Worth the Weight: 11 Questions With Author Emily Carpenter
Emily Carpenter
By Lindsey Wojcik
The heat is on. By now, most of the country has experienced the familiar stickiness that comes with the summer season. The humidity has undoubtedly driven many to the beach or pool to cool off, and here at Writer’s Bone, no beach bag is complete without a sizzling new novel.
Emily Carpenter’s The Weight of Lies has all the makings of a classic beach companion. Vulture highlighted it as “an early entry in the beach-thriller sweepstakes.”
In her new book, Carpenter transports readers from New York City to a small, humid island off the coast of Georgia where Megan Ashley, the daughter of an acclaimed novelist, travels to discover more about her mother’s famous book, Kitten, for a tell-all memoir she has agreed to write. Kitten tells the tale of an island murder that fans believe may have been loosely based on a real crime. As the truth about where Megan’s mother, Frances Ashley, found the story for her infamous novel unravels, Megan must decide what is real and what is fiction.
Carpenter recently spent some time answering questions about transitioning from a career in television to writing novels, what inspired The Weight of Lies, and why it’s important for writers to appreciate their “customers.”
Lindsey Wojcik: You've been writing since a young age. What are your earliest memories with writing? What enticed you about storytelling?
Emily Carpenter: I’ve told this story a few times—the one about how I plagiarized The Pokey Little Puppy when I was 5. It’s my secret shame. I basically copied it word for word and illustrated it with crayons. I am not sure I actually finished it, so maybe I’m off the hook? After that, there were a couple of false starts on a novel about a girl with a horse when I was around 14. I’m not sure I had a handle on a coherent story, but I was definitely enamored by the idea of a girl (me) owning a horse. I absolutely lived for reading. I was an introvert, bookworm, a dreamer, and really imaginative. And while I didn’t really have a reference point for becoming an author, I was drawn to the whole world of storytelling.
LW: Who were your early influences and who continues to influence you?
EC: I read all of the Nancy Drew books, The Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys multiple times over. Beverly Cleary and Laura Ingalls Wilder were early favorites. I loved those biography books with the orange covers, and there was another series where I remember reading about Madame Curie and Helen Keller. I read a lot of suspense books now because that’s the genre I write, but I enjoy all kinds of fiction. I’ve gone through periods when I read YA and literary classics, romance and horror. I’m really inspired by television writers right now. Noah Hawley, who writes “Fargo,” is immensely brilliant and funny. I also admire Ray McKinnon, a fellow Georgian, who wrote “Rectify.” Both those guys really inspire me.
LW: Tell us a little bit about your experience at CBS television’s Daytime Drama division. What did you do in that department? How did it influence your writing?
EC: I was the assistant to the director of daytime drama, so I basically answered phones, did paperwork, that kind of thing. I also read all the scripts for upcoming shows and wrote summaries for the newspapers to publish. I got to take contest winners on tours of the productions and assist with a couple of promo tapings of commercials for the shows. Once I took a bunch of contest winners and some of the actors to lunch because my boss couldn’t do it. I had the company credit card and had to pay for the whole thing, and it made me really nervous. I was, like 24, or something, and I’d never seen a check for a meal that big. In terms of influencing my writing, I think I really soaked up the concept of how to write tension and cliffhangers. “Guiding Light” and “As the World Turns” had some really talented writers on staff who were great at writing really funny, snappy banter, and I picked up on that—the rhythm of dialogue is so important and they were such masters at it.
I remember something my boss told me once when the writers had brought in a secondary character who was a part of this new storyline. So one Friday at the end of the show, they ended the final scene with a close up on his face. She got so mad about it and said, “You don’t end a really important scene—especially a Friday cliffhanger scene—on a day player!” She understood that, bottom line, the audience cared most about the core characters of the show. They loved them, not this random guy they’d brought in to be a temporary part of this new storyline. She knew that the show needed to leave the audience anticipating, thinking about those core characters all weekend long until Monday rolled around—not this day player. That really stuck with me, how important it was to understand who your audience was and what they wanted and giving it to them.
LW: You assisted on the production of “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light.” Both of those soaps were on daily in my household growing up—three generations of women in my family, including myself, watched both shows, which are no longer on the air, and soap operas in general have been on the decline. What do you think influenced the change in daytime television?
EC: First of all, let me say, thank you for watching. I have a deep admiration and enduring fondness for those two shows. I watched them long after I left New York and moved back down South, and when they were cancelled, I cried. It really was such an end to an era. Although I’m sure there is an answer for why daytime TV changed, I’m not sure I know. I think, in the end, it’s probably to do with money, like everything else. And new technology and our capability to access streaming shows and binge watch really high quality programming. There’s no more appointment TV. We really have gotten out of the habit of showing up at a certain time to watch a show. I suppose the decline started with cable and cheap reality programming and TiVo. But I’m not sure what the deathblow was. And look, we still have four soaps running. I turned on “Days of Our Lives” the other day, and Patch and Kayla have not aged a whit since I watched them in the late ’80s.
LW: Tell us a little bit about your experience with screenwriting. What influenced your decision to change career paths from film production and screenwriting to writing novels?
EC: I was pretty naïve, hoping to break into the screenwriting business with zero entertainment connections or really any knowledge of the business at all. I think I had a good sense of story and structure in a general sense—I had some raw materials—but in terms of writing a kickass commercial feature, I wasn’t there. I didn’t know how to do it. And I think I was really sort of just learning the technique of writing as well. Learning how to write good sentences and evoking emotion with my words. I hadn’t majored in creative writing in school or even taken a single writing course in my life, I was just winging it. So really, it was audacious of me (or plain, old ignorant) to think I was going to write a spec screenplay that would sell to Hollywood.
But I just loved movies so much and writing and kept plugging away at it. I worked really hard and placed in a few contests, but ultimately couldn’t get an agent interested. After working on two indie productions with friends, I finally decided it was not going to happen. I took a break for a few years and hung out with my kids, enjoyed being a mom. Then one day, it suddenly occurred to me that there was this whole world of storytelling that I had overlooked. I started mulling over the idea of writing a book and researching the business side of publishing. It turned out to be much more accessible world. And I’ll say that my screenwriting experience, self-taught though it was, has formed the basis of my novel writing. I use a lot of the outlining and scene structuring tools that screenwriters use in my books.
LW: How did the Atlanta Writers Club guide you as a writer?
EC: They provided amazing access to a whole community of local writers, some of whom have become critique partners and dear friends. I found a critique group through them, which was where I read something I’d written out loud for the first time. And I attended several conferences the club sponsored and pitched my books to agents. I actually met my agent at one of the conferences.
LW: What inspired The Weight of Lies?
EC: I love classic horror books and films—Stephen King is just the master, of course. Carrie is one of my all-time favorites. One time I read that he had based aspects of Carrie on this girl he knew in school who was awkward and bullied by the other kids. That fascinated me, and I wondered if she ever found out what he did, what she would think of it. I mean, can you imagine? I get asked that question a lot, as an author, is my book based on real events or real characters? My books aren’t, but it intrigued me to imagine a writer who had the audacity to base her novel on a real murder and maybe even a real murderer, and so now there’s this eternal question out there among her fans about whether it was real.
LW: When you were writing The Weight of Lies, was there something in particular you were trying to connect with or find?
EC: Well, at the heart of the book, it’s really a story of this young woman who doesn’t feel like her mother has ever loved her or really even wanted her. And she’s so angry because she’s desperate to be affirmed and loved. She’s also a bit lost because she doesn’t have a whole lot going on career-wise, she hasn’t really been successful in the romantic department, and she’s getting older. She’s got a lot of resentment toward her mother to work through, but she’s really blinded by her pain. And her mother really is a monumentally self-centered diva, so there’s plenty of blame on both sides. That whole situation felt really compelling to me, that search to try to understand your mother as more than just the figure you rebelled against or had conflict with. Where you reach a crossroads at which point you have to decide whether you’re going to give your mother the benefit of the doubt and forgive her, or feed your childhood bitterness and hurt and go for the scorched earth option. Needless to say, Meg opts for earth scorching.
LW: How was the process of writing The Weight of Lies different from writing your debut Burying the Honeysuckle Girls?
EC: With Honeysuckle Girls, I had a lot of time. A lot of freedom. I was 100 percent on my own timetable. Then, once I signed with my agent and went on submission, it became a process of listening to my agent’s opinions and the opinions of the marketplace and deciding what to pay attention to and what to bypass. The great thing was that I had a lot of time to tinker with the book, which is a luxury. It wasn’t that much different writing The Weight of Lies because I didn’t sell the book until I had completed it. My next books, though, were sold on pitch, so that’s been an entirely new process, to deliver something you’ve already been paid for.
LW: What’s next for you?
EC: I’m writing my next book, which is about a young woman with a secret she’s kept since her childhood, who agrees to accompany her husband to an exclusive couples therapy retreat up in the mountains of north Georgia so he can get help for the nightmares that have been plaguing him. And then things start to go sideways, and she realizes that nothing at this isolated place is as it seems.
LW: What’s best advice you’ve ever received and what’s your advice for up-and-coming writers?
EC: My agent told me once, “Remember, this is your career…” I can’t even recall what we were talking about exactly—it might’ve been a deadline, or what I was going to write next—but the point was, she wanted me to clear away all the noise from other people’s expectations and do what was best for me. To follow my heart. It was just what I needed to hear at the moment, especially because I have the tendency to go overboard to make other people happy and overlook what’s in my own heart. It really settled me down and gave me the confidence to go forward.
I think one of the things I’d like to remind up-and-coming writers is that they are getting into a business and many of the decisions that editors and publishers make have to do with money. So when new writers encounter perplexing situations, I think they need to understand that financial bottom line motivates many of them. It’s sometimes a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s reality. And as writers, we have to be able to nurture our art in that atmosphere of commercialism.
The other day I heard Harrison Ford say in an interview that he doesn’t like to call people who see his movies “fans,” but “customers.” It was a really pragmatic, non-romantic way for an actor or artist to view what they do, but it did sort of speak to me because I tend to lean toward being really practical. I do see the artistic side of writing, and I can get really swept up in the magic of creating characters and a story. On the flip side, I also do really appreciate my “customers,” and I consider it an honor to have the opportunity to entertain them. And I think what the customers wants and expects should matter to writers. It’s not the end-all, be-all, but it is something to keep in mind.
To learn more about Emily Carpenter, visit her official website, like her Facebook page, or follow her on Twitter @EmilyDCarpenter.
The Writer’s Bone Interviews Archive
Literary Agent Sharon Pelletier Explains How Research and Twitter Can Advance A Writer’s Career
Sharon Pelletier
By Lindsey Wojcik
Literary agent Sharon Pelletier loves Twitter.
I know this because I’ve followed her for years and have always appreciated her witty take on "The Bachelor," plus our shared obsession with wine, and love and appreciation for Justin Timberlake. She also happens to hail from my home state of Michigan.
While I appreciate following her commentary on our shared interests, I also find her tweets offer important information for writers looking to land a literary agent or anyone seeking information on the publishing industry in general. Pelletier currently works as a literary agent at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management in New York City. She counts Amy Gentry, author of Good as Gone, which The New York Times recommend as one the best nine thrillers to read this summer, as a client.
Recently, I noticed Pelletier tweeting with the Manuscript Wish List hashtag (#MSWL), which inspired me to dig deeper and find out more on her manuscript wish list, what she looks for in query letters, and her advice to aspiring writers.
Lindsey Wojcik: How did you get your start in publishing?
Sharon Pelletier: I moved to New York City at the ripe old age of 25 and applied ceaselessly to every publishing job I could reasonably fit my resume into until I got an internship at a small press. Then I went to every mixer, event, and happy hour I could to meet people, collect business cards, and hustle up interviews—all while working 40 hours a week at Barnes & Noble and freelancing like crazy, mind you! It was a very exciting, exhausting, and skinny time in my life. Eventually my internship led me to a full-time position as an editor at another small publishing company, and I was off to the races.
LW: You've worked in many facets of the industry, from bookstores to a small press to a self-publishing company and now at an agency. How have those experiences shaped your role as agent?
SP: I’m glad I made a few stops on the way to being an agent because I have a full understanding of the whole publishing process! I’ve worked in editorial, production, and marketing, in addition to my time as a bookseller, which has made me better able to answer clients’ questions, evaluate publishers, or offer suggestions if a book needs to be jumpstarted. Of all of these jobs, being a bookseller might be the most useful, in a way, because I learned how different readers make buying decisions, from the hardcore readers who go through 50-plus books a year to genre devotees to folks who pick up one or two books a year from the nonfiction categories. Learning the reading tastes of customers who came in regularly for recommendations was good practice for profiling an editor’s taste.
LW: What steps do you recommend an author take when trying to land an agent?
SP: Step one: research! You’ve put a lot of time into finishing your manuscript and polishing it until it’s the best you can be, right? Writers are often eager at this point to start launching their work out there, but it’s best to put the extra time into learning how to query effectively. If you’re brand new to the process, seek out blog posts and other resources online to learn how to write a strong query letter and how to find the agents seeking your kind of manuscript.
Twitter is another great way to get to know agents’ individual preferences, both what they’re looking for their list, and their favorite television shows, pet peeves, etc. Twitter is also perfect to connect with other writers at the same step of the process for support and tips.
LW: How can writers develop a quality query letter that catches an agent’s eye?
SP: Again, research! The things we ask for like word count, genre, comp titles, show that you’ve researched your market and understand your readership—and that you know we work in that category. Writing is about art, but being an author is also about business, and as much as we’re looking for manuscripts we love, we’re also looking for authors with career potential who will be a strong partner for us. So a well-researched, carefully crafted query that follows industry standards and our specific agency guidelines shows that you’re taking the business side of writing seriously and putting the time into careful research.
There’s a lot of info online (including on the DGLM blog) about the components of a strong query letter, but here’s the short version:
- Opening: 1-2 sentences with genre, word count, comp titles, and mention of why you’re querying this agent (I follow you on Twitter, we met at X conference, I read your client X’s book and loved it, etc., for example)
- Story pitch of around 200 words. Highlight characters, world, and stakes—think about what would be on the back of your book’s cover in the bookstore.
- Bio: 2-3 sentences about who you are, including publication credits, experience you’ve had that informed this book, etc.
Rather than querying every agent whose email address you can find, put the time in to query a handful of agents who seem like the ideal fit—take the time to seek out details on their website, their #MSWL, interviews they’ve done, books they represent, etc. Then you can write a strong personal query mentioning why you’ve queried this agent in particular.
LW: What is the most common mistake you see from first-time authors?
SP: If you’re speaking of the query process, I gotta spout my favorite word again: research—or the lack thereof.
If you mean in the writing itself, one common rookie mistake is to open with your character waking up in the morning or some variation on “The day that changed her life started like any other day.” Don’t tell us that—show us! If your plot starts with a weird email when your character gets to her office, show us her sitting down at her desk with a mug of hot tea, or checking her email on the phone while sipping a smoothie on her way out of the gym. In either scenario, you’re showing us something about the character’s personality and lifestyle that is more important than us knowing what color her hair is or what she’s getting dressed in. You’re setting the character’s “normal” just before the unusual interrupts to start the story.
LW: What do you look for when you're reading a manuscript?
SP: I want to be absorbed in your story to the point that I forget I’m reading a submission and am just reading. And this usually comes down to voice, which is an easy term to throw around and harder to define or teach. It’s not about splashy, lavish descriptions or sassy dialog. Does your main character seem real and alive, like I could picture her walking around in the real world outside the page? Do her obstacles have stakes? Am I invested? Have you created a time and place for the story and drawn me into them? All of these questions matter whether you have a fast-paced crime thriller or a quiet family story set in familiar suburbs.
And the best way to develop your voice as a writer, paradoxically, is to read widely and deeply. Reading teaches your brain quietly how to pace a story, how to seed in details without drowning the reader in description or back story, so that your distinctive voice can emerge.
LW: Speaking of manuscripts, you've been active on Twitter using Manuscript Wish List's #MSWL hashtag. What's your involvement with Manuscript Wish List and what benefit does it offer agents, editors, and authors alike?
SP: Manuscript Wish List existed for a long time on Twitter as a hashtag where agents could tweet genres they’re interested in or story ideas they’re dying to represent. Sort of the reverse of a Twitter pitch event, it is the brainchild of an agent named Jessica Sinsheimer. In the last year or so, it’s taken on even more momentum with a very snazzy website where agents and editors can post profiles about what categories they represent and the kinds of stories within each category they’re most eager to see—and perhaps most handy of all, update those profiles as often as they like as their lists change. It seems to be a great help to authors in finding agents hungry for manuscripts like theirs.
And on my end, my eyes perk up when I see someone reference my MSWL in a query! It’s a nice shiny sign of an author who’s putting in the research and is plugged in to the latest in the writer community. I don’t think I’ve signed a project that way yet, but I’m sure I will soon!
LW: What's on your Manuscript Wish List?
SP: Right now I’d love to find some smart narrative nonfiction that brings that perfect combo of gripping storytelling and merciless research—something like Brain on Fire or Five Days At Memorial. I’d love to work with journalists who have a long-form book project. I’d also be interested in working with cultural voices with a growing platform—the next Lindy West or Ta-Nehisi Coates. And I think I’ll always be eager for smart, upmarket suspense (think Tana French or Gillian Flynn) and book club fiction that’s warm and earthy but not sappy—Ann Leary and Delia Ephron are two writers I’ve loved lately.
LW: What's your advice for aspiring writers?
SP: Find a community of writers to connect with! Whether it’s in your local area or online, find other writers in your category who take their writing seriously. They’ll be valuable as critique partners when you’re in the early stages of perfecting your manuscript, and more importantly, you’ll have a built-in fan club when you’re moving toward an agent and a publishing deal. There’s a lot of waiting, a lot of struggle, and a lot of disappointment along the way to a successful career with adoring readers and having support from writers who know what’s it’s like is key for boosting you during the hard patches. Finding writer friends at different stages of the process can be especially helpful for advice and encouragement! Even if your loved ones are your biggest fans, they don’t really know how it feels when you have writer’s block or have to cut out a scene you absolutely love.
LW: What is a random fact about yourself?
SP: Wow, this is the hardest question of all, I think! Hmmm, I’ll give you a few to choose from: I’m the oldest of seven, never went to school, and would choose mashed potatoes over pie any day of the week.
To learn more about Sharon Pelletier, follow her on Twitter @sharongracepjs.
The Writer’s Bone Interviews Archive
Literary Machine: Detroit Community Center Spreads Literacy With Free Kids’ Books
Photo courtesy of Fox 2
By Daniel Ford
Earlier this month, I ran across a feel-good news story about Detroit’s Northwest Activities Center distributing free summer reading to local kids through a nifty book vending machine.
The vending machine is courtesy of JetBlue’s “Soar With Reading” program, which aims to “encourage kids’ imaginations to take flight through reading and get books into the hands of kids that need them most.” According to the airline’s website, $1,750,000 worth of books have been donated to kids in need by JetBlue and its partners.
The Center, which opened its doors in 1975, serves more than 250,000 Detroit residents annually, and offers “programs and activities for youth, families, and seniors that enhance the quality of life in the Detroit community.”
Norris J. Howard III, the Center’s social media manager, graciously talked to me about the community’s reaction to the initiative and how it has helped give local youths access to books and literature.
Daniel Ford: How did the Northwest Activities Center become involved with JetBlue’s summer reading program, “Soar With Reading?” What are some of the objectives of the program?
Norris J. Howard III: JetBlue actually reached out to us based on our proximity to schools and our central location. Our objective with this partnership is to increase literacy in our area. Many Detroit youth have limited access to bookstores and libraries, and this was a way for us to make books (especially Early Childhood material) available to our community.
DF: What has the reaction been like from kids and their parents to this year’s book vending machine?
NJH: Overwhelmingly positive! The community has responded in an amazing way to the program. We have to restock the machine two to three times a day during peak hours and sometimes overnight due to our evening events.
DF: According to your executive director, Ronald Lockett, you’ve distributed more than 7,000 books in six weeks through your book vending machine. That’s a lot of books! Did you ever imagine restocking the machine so much?!
NJH: No, we had no idea the program would be so successful. We are absolutely thrilled that the community enjoyed the books so much.
To learn more about the Northwest Activities Center, visit their official website or like their Facebook page.
The Writer’s Bone Interviews Archive
Instantaneous Conversion: How Author Judith Freeman Became A Storyteller
Judiith Freeman
By Sean Tuohy
In her newest work, The Latter Days: A Memoir, author Judith Freeman takes readers on an insightful and frank journey that explores her upbringing and her relationships. The Latter Days is what every memoir should be: honest to its core and so well crafted that the reader can’t put it down.
Freeman was kind enough to take a few minutes to chat with me about writing her story and what shaped her literary voice.
Sean Tuohy: When did you know you wanted to be a storyteller?
Judith Freeman: In high school I starred in the school play, “The Diary of Anne Frank.” I grew up in a household largely without books and memorizing lines for this play gave me my first deep feeling for the power of words. Not until the age of 19, when I discovered the work of great writers like Hardy, Woolf, James, and Lawrence, did I know I wanted to be a storyteller. It was an instantaneous conversion.
ST: Which authors did you worship growing up?
JF: I didn’t read much as a child. I never owned a library card or remember being taken to a library. Growing up in large Mormon household with eight kids, our lives were primarily focused on the church. The few books on our one small bookshelf in the living room were mostly of a religious nature, books like Answers to Gospel Questions. In school, I wasn’t a very good student. I preferred being outdoors. I have a difficult time remembering anything I read in high school, which is why discovering “The Diary of Anne Frank” was so important to me.
But I do remember a book I read when I was quite young called The Boxcar Children that I liked very much because these kids were orphaned and got to live in a boxcar in the woods and furnish it by scavenging and they didn’t have parents anymore to tell them what to do. Later, I discovered a book called Alone by Admiral Richard E. Byrd, an account of the months he endured in the Antarctic, living alone in a shack buried in the ice and taking meteorological readings. In many ways it was an odd book for a girl like me to have embraced, but I’ve never forgotten it. Thinking about these two books now, I realize they each have a theme of solitude and the natural world.
ST: For The Latter Days, did your writing process change at all from how you write novels?
JF: Not really that much. You go into a room. You sit down. You write. I did, however, go through much deeper emotional swings writing a memoir, but essentially the “process” isn’t so different. You still have to decide what to say when. How much to tell, what to hold back. Whether to take this path or that one, and especially how the story begins and ends. Beginnings and endings can be so hard, but with this book they came to me quite easily.
ST: The Latter Days is a very frank and honest snapshot of a period in your life. How did you feel writing about such personal things?
JF: I was often nervous. But once I’d made the decision to write about my life there really wasn’t any turning back. On a daily basis, my mood might shift from amusement at the thought of something from the past, to the deepest grief when I remembered something else. I could not see any other way than to be very frank and honest. That is the sort of writer I am; the voice I employ is rather direct. It was the only way I could write this book.
ST: Since you were writing about something that happened to you, what kind of research did you do?
JF: Less than with other books, like The Long Embrace, my biography of Raymond Chandler and his wife, or my novel Red Water, which was set in the 19th century, and required a lot of research. Basically I just had to sit in a room and remember and, remarkably, that’s really not that difficult for most of us to do. I did look at a lot of family photographs, which helped stir memories, and I re-read the self-published memoirs my parents wrote at the end of their lives. Many of my ancestors wrote down their life stories, which Mormons have always been encouraged to do because they believe we do live in the latter days and a record of these times is important. In a sense, consciously or not, I suppose my own memoir comes out of this tradition.
ST: What’s next for you?
JF: A novel, perhaps, or some short stories. I’d like to return to fiction.
ST: What advice do you give to first-time writers?
JF: Write what you don’t know. Books are about more than our own experience, and researching a subject can be so exciting. The truth is there’s only one piece of real advice: Write, often, and, as Raymond Chandler said, study and emulate. In other words, read a lot and try to figure out how the books you admire were written.
ST: Can you tell us one random fact about yourself?
JF: I have a deep love for horses. I’ve owned six in my life, the last a buckskin thoroughbred-quarter horse named Zelda, given to me by Carole King. She was older when she came to me but we had ten good years together. She died three years ago and what I’m wondering is, will I get another horse in this lifetime?
To learn more about Judith Freeman, visit her official website or like her Facebook page.
The Writer’s Bone Interviews Archive
Loving the Truth: 8 Questions With Author and Podcaster Justin Macumber
Justin Macumber
By Sean Tuohy
Justin Macumber is a writer who is never at rest.
Between writing his next critically acclaimed story and producing his 7-year-old podcast, “The Dead Robot Society,” Macumber is constantly on the move.
I was lucky enough to chat with Macumber between projects about his writing style, the podcast, and what the future holds for him.
Sean Tuohy: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
Justin Macumber: It didn't hit me until high school that writing was something I might be good at. I was taking freshman English, and my teacher, Mrs. Rose, complimented my poetry highly. I don't write poems anymore, but those compliments stuck with me, empowering me to take my writing to longer forms.
ST: Who your early writing influences?
JM: Stephen King and Robert Heinlein. King has such an easy, casual style to his writing that greatly appeals to me. I also love that he's an author who doesn't let himself be stuck in one genre niche. Heinlein showed me that science fiction should be about the people, with the science a backdrop and supporting aspect.
ST: How did 'The Dead Robots Society" come to be?
JM: I'd been listening to podcasts since before they were called that, and I loved the idea of independently produced radio type shows sent to people via the Internet. I searched high and low for a topic I thought I could speak to that wasn't already well covered. At the same time, I was beginning to take my writing more seriously. Somehow one hit the other, and thus was born “The Dead Robots' Society” podcast, a show made by a bunch of aspiring writers for other aspiring writers. Now, over seven years later, we're still going strong, and we've dropped the "aspiring" aspect. Writers write, no other qualifier needed.
ST: What is your writing process like?
JM: A total mess. Usually I outline the story before I get started on it, but my latest work is being written completely by the seat of my pants. Why the change? I wish I knew. I just go with it, honestly. This one feels self-propelled. Once I have the first draft finished I go back through it and edit for story problems. After that it goes to beta readers so they can look for any issues I missed or didn't know existed. Once I have their notes back I do a third draft with their ideas in mind. Only then do I do a fourth draft for grammar, punctuation, and spelling problems. No use doing that until you're basically done with it. Then I sent it to my publisher to see if it's something they'll want. If so, great! If not, I either consider another publisher or put it out myself.
ST: Which do you find more difficult to write a short story or novel?
JM: They're really both the same, just one word after another. Short stories are hard because you don't have a lot of room for secondary plots or character moments, but novels can be difficult because you can lost in the world and end up wasting time on chapters or scenes you ultimately don't need. But, if you put a gun to my head, I'd say novels, if only because the length multiplies potential issues.
ST: What does the future hold for Justin Macumber?
JM: Too much! Right now I'm writing a sequel of sorts to my first horror novel Still Water, and after that I'll get back to a prequel to my debut novel Haywire. Once those two are done I'd like to finish my Born Of Fire trilogy that I've been writing for Crescent Moon Press. After that...who knows? I have several novel ideas in mind, all in different genres or combinations of genres.
ST: What advice do you give to other writers?
JM: First, be okay with sucking. All first drafts should suck. Just get the story out of your head and onto a page or monitor. Turn that turd into a diamond in later drafts. Secondly, don't get feedback from family or friends. They love you. You don't want that. You want honesty. Find beta readers who will tell you the truth. Love the truth, even when it hurts. Lastly, be savage in your edits. The phrase "kill your darlings" is a cliché amongst writers for a reason. If a word, a sentence, or even an entire chapter doesn't push forward the story and/or develop characters meaningfully, get rid of it. Don't love your own words so much you can't delete them. Words tell your story, but they also get in the way. Learn to know which words are doing which.
ST: Can you tell us one random fact about yourself?
JM: I'm a massive video game player. I know as a writer I'm supposed to read all the time, but I spend more time with a controller in my hands than I do with a book. And, it's been good for me, in that it's been an endless source of inspiration and ideas. Haywire never would have been written had it not been for “Mass Effect” causing me to ask myself questions about soldiers and their supplies. Still Water was directly inspired by Silent Hill. Video games have become amazing storytelling devices that also happen to look great and play well, and I encourage all writers to try them out.
To learn more about Justin Macumber, visit his official website, subscribe to his podcast, like his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @JustinMacumber.