Tell us a bit about your latest work.
Handlebars is my first novel. The concept was born during the Clinton/Trump presidential campaign. I was listening to the Flobots song of the same name and couldn’t fathom either of those two ever riding a bicycle. I sat down to write it last year and what came out was incredibly fun.
Handlebars is the faux memoir of Quinn Constance, a man who came of age in rural American poverty and abuse and found himself at the center of global power in his adult years. His childhood friend, Louis Bryant, becomes a focal point of Quinn’s jealousy and feelings of inadequacy, and he remains that way as they both find their own success. Quinn’s pursuit of power to overcome his childhood powerlessness morphs him into something dark, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance as the human race enters a new evolutionary stage.
What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?
I was the quiet kid. I stayed in my head. In one way or another, I have always been writing. My earliest stories followed an alien being stranded on earth facing another of his kind in epic battles of superpowers and magic. I told these as comic strips. Since I couldn’t draw very well, the aliens were stars… with capes. Once I entered my pre-teen years, I focused on superhero comic books.
What inspires you to write?
I always have plenty to say and I believe that our strongest introspection and organization as a species are communicated through the parables we tell. Story is the strongest teacher. Sadly, it’s also where so very many of us miss the point of life.
What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?
I love horror and I love social commentary, so a lot of my work will be found to have those elements. I like protagonists who find their strength through solidarity with others and intersectional action. I am most concerned with systems of social control and how they affect the individual, so religion, class organization, and tradition/taboo are my general topics while I love to incorporate heroes who don’t always look like me.
What would be your dream project?
I absolutely love the stories I tell. But, if I needed to choose something existing out there, it would be taking my The Matrix: Wrath of the Grigori short I released through my Substack (originally written for my children for Christmas) and expanding it into an animated or live-action film. I absolutely love the world the Wachowskis gave us with that story.
What writers have influenced your style and technique?
I’m sure there are other writers closer in style to me, but I tend to feed off writers with a free spirit when they tell a story. I feel like Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, Nnedi Okorafor, Oscar Wilde, Chuck Tingle, etc. While none of these writers really have the same style, they are all so very free as writers and I’m eager to go along for that ride. I want my style to feel authentic. I want it to feel like I’m sitting there telling the story.
If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?
I am actually doing that now. In 2008-2009, my short comic book story Graffiti was optioned and shopped around. Ultimately, it went where so many IPs go… to the development graveyard. The show was based on an 8-page story I published in 803 #1, my first nationally distributed, self-published anthology. Incidentally, I’ll be re-releasing my original comic work in an expanded re-release of Notes from a Monkey with a Hand Grenade. Since it was such a short story, I had to do a LOT of research and concept work to get something I felt was unique. The project made it to script and even attached an incredible rapper-actor but didn’t make it to pilot production.
It took a few months after Christmas for my boys to read Handlebars, but, when they did, I received some of the most amazing feedback I have or will ever receive. They put it on the top of the list of books they’ve ever read – and they’ve read a lot. And they asked me for a sequel. I initially told them that Handlebars was a one-and-done story, but the request hung with me for a couple of weeks. One thought leads to another, and I strolled through my memory of the incredible world-building I did with Graffiti. The stories clicked. I realized that the world of Graffiti and a few new characters made for the perfect continuation of Handlebars. I currently have planned a 3-book Graffiti trilogy.
Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why?
Unlike the rest of my life, I’d put myself as a centrist. The heart of a story is interactive art. A writer has something to say and says it a certain way. All writing is like this. Articles. Ads. Histories. True crime. Fiction. They have a worldview and experience that colors their message. The choice of word and sentence structure in writing is the same as the choice of color and texture in painting. Yet the readers bring to any piece their own life choices and experiences and worldviews. No matter what the writer hoped to convey, they are at the mercy of the readers’ viewpoint, and, through those interpretations, they create a multiverse of stories. In that, writing is art.
But there are structures and the mechanics of language that make writing functional. You can creatively experiment with anything as artistic expression, but the framework has to be agreed upon between the writer and the reader. Commonly accepted message construction methods will have a broader appeal and will, ultimately, reach more eyes. In that, writing is very much a science. The most sophisticated manipulations and propagandas have the structure perfected to communicate the exact amount of outrage and fear.
What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Editing. I wish everything I wrote came out perfect the very first time. To edit is to acknowledge that it didn’t. And, often, it was awful. It’s tedious to pick over your creation because that’s where the art stops and the science begins.
How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not?
I have a network of writer friends from my comic book publishing days who are as much fans of mine as I am of theirs. I hold their praise and opinions above other writers. But we’re all going our separate ways. I believe we’re remembering how amazing the collaboration from a decade ago and we’re bringing our works back together for that mutual support.
But, with the silence and my recent return to writing, I reached out for new writing friends. Finding the right ones can take some time. Finding the wrong ones can derail your work. Writing relationships are like any other. If the feedback loop only serves to bolster the ego of one person, it can become very toxic very quickly.
What does literary success look like to you?
Simply financial stability. I would love to replace my daytime income with writing so that I can devote more off-work time to my family. That’s asking a lot from a writing career, but that is what I daydream about between conference calls.
Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?
As I mentioned, I will be re-releasing Notes from a Monkey with a Hand Grenade, a collection of short comic book stories I wrote, expanded with additional content. I am also releasing a collection of short stories as Notes from a Monkey with a Hand Grenade 2 closer to winter this year. And I will be pushing to complete book one of Graffiti later this year.
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