JONATHAN MABERRY is
a New York Times best-selling and multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning horror and
thriller author, editor, comic book writer, magazine feature writer,
playwright, content creator and writing teacher/lecturer. He was named one of
the Today’s Top Ten Horror Writers. His books have been sold to more than two-dozen
countries.
He writes in several genres. His
young adult fiction includes ROT & RUIN (2011; now in development for film; named in Booklist’s
Ten Best Horror Novels for Young Adults, a Bram Stoker and Pennsylvania
Keystone to Reading winner; nominee for several state Teen Book Awards; winner
of the Cybils Award, the Eva Perry Mock Printz medal, Dead Letter Best Novel
Award, and four Melinda Awards); DUST & DECAY (winner of the 2011 Bram Stoker Award; FLESH
& BONE (winner of the Bram Stoker Award; 2012; and FIRE
& ASH (August 2013). His thrillers include The
Joe Ledger Thrillers from St. Martin’s Griffin (PATIENT
ZERO, 2009, winner of the Black Quill and a Bram Stoker
Award finalist for Best Novel; THE DRAGON FACTORY, 2010; THE KING OF PLAGUES, 2011; ASSASSIN’S CODE, 2011; EXTINCTION MACHINE, 2013; CODE ZER0,
2014, and PREDATOR ONE, 2015. (Biography provided by www.jonathanmaberry.com).
If you would like a more in-depth look at the accomplishments and works of Mr. Jonathan Maberry, please visit his website/blog and
sign up for his free newsletter at www.jonathanmaberry.com, www.facebook.com/jonathanmaberry,
www.twitter.com/jonathanmaberry.
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Maberry in regards to his many accomplishments and his life as one of the most well rounded writers/authors out there. Take a look at the interview below and enjoy!
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STEPHANIE: After reading your biography, it is
clear that you are a true “Jack of All Trades” when it comes to the writing and
publishing industry. From novelist to playwright, is there anything you have
not taken part in that you’ve always wanted to try? Whether it involves writing
or some other industry or interest.
JONATHAN MABERRY: Moving around from one kind of
project to another accomplishes several important things. First and foremost it
keeps it all fun. I’m constantly learning, growing, discovering new things
about myself. Second, it prevents me from being pigeonholed as ‘one kind of
writer’. And it opens many unexpected doors.
That said, the next thing I want to try is writing
TV and movie scripts. In fact I’m about to start work on a pilot for a
potential TV series based on my first novel, Ghost Road Blues.
As far as going outside of my world…I’m a writer.
I’ve done a lot of other things along the way –I was a martial arts instructor,
a bouncer, a bodyguard, an actor in regional theater, a salesman, a college
teacher, and a graphic artist. Writing, however, is what defines me. Luckily
there are a lot of ways one can explore writing. So many, many interesting
ways…
STEPHANIE: What does your writing process look
like? Do you have any strange or unique writing habits (writing in the shower
or maybe blasting some hardcore death metal music to help get you in the
writing mood)?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I was trained as a journalist and
did nonfiction writing as a part-time gig for most of my life. Journalism tends
to instill very good and reliable work habits. Time management, discipline,
focus, good research techniques, and so on, and it helps in setting realistic
goals. I don’t buy into the mythologizing process of being a writer. I don’t
‘wait for inspiration’ or any of that. Most real writers have more ideas than
they have time to write them all down. When I have an idea for a project I let
it cook for a bit and then I sit down and make some notes about it. I record
the random ideas that tend to present themselves while an idea is forming.
Once I have a strong grasp of the project I look
for ways to develop it into something I can sell and that I would enjoy
writing. Fun has to be part of that mix. If it’s a novel, I pitch it to my
agent, usually in the form of a short paragraph. If it’s a short story I file
the notes away until I’m tapped to write something for a magazine or anthology,
then I sort through my ideas to find the one that best fits.
With novels I tend to draft out a loose outline,
then I write the first and last chapters. The first helps me set the tone and
voice. Writing the last lets me know where it’s going, which allows me to drive
the narrative toward that ending. This process keeps me from writing scenes
that don’t belong in the overall work, and it allows me to build in
foreshadowing, clues, and other subtleties.
My daily writing habits are moderately regular. I
like the idea of ‘going to work’, so most mornings I go to one of my favorite
restaurants or cafes and do a few hours of work there. I typically do four
hours in the morning, break for lunch and some laps in the pool, and then I do
four hours in the afternoon. I take ten minutes out of every work hour to do
social media.
There are always variations, of course. I travel
and tour a lot in support of my books. Sometimes I need to take whole days for
research, events, business meetings, and so on. But on average I write three to
four thousand words a day, and I know off at dinnertime. Evenings are family
time for me.
I do like to play music while I write, and
sometimes I’ll even construct playlists. But if I don’t have my music it
doesn’t derail me. I don’t let anything keep me from writing.
STEPHANIE: You have an extensive working knowledge
of the military, their protocols, equipment, and technologies from what I have
read in your novels. Do you have a military background or a close working
relationship with someone in the military who helps with the specifics and
details on the weapons and up and coming technology used? Or do you combine imagination
with research to come up with a lot of the advanced technology used primarily
in your Joe Ledger Series?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I have no military background but
I do have extensive experience in the martial arts. I’ve been a practitioner of
traditional Japanese jujutsu for over fifty years and currently hold an 8th
degree black belt. Because of my writing and teaching experience I was inducted
into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 20014. I was also a bodyguard and
bouncer, and worked as the Expert Witness for the Philadelphia District
Attorney’s Office for murder cases involving martial arts. Sadly, I have a lot
of practical experience in armed and unarmed combat.
That said, the information on military procedures
and police techniques comes from deep research with soldiers, Special Operators
and police, including SWAT. They have been very generous with their
information, advice and personal accounts.
STEPHANIE: I asked this question once before via
Twitter about your choice of setting in the Joe Ledger Series. I was hoping you
would again share the reasons behind your choice of Floyd Bennett Field in
Brooklyn, NY as the Headquarters for the DMS. Do you believe the time you spent
at Floyd Bennett, when you were younger, influenced your writing of this
series?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I spent a lot of time at Floyd
Bennett Field with my father-in-law, the late Alvy West. He was a jazz musician
and orchestra leader who worked with Frank Sinatra, Billie Holliday, Andy
Williams and Madonna. We’d go there to watch the cricket matches or to see
people fly small remote-controlled airplanes. During Alvy’s decline due to
dementia, the field was a place of great comfort.
While there I became fascinated by the big old
hangars, many of which are derelict but still standing. I thought they’d make a
marvelous place for a hidden military base.
STEPHANIE: Is there a certain type of scene that is
harder for you to write than others? Love? Death? Action? Racy? Or are you like
Mr. George R.R. Martin, where knocking off your characters is like breathing?
JONATHAN MABERRY: If there is a particular kind of
scene I find more difficult than others I’m not aware of it. Scenes are scenes.
If anything there are scenes I enjoy more than others –action scenes, deep
suspense, and scenes where figurative and descriptive language is used to
suggest the underlying metaphor of the story. I like being devious.
STEPHANIE: As a teacher, what do you feel is the
most important piece of advice (about writing or life in general) you have
delivered to your students?
JONATHAN MABERRY: There are several bits of advice I like sharing with
emerging writers. First –be very good at what you do. Having a natural gift
for storytelling is great, but you need to learn the elements of craft. That
includes figurative and descriptive language, pace, voice, tense, plot and
structure, good dialogue, and many other skills. Good writers are always
learning, always improving.
Second –learn the difference between ‘writing’ and
‘publishing’. Writing is an art, it’s a conversation between the writer and the
reader. Publishing is a business whose sole concern is to sell copies of art.
Publishing looks for those books that are likely to sell well. There is
absolutely no obligation for anyone in publishing to buy and publish a book
totally on the basis of it being well written. It has to be something they can
sell. A smart writer learns how to take their best writing and find the best
way to present it to the publishing world, and then to support it via social
media once it’s out.
Third –you are more important than what you write. A writer
is a ‘brand’. That brand will, ideally, generate many works –books, short
stories, etc. Each work should be written with as much passion, skill, love,
and intelligence as possible, but when it’s done, the writer moves on to the
next project. And the next.
Fourth –finish everything you start. Most writers fail
because they don’t finish things. Be
different.
Fifth –don’t try to be perfect. First drafts, in particular,
are often terrible. Clunky, badly-written, awkward, filled with plot holes and
wooden dialogue. Who cares? All a first draft needs to have in order to be
perfect is completeness. It is revision that makes it better, and makes it good
enough to sell. So, don’t beat up on yourself if your early drafts are bad.
Everyone’s early drafts are bad. Everyone.
STEPHANIE: Your series, ROT & RUIN, is now in
development for film. Which of your other series would you like to see adapted?
Would it be for film or television? Who would you choose to play the main
protagonist(s)?
JONATHAN MABERRY: Several of my projects are in
development by Hollywood. Rot & Ruin
and the Joe Ledger thrillers are in
development for film and V-Wars is
being developed for TV. I’m going to write the pilot script for Ghost Road Blues. But there are other
projects I think would be great on the big or small screen. My Sam Hunter Werewolf PI stories and the
new Monk Addison short story series
would work well as moody TV shows. Dead
of Night and The Nightsiders
would make good films, and I just finished a space travel novel for teens that
my film agent thinks will be very marketable.
STEPHANIE: Many of your characters often find
themselves in situations they are not sure they can get themselves out of. When
was the last time you found yourself in a situation that was hard to get out of
(this interview not included) and what did you do?
JONATHAN MABERRY: I seldom seek conflict. I spent
some violent years as a younger person, while working as a bodyguard and
bouncer. Some of those situations were very bad. I was badly inured several
times while protecting clients. That’s art of the job, and if I could go back
and choose different careers I would. But that’s life. Now, in my late fifties,
the scar tissue from knife wounds and broken bones tends to make me achy on
cold morning. Reminders of poor life choices.
STEPHANIE: As an author, is there one subject you
would NEVER write about? What would that subject be and why is it off limits to
you?
JONATHAN MABERRY: There’s no such thing as a
subject that’s off-limits. The limitations would come from how those topics
would be handled. I would, for example, never write a story in which rape,
child abuse, domestic violence, etc were the primary focus. However I have
written stories in which such horrific things are elements because they speak
to a larger story. You can’t, say, write a story about surviving child abuse if
you can’t allude to the abuse. As a victim of child abuse, I’ve drawn on my
personal experiences in order to inform my stories. But the point of the story
is not to glorify that kind of violence.
STEPHANIE: And the final question! What are you
currently working on, that you are allowed to tell us about, and when can we
expect this new project? Also, feel free to add any promotional shout outs
here!
JONATHAN MABERRY: I’m nearly the end of the busiest
year of my life. I’ve written four and a half novels this year, plus twenty
short stories, comics, essays, and more. It’ll be about a million and a quarter
words for publication. Next year looks to be equally busy. I finished a teen
science fiction novel two weeks ago, and am working my way through four
back-to-back short stories and novellas which are all due by December first.
They include a Sherlock Holmes story, a co-written novel set during a zombie
apocalypse, a chapter in a mosaic novel (nine writers alternating chapters),
and the framing story for a shared-world vampire story. Then on December 1 I
begin writing my next novel, Glimpse, which
is a standalone supernatural suspense novel about a recovering junkie looking
for the child she was forced to give up for adoption.
In 2016 I’ll be writing another Joe Ledger thriller (#9, Dogs of War), a middle-grade fantasy (The Nightsiders), a mystery-thriller for
teens (Watch Over Me), and a couple
of other novels. Probably five and a half novels. I’m about to close a deal to
write two new comic books. I’m co-writing a nonfiction book that is a companion
to my Joe Ledger novels, writing the
pilot for Ghost Road Blues, and
editing a slew of anthologies, including volumes 2 and 3 of The X-Files, volume 4 of V-Wars, volume 2 of Out of Tune, an anthology of teen horror (Scary Out There), and two new anthologies dealing with alien wars
and zombies.
And in December I have a board game debuting based
on my V-Wars property.
I’m busy, but I like the fast lane.
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