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.   

Just Another Day in Paradise has just gone wide!

Back in 2011, I dipped my toes in the indie author waters by releasing a collection of my short fiction called Just Another Day in Paradise. The cover was created by G. Wells Taylor (author of the brilliant Dracula of the Apes trilogy, as well as other horror classics, including Bent Steeple). The photograph was by retired firefighter Keith Cullom, who allowed me to purchase the licensing rights on time because he normally sells to magazines like National Geographic. for a lot more than I had in my budget. (See his amazing photos at Fire Image.)

I wanted that picture!  I'd seen it published in the paper during one of California's apocalyptic wildfires and it took me about three hours of Googling before I tracked down the photographer.

I had the book exclusive to Amazon's Kindle for  years but I decided it twas time to test the waters with other platforms as well. To celebrate going wide, I re-edited the collection, adding 45,000 words of new stories and weeding out some stories that weren't working for me. The result is, I think, a nicely "curated" collection of short fiction that represents my best work over the last decade. If you're interested, you can get it on Kobo, B&N, 24 Symbols, Page Foundry, Apple, Scribd, Tolino, and of course, Amazon.

A Vampire a Day: Bent Steeple by G. Wells Taylor

Horror writer G. Wells Taylor (his new book, The Night Once More is a genre-bending, phantasmagorical noir-horror-thriller), hit an absolute home run with Bent Steeple, a stand-alone vampire book set in the Canadian north woods. If you like Stephen King (and I do, a lot), you will LOVE this book. The characterizations are absolutely first rate, from a doctor who sees what's happening before anyone else, to a disabled kid. (Fergus will break your heart.) this is another vampire book that is for readers who prefer their horror to be just that--horrific. Taylor is also the author of the Dracula of the Apes trilogy, a masterful mashup of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Bram Stoker. (You'll never look at Tarzan the same way again.)

Bonus:  I love this cover. Stark. Graphic. Eerie-looking. So much subtler than the usual black and red  with creatures.

Why Ask Why?

My first foray into "indie publishing" was in October of 2010 when I put out a collection of short stories called Just Another Day in Paradise.  I was a total newbie at the time, but guided by the incredibly patient and helpful G. Wells Taylor (author of my favorite vampire novel Bent Steeple), It got it together and put it up for sale. I made some mistakes--the TOC isn't interactive, which it should be, and I paid, way, way, way too much for the awesome cover image. (I'd do it again, though. I saw the photo when it was first published in the newspaper and then tracked it down with the most intensive Google image search ever.)

The collection was never a big seller, so at some point, I made it "perma-free."  And as it turns out, there are a lot of people who wn't pay 99 cents for a collection of short stories, but are more than happy to pick it up for free. (Yes, I CAN give my work away.) So month after month, I've watched people "buy" the book.  Some of them have been nice enough to leave reviews (thank you very much) and in the intervening four years, the collection has rarely been out of the top 10 of free book collections. So I have to ask--why has there suddenly been an uptick in downloads of the book this month, nearly four years after it first became available?  So far this month, I have "sold" more than 300 copies of the collection and it is now rated #3 in athologies and collections/horor and #6 in anthologies and short stories in the fantasy/sci fi genre.

I'm not complainng, I'm just curious.  If you haven't read the stories and would like to, you can find the collection free here. 

The Next Big Thing

Nuyorican Noir writer Richie Narvaez tapped me for The Next Big Thing (read what he had to say about HIS next big thing here). If you haven't read his outstanding short story collection Roachkiller and Other stories, do yourself a favor and buy it for Christmas. Or you can sample his story "Hurricane" for 99 cents.

The idea is that everyone on the blog tour answers the same questions, then taps another five writers to move it forward. Here are my answers:

1) What is the working title of your current/next book?  Misbegotten.

2) Where did the idea come from?  Several years ago I wrote a story about a vampire with senile dementia for John Donald Carlucci's Astonishing Adventures Magazine. The protagonist of the story was a crime reporter named Kira Simkins and I really enjoyed the world of the story (a not-so-normal Los Angeles), so much so that I've written around 20 or so stories set in the world since then, some with Kira and some without, but all about supernatural crime.  I decided I wanted to write a larger story for Kira, who is a "misbegotten," a not-quite-human born of a mother who was bitten by a vampire while pregnant with her. That's where the title came from. 

3) What genre does your book fall under? Urban fantasy melded with mystery with a dash of noir.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?  Liv Tyler or Selma Blair for Kira. The vampire in charge of L.A. in my story is a folksy, avuncular guy who hides his evil under a bland exterior so that you only get glimpses of what he's really like. Scott Wilson or Beau Bridges would be perfect. For Michael Etebari, the head of a security company and the alpha wolf of a local werewolf pack, I'd love Oded Fehr. Kira is older than she looks (a benefit of her "Misbegotten blood" that means she's slow to age), so her on-again/off-again love interest, John Dannon (head of LAPD's paranormal crime unit) is the same age but looks older. Idris Elba would be wonderful.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  A paranormal crime reporter is caught up in a power struggle when war between vampire factions breaks out in Los Angeles.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I've had a nibble of interest from an agent but the book will be published under the Dark Valentine imprint that I run jointly with Joy Sillesen. (Dark Valentine's latest books are the Nightfalls anthology and Christine Pope's fantasy romance Dragon Rose.)

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft?  I've been working on it off and on since forever, it seems like, but once I got started in earnest, about six months. I hope to have it done by January 15 at the latest.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series; Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series; Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville books.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?  Well, isn't everyone writing a novel? Basically I wanted to stretch my boundaries. I'm  pretty comfortable writing short stories, but I really wanted to explore my supernatural city and my characters. I also wanted to write a paranormal book that made these creatures seem real and not just fantasy objects with tattooed shoulders and shimmering skin. That was how the first story about the senile vampire (called "Tired Blood") came about. I wondered how a really old vampire's mind would hold out.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?  I think I've created a spin on the tired old tropes, offering an Urban Fantasy about characters that have a ring of reality about them whether they're human or not. There are no tramp stamps here and no emo longings for forbidden love. Kira has a very practical attitude toward the paranormals in her circle (who include shape-shifters and were-bears and goblins and fire demons, not just the usual vamps and weres)--they're all monsters. Sleeping with monsters never ends well, in her opinion. You either end up a monster yourself, or you end up dead. 

The writers I'm tagging are:  Canadian horror writer G. Wells Taylor, whose vanpire novel Bent Steeple is one of my favorite books.

Christine Pope, whose lush fantasy romances and zippy contemporary novels are entertaining and smart. Check out her latest, Dragon Rose.

Kat Laurange who's a double menace--a writer and an illustrator who balances a career, a life as a wife and mother, and half a dozen other responsibilities. I'm a hard worker but she makes me look like a slacker. 

Steven Luna, a friend of a friend whose story for the Nightfalls anthology ("Last Shift") was just superb. Check out his Joe Vampire stories.

Joanne Renaud, also a writer and illustrator whose romance novella, Question of Time, has just been published by Champagne Press.

Fiction Friday: G. Wells Taylor's "Memory Lane:"

I'm a huge fan of Canadian horror writer G. Wells Taylor (whose vampire novel Bent Steeple is one of the best of the genre). He writes creepy, character-based stories that run the gamut from post-apocalyptic urban fantasy/noir (his Wildclown series) to his variant on the zombie apocalypse (The Variant Effect) to this tale of psychological horror featuring a couple of memorable human monsters. You can read my review on Amazon here, and while you're there, pick up a copy of the novella for $1.99.

Halloween Horror--Painkiller from G. Wells Taylor

If you don't know the work of horror writer G. Wells Taylor, now is a perfect time to remedy that situation. His seven-part serial The Variant Effect is available in a free e-book and just in time for Halloween, he's released a sequel novella, Painkiller. Painkiller bridges the gap between The Variant Effect and Taylor's upcoming novel, GreenMourning.

Painkiller features the return of Variant Squad Captain Joe Borland in a gut-wrenching story of grisly horror that reminds readers that the Variant Effect has returned and this time...it's personal. Both Borland and his colleague Hyde have had bitter losses and there are more to come.

The Variant Effect: Painkiller is available in FREE multi-format downloads at SkinEaters.com and other locations. If you haven't read the novel that started it all--Get a free copy of The Variant Effect for your digital library at Taylor's site; SkinEaters.com, , BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com, Kobobooks.com, iBookstore, Diesel-eBooks.com, Smashwords.com and eBookstoreSony.com where all other G. Wells Taylor titles are available as multi-format eBook for $3.99 or to order in paperback.

If you're not in the mood for Skin Eaters, then bite into a very different kind of horror with Taylor's vampire novel Bent Steeple. I'm going to keep telling you about Bent Steeple until you go out and read it, so you might as well listen to me now.

Books and Chocolate

One of my ongoing gigs is reviewing books for sites like California Literary Review, where I'm the go-to-gal for genre. We were just asked to pick our favorite book of 2009 and my pick was Thomas Pynchon's hilarious and accessible Inherent Vice. It's going to be a gateway book for readers who've always wanted to check him out but have been intimidated by the length of his work. Set in 70s L.A., it's a neo-noir, Pynchon's version of Chinatown. He provided his own narration for the book trailer and it's hilarious. Watch it to the very end.

I'm also recommending Bent Steeple by my friend Geoff (G. Wells Taylor to you). It is a very different kind of vampire book set in the far north of Canada. If you like King or Dean Koontz' character-driven books, you will love Bent Steeple. Geoff's making it easy for you to check it out, offering sample chapter downloads in a variety of formats. The whole book is only $1.99 in e-book format. Well, well, worth it.

It's raining here in L.A. which means it was a soup and chocolate chip cookie kind of day. Savoring a freshly baked cookie, I suddenly remembered I had to post a new recipe over at BellaOnline.com. If you like making candy and you don't have time to futz with candy thermometers, check out my easy chocolate truffle recipes.