Where Nightmares Come From by Eugene Johnson & Joe Mynhardt

Author:Eugene Johnson & Joe Mynhardt [Mynhardt, Eugene Johnson and Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epub, ebook, QuarkXPress
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Published: 2017-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

NOVEL ROUNDTABLE INTERVIEWS

with Kevin J. Anderson, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Christopher Golden

Eugene Johnson and John Palisano

What drew you to wanting to be a storyteller?

Christopher Golden: It’s all I ever really wanted to be. In high school, I wanted to go to film school—become a filmmaker. My plan was to get the best education I could get, and then go to film school for graduate school. All through college I took creative writing classes, and by my senior year, I had started writing my first novel, Of Saints and Shadows. By then, I knew film school was not in my future.

Kevin J. Anderson: From watching monster movies as a kid, even before I could read. I would make up my own stories.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia: My great-grandmother used to tell stories, I tell stories too. The format doesn’t matter, whether it’s oral or written. You either want to tell stories or you don’t. If you want to, you’ll find a way to do it.

What is so appealing about writing a novel?

CG: I just like to tell stories. I did theater as a kid, and even then it was just about helping to tell the story. Writing a novel lets you tell the whole story, lets you pull all the strings. You get to decide every detail. Words on paper is the only medium that allows that kind of freedom and control.

KJA: Right now, I really enjoy the process. It’s very satisfying to build the world, craft the storylines, get to know the characters, and then take them through the journey. Writing a book is even more satisfying than reading one. (On the same note, I prefer to cook a fine meal instead of eating in a restaurant . . . )

SMG: There is no appeal. It’s just that you need more words to tell the story, so it becomes a novel. Of course, you might get paid something semi-decent if you sell a novel and someone might even read you, whereas with short stories you essentially exist in obscurity.

Can you please break down your process when setting out to tell a story with a novel?

CG: That’s a huge question. I do workshops on the subject. It would be impossible to answer it effectively here. I will say that I do prefer to have at least somewhat of an outline, some idea of where I’m going . . . but I diverge from it whenever the story decides to go off on a tangent. For me, being too loose with where the story is headed—or too strict about following an outline—are both recipes for disaster.

KJA: I develop the story, jot down many storylines, write up character biographies, which usually spark other chapter ideas, other stories, other connections. It’s like a snowball effect, and most of my novels are pretty substantial, 100 chapters or so, ranging from 150,000-200,000 words, and even those are usually part of a trilogy or a series. Once I have sketched out the framework, a “skeleton” outline with about one line per

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