Today,
THE FREE CHOICE E-ZINE
is chatting with author Joel Jenkins about his new novel Barclay
Salvage: Off Season.
Why don't we start off with a little bit about the book Joel?
JOEL
JENKINS: Aaron Barclay
runs a small salvage operation from his ship The Scavenger, but his
attempts to make a living salvaging abandoned spaceships and other
space debris is complicated by run-ins with interstellar pirates,
distress calls from prison asteroids, and an inexplicable bounty
which gets placed on the heads of every member of his crew.
Accompanying
him on his escapades are his blue-skinned flirtatious and scatter gun
toting co-pilot Ursula, a Pagouline security officer with scaled
epidermis and four eye stalks, and one very grumpy engineer. A decent
paycheck always seems just one more salvage away, but when salvage
goes horribly awry the survivors walk away with more money and
trouble than they ever wanted or expected.
While
previous sections of this novel were published within Startling
Adventures Magazine
and Pro Se Press’s Six-Guns
and Space Ships, those
stories and the missing sections are published in sequential order in
one volume for the first time. Barclay
Salvage: Off Season is
the first novel in a three book series. The second: One
for the Dark & Shadowed Sky,
is already written and currently undergoing editing.
TFCE:
Going over your Amazon Author's page reveals some interesting
selections. Why do you write what you do?
JOEL:
For some strange reason, not long after I learned to read, I became
compelled to write stories. I come by this peculiar tendency
honestly; my father, grandmother, and aunt are all published authors.
As for writing the particular sort of action-based stories (in genres
like weird west, fantasy, science fiction, and thriller) that I do,
all I can say is that I write the type of stories that I might like
to read.
TFCE:
And from what, if anything, do you draw creative inspiration from?
JOEL:
Just about anything. Off
Season is my 20th
published book and I have twenty others completely written, partially
written, or in the planning stages.
TFCE:
Have there been any influences upon your style or technique?
JOEL:
Though I wasn’t around for the heyday of pulp magazines during
World War 2, at a young age I discovered a number of books reprinting
Doc Savage, Conan,
Kull, Tarzan and John
Carter Warlord of Mars
novels. These action-based, highly imaginative stories with vivid
word usage have been the underpinnings to my style.
TFCE:
What would be your dream project?
JOEL:
I’ve been fortunate that all the books I’ve written have been
dream projects of some sort. An idea captures my imagination and I’m
able to run with it and see where it takes me. I’ve been blessed
with a day job that pays the bills and though this gives me less time
to put words on paper than a full time writer, I haven’t been
required to write anything that doesn’t interest or engage me in
order to put food on the table.
TFCE:
Every author seems to have an unusual story (or more) about their day
job. What's yours?
JOEL:
It didn't happen at work, but once I impersonated a ghost. I wrote
about the experience as part of the first Weird
Worlds of Joel Jenkins
anthology of short stories I did for Pulp Work Press.
TFCE:
Where do you foresee yourself within the next few years?
JOEL:
Hopefully, I’m still above ground and putting my wild imaginations
to paper.
TFCE:
Are there any other projects you would like to promote?
JOEL:
Yes. Anyone who would like to pick up one of my books FREE in e-book
or Kindle format should head over to my website at
http://www.joeljenkins.net
and sign up for my infrequent newsletter which will keep you apprised
of my latest stories and novels.
For
a complete listing of books I wrote—from the nonfiction One
Foot in My Grave, to
the children's book Pirates
of Mirror Land to the
sword and science fiction Dire
Planet series—please
check out my Amazon author page at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AJoel+Jenkins&keywords=Joel+Jenkins&ie=UTF8&qid=1299593707&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B003CM3KIW
And
of course, everything's available from Amazon in print or e-book
format.
TFCE:
Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with us.
JOEL:
Anytime.
Images provided by the author.
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