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Author Interview: Benedict J. Jones - The Devil's Portion. Book 12 in the Short Sharp Shocks! series4/14/2019 Benedict J. Jones and Dean actually met at a BFS open night when Dean was launching PHOBOPHOBIA (Dark Continents) several years ago. They’d kept in touch and ran into each other a few times since, most recently at a BFS Open Night in December 2018. They’d promised to work together on something…The Devil’s Portion is (hopefully!) the first collaboration.
DEMAIN PUBLISHING: Great to see you…tell us about The Devil’s Portion… BENEDICT J. JONES: Hi and of course…the story is an occult thriller set in the USSR during the inter-war period and centres around Commissar Oleksandr Chichenko. Chichenko is sent up to the far north to investigate the disappearance of a fellow commissar. I love the idea of isolation in horror whether that is through geography or more mental means. In this case, above the Arctic Circle in 1936 was a pretty lonely place and ripe for a story bringing in folk horror elements. DP: I found it very atmospheric and you crammed in (in a good way!) so much into the story…what challenges did you face when writing it? BJJ: Getting the historical detail correct was a big challenge, I hate for there to be any anachronisms when I write a historical piece. Also for this story I felt it was important to leave a lot of it in the mind of the reader. DP: Writing historical pieces can be tricky and I know that from personal experience, when you were creating The Devil’s Portion did you ever feel as if you were on the characters and / or were there any parts of the story which were based on events in your life? BJJ: I think that for parts of the story I definitely put myself in Chichenko’s boots. The story centres on him and I always think it is important that you try to experience a story from the point of view of the important characters. That said I don’t believe any of the commissar’s experiences are based directly on my own! DP: I’ve been an admirer of your work for a while now – for those that perhaps haven’t read any of your previous books would you say that you have a specific writing style and is there anything you find particularly challenging when you write? BJJ: Thanks. My writing style is often described as sparse and clipped back. I think that has a lot to do with me writing the neo-noir stuff and this has now become something of a trademark – if I can make you see something in three words rather than thirty I’ll use three every time. DP: That’s a great talent to have – I’ve been experimenting myself with a more ‘clipped back’ approach – I’m enjoying that process as for me Hemingway is an influence…who are your influences? BJJ: I think there are a lot of influences that feed into the different genres that I write. For horror I think Lovecraft, Barker, King are all big alongside British writers like Adam Nevill, Gary McMahon and the like. For crime people like Chester Himes, John Connolly and Ken Bruen are all amongst my biggest influences. There are too many books that have shaped me and that I love for me to pick a single author out. DP: Ah, some great names there – I love Adam’s work (he’s a great guy too isn’t he?) and want to work with Gary sometime in the future too…so what next for you Mr Jones? BJJ: Well, the next Charlie Bars novel from Crime Wave Press, The Gingerbread Houses, is due out shortly. With Anthony Watson I’ve just finished the first draft of an epic World War 2 occult thriller so that will need to be edited and redrafted before we start seeking out interested publishers – it’s definitely the longest and most ambitious project I’ve been involved in. I’ve also been involved in a co-authored crime novella with Tom Leins that we are currently shopping about. Apart from those it’s the usual of trying to get some more stories knocked together and seeing what the muse suggests. DP: Ah, well, hopefully I’ll get to read the WW2 thriller as that sounds up my street…writer’s block: you ever suffer from it? BJJ: Somewhat, I have periods where I simply don’t fancy starting anything new and mainly read back over older projects. It always strikes me as a kind of lethargy. Normally it means I need to do something else for a week or so and then come back to writing through a different project. Less a block I now see it as part of the process and it often occurs when I’ve just finished something. DP: Yeah, I hear you…sometimes it does take me a little while to get started on something new even though I’m buzzing full of energy…I guess I sometimes labour too much over the first word…it’s as if I can see in my mind’s eye all the words of the story / script etc etc but it’s a bit blurry and I need that first word for everything else to come into focus…with that in mind then do you write an outline before you start? BJJ: For shorter pieces the outline is most likely just in my head. I often have an ‘A’ point and a ‘Z’ point with the beginning and ending and my writing is joining up those two points. For longer works I will often use a written outline in various sorts. I don’t like to plan too much of it as that can limit the spontaneity which can create someone wonderful stuff. DP: I’m not sure I should admit this but for a film script I recently wrote I actually created the outline after I’d finished the script for that very reason…better not say anymore as I don’t want my producer finding out ha ha. So when you write, do you have a particular theme you return too and do you personally learn anything from what you create? BJJ: Perhaps, the human condition. It certainly allows for some deep exploration. That said there isn’t half-as-much fun as guns and monsters! While I do like to touch on bigger themes I’m also fully aware of my own pulp influences and also the reason I wanted to write – to explain things but also to entertain and try and put forward stories that aren’t already written. My stories. And yes, I think The Devil’s Portion encouraged me to perhaps write more sparingly, leaving scenes and background somewhat in the imagination of the reader. Hopefully I succeeded. DP: I think you did! Talking of film producers – pitch me The Devil’s Portion if it was a film? BJJ: Child 44 meets The Apostle, folk horror above the Arctic Circle in spellbinding locations. Oh, and we could probably do it on the cheap… DP: I’m in the early process of setting up Demain Pictures (or Films…not sure yet) so if we can do it on the cheap…I’m your man ha ha. Say we were then going to speak to a newspaper… BJJ: When Oleksandr Chichenko is assigned to the far north in the search for a missing commissar, and to investigate the drop in production at a previously model Soviet, he expects to meet resistance, perhaps even murder – what he finds is much worse. As the layers of the mystery peel away like onion skins Chichenko finds himself on dangerous ground in a place where the walls of reality are thin and an ancient dreamer has been awakened. I’ll get my people to call your people! Thanks for your time – all the best with The Devil’s Portion. If you want to communicate directly with Benedict: Website Address: https://benedictjjones.webs.com/ Twitter Address: @benedictjjones
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12 ebooks published so far - many with glowing reviews - check them out on Amazon and at the cost of less than a cup of coffee!
So many other exciting titles to come too. Enjoy! Dan's corker of a story will be published 19th April but if you're interested, check out his site where he talks a little about the book and the publishing process / working with Demain (thank you for the kind comments Dan!).
http://www.danhowarthwriter.com/ Hot off the press (so to speak) and now availble for pre-sales is Terry's brilliant novella Joe. There will be more to come about this amazing book very soon (including a new interview with Terry about it) but the brief blurb reads: 'Joe walks with God. Now Joe is in love, but it is a love that dare not speak its name and it will tear his soul apart'. Can't wait to tell you about this book at length. Click on the image for the pre-sales link.
(Thanks to John Gilbert for the foreword and Adrian Baldwin for the cover) So the reviews have been flying in recently for several Short Sharp Shocks!
In particular Barbie's Patient K; David Youngquist's The Other and Anthony Watson's Shattered. Click on the covers below to read the reviews. Well done all ! Calvin's book is now available for pre-sales on all the Amazons with a publication date of 19th April.
Christopher's book will be published on April 19th but is available now on all the Amazons for pre-sales.
Allison's entry into the Short Sharp Shocks! series is now available on all the Amazons for pre-sales with a publication date of 19th April.
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CategoriesArchives
November 2023
AuthorDean M. Drinkel |