monster hunter—mainly because the name kept popping into my head as I’d work on various projects and I’d think, “Yeah, I should do something with that…” And then one day I finally did do something with it.

Not exactly the earth-shattering origin story you were expecting, is it?  😉

And this doesn’t even cover the brief time there was a second version of Pan, who was meant to appear in an adventure comic strip for the magazine Popular Science for Kids. But that, as the saying goes, is a story for another time…