Interview with G. Wells Taylor

G. WELLS TAYLOR was born in Oakville, Ontario, Canada in 1962, but spent most of his early life north of there in Owen Sound where he went on to study Design Arts at a local college. He later traveled to North Bay, Ontario to complete Canadore College’s Journalism program before receiving a degree in English from Nipissing University. Taylor worked as a freelance writer for small market newspapers and later wrote, designed and edited for several Canadian niche magazines.

He joined the digital publishing revolution early with an eBook version of his first novel When Graveyards Yawn that has been available online since 2000. Taylor published and edited the Wildclown Chronicle e-zine from 2001-2003 that showcased his novels, book trailer animations and illustrations, short story writing and book reviews alongside titles from other up-and-coming horror, fantasy and science fiction writers.

Still based in Canada, Taylor continues with his publishing plans that include additions to the Wildclown Mysteries and sequels to the popular Variant Effect series.

1.      You’re a horror writer. What scares you?
The knowledge that civilization is only a thin veneer.

2.      Who were the writers who introduced you to horror?
Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Robert E. Howard, Rod Serling, Ray Bradbury and Stephen King among others.

3.      What are the scariest supernatural creatures?
Ghosts.

4.      Did you write stories as a child? Were you encouraged to write?
I read comic books when I was a kid and learned some of the drawing basics by copying pictures of my favorite superheroes and monsters. Later I began creating my own characters and writing stories about them. My mother who was a teacher read these and encouraged me to write more. She was also a fan of genre fiction and we shared novels and talked about authors and books.

5.      What was your first publishing credit?
My high school English teacher produced a play I wrote as a class project and entered it in a countywide drama festival where it won the special adjudicator award for promising new writer. While it wasn’t a paid gig, it sure encouraged me to take my writing more seriously.

6.      Your trilogy, DRACULA OF THE APES, must have involved an enormous amount of research. I was particularly impressed by how well you managed to imitate 19^th century storytelling (in all the best ways). What did you do to prep for writing that saga? In preparation for writing Dracula of the Apes, I read fiction and genre novels from the era, and re-read the source books until I was dreaming them. So far as historical references and setting, I have to thank the local library and the many text, audio and video resources offered online.
Regarding the nineteenth century storytelling style, I love early genre fiction, and studied it in university. The lavish descriptions found in such narratives provide detailed accounts and definitions of the unknown or unfamiliar for audiences that had no access to radio, television or Internet communications. It is perfect for writing about exotic locations, horror and mystery.

7.   

The Variant Effect: Madhouse 1: Ziploc City by G. Wells Taylor

CRANK IT UP!

It’s never been easy working the squads, and in the aftermath of the GreenMourning operation, it’s gotten worse. Friends and colleagues died during GreenMourning, and something essential died with them. So now, everyone’s on edge knowing that the city-wide quarantine and their own efforts aren’t going to be enough if the Variant Effect takes hold of the population and spreads like a wildfire the way it did before.

The extreme psychological stresses experienced by squads had made those rules flexible, as if in homage to the days when the Variant Effect had first appeared, when half the force was drunk most of the time. They called it “cranking” when they used alcohol and drugs in the misguided belief that anesthetizing their nervous systems made them resistant to the Variant Effect.

Science had never proven this to be an effective barrier against infection, while it easily drew a correlation between cranking and absenteeism, insubordination, injury and accidental death.

However, the authorities knew that working the squads was dangerous and psychologically damaging with higher mortality rates than the police services, so members were given leeway for eccentric behavior.

But there were still limits.

And “Beachboy” has reached those limits. 

The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge

H.P. Lovecraft was a complicated guy. For all his influence, he never achieved commercial success in his lifetime. (The author of the Wikipedia article about him suggests that one reason was he lacked the drive to promote himself, which sounds like the dilemma faced by every indie author out there.)
This new novel is, according to its blurb, inspired by the lives of Lovecraft and his inner circle. I'm so there.

I love the cover.

Free Urban Fantasy for You!

Get free urban fantasy titles here.

Joan Didion just published another book. Yay!

I was in high school when I discovered the writing of Joan Didion. I can't remember which book was my gateway, either The White Album or Slouching Toward Bethlehem, but I was beginning to see that I wanted to be a writer myself and her elliptical style hypnotized me. I wanted to write that way. It was the first time I'd really analyzed "style' outside of an English class. And the first time I truly realized that something so effortless-seeming was actually insanely difficult. I cannot wait to read her latest book, which is out today. I have been a working writer for several decades now and I still have so much to learn from her.

Free Urban Fantasy giveaway

It's Monday, and there's a new Instafreebie giveaway!  This one is for Urban Fantasy novels. My favorite genre after mystery. Check out the freebies here.

God love Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Keep Her Safe

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (aka the Notorious RBG)  is my spirit animal. She's impressive enough now, but check out what she did before she joined the Supreme Court.
Ginsburg is a tiny woman (5'1") but she is the very embodiment of the Shakespeare quote, "Though she be but little, she is fierce."

Free Fae!

I've been wanting to read India Drummond's Blood Faerie and today, I snagged it free for signing up for her newsletter. You can too by going to Instafreebie.

The Next Book You Need to Read

This is a YA novel that's about something other than young love. It's a debut novel. You will be seeing more of author Angie Thomas. And you will not forget reading this one.
This is the blurb:

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Angie Thomas’s searing debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances addresses issues of racism and police violence with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty. Soon to be a major motion picture from Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions.
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Happy Birthday Patricia A, McKillip!

Actually, Patricia McKillip is a leap year baby, born on Febraury 29, but let us celebrate her today! And also let us celebrate the publication of her newest book, The Kingfisher, which came out earlier this month.

I devoured her books when I was younger--loved the Riddle Master trilogy--but got distracted by work and life and other writers and sort of forgot about her. But recently I saw an add for the omnibus edition of Riddle Master of Hed and wondered how many books of hers I missed out on. Turns out...quite a few. So early Christmas present to me.

The Bill of Rights

Right now, the popular vote loser who occupies the White House (when he isn't in Florida at his golf club), seems bent on destroying the bedrock foundation of rights that this country was built on. If you're wondering exactly what's laid out in the Bill of Rights, the Bill of Rights Institute has the text and tons of educational resources. Here's a brief history of the Bill of Rights provided by the ACLU, the organization that is on the front lines of protecting these rights. And just in case you want a pocket-sized Constitution to keep handy, you can buy a 10-pack for $12 here.  That's enough that you can mail the extra to anyone who might need a refresher course. The mailing list for the White House is: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 2050.

Friday Free Books

PublicDomainPictures.net

Insta-freebie, a great source for free ebooks, is doing a blow-out giveaway this weekend. Sign up (it takes about three seconds) and start downloading books in half a dozen categories (nearly 1000 in all).

Andrew Jackson

I was born for a storm and calm does not suit me --Andrew Jackson

We're hearing a lot about Andrew Jackson these days as the "populist" presidency of Donald Trump rampages through Washington, sending shockwaves across America and the world. If you're curious about who Jackson really was, this is the biography to read. 

Jon Meacham's American Lion presents a dimensional look at the seventh president of the United States as he  deals with multiple adversaries and issues—Indian removal, states’ rights, financial corruption, and his own unruly household.  

Jackson was a two-term president and one of his main goals was keeping the young democracy he inherited from falling apart. It's worth reading American Lion for the backdrop of issues that continue to plague America, especially the dark heritage of slave-holding and Native American genocide.

In It to End It!

Today is "Shine a Light on Slavery" Day. the day is meant to raise awareness about modern-day slavery and human trafficking. You can find more information at Shine a Light's site.

A Meme for Monday

Happy Valentine's Day

Last year, as a Valentine's Day present to myself, I bought a month's worth of stock photograph downloads to use for book covers and blog posts and the like. One of the photographers whose work I fell in love with is Andrejs Pidjass, who calls himself Nejron. You can find his Shutterstock portfolio here. He stages a lot of shots and provides his models with costumes and his work is just great. He works with these two models a lot and I like the pictures so much they've inspired a new series for me. You should check out his work. Or like him on Facebook. Check out his website. Or browse his portfolio on Dreamstime. Or on Stockfresh.  He's really versatile and I guarantee you've seen some of his work on covers. That's his photograph on the cover of my book Bride of the Midnight King,

SFF Book Mega Promotion

Check them out here.

A new Bernie Gunther book coming in April!

I love this series and I love that Kerr is advancing in time with each book in the series. This one sounds particularly riveting as it will be tying the past to the present. Here's the blurb:

From New York Times–bestselling author Philip Kerr, the much-anticipated return of Bernie Gunther, our compromised former Berlin bull and unwilling SS officer. With his cover blown, he is waiting for the next move in the cat-and-mouse game that, even a decade after Germany’s defeat, continues to shadow his life.
 
The French Riviera, 1956: The invitation to dinner was not unexpected, though neither was it welcome. Erich Mielke, deputy head of the East German Stasi, has turned up in Nice, and he’s not on holiday. An old and dangerous adversary, Mielke is calling in a debt. He intends that Bernie go to London and, with the vial of Thallium he now pushes across the table, poison a female agent they both have had dealings with.

But chance intervenes in the form of Friedrich Korsch, an old Kripo comrade now working for Stasi and probably there to make sure Bernie gets the job done. Bernie bolts for the German border. Traveling by night, holed up during the day, Bernie has plenty of down time to recall the last time Korsch and he worked together.

Novels with Soul--Free books in honor of African-American History Month

A multi-genre, multi-author giveaway! Select your books here.

Free YA Fantasy Books!

Who doesn't like free books? Here's a chance to grab ten free YA fantasy books for the weekend. Weather's predicted to be bad over much of the nation, so settle in for a winter night's read! Find the freebies here.

If nothing else, don't buy anything on 2/17/17

Just in case you haven't read Coretta Scott King's 1986 letter

Yesterday in an extraordinary move.  Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell used an obscure rule to silence Senator Elizabeth Warren as she attempted to read this letter from Coretta Scott King. The subject was Jefferson Sessions, a man she believed unqualified to be a judge and who now, after decades more examples of his disdain for voting rights (among other things) many believe is unqualified to be Attorney General of the United States. Later, several of Warren's male colleagues (including Sherrod Brown and Tom Udall) successfully read the letter into the record and today, you can find it online at many, many newspaper sites. Here are several.The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time Magazine.  Read the letter.

Kelley Armstrong's new series

I first encountered author Kelley Armstrong as the writer of the Otherworld urban fantasy series, which I loved. I remember reading somewhere that Angelina Jolie had optioned Bitten but I never saw any follow-up on that so I thought the project had died. And then it showed up on the Syfy network. Her first book was published in 1999 and since then she's been busy, some years publishing as many as eight books in one year, which would be a blistering pace for an indie author and is almost unheard-of for a traditionally published author (with the exception of Stephen King and James Patterson who basically create their own weather when it comes to publoishing).

I just found out she has embarked on a new series, this time of thrillers "starring" a female detective with a dark secret. When she was younger, she killed the son of a mob boss.
The series is already two books in, which means (yay) that I'll get to read two before I have to wait for the next one.
Here's the blurb for the first book in the series, City of the Lost:

Casey Duncan is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows that someday this crime will catch up to her. Casey's best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana's husband finds her, and Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it's time for the two of them to disappear again.
Diana has heard of a town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you're accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, and living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council's approval. As a murderer, Casey isn't a good candidate, but she has something they want: She's a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn't the only secret Rockton is hiding—in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives.

New Cover from Christa at Paper and Sage

My urban fantasy novel Misbegotten will finally be out in late spring and I'm already working on the sequel. I was playing around with names and I saw this cover on the Paper and Sage site. The temp title was completely apt for my book, so I had the designer, Christa Holland, swap out my name for the place holder and voila. the designer also does custom work. I've already bookmarked several other covers. 

Neil DeGrasse Tyson

We all know that smart is sexy, but who knew we'd end up with a rockstar astrophysicist? Neil deGrasse Tyson is the best thing to happen to science since the apple fell on Isaac Newton's head.  He's even become the subject of memes in support of science in a time when anti-intellectualism is rampant.

 Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about how it was kind of creepy finding out he's the topic of a meme.

 This is Neil deGrasse Tyson's latest book. You can get it here.
Here he is talking about alien life.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

"It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men."--Frederick Douglass

 Thanks to Project Gutenberg, Frederick Douglass' monumental memoir--Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave--is available here.For more information about the statesman, you can start here or here. His home is a National Historic site.

Douglass is considered one of the great American orators and you can find his speech on "The Hypocrisy of American Slavery" is archived here.  Good Reads has a collection of his memorable quotes here.

"Without a struggle, there can be no progress."--Frederick Douglass

Signature has a list of the five best biographies of Frederick Douglass.

An interesting take on immigration...soon to be a movie

Sweetness in the Belly is an odd title, so it stands out when you see it turn up in "also reads" and "recommended" comments online. Camilla Gibbs' novel is about a young women raised in Africa who flees to England finds herself a stranger in a strange land. The  book is being adapted for a movie and will star the wonderful Saoirse Ronan as the protatonist.

Shakespeare, Time Travel, Macbeth

The Shakespeare Standard has an interview with Invisible Hand author James Hartley today, and his new "Shakespeare Moon" series sounds intriguing. The plot takes a contemporary kid back to Scotland and entangles him with the events of Macbeth. I think that's a fantastic idea. I never understood why high schools insisted on inflicting Julius Caesar on students as their first introduction to Shakespeare. Yes, yes, it's got "Friends, Romans, and Countrymen, lend me your ears" but it's really not one of the most riveting plays. But Macbeth?  It's got sex. It's got intrigue. It's got WITCHES. Start out with Macbeth and you might just end up with a kid who likes Shakespeare.

Here's the sales pitch:

The Invisible Hand is about a boy, Sam, who has just started life at a boarding school and finds himself able to travel back in time to medieval Scotland. There he meets a girl, Leana, who can travel to the future, and the two of them become wrapped up in events in Macbeth, the Shakespeare play, and in the daily life of the school. The book is the first part of a series called Shakespeare´s Moon. Each book is set in the same boarding school but focuses on a different Shakespeare play.

This is Dr. Seuss in 1941

NEVER FORGET

Today is Multicultural Children's Book Day

There are book lists and recommendations all over the Internet today, suggestions to widen the horizons of readers.

Because Science is not a Liberal Conspiracy

Because, science!!

Tuesday read

Hannah Arendt died nearly 42 years ago, but her book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, is newly relevant. Your local library almost certainly has a copy of the book, which is a landmark work of social criticism and analysis.

Here's the Wikipedia article about the book. Here's the book description from Amazon:

The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time—Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia—which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.

We are the storm...

I marched today in a sister/solidarity march for the Women's March in D.C. The crowd was packed with women and men and children, and dogs. The signs were an eclectic collection of pleas, protests, and observations about a variety of issues. Mostly, in line with the wishes of the organizers, there were no anti-Trump messages.
There was a lone Trump protestor who waved a black flag with Trump's name on it and randomly shouted, "Who did we elect?" He was drowned out by shouts of "Love trumps hate."
This poster art was shared with me by a fellow marcher. I don't know who the artist is, but I love the sentiment so I hope s/he won't mind that I've shared it here.
This is a movement.
We are not going away.
We will hold the president and his cabinet accountable. And we will not let the "new normal" destroy the country ALL of us hold dear.
Power to the people. 

Now more than ever...read!

The Bronze Horseman

I have been on something of a Russian history binge since reading Eva Stachniak's luminous historical novel about Catherine the Great, The Winter Palace. The Bronze Horseman is a novel that kept coming up when I was checking out sales rank on my own The Summer Garden. I'd always thought it had a handsome cover, and I finally read the description, which compares it to both The Thorn Birds and Dr. Zhivago. Juicy love stories both. I may have to get this book.

I tremble for my country

Serpent on the Rock by Kurt Eichenwald

I would say this book should probably be required reading as we head into the Trump presidency.

This is the sales pitch:  A real-life thriller—the story of kickbacks and payoffs, of shady deals struck in secret with known felons; a story in which half a million people lose enormous sums—some their life’s savings—in the largest securities fraud of the 1980s, with names like Onassis and Bush numbered among the victims.

So many book lists!

I live in the Pacific Northwest, which is blessed with wonderful bookstores, including Village Bookstore in Bellingham and Powell's Bookstore.  The Powell's staff in Portland, Oregon has an outstanding book blog, and they have this great list. I've only read a couple of the books on the list, so clearly, I have some reading to do.

Dismissing women in science isn't a new thing...