I get SMACKED by Bibliorati!

by Tommy Hancock

Before we walk into the interrogation room that is The Smack, single light bulb hanging from the ceiling swinging back and forth and all, an administrative note.  These interviews will alternate at times in style.  Some will be, as was the debut last week, done in a more newspaper story, article style.  Others, just because of the spirit of the question and the one providing the answers, simply demand to be presented in their raw interrogation like form.  The style for every interview is chosen on what will serve the information and the interviewee best.  With that in mind, step inside the dungy green/gray room with this week’s suspect and enjoy as writer Sean Taylor Gets SMACKED!

First, tell readers about yourself personally.

I’m a father of three awesome kids ranging from 18-21, one girl and two boys, Charis, Evan, and Jack. Charis is the first to follow in my footsteps as a writer, with both a comic book story and a pulp short story to her credit as of now. My wife, Lisa, is a beautiful and multilingual woman who teaches both Spanish and French for one of the local high schools. I grew up reading illustrated classics (the abridged kind with a drawing on every other page) before reading the originals, and also gorging myself on comics ranging from Legion of Super Heroes to Ghosts and The House of Mystery. I hate long walks on the beach, but I love playing my guitar around a bonfire. I’ve also been in bands for years and even played onstage once with Kansas’ Kerry Livgren and several times with the Newsboys. My most embarrassing memory is of having to cancel a date because I fell down an elevator shaft while in college. And no, the girl didn’t believe me until I showed her my swollen leg and ankle a day or two later.

Read the full interview: http://www.bibliorati.com/single-post/2017/02/20/The-Smack-Sean-Taylor

Gene Simmons' Dominatrix is back in print! Get your orders in!

Formerly with IDW Publishing and now being reprinted by Arcana Studios, Gene Simmons' Dominatrix will be in stores April 19, 2017. But you'll need to pre-order it this month at your local comic book store to ensure you get your copy.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #277 -- There Can Only Be One

If you could be remembered for only ONE of your short stories, 

novellas, or comic books, which one would it be and why?

There can only be one? Well, that really sucks.

Ouch. This one is going to hurt. A lot.

Hmmm...

Just one. Wow. This is tough.

I'm proudest of my work on Gene Simmons Dominatrix because I love that I was able to take what could have been a laughable idea and turn it into a compelling and critically acclaimed tale.

I most enjoy my work with the award-winning Rick Ruby (The Ruby Files) because Rick is such a fun character to write.

But if I could only choose one work, I'd have to go with (drum roll please) "Once Upon a Time." The story originally appeared in Cyber Age Adventures magazine and was also included in my Show Me A Hero short story collection.

Why?

Because the idea of that story still resonates with me. The idea that with all her powers, Starlight can't stop the onset of leukemia in her oldest son unless she makes a deal with one of her deadliest foes, still holds water for me. But what still gets me the most is the way the hero of the tale is Tad, her son, not the Starlight the super-powered heroine.

And it still makes me cry. Pretty much every time I read it.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#258) -- Negative Feedback

How do you take negative feedback from a story and have you ever agreed with negative feedback?

I cry and scream and throw a hissy fit usually.

Of course not, but sometimes I'd love to.

Any feedback is good feedback, I feel. Like so many others writers have said before, if anyone cares enough about my work to get in touch with me about it, that's a win, whether they praise it or criticize it.

Have I ever agreed with it? Occasionally, but not to the extend of the one making the criticism. For example, when I was writing Gene Simmons Dominatrix (no apostrophe, I know, not my call), several reviewers lamented the T&A factor of the book taking such a forefront. Well, I would have preferred less of that as well as a writer, freeing me to delve into character and plot, but those were the parameters I was given to write. If someone is paying you to write a sonnet, be a professional and don't try to write an epic narrative of rhyming couplets. Luckily, as the book progressed, we were able to move beyond that stereotype bad girl image of the book and really hit the stuff the writer in my wanted to focus on. But had I started it that way, well, for one thing, I wouldn't have kept the job. So it's a matter of doing your job regardless of both the positive and negative feedback.

Preach It, Sister Flannery!

"The writer can choose what he writes about, but he cannot choose what he is able to make live." 

~ Flannery O'Connor

Part of my "Sean shelf"

A Facebook friend sent this as a comment on a recent discussion (http://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-writer-will-take-your-questions-now_16.html) and I have to admit that the truth of this quote really hit me. It's completely beside the point that I'm a huge fan of Flannery O'Connor however. No, really, it has no bearing on it. (Okay, methinks I doth protest too much.)

Anyway, it hit me again as a strong reminder that as writers, we have no control over what actually sticks with readers and what falls by the wayside. Will it be our Holy the Firm or our Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, our As I Lay Dying or our "Rose for Emily"? Will it be the work that makes us look like the best of all saints or the one that makes us look like the worst of all possible sinners?

We simply can't make that decision for our readers. They make it for us. 

As I look back on my own work,is there anything I'm not proud of in the sense that I regret what it says about me? No. Not even the Dominatrix book for Gene Simmons. I'd do it all over again. That book speaks truth. It does. It tells of the emptiness of a person who is driven like the preacher of Ecclesiastes to pursue a path that ultimately ends in vanity and nothing. It doesn't hold back, but it speaks truth.

My pulp work? Nope. Nothing there either. Those tales are filled with sacrificial action and folks risking their lives for others, trying to do the better thing, even when such a course of action is unclear.

So regardless of what sticks, if any of my work even does, I stand ready.

As such, it's important to me that I write what I believe I'm called to write. That I follow the dictates of Scripture to the best of my understanding and the teaching of the spirit of God. That I listen to the still small voice prompting me toward this and away from that. That I remain a true example of being not just who I am in Christ, but who I am period, not putting on airs or writing for a pre-fab submarket so I can be a best-seller by preaching to the choir and not ruffling pharisaic feathers, neither hiding my light under a bushel nor trying to sneak in "spiritual stuff" to fool "the lost" into reading it and suddenly saying the magic prayer.

In short, I have keep walking that straight, narrow line that gets hard to see sometimes and be a fallen man saved by grace through faith telling stories that I hope come from the kind of heart that says something that causes people to pick up some truth to ponder as they read. And if they can get even a little bit of truth from me and my stories, then hopefully, they'll keep reading and find out that old saying about the truth is actually, well, true... the Truth will set you free.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#72) -- Most Important Comics Writing Tip

What is the single most important comic book writing tip you could share with new writers?

Now this one's a piece of cake to answer. The most important thing new writers need to learn is this: make sure readers have a reason to turn the page at the bottom of EVERY PAGE. There are lots of ways to do this that aren't "cheating," but instead are some of the commonly used tools in a comic book writer's toolbox.

1. Unfinished dialog.

2. Shocked expression.

3. Words cut off: "Wha--"

4. Unanswered question? "Tell me now! Who is the baby's father?"

5. A hidden piece of image information. (See Image 1 from Gene Simmons Dominatrix #1, how I hide Happy Jacq's face until the page turn for the reveal.)

6.Scene of surprise. (See Image 2 from my story "Nymph" in Gene Simmons House of Horrors #1, where our heroine walks into a bloody picnic scene instead of her husband waiting for her with a glass of wine like she was expecting.)

7. And as many more ideas as you can dream of.

Image 1. Art by Flavio Hoffe.

Image 2. Art by John Alderink

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#67) -- Playing in Sandboxes

What is more fun and rewarding for you, writing your own characters

or writing characters you've been given from someone else?

Ooh. That's a great question. Actually it's two great questions -- "Fun?" and "Rewarding?" (since they might not be the same thing) -- but luckily in this case, the answers are the same for each of them.

In my circle of writing friends, accomplices, and employers, I've learned to call writing characters that belong to someone else "playing in someone else's sandbox."

Let's look at both...

Writing my own characters is always fun because all the ideas are mine to waste, use, destroy, or run with. There's a freedom in that playing in my own sandbox gives me that playing outside it just doesn't or can't. I imagine me writing Dominatrix for Gene Simmons (and IDW, of course) must be a lot like Gail Simone or Palmiotti and Gray writing for DC's Batgirl or Jonah Hex respectively. There are limits to what you can do with the characters, and Mom and Dad have to approve it, whereas me writing Fishnet Angel gave me limitless stories to explore. She was completely at my mercy and didn't have a copyright holder to protect her from my machinations.

My own characters are also rewarding to write because I get to see people react to new characters and stories they've never heard of and never seen. And I get to explore themes and ideas that are often personal to me through them.

However, I also have fun playing in someone else's sandbox because I often am allowed to bring a slightly different viewpoint into play that allows even the person or company who owns the character to see him or her in a new way. This can be especially fun when it walks that trickly line between staying the same and showing too much new too fast. It's an art, not science, that is very rewarding when you get it right, and can suck eggs when it overstep your bounds. A case in point, Martheus Wade is giving me a pretty fair bit of latitude to write his character Turra: Gun Angel. He has had to rein me back in a few times, though, and learning how to work within the reins is all part of the give and take that comes with playing in a sandbox not my own.

What can be most rewarding about writing others' characters though is this -- there's no feeling quite like knowing you're being trusted with someone else's property, to change it, grow it, and leave your own mark on it. Whether it's Marvel trusting Brubaker to control the fate of Captain America for a while or Pulp Obscura trusting me to tale brand new tales of Armless O'Neil (coming soon!), it's immensely gratifying to have that trust from from a publisher and sometimes from a friend.

But, to answer the question completely, I have to say that the most fun and rewarding is when I am being trusted enough with someone else's toys to bring a new toy of my own creation into the mix and have it become part of that sandbox. Case in point, when I created the Saint-Devil, Monique San Diablo for my novella in Lance Star: Sky Ranger Volume 3, I asked Bobby Nash, who owns Lance as a character about my new femme fatale for Lance, and when he read the story, he liked her enough to allow her to become part and parcel of Lance's mythos, to the point that in my new story for Volume 4, she's back, and will also have another adventure with Lance in a comic book short in the upcoming second issue of All-Star Pulp Comics!

And even better, reader response has been exciting.

So, for me, the most fun and rewarding option is to combine the two. (Come on. You knew it wouldn't be a simple one or the other kind of answer for me. Right?)

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#56) -- Negative Feedback

How do you take negative feedback from a story and have you ever agreed with negative feedback?

I cry and scream and throw a hissy fit usually.

Of course not, but sometimes I'd love to.

Any feedback is good feedback, I feel. Like so many others writers have said before, if anyone cares enough about my work to get in touch with me about it, that's a win, whether they praise it or criticize it.

Have I ever agreed with it? Occasionally, but not to the extend of the one making the criticism. For example, when I was writing Gene Simmons Dominatrix (no apostrophe, I know, not my call), several reviewers lamented the T&A factor of the book taking such a forefront. Well, I would have preferred less of that as well as a writer, freeing me to delve into character and plot, but those were the parameters I was given to write. If someone is paying you to write a sonnet, be a professional and don't try to write an epic narrative of rhyming couplets. Luckily, as the book progressed, we were able to move beyond that stereotype bad girl image of the book and really hit the stuff the writer in my wanted to focus on. But had I started it that way, well, for one thing, I wouldn't have kept the job. So it's a matter of doing your job regardless of both the positive and negative feedback.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#11) -- Gene Simmons

What has it been like to work with Gene Simmons
(have you met him, talked to him)? -- Kevin Williams

Working with Gene was actually a lot more fun that I had previously been led to believe by others who had either worked with him or known people who had worked with him. He was usually very quick to approve the stories I submitted to him, and typically only with minor changes. I think the only major change he made to a pitch I sent him for Dominatrix was to change the lead heroine's civilian name from Danika (my preference) to Dominique (the one in the books). Other than that, Gene's ideas for the book must have really meshed with mine. Either that or my editors had all the fun of butting heads.

I did get to meet him once during the book's run, and that was at San Diego Comic Con. I remember that moment because I learned something about him that I'll remember and try to emulate until the day I die -- that man really loves and appreciates his fans. Even when it made life hell for the people trying to organize the line around the various booths, and even when it ticked off the other booth owners (even the big two), Gene insisted that all the fans in line got to see him and that he only did his signing in an area where the fans could be easily accessed.

Also, he talked with them, and didn't just sign the book and call for the next in line. And he made eye contact with each one, not just the babes in skimpy outfits.

One moment in particular stood out for me. Although I wrote the book for him, he didn't know me or had ever seen me, and I could have been a real jerk and pulled him to the side to say hello and interrupt his line of fans, but instead, I took my copy of Dominatrix #1 and got in line like any other fan. When I reached the table, I handed him the book, and since he hadn't even seen a copy at that point, he asked me where I got it. I explained that I was the guy writing the book and that I got a copy from the editor that morning. Well, Gene grabbed my hand, shook it, and told me how much he dug the book. Then he called Nick over and introduced us. About that time, the security guys told him we needed to move the line along, and Gene stopped, gave them a glare like none I'd ever seen, then returned his attention to me. Then he talked with me about the book for another minute before I offered to join him behind the table afterward and talk more about then. Even though he got busy and "then" never came, I did join him behind the scenes behind the table, and watched as he gave that same kind of focused attention to just about every fan in line.

That's the thing I learned from Gene Simmons.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#9) -- Proudest Comic Work

What is the one comic that you are most proud of and why? -- Lillian Hawkins

 You know, I'm really proud of all my work, but I think Gene Simmons Dominatrix is the one I'm most proud of right now. It's tough work to take an idea that people enter into with so many assumptions about and leave your mark on it enough to make those same people come out on the other end saying things like it was not what I expected or it surprised me. And let's be honest, the idea of a practicing dominatrix could easily be derailed into either camp or porn. And neither Gene, IDW nor I wanted this book to become Stripperella, back-shelf leather porn, masturbatory bondage fiction -- or worse, like the campy scenes from Mel Brooks' High Anxiety. To be able to keep the book sexy and cheesecake-esqe but still manage to tell a real story about a woman trying to find her life and reclaim it from the forces trying to dismantle it, well, that makes me very, very proud.