This holiday
season, I’ve decided to promote some of my writer friends and ask some of the
questions that folks ask me. Today’s guest/victim is:
Tommy Hancock
First, a little something about Tommy.
Steeped in pulp magazines, old radio
shows, and all things of that era’s pop culture, Tommy Hancock lives in
Arkansas with his wonderful wife and three children and obviously not enough to
do. He is Partner in and Editor in Chief for Pro Se Productions, is an
organizer of the New Pulp Movement, was a founding member and original Editor-in-Chief
of ALL PULP, works as an editor for Seven Realms, Dark Oak, and Moonstone. He
is also a writer published by Airship 27 Productions, Pulpwork Press, and other
companies. Tommy works as Project Coordinator for Moonstone Entertainment and
was the Founder and Coordinator for PULP ARK, a Pulp Culture Convention in the
South from 2011 to 2013.
At
what age did you start writing or know that you wanted to write?
As far as putting stories on paper, 8
years old, in Mrs. Phillips’ third grade class room.
Where
do your ideas come from?
To be quite honest, my mind is
constantly churning out ideas.
Inspiration comes from literally the onslaught of sensory information I
take in every day. Sometimes a smell, sometimes something I see, sometimes a
word I hear.
Do
you base your characters on people you know or know of? Family or celebrities?
Never based on celebrities, but yes,
I have been known to include a family member, a friend, or even an enemy or
three in stories.
Do
you plot out your stories or just make it up as you go?
I am most definitely a pantser… in
the best and worst ways as a writer.
Do
you listen to music while you write and if so, what do you listen to?
No.
Although writing doesn’t require total silence, music or watching TV are
distractions I have to avoid. However, I very much listen to music just before
writing to get amped up and after to sort of wind down from wherever the
writing took me.
How
much do you write each day/week?
Lately, writing’s been at a premium
for me, due to real life issues and being a publisher. When I am actively working on a story, I
write every day and will not write less than a page, 500 words.
Can
you tell about your experiences working with publishers? Any juicy or painful
experiences?
Being a publisher, I have a different view
of working with publishers. I understand
both sides of the fence, so to speak, so I have more patience when some things
happen in regards to me as a writer working with other publishers. I can’t say, because of that, that I have had
any painful experiences. I’m empathetic
to writers who struggle with publishers and to publishers who encounter issues
in what they do.
What
is your latest project/release?
I have a story in the Legends of New
Pulp anthology from Airship 27 that debuts a new character from me… Free Mason,
PI. Mason is a hard boiled detective
right out of the Spillane school with a penchant for getting into trouble like
Carl Kolchak. Mason lives in a world
where magic and monsters exist and even function as a part of society, but
there’s still a certain degree of ‘hiding in plain sight’ going on.
How
much of you is in your characters?
To a certain degree, I am in every
character I create, even the nondescript ones I never name. As far as major characters or even supporting
cast, you can put together all those characters from a story or novel I write
and get a good idea of things going on in my life at the time of writing and
who I feel I am at that moment.
What
genre do you prefer to write? To read?
Genre, I can write just about anything. I write everything I do in the Pulp style, be
it western, science fiction, mystery, or anything really.
Do
you prefer writing short stories or novels?
And why?
I enjoy them both equally. There’s
something about having a short window of words to tell a whole story, and yet
there’s also that something equally wonderful about having the stage of a novel
to build an entire world on.
Is
Writer’s Block ever a problem for you? If so, how do you deal with it?
For me writer’s block is something
that is a phase, so I really, if it sets in, do not worry about it and let it
pass. I find that if I do anything else,
then the phase just doesn’t go away.
What
3 things do you feel every aspiring writer should know?
Write every day, don’t ever pay a
publisher for ANYTHING, and write what you want to.
Do
you read reviews of your books? If so,
have you ever engaged a reviewer over comments they’ve made?
I try to engage every reviewer if I can
find them. I either thank them for the
kind comments, or sometimes the negative ones, or I ask those who aren’t so
positive ways the book could have been done better, in their opinion.
Thanks Tommy. To checkout Tommy's books, click the link below:
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