Today, on behalf of The Free Choice E-zine (TFCE), its Editor-In-Chief Lee Houston, Junior interviews a long time author with an interesting storied past
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I’ve won awards for my pulp work (Best Author, Best Novel), mystery stories and a steampunk adventure novel.
TFCE: How have you managed to produce so much? What particular routine or requirements do you have for a writing session?
TEEL: Being retired from my stunt and teaching careers, I pretty much wake up, hit my emails and then get right to work.
As to requirements—I can write anywhere, even in crowds or parks, but I dislike silence. I prefer the TV playing in the background. I know. That seems at odds with creating my own words and worlds—but it keeps me from getting ‘stuck’ in a story. I can look up and mentally breathe for a moment before diving back in.
TFCE: I understand. I prefer the radio myself but when I get “in the writing zone”, I even tune that out for awhile. But considering your myriad genres and body of work, to date, what elements do you think make for a good story?
TEEL: Character, pacing and honesty.
Characters that the reader cares about—even if they are not the hero or villain they have to be interesting and not cliche, cardboard figures.
Pacing is the thing that makes the reader turn the page. It does not have to be action/violence that propels the reader forward. Even in a mood piece you can use language to compel the reader to want to keep reading.
And by honesty I mean that if you don’t care the reader will not. You have to invest yourself in the words and the world so the reader will.
Craft is important too. Grammar, punctuation, knowing how to divide your paragraphs, etc. But it is your emotional investment in telling a good story that will connect with the reader.
TFCE: Even if you don’t agree with everything they do or say, you have to know your characters so the readers will too.
TEEL: Exactly.
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| Cover art by GetCovers |
TEEL: While it is a lonely occupation, as most creative arts are, it is the need to be able to rise above the ‘white noise’ with so many authors out there that is the hardest part. The ‘business’ part of a writing career—being on social media, going to conventions, meetings and making contacts. It was easier when agents handled a good part of that sort of thing but now even those with agents are forced into the part of being a showman/marketing genius.
TFCE: I understand. I have no problem talking to readers and fans but like the creative side better myself. Now let’s talk about your latest novel, Not Born Of Woman. It certainly has an interesting premise.
TEEL: The book follows Adam Paradise in 1939 New York City who is a Private Investigator with a secret—he is the creature created by Doctor Victor Frankenstein over 160 years before! He takes on cases that help him explore what it is to be human and find his place in the world.
In the first book he goes up against the Nazi bund in NYC (which was very big and active at the time) and finds himself enmeshed in a maze of occult mystery. It is the first volume in the new Paradise Investigations series.
TFCE: While you are far from the first to expand upon Mary Shelley’s classic novel, what attracted you to the mythos?
TEEL: I’ve always viewed the Creature as the ultimate outcast—an innocent in search of purpose and he called to me as the perfect vehicle to explore the injustices of society and examine what it really is to be human.
TFCE: And how does Not Born Of Woman stand out from previous uses of the creature?
TEEL: I think in the purely internal life I give him—in his deeper questioning for meaning than most takes on the creature which are more action oriented. Not that there is not action—but his journey is as internal as external through the mystery of the narrative.
TFCE: Yet while Victor Frankenstein’s creation never had a proper name in Mary Shelley’s novel, how did you derive the name Adam Paradise?
TEEL: He is only referred to as ‘the creature’ in Shelley’s novel, but I have always felt sympathy for the Frankenstein creature as the victim of his creator’s hubris. He compares himself to Adam of the Bible, but is never given a name, formally. And, as the book he finds to read from is Milton’s Paradise Lost—it seems appropriate to adopt Paradise as his last name.
He states in the book (it is told first person) that he has had several last names since his return to humankind, but always kept Adam as his first.
TFCE: Has anyone yet to realize who Adam really is? And if so, how do they react?
TEEL: Adam’s ‘secret’ is closely held—though some may guess it—(and that may be a point in the book) but primarily he is guarded by the fact that his story has entered legend and myth…
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| Classic version of the creature. |
TFCE: Considering Mary Shelley’s original novel was published in 1818 and his first adventure with you happens in 1939, is Adam still ‘The Modern Prometheus’?
TEEL: Well, technically it is Victor Frankenstein who is the Prometheus of the title. It is he who brought fire (lightning) from the sky to create this Creature. But Adam is indeed a ‘modern man’ in his attitudes and open mindedness.
TFCE: Any thoughts as to why Shelley never followed up on the creature herself?
TEEL: I think she had said all she wanted to say with her indictment of modern hubris. She essentially wrote a modern version of a medieval morality play and considered she had made her point.
TFCE: What are you working on now?
TEEL: I completed the second book in my Paradise Investigations series A Walking Shadow for Macabre Ink Press and turned it in. I have a couple of short story and novella projects I owe, then I start Paradise Investigations book three (The Undiscovered Country) soon.
TFCE: And here’s hoping for a fourth volume and beyond. But if you don’t mind me asking, was it an interesting journey going from acting stuntman sword master to author?
TEEL: Well, I was a sickly child and so the fictional heroes (and stunt men) of the old serials and pulp stories were my escape and role models. Later, when I was working on a book that had a sword fight in it, I took a class in Swashbuckling 101 and the moment I picked up that sword I knew that I wanted to devote my life to sword play and action.
And for 45 years I did. As well as other stunts like car hits and fire work, jousting, stair falls. And teaching and choreographing fights and swordplay for stage and screen. And all that does work its way into my writing in that, in teaching action I had to be able to explain it and so that set me up to be able to write about it.
It allows me to visualize the action in detail and in a way that makes it clear to the reader—I hope.
TFCE: At this point about all that’s left is to ask where can readers discover more about you and your books?
TEEL: All my writing is available through Amazon or the individual publishers directly. Readers can find out more about me at TheUrbanSwashbuckler.com or on Bluesky @teelglenn or Facebook at Teel James Glenn.
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