Capes & Clockwork author interview with Jeremy Hicks
Capes & Clockwork
is an upcoming anthology from Dark Oak Press which fuses the beauty and elegance
of steampunk with the action and adventure of the superhero genre. As part of the
‘gearing up’ to the release of ‘Capes & Clockwork: Superheroes in the Age of
Steam’, I’ll be interviewing some of the great authors that contributed.
And now on the
stage, right here for your reading pleasure is…. Jeremy Hicks
A native
of Alabama, Jeremy Hicks spent several years working as a field archaeologist
throughout the Southeast before teaming up with his longtime friend and
co-author, Barry Hayes, to realize a shared creative dream. The writing team of Hicks & Hayes created
an original horror-fantasy environment (Faltyr™), wrote a screenplay (The Cycle
of Ages Saga: Finders Keepers) to introduce it, and then adapted it into a
novelization of the same name. As a
result, their first novel will be published by Dark Oak Press and Media in the
summer of 2013.
As
co-founder of Broke Guys Productions, Jeremy has co-written three other
as-of-yet unproduced screenplays, including the first sequel to CoAS: Finders
Keepers. Another of his screenplays, a
darkly comedic horror tale about meth zombies plaguing a trailer park in
Alabama, placed as a Top Finalist in the 2011 Cherub Films Horror Screenplay
Competition under the title Night of the Living Rednecks.
Jeremy Hicks is also a short story writer,
poet, and infrequent Yahoo! contributor.
Three of his poems (It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fascism, Do Not
Waver, and Midnight Dzohkar) are available online via Yahoo! Voices.
Where do your ideas
come from?
Like musicians and
artists, writers draw their inspiration from a number of sources. For me, some of my inspirations include
music and art. Other writers are a big
inspiration, however. The stories we
hear along the way and the people that we encounter blend and flow and reshape
themselves into ways for us to tell our own truths in ways that are familiar to
an audience familiar with our common myths, legends, symbols, and even shared
pop culture aspects such as music, art, comics, films, and television.
What is your funniest/
awkward moment at a convention/signing event?
That would be the
overenthusiastic fan who decided to check the size of my package at a
convention.
Do you base your
characters on people you know or know of?
Sometimes. I have
written stories where elements of characters came from people in my life…or at
least people in public life, such as celebrities, politicians, or historical
figures. But some stories take a more
personal note. Others serve therapeutic
purposes. You’ll be reading one of those
in Luna’s Children, the upcoming Dark
Oak anthology. And another is under
consideration for publication.
Do you plot out your
stories or just make it up as you go?
I tend to outline most
of my work, some of it more heavily than others. Though a number of those outlines change as I
write, I prefer to have a guide so that I don’t get lost in the woods.
Do you listen to music
while you write and if so, what do you listen too?
I liken music to my
emotional state, so I tend to use it for inspirational purposes as well as
setting ambience in general. So the music
that I use depends on what I’m trying to write.
For the Cycle of Ages Saga, I usually listen to heavy metal or hard
rock, typically something symphonic or instrumental. Old school metal legends, like Ronnie James
Dio, were a big influence on our novel, Finders
Keepers, but instrumental/ambient artists, such as Midnight Syndicate and
Nox Arcana, played a big part as well.
Do you have any
signings or appearances coming up?
My co-writer (Barry
Hayes) and I will be appearing at several conventions in the next couple of
months. We’re scheduled for
Con*Stellation and HallowCon in October, Memphis Comic & Fantasy Convention
in November, and the Phenix City Toy & Comic Book Show in December. We’ve had a couple of local signings and are
looking into booking more in the Southeast as our schedule allows and where
fans demand us. So if you’d like to
bring the Cycle of Ages Saga to your local bookstore, let us know.
What book do you read
over and over the most?
The book that I keep
coming back to over the years is one of the most absurd yet astute tomes in the
world. Nay, the universe! I absolutely love The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as well as all things Douglas
Adams. If you’re looking for humor,
wisdom, and accurate observations on human behavior, I suggest that you read
all five parts of the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy.
Then pick up copies of Dirk
Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The
Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul. You
won’t be disappointed.
Is there a book or book
series that you recommend to people?
I just did. ;)
At what age did you
start writing?
I’m a born
storyteller. Even before I could write,
I drew stories. But as soon as I could,
I started writing out little tales, mostly spooky stories. I was heavily influenced by the stories of
Kathryn Tucker Windham, Gus Grimley, and Edgar Allan Poe and emulated them from
an early age. One of those early
stories, a tale about an archaeologist and a mummy, was published in my school
paper in 5th grade.
Is Writer’s Block ever
a problem for you? If so, how do you
deal with it.
I’m dealing with it now
actually, so I’ve slowed down quite a bit.
It’s frustrating and often tied to a recurrent problem I have with
depression. So I tend to write in
bursts. I might clock a thousand words
in an afternoon or in a particularly bad week.
At other times, I’ll crank out a novelette in less than a month. Sometimes I can harness that funk and use it
to create. If not, I relegate my
activities to mission planning, marketing, and other promotional work until I
break through that barrier. At other
times, I find myself stuck because I’m not sure how I want to approach a
particular scene or twist in a story. In
that case, I’ll sit back and let the idea percolate in creation station until
it’s ready to put on paper or into a Word document.
What 3 things do you
feel every aspiring writer should know?
Never give up. Never give in. Never stop editing.
Thanks Jeremy. Look for his story...
Deep Diving Death-Defying Dwarves of the Deep
In
Capes & Clockwork.
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