Pick Six with James Newman

I'm excited to present the first installment of a new feature called "Pick Six with ___."  It's a variation on the traditional interview, as the subject gets to choose whichever six questions he/she would like to answer from a list of nearly forty items (questions and prompts pertaining to the writer's own work, as well as his/her thoughts on the world of horror).

Helping me to launch this feature today is James Newman, author of the novels Midnight Rain and The Wicked, novellas such as Holy Rollers and The Forum, and the short story collection People Are Strange.  His latest novel, Animosity, comes from Necessary Evil Press, and bears a subtitle that resonates throughout the Macabre Republic: "An American Horror Story."

Here are the six questions James picked:

1.What is the best writing advice you ever received?

Less is more.  It's all about the flow.  Why use 100 words to say what can be said in 10?  I prefer crisp, clean, lean 'n mean prose that doesn't waste a word.  It's what I like to read, so naturally it's how I enjoy writing.


2.What is your greatest phobia?

That one's easy: spiders.  It's worse than you could ever imagine, dude.  I see one in the house, I start yelling for my wife or 11-year-old son to come kill it.  I firmly believe that spiders are pure Evil on eight legs.  Just sitting here thinking about those friggin' things gives me goosebumps.


3.What did you enjoy most about writing your latest book?

The fact that I was writing (what I hope is) a disturbing horror novel set in the real world, populated by real people affected by events that could really happen.  Animosity is about a bestselling horror writer whose neighbors turn against him after he finds the body of a murdered child, as they believe there must be some connection between the subject matter of his novels and his tragic discovery (because who could make up such twisted stuff without being a little sick in the head to begin with, right?).  While what happens to my protagonist might seem a little far-fetched when things are at their worst for him, I don't think there's anything in Animosity that's impossible.  Or improbable, for that matter.  People scare me, and the things we humans are capable of is more terrifying to me than vampires or werewolves or zombies.  It doesn't take much at all for folks we thought were our friends to transform into monsters, when they allow themselves to be misled by prejudice, gossip, and/or a mob mentality.

Humans might be scarier than spiders, in fact.  But just barely.  ;)


4.What excites you about the project you are working on now?

That it's sort of a departure from what I normally do.  The novel I'm working on right now is called Ugly As Sin, and it's not a horror novel at all.  It is a very dark story, but if I had to categorize it I guess I'd call it "white trash noir."  It's a book influenced by the likes of Joe R. Lansdale, my favorite writer.  Very Southern, with characters who might be hideous on the outside but beautiful on the inside, and vice versa.

I'm very proud of this one.  I've had more fun writing Ugly As Sin than anything I've written to date.  I can't wait for folks to read it.


5.What do you think readers would be most surprised to learn about you?

That I'm a Christian.  However, I say that with a loud disclaimer.  I don't consider myself to have anything in common with the kinds of people most folks think of when they hear the word "Christian."  I'm not a fan of organized religion, and can't stand most of the bigoted, close-minded assholes associated with it.  If that's Christianity, then maybe I'm not a Christian at all...

Besides, I cuss too much.


6.Which one of your books would you most like to see developed into a movie, and who would be your dream cast for that film?

I think Midnight Rain would make a wonderful movie.  Haven't really thought about casting it in my mind, but it sounds fun.

For Kyle Mackey: how about Chandler Riggs ("Carl" from The Walking Dead)?  He's a little young at the moment, but he'd work.  For his big brother Dan, who Kyle looks up to in more ways than one...gonna throw in an off-the-wall pick that only my fellow die-hard Tar Heels basketball fans will get: Jackson Simmons.  Maybe Catherine Keener as their mom, Darlene?  She never fails to impress.  As poor  "Rooster," the young man framed for a crime he did not commit: Al Shearer (Glory Road).  And as the despicable villain of the piece, Sheriff Burt Baker, I've got to go with Michael Rooker.  He'd be just about perfect.