Q: Tell us something unusual
about you.
A: I once groped a
ghost.
I was 16 and volunteering at Kevin McCurdy's Haunted Mansion. My job that night was backstage, moving sets
around so it would seem like the elevator we put guests in did something other
than shake. I waited outside the first
room - one with a prerecorded speech and timed effects - to finish so I could
prepare my scene. A small girl rested in
a dim corner. This in itself was not
strange. The Mansion had a constantly
shifting cast based on who volunteered that night. What confused me was that she wore a
knee-length white dress, almost luminescent, completely forbidden outside a
part owing to its visibility. I told her
to go hide somewhere, that the first room was nearly finished and she would surely
be seen. She cocked her head as though
she misunderstood me over the constant spooky music or, perhaps, as though I
were stupid. We had seconds before we
would be intruded upon, so I did the only thing I could then think of. I tried to grab her shoulder to pull her with
me to a crack or crevice that would conceal us.
My hand went through her. She straightened up and faded into the
dark. By this point, the customers were
about to see me, so I ran back to my scene.
I had no time to be frightened, though I felt nothing but calm and a bit
perplexed. I ran into some friends
working the room after mine and told them that I had seen “the ghost”.
I worked there for several Octobers after, but I never again saw a
specter not made by the in-house special effects team and none of those came
close to the girl in the dress who I groped.
Q: What gave you your start as a
writer?
A: I think I was born a
storyteller. Reality was never enough
for me, so I would tell strangers that I was half alien on my father’s
side. My parents and teachers encouraged
my writing, often at the expense of other subjects – I still furrow my brow
when faced with math more daunting than algebra, despite having tutored in it. When I was far too young, my mother enrolled
me in a poetry group for adults that met in the local library, though I was
never much of a poet. A lot of my
identity as a writer likely came from adults insisting I was one already and my
finding this easier than being anything else (I was a mediocre artist and a
competent at best actor).
I began my Night’s Dream series while still an undergrad. I knew roughly the world I wanted to create –
belief shapes everything, but most every human has unconsciously agreed to
disbelieve and ignore; the gods of antiquity have fled for reasons of
self-preservation; all the strange things you think might be under your bed as
a child actually work as school bus drivers and baristas, you just don’t notice
– but I did not have the skills to write it.
I tried no matter – I was never one to give up when it came to a story.
Q: What type of audience are you
looking satisfy and had you always planned to write for that audience?
A: I think the audience I am
trying to reach is me as a teenager to early twenty-something. Fortunately, a lot of people are like me:
hungry for something to read that respects our intelligence, but still willing
to be playful. So often growing up, I
read books that made me feel knowledgeable, but were needlessly dry and
serious. Or I would read books that were
“fun”, but were written as though I were a sixth grader who suffered from
multiple head injuries. It was
infuriating. Some writers seemed to get
it right, but they were often those who wrote outside the context of just
novels. As much as this may sound that I
am cutting my throat as a novelist, television and graphic novels often
provided inspiration and confidence until I was steady on my feet as a
writer. That Joss Whedon could create
such groundbreaking shows, that Bryan Fuller showed that literate whimsy and
darkness were not antithetical and was not immediately get canceled, that Grant
Morrison existed gave me hope that my audience was out there, patiently
waiting.
Q: What inspired you to write
The Night's Dream series?
A: There were three distinct
inspirations. One was the simple
navel-gazing conversations people tend to have in playgrounds at night, the
“what ifs” of philosophy most people get out of their systems in college. What if the world stops existing when you are
not there to observe it? What if
monsters are real, but we are conditioned not to focus on them? Why do people keep seeing ghosts, goblins,
aliens, Bigfoots, and so on when it would seem science could disprove them?
Another was reading Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods and Grant
Morrison’s Invisibles almost back-to-back.
Though neither were quite perfect – I did not have that moment of “Aha!
These were written exactly for me to find!” – they provided worlds for the
characters I knew I wanted to write.
They displayed magic not as an untouchably remote force, something
confined to wizards with long beards facing off against fire-breathing dragons,
but as something constantly occurring around humanity, though often below our
notice. I knew that this was the story I
had to tell, albeit in my own way.
The third – though not happiest – was the suicide of one of my
friends. He threw this massive party to
celebrate the end of a year of college.
When the guests left, he took a bed sheet and hanged himself. I did not attend the party and I felt guilt
about that for months, until someone explained how well attended it had been
and that my friend told a few guests that this was a “going away” party. I wrote a story for the local paper’s short
story contest (creating for it my characters Shane and Eliot), though it was
rejected without comment. As I had this
world brewing in my head and this protagonist I liked and pitied (as well as a
dozen pages of decent prose I wanted to find a use for), I combined the
two.
Q: Is Shane's character based
off of anyone one in particular?
A: She isn’t actually,
though I somewhat wish she were (if just so I could apologize properly). However, when my publisher asked for
suggestions designing the cover image on We Shadows, I sent him in-text descriptions
of Shane along with pictures of people who had aspects of Shane, most of whom
were minor celebrities (Jill Sobule, Mageina Tovah), but one of a girl I had
found on a dating site (I highly recommend dating sites when fleshing out
characters or plotting stories) who seemed just about how I imagine Shane at
her happiest. Months later, completely
coincidentally, I met this girl in person at a swing dance event. I asked to dance with her for a song,
explained about my novel, and later asked her if she would like to have tea
with me sometime. She told me that was
too forward and we have had no contact since, proving at the very least that
one should not dance with aspects of one’s main characters. (The cover, incidentally, does not much
resemble this woman or Shane as I picture her.)
Q: What has been your favorite
part of writing this series?
A: I have often been
completely surprised, both by the characters and the back story. Midway through We Shadows, they started to
take on lives of their own. I would want
them to do one thing in a scene and they would completely refuse or contradict
me until I figured out why they were being difficult. This has led to some plot points I did not
intend going in, but which have proved crucial (much of Roselyn’s time in the
mental hospital, for instance).
Additionally, I have thought I fabricated some bit of mythology or
history, only to discover that people believe it to be true. I finished the first draft of my next novel,
Artificial Gods (a sequel to We Shadows, but a prequel to Danse Macabre and
starring characters who are minor in those books), before I stumbled upon a
webpage that details all of my fantasy as though it is real. I suppose, from all the research I did, I
came to the same conclusions as other people, but it is frightening to see your
antagonist staring you in the face just before you go to bed (especially when
he comes with dozens of footnotes you know you will now have to research in
depth).
Q: What has been your greatest
challenge while writing?
A: I’ve had the hardest time
sacrificing good writing because that scene is not essential to the plot. I don’t think I have engendered enough of the
good will of my fans to start meandering quite yet. We Shadows, in an original version, was
60,000 word longer. There were two
additional secondary characters and a whole other subplot involving Jake that
had to be excised for the sake of marketability. (The two characters, who still appear
briefly, will make an important reappearance in a future book.)
Married to that is simply that I did not know how to write a book when
I started. I would agonize over scenes
that neither pushed the plot forward nor revealed the characters. I would not move onto the next scene until I
was sure I had gotten this one right.
And I certainly would not let myself listen to anyone who dared to tell
me that this was not the way one wrote a novel, as I was and am quite
stubborn. Now, I know to write until I
get to the end before going back to revise, which is why I hope to publish a
book a year.
Q: Where is your favorite place
to write? What do you snack on?
A: Right now, my “office” is
a two foot tall, fold-up plastic desk in a cramped closet with no ventilation
and I type on a nine-inch Asus Eee computer running Windows XP. I have ample space in my apartment (despite
living with an artist girlfriend who sees clear floor space as a waste of a
canvas) and a proper laptop in my living room, but I find that too convenient
to write properly. I need to be a bit
put out and uncomfortable to write as I need.
When I am out and inspired, I will write on a slightly wonky PDA from
2003. I used to write my best at 4AM, no
matter whether I stayed up very late or woke up very early, but I have broken
myself of that habit.
I am dangerous when it comes to snacks and writing. As long as there is something to munch on, I
will chomp until I’ve worked my way through the scene that it stymieing me,
usually something salty. I have accepted
this is just an urge to put something in my mouth, to be fulfilled in some way,
so I tend to drink instead, ideally iced green tea with lemon or positively
sloshing amounts of seltzer.
Q: What advice do you have for
aspiring YA authors?
A: Though I wouldn’t limit
it to YA authors, my advice is to keep writing.
In 2001, I began a blog of what was going on in my life. It was not especially interesting. It was embarrassingly written. It got me in trouble with my friends and
family more than once, as my perspective did not match up with what they wanted
the world at large to know. But it was
also indispensible. It helped me figure
out how to describe sensitive situations with delicacy and dull ones with
panache. It gave me an ear for dialogue
and the ability to remember details. Most importantly, it allowed me to purge
myself of bad habits, all of the psychic detritus of books I have read and
authors I wanted to be. Now, I write
like myself rather than vacillating between Anne Rice, William Shakespeare, and
Tom Robbins.
Q: If you had to pick one author
or book that has been the most influential to you who/what would it be?
A: It would have to be Neil Gaiman’s
Sandman series (we are going to pretend that is one book). It demonstrated to me how to create an epic
fantasy universe from tiny, often forgotten details accumulating. It made a character that should be fearsome
(Death) into one you want to hug. It
tore my heart out and showed it to me, and I was grateful. It was one of those books where I
accidentally saw a panel one hundred pages beyond where I was and then spent a
few frenzied hours reading until I got there, all the time thinking, “No, he couldn’t…
that couldn’t have happened… I saw it wrong, I must have.” But when I got there, I knew it could be no
other way. Gaiman imbued souls and
personalities into every character, no matter how minute, and from this effort
he stands before a breathing universe.
Inasmuch as someone can be whom I have yet to meet, Gaiman is my mentor.
Q: What can you tell us about
your works in progress?
A: I am sending Artificial
Gods off to my beta readers this month.
It is the story of Jasmine Woods, a young woman who sees a UFO in her
backyard on the first night of her summer break. Though she wants to forget it all initially,
she comes to see that her life has been infused by aliens and magic far longer
than she had known. I expect it will be
published early in 2013.
I am fifty thousand words through the sequel to Danse Macabre, a book
currently called Hunter of Shadows. It
will give far more back story about Gideon and the Purging, the reason that
there are relatively few daemons left in the world to cluster around flux
points, and will hopefully tie together the first three books.
After that one, I have three more books in this series sketched out
loosely: one about Girl seeking her name, one dealing with Shane growing even
more into herself through struggles both mundane and magical, and one about a
character we have yet to be properly introduced to in the series but who has
ties to several characters. There will
likely be even more books after that, but I do not know enough about them
yet. My books are very organic, so I
expect more novels to spring from cuttings and forgotten boughs.
" I would like to thank Thomm for taking the time to do this interview with me! I have done many author interviews, but this one has definitely been a favorite of mine. It is not too often you get to talk to someone who groped a ghost."
~ The Night's Dream Series Books 1&2 ~
After a year of coasting rather than living, destroyed by her boyfriend Eliot's death, Shane Valentine matriculates into his college. She begins to build a new life as a college freshman, only to have it stolen from her one night, when she is trying to drown her sorrows at the bottom of a daiquiri.
She wakes the next day in a strange apartment with three scars she can't remember and a bloody shirt. On her walk of shame in stolen clothes, she realizes that no one aside for her roommate Roselyn, a Wiccan with epilepsy, remembers her. Unfortunately three occultists are after her to fix the mistake they made and they remember her too well.
Gideon, a daemonic being with an penchant for card, finds her and assures her he is going to help her out of his own sense of self-preservation. After a quick trip to the nameless campus drug dealer, whose abilities far exceed the selling of narcotics, Shane begins on an adventure to figure out what was done with her and why. Then, she begins to see Eliot's ghosts and realizes even chaos cannot be so cut and dry.
Roselyn Jacobs' life may not be strictly uncomplicated. She lives with Shane, a girl caught between being a teenager and a goddess. She sleeps with Dryden, who pretends to be a vampire when he is not working the graveyard shift at a dead-end job. Moreover, she is keenly aware that the world is dotted with pockets of beings that better belong in horror movies and fairy tales than taking her order at the local diner. She manages well until her boyfriend is turned into an actual vampire and her roommate is kidnapped as a means of leverage. To save them she must confront a basement blood-selling ring, a surly demigod, obtuse prophesies, a fortune-telling Wiccan, and a vampire hunter who wants more than she can give.
Can she manage to keep up her life intact and still stop more people from dying to swell a gang of the undead? Can she trust the self-interest of the monsters on her side, the few remaining daemonic beings left in Red Hook? Should she continue to give her heart to a man whose own heart has stopped beating?
Both of these titles are available for purchase from:
~ MY REVIEW ~
*Note to my readers: Both of these novels are included in this review*
The more I read from indie authors, the more sure I am that the real gems in the literary world are in no way connected to the big publishing houses. Thomm Quackenbush's, Night's Dream series is one of those gems. He has created a series that will pull it's reader to the underneath of it's pages and leave them enraptured in it's wake. Thomm's writing style is as unique as it is eloquent. This series exceeds expectations with it's remarkable world building and cast of characters. The author has a way of breathing life into these characters and the world they inhabit. I was definitely impressed by both the first and second book in this series.
We Shadows was an outstanding debut. I noticed little to no faults with it. Shane's character really stood out to me; as did her roommate, Roselyn. Her journey to find the truth is an epic one. The plot is extremely original and the way everything comes together through out the story makes it clear that the author put a lot of hard work into it's creation. I enjoyed the subtle references to other works of fiction. This book is a fun fantasy read but also full of underlying complexities.
Danse Macabre is a great continuation of this exciting series! I think I enjoyed it a bit more than We Shadows, but solely because it focused more on Roselyn and I really like her character. This book is anything but ordinary. I have grown a a dislike for vampires over the years but I greatly enjoyed Thomm's portrayal of them in this book.
I can not wait to read the next book in this series! I will definitely be recommending this series to all. It is well worth the read and will definitely not disappoint!
Both of these books have received 5 strawberry ratings from me!
