by Darcia Helle
Funny confessional? I don’t actually look at anything I’ve written as dark and twisted. Suspenseful? Yes, I hope so. But I think if I did try for the darkness, the tales might feel disingenuous. I’m honestly surprised that interviewers, readers and reviewers say that I write all this twisted stuff. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve embraced it and play it up with things like spooky book jackets and podcasts filmed in a dark room, but actually I’m just writing about the world I see around me. It must be a scary damn place for most people.
About the Author:
Jason McIntyre has lived and worked in varied places across the globe. His writing also meanders from the pastoral to the garish, from the fantastical to the morbid. Before his time as an editor, writer and communications professional, he spent several years as a graphic designer and commercial artist.
McIntyre’s writing has been called darkly noir and sophisticated, styled after the likes of Chuck Palahniuk but with the pacing and mass appeal of Stephen King. The books tackle the family life subject matter of Jonathan Franzen but also eerie discoveries one might find in a Ray Bradbury story or those of Rod Serling.
His books include the #1 Kindle Suspense, THE NIGHT WALK MEN, bestsellers ON THE GATHERING STORM and SHED, plus the multi-layered coming-of-age literary suspense THALO BLUE. McIntyre is the author of more than two dozen short stories, several novellas and full-length fiction. Currently, he is at work on the full-length follow-up novel about THE NIGHT WALK MEN.
Jason McIntyre on Amazon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JasonCMcIntyre
Website: https://www.thefarthestreaches.com
Bloodstone: The Guardian’s Apprentice by J. Michael Radcliffe
An ancient evil has returned to threaten the world of magic and mortal alike. Keegan Whitestone has become the Guardian – protector of the magical barrier known as the Veil – but he cannot yet control his powers. He must find and destroy the legendary Bloodstone, a jewel used by the powerful necromancer, Sava, to ensnare and devour the souls of others. In a bid to save the soul of the woman he loves, Keegan faces a terrible choice. ‘Bloodstone – The Guardian’s Curse’ is a twenty chapter novella of 32,000 words, and is the sequel to ‘The Guardian’s Apprentice’. Also included are the short stories ‘Forsaken’ and ‘Scale of a Dragon’ as well as the never before published short story ‘Inner Daemon’.
Our conversation:
What is it about the fantasy genre that intrigues you as an author?
I have always loved both fantasy and science fiction, ever since I read ‘Star Wars’ when I was in third grade. I love being able to create a world with a totally different environment than our own, with creatures that are only limited by ones imagination. Writing in the fantasy genre gives you a certain freedom to set the rules, to create your own world and populate it with the creatures (and monsters) from your imagination.
Bloodstone – The Guardian’s Curse is the sequel to The Guardian’s Apprentice. Do you have more planned for this series?
Maybe. I had originally planned a series of three books when I started writing TGA in 2002, but the storyline and plot have significantly changed over time. Book one was originally going to be called ‘Whitestone – The Guardian’s Apprentice’, and then of course ‘Bloodstone – The Guardian’s Curse’ and book three was going to be ‘Blackstone – The Guardian’s Salvation’. I may yet write book three…
I also have a couple of ideas unrelated to this series that I may explore first, if I can just find the time to write!
Magic is a big part of Bloodstone’s plot. Are you a fan of modern magic or is it only the ancient magic like your character Keegan uses that fascinates you?
Although I enjoy the smoke and mirrors tricks performed by a good illusionist, I have to admit it is the ancient magic that fascinates me most. I think it must run in my family, as my sister, paranormal romance author Maeve Greyson, is just as fascinated with it – especially the old Celtic myths and legends.
How did you go about creating Keegan’s world? Did the idea come to you all at once or was it something you spent a lot of time developing?
Now that is a tough question to answer. When I started out and began sketching the storyline, I had certain ideas about how I wanted the world to appear and operate. I have to admit though, that a good deal of that evolved over time – especially the creatures that populate it.
What is your writing environment like? Neat or cluttered? Quiet or noisy?
I will openly admit to being a ‘neat freak’, so my desk is pretty tidy – though I do have my dragon statuette (Idris, my writing partner) and several reference books on magical creatures, mythology and dragons lying about. As for the writing environment, it is almost never quiet. We have two kids still at home so it is fairly busy around our house. I usually write either late at night or early in the morning, when everyone else is still asleep. Either that or I plug in my earphones!
Is there a time of day or night when you are most creative?
Usually either late at night, or very early in the morning. I have to admit though, I’ve had ideas while driving down the road or at other odd times. On a couple of occasions I have actually had a dream that made its way onto the pages – for example just before Christmas I had an unusual dream that turned into the short story ‘Inner Daemon.’
I hear you have an army of cats. Tell us about them.
Yes, our ever-growing cadre of cats seems to keep getting larger each year! We are now up to five, two outdoor and three indoor, to be specific. I’ll give you a brief bio on each of them – I’ve also included my writing partner Idris, the dragon, as he’d never let me hear the end of it if I didn’t…
Idris (a.k.a. Shimmerscale)
On a trip to Washington D.C. we visited a shop in Baltimore where my attention was drawn to a display case filled with various dragons. Now I have always loved dragons, but this one truly spoke to me – though I cannot explain why. I swear I heard his voice in my head saying “Finally! Have you ANY idea how long you’ve kept me waiting? Now pay the ransom and liberate me from this prison!”
Not being one to argue with a dragon, I paid the rather exorbitant price, er – “ransom” and brought him home. He now occupies a place next to my computer, where he supervises my writing – usually by providing frequent editorial comments about my dialogue.
After much prodding and cajoling, he has finally entrusted me with his name. His true dragon name is ‘Idris’ and his human given nickname is ‘Shimmerscale.’ I appreciate him sharing his true name with me, as most dragons are loathe to divulge such a thing to a member of one of the lesser races (humans, elves, etc.) Note: That last comment was from Idris, not me. I personally do not think we humans are a ‘lesser’ race, but who am I to argue with a dragon?
Mickey – the new recruit
The most recent addition to our army, Mickey was adopted when the janitor at my wife’s school found him locked in a storage shed in 96+ degree, humid Kentucky heat. Severely malnourished – you could see his ribs and backbone – she brought the poor little fellow home. The kids named him ‘Mickey’ due to his enormous ears and in honor of our trips to Disney (yes, I know, a cat named after a mouse…).
A very loving and affectionate cat, Mickey has fattened up and now weighs close to 10 pounds at just seven months; he also wants absolutely nothing to do with outside, preferring to sit on window perch and watch. Cocoa, Cookie and Jasmine have not accepted him yet and skulk about the back deck, plotting an assassination attempt. Maddie is more accepting, though dislikes it immensely when he pounces on her from underneath the bed skirt…
Maddie
Maddie was found on the side of the road in December 2009. Only about five or six weeks old (we think) at the time, someone had apparently thrown her from a moving vehicle, shattering her left hip and leaving her with a multitude of scrapes and bruises. When found, she had a soda cup stuck on her head and was starving. A h
appy and healthy cat now, Maddie has made a full recovery and doesn’t seem to realize she’s missing a leg. Her natural prey are Nerf darts, which she attacks with a vengeance whenever possible.
Jasmine
The “middle” cat, Jasmine has never quite grown up. Extremely loving and affectionate, she is also incredibly jealous. She despises Maddie and will go into a week-long sulk if around her. As a result, she is now the official upstairs cat, while Maddie and Cookie diligently patrol the lower levels.
Cookie
Convinced that humans exist for the sole purpose of feeding her, Cookie is fickle with her affections and dictates when the unworthy may approach. She also has an odd fondness for the refrigerator, and if unguarded will jump onto the bottom shelf. She will then hide behind the soda cans and refuses to come out for at least five minutes. If human, she would be the Queen of Hearts, shouting “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!” at those who annoy her.
Cocoa
Evil incarnate, Cocoa is bipolar on her best days. When the mood strikes her and she wants your attention, she will sneak up behind you and lick your ankle, foot or leg. At this point you have two choices: (1) pet her and make her happy or (2) ignore her and suffer her wrath, which usually consists of latching onto you with her teeth (if you’re smart, you’ll go with option #1…). Once she tires of your attention she will usually sink her teeth into your hand, indicating that your usefulness has ended.
What are your 3 most treasured material items?
Yikes! That is truly a difficult question to answer – you see, I am a sentimental fool. I think I probably have every Father’s Day and Birthday card given to me by my wife and kids and I form an emotional attachment to things. If forced to choose, I would say the three items are:
• My grandmother’s cookbook – containing all of her best recipes written in her own handwriting, the pages stained and dusted with flour and cocoa powder.
• A star sapphire ring given to me by my mother, not long after she had a heart transplant.
• A gold pocket watch, given as a wedding gift to my great-grandmother and handed down through the Radcliffe side of my family.
About Michael Radcliffe:
An avid reader of fantasy and science fiction novels all of my life, I published my first novel The Guardian’s Apprentice in 2010. I live with my family in rural Kentucky along with our five cats. When not acquiring cats for my wife’s plan of world domination (cat armies are terribly hard to train), I enjoy spinning stories from the wisps of magic around me.
Website: https://www.theGuardiansApprentice.com
Blog: https://www.MichaelRadcliffe.wordpress.com
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Alderdrache
Appliances Included and Cupid’s Maze
Short Stories by Mark Souza
What is it about short fiction that appeals to you as a writer?
Writing short stories is the fastest way to get published, the best way to receive feedback, and the fastest way to learn the writing craft. A writer can spend a year writing a novel before submitting to agents and editors to get feedback. Good luck with that. Agents and editors are usually too busy to provide a critique. Feedback usually consists of “not for us.” And unless you just wrote The Hunger Games, they won’t read more than the first few paragraphs.
If a writer pens short stories, they can submit ten or more stories in that same time period, the stories will be read, and chances for honest feedback improve drastically. With short stories, you are dealing with anthology or magazine editors who get tens of thousands of words coming across their desks each week, versus an agent who receives millions of words a week.
The advantage short stories provide is more repetitions at working your craft. Every element of a good novel can be found in a good short story, so what a writer learns from writing short stories is directly applicable to writing novels. And because short stories usually have a word limit, they also teach the art of editing and tightening prose. The lower the word count, the more a writer learns about editing. Nothing tightens flaccid prose better and quicker than flash fiction, stories of 1000 words or less. Those 1000 words have to do double duty. Wordy phrases have to be reworked till they’re lean and precise.
It’s also much easier coming up with ideas for good short stories than it is ideas strong enough to support a full length novel. And who knows, short stories sometimes grow long legs and turn into novels – I’m working on one of those now. What started as 5,000 words is now 100,000.
As you can probably tell, I’m a big proponent of writers cutting their teeth on short stories.
When you first sit down to write, is your focus more on the plot or the characters?
I usually start with a premise and plot first. But occasionally I’ll come up with a character that cries out for a story. For stories that begin with plot, once I map out where I’m going, I look for my characters and make a fundamental shift toward a character driven story. I firmly believe that good fiction is all character driven.
I’m generally a plotter rather than a pantser. A lot of that has to do with time restrictions where my writing is concerned. I don’t have the luxury of letting my characters wander until they find a story. That often leads to dead ends, ideas that peter out before they reach conclusion.
If you equate writing with driving, and time with fuel, those with a full gas tank and a fat wallet (i.e., plenty of writing time) have the luxury of pantsing – driving around without a map to see what they find. In my case, my tank is much closer to E. I have to have a map and check my route before I start. I need to know I have enough gas to reach my destination. There has a viable story before I’ll even start down the path.
I get into arguments about this all the time, and always with those with plenty of writing time. I try to point out that just because I plot, doesn’t mean I’m closed to the wonderful twists and turns my characters discover. If my characters take a story in a new and better direction, I am very open to revising my plot. But again, the new route has to be able to get me to the end.
Describe your ideal writing environment.
My ideal writing environment would be on the deck of my 120 foot yacht, anchored in a quiet lagoon off Aruba, with my loyal manservant Geoffrey keeping me well stocked with icy Diet Pepsis. Alas, I have no yacht, and Geoffrey works for someone else (Stephen King I think).
I do most of my writing at work during lunch. My yacht is a desk wedged amid cubical wall, my little cell in the hive. It’s messy – two monitors, a phone, and piled high with paperwork. It could use either a good cleaning or a fire. There’s always a background din from the chatter of coworkers and the hiss of the ventilation system; which is fine by me. It’s my version of the Caribbean breaking over a white-sand beach. I grew up in a large family and feel more at home with a little noise in my ears, and ill at ease in total silence. The one good thing about having so little time to write is that you have to get down to it: no waiting on my muse. If she shows up, great. If not, I start without her.
At the end of your story Appliances Included, you give readers insight into a character that was inspired by an actual person you and your wife met one day. Do you often base your characters on real people?
I often build characters a bit like Doctor Frankenstein — a piece from this friend, a trait from that one. It’s easier to build a character if you actually see and experience the specific personality traits you want to use.
Sometimes I’ll build characters wholly from scratch, but they rarely have the depth of personality as Franken-characters. They feel a little less genuine, and they are harder for me to visualize and know.
Rarely do I use someone I’ve met as a character, whole and unaltered. Sadie (not her real name) is an exception. Sadie didn’t need anything added to her to stand out on the page and take over a story. She was bigger than life in person, and bigger than life on paper. I met her once, talked to her for about five minutes, and will never forget her.
Writers have to keep
their eyes and ears open for that kind of found treasure. It’s too easy to roll up the windows and move on, all the while missing out on something truly exceptional, and truly human. It only seemed appropriate to view the end of the story through Sadie’s eyes. She’s the neighborhood busybody, the Gladys Kravitz of her block. She’s seen them come and seen them go, and always has an opinion she’s only too glad to share.
Your story Cupid’s Maze was inspired by a trip with your daughter to a corn maze. Tell us a bit about that experience and how the story idea was formed.
My experience with my daughter was mildly alarming in that I thought it would be an easy matter to negotiate the maze considering it was relatively small and had a number of tall landmarks we could use for orientation. The corn wasn’t all that high, yet we were lost for hours. In our maze, the biggest element of horror was dispelled when we discovered Porta-Potties installed at the center.
The experience did get the wheels turning in my head, though. What if the corn was tall enough to wall off the rest of the world, the maze much larger, with no landmarks to orient yourself? Add in frigid weather, the specter of impending nightfall, and the possibility having to spend the night exposed in the corn. Then last two elements; take away the laughter and reassuring sounds of others in the maze (safety in numbers), and put something menacing to stalk those trapped inside. Suddenly, the friendly little corn maze turns into a horrifying nightmare.
