Layers of Thought is currently running an interview with Sandy Deluca, author of the Descent.

In response to what advice she would give an aspiring writer, Deluca says, “Strive for perfection, not for instant gratification. There are many readers who don’t have the patience to appreciate good literary fiction. They want cheap thrills instantly and toss aside works that have been crafted and rewritten until the author is satisfied. Many of those readers seem offended by good and solid writing and will publicaly post their contempt on fiction boards. Don’t write to please those readers – write to please yourself – and write until your work is perfect.”

You can catch the interview in its entirety here: Sandy Deluca

Escape from Zombie City (A One Way Out Novel) by Ray Wallace has been released in Trade Paperback (the ebook is coming soon) by The Zombie Feed Press, an imprint of Apex Publications. Below is an interview with Wallace by TZF.

The Zombie Feed: Who is your biggest literary influence, and why?
Ray Wallace: That’s a tough one. There are so many. But if I was forced to choose just one then I guess I’d have to go with Clive Barker. The Books of Blood are still some of the best horror collections ever written. I’ve always loved the way he merges the beautiful with the grotesque. And his ability to describe utterly fantastic worlds and creatures is truly awesome at times. Whenever I read one of his stories it makes me want to sit down at the computer immediately and start writing.

TZF: Have you always enjoyed the zombie sub-genre or did you just recently amble into it? Why do you think people are crazy about zombies?
Ray: I’ve been a fan of zombie movies/books/comics for quite a while now. Besides the Romero films, two of my favorite horror movies have to be The Return of the Living Dead and Reanimator. I was really into collecting the Deadworld comics when they were out. And I still consider Philip Nutman’s Wet Work and the Book of the Dead collections, edited by Skipp and Spector, to be some of the best contributions to the zombie literary sub-genre.

I think that if you’re into horror at all then you have to be a fan of zombies. Especially the concept of the undead taking over the world. It’s pretty much the ultimate horror concept: global pandemic, cannibalism, post-apocalypse survival, and a very grim and disturbing concept of an afterlife. What’s not to enjoy?

TZF: Escape from Zombie City is a modern day ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ book. Why go in this direction, instead of penning a ‘regular’ novel? What inspired you to write EFZC?
Ray: I used to love Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a kid. And it’s always been in the back of my mind that I wanted to write one some day. When that day arrived, the concept of putting the reader in the midst of a zombie outbreak just seemed like a natural fit, a “no brainer” if you will.

TZF: EFZC is pretty fast-paced. What do you think is more scary: slow moving or fast moving zombies?
Ray: I think slow moving zombies are creepier but the fast moving ones are scarier. The odds of surviving a 28 Days Later scenario for any length of time seem as though they would have to be much lower than that presented in, say, Night of the Living Dead. With Escape From Zombie City, I thought it would be cool to include both types of creatures, try and up the scare factor a bit.

TZF: I think fans of zombie and Choose Your Own Adventure books will greatly enjoy EFZC, even if they don’t particularly like one or the other. Any plans to write another in the same format?
Ray: Definitely. I’ve got plenty of ideas for further One Way Out novels. And as much fun as EFZC was to write, I look forward to the next one.

TZF: One day, after being dead and buried, your corpse is reanimated. Would you hope to retain some recollection of your former life or just enjoy going on a brain-eating rampage like your fellow undead brethrens?
Ray: I think the latter scenario would be preferable. Once you’ve been transformed into a hideous monster, it would just be too painful to remember the normal, healthy individual you once were. Better to just go with the flow and enjoy that brain-eating rampage as much as you can.

You can order this modern ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ novel on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

by David Niall Wilson

Tom Piccirilli on Amazon.com for Kindle

Tom Piccirilli at Barnes & Noble.com for Nook

Tom Piccirilli at Crossroad Press

One of the best parts of publishing so late in my career is the chance to work with people I’ve known for a very long time, and to (hopefully) do good things for and with them. When I published The Tome a million years ago, back in the 1990s, I published a story by Tom Piccirilli. Tom and I met several times over the years, corresponded now and then, and appeared in a lot of anthologies together. When Crossroad Press got underway, we connected again, and it’s been a long, and interesting road.

Tom writes a lot of fiction at the novella length (as he will mention in the interview below) and he writes books in many genres, as well as some that defy categorization, such as the novel Nightjack, one of the first of the Crossroad Press “original-to-digital” releases. His body of work spans decades, styles, and subject matter in a way that few authors manage – largely due to marketing and editorial tampering, I would say. We have brought a great deal of Tom’s work to eBooks and we are working on getting most of it to audio as well. He’s provided:

Novels

Novellas

And Collections

I took a little time and did a short Q & A with Tom Recently. Here’s some thoughts on his work, his eBooks, digital, and the future.

DNW: You’ve been writing a lot of years, and in a lot of genres. How do you feel about the current state of digital books, where bringing all of that work back to new readers has become more possible?
PIC: It’s a hell of a nice thing to see the books we’ve worked so hard on, that have a limited shelf-life, back in print and available to new readers. It offers authors a greater number of publishing choices, and it’s always better to have choices than not have them. It’s also nice that folks who might not have wanted to pay hardback or even paperback prices to take a chance on a genre they don’t normally read in – be it my horror, western, crime, occult, or whatever – will often give a shot to something when it only costs $2.99 or $3.99.

DNW: Of your out of print work that’s coming back, which do you still feel most strongly about? Which book, novella, or collection are you happiest to see coming back in digital?
PIC: I’m glad to see that the novella length seems to be a perfect fit for the medium. Most novellas published in the small press are for the collectible market, so they’re usually offered in a signed limited edition that might cost upwards of $30. Now folks can try out some of my noirellas like Loss, Frayed, All You Despise, The Nobody, Fuckin’ Lie Down Already, and the short novels like The Night Class and The Fever Kill. Again, it’s nice to be able to reach new readers in new formats at book lengths they might not have normally picked up on the first time around.

DNW: You are still doing well with traditional publishing, and have a good foot in the door of digital revitalization of your older work. Sitting as you do on the fence of both worlds, do you have any thoughts about how things might change in the near future? How do you see the evolution of publishing over the next decade?
PIC: It’s changing so rapidly that I’m going to sit this question out. I’m not sure what’s going to happen next, but I will say that I really hope that physical books and bookstores do not go the way of the dodo. I would hate to live in a world without bookstores.

DNW: How much more material do you have that has been out of print, or forgotten, that readers might be looking forward to?
PIC: There’s a number of newly available works like my collection of occult/supernatural stories Pentacle, featuring my unnamed Necromancer and his demonic companion “Self.” Also my “Self” novel A Lower Deep, a couple of westerns Grave Men and Coffin Blues, my early mysteries The Dead Past and Sorrow’s Crown, and some other horror novels like Hexes and The Deceased.

DNW: What are you working on now? What’s next, and where can readers find it?
PIC: My next crime novel will be out in hardcover from Bantam in May ’12 called The Last Kind Words. I just finished the second in the series The Last Whisper In The Dark. My collection of horror/crime tales Futile Efforts will be made available for $.99 in the near future. And I’ll have a couple more books out in the small press via Apex and Creeping Hemlock.

BIO: Tom Piccirilli is the author of more than twenty novels including Shadow Season, The Cold Spot, The Coldest Mile, and A Choir Of Ill Children. He’s won two International Thriller Awards and four Bram Stoker Awards, as well as having been nominated for the Edgar, the World Fantasy Award, the Macavity, and Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire.

In celebration of October, Halloween, and a good scary story, Crossroad Press & Author Tom Piccirilli are dropping the price of Tom’s huge collection: Futile Efforts – to only .99 for a limited time. Spread the word and get your copy today!

Samhain Horror, headed up by editor Don D’Auria, kicks off its new line tomorrow. We thought it was the perfect time to talk with D’Auria about starting up a new horror line, why he chose to lead the line with Ramsey Campbell, and what readers can look forward to down the road.

Hellnotes: Let’s get the negative out of the way first. What happened at Dorchester?
D’Auria: Well, it’s kind of a long story, but in a nutshell I think Dorchester was hurt badly when ebooks ate away at the mass market. They’d seen sales drop for more than a year as the accounts simply ordered fewer and fewer copies of all of the titles, in all genres. The chains, such as Barnes & Noble and Borders, were moving away from mass market, and one of the largest mass market wholesalers, Anderson News, went out of business all together. And it’s primarily been mass market that took the brunt of the hit from ebooks. Trade paper and hardcover sales dropped, but not nearly as badly, while ebook sales were shooting up. Other houses, who published trade paper and hardcovers, were able to weather the blow more easily, but Dorchester sold only mass market, so there was no other format to help them out. They had gotten into ebooks only recently and weren’t positioned yet to make a lot of money from them. So with fewer books being shipped, and high returns coming back, Dorchester found themselves in bad shape financially. They tried to pay as many authors as they could, but the money simply wasn’t coming in. They dramatically cut the staff, including myself. When I left I think there were only six people left on the staff. They’d cut the editorial department down to one editor, sales down to two people, production to one, etc. With mass market sales dried up, Dorchester’s gone over now to trade paper and ebooks. I hope they can make a go of it. I really enjoyed most of the time I spent there, and I’m very grateful for what they let me do with the horror line. I wish then the best of luck.

Hellnotes: And after you left Dorchester, did Samhain approach you?
D’Auria: I got a call from Cristina Brashear, the owner and publisher of Samhain. Partly because Samhain has been doing trade paper and ebooks from their start six years ago, and doing them very well, the company has only benefitted from the recent changes in the industry. They’re doing so well, in fact, that Cris wanted to expand and start a new line. She saw that there was a void in the market with Dorchester’s horror line in difficulty, and she thought horror would be the perfect new line to launch. I’d been speaking to a couple other houses, but Cris’s philosophy and attitude really won me over. I knew she was taking the new line very seriously and was determined to make it work. I was also impressed by how well Samhain was already positioned in the ebook and trade markets.

Hellnotes: Where do you begin when you’re asked to start a new horror line?
D’Auria: The first thing I did was meet with Cris and some of the staff to discuss our plans, to make sure we had similar ideas in mind. We hashed out all the behind-the-scenes details, things like the number of titles I’d do each month, marketing strategies, promotion, and the general philosophy of the line. Once we determined we were all on the same page and had the plan worked out in our minds, then we were ready to announce the line to the public. At that point the most important thing for me to do was find the right authors for the launch season. The response was immediate and very gratifying. I’m happy to say we have a great bunch of authors on our list, some familiar names and some incredible newcomers.

Hellnotes: I think it’s great that you’re kicking off Samhain Horror with several classic Ramsey Campbell books and even a new one. Why Campbell?
D’Auria: I’ve always been a huge fan of Ramsey’s. For decades he’s consistently been one of the very best writers in the genre. I was thrilled to be able to acquire two of his books for Dorchester before I left, and I’m even happier to continue our relationship here at Samhain. The new title is The Seven Days of Cain, which has all the elements of classic Ramsey; that slow build, the beautiful style and that very dark creepiness he does so well. Plus we’re able to bring out four of his older books that haven’t been available for years, four titles that I think are among his very best: Ancient Images, The Hungry Moon, Obsession and Dark Companions.

Hellnotes: Tell us something that will surprise us about the new line.
D’Auria: There are probably a few things that may surprise folks. One is that, unlike the Dorchester line, Samhain gives me much more flexibility in terms of length. For example, now I’m able to consider novellas, something I always regretted not being able to acquire at Dorchester. We can do things as short as 12,000 words and as long as 125,000. I’m also able to take more chances in terms of content. As long as the book can legitimately fit in a horror line, I can be more open to strange ideas, and there are lots of those in horror. It’s very liberating. Some people may also be surprised that I’m continuing to look at first-time authors, though this really shouldn’t come as a surprise to readers of the old Dorchester line. I’ve always felt that we need to introduce fresh talent into the genre, in addition to publishing recognizable names. So even in October, Samhain’s launch month, we have some great new writers, in addition to more familiar people like Ramsey, Ronald Malfi and W. D. Gagliani.

Hellnotes: After years of little movement, the ebook market is suddenly exploding. What do you see for the future of hardcovers and paperbacks?
D’Auria: I think trade paperback and hardcovers will be around for the foreseeable future, though I’m not sure how well mass market paperbacks will do. I’ve already heard statistics that say ebooks account for 50% of all fiction book sales, and possibly higher for genre fiction. But things like illustrated books, art books, cookbooks and the like lend themselves more to a print format. Time will tell just how far the ebook revolution will go.

Hellnotes: Will Samhain Horror be emphasizing ebook editions over print editions?
D’Auria: Our plans are to do both ebook and trade editions of anything over 50,000 words. Anything under 50,000 words will be ebook only. We do expect ebooks to outsell the trade paper editions, not because we’ll emphasize trade any less but simply because that’s how the market is these days. When Samhain started, our trade paper editions far outsold ebooks, but over the past couple years, with bookstores closing and popularity of e-readers growing, we’ve seen the sales of the e-editions skyrocket. It doesn’t mean we love the trade paper any less or don’t push it, but given the choice between the two formats, readers are choosing ebooks nowadays.

Hellnotes: Has the zombie trend reached its peak?
D’Auria: I think so. I can’t see where else it can go. Zombies are already in movies, books, TV, comics, and pretty much all other aspects of pop culture. There are zombie romances. Now, this doesn’t mean that zombies are “over” and have to be avoided in horror fiction, just that they’ve become so omnipresent that writers need to come up with a new twist to distinguish their zombie novel from all the others. I’m currently looking at two zombie novels for Samhain, but they’re different takes on zombies. As long as a writer can bring something new to the characters, it can still be interesting. Like vampires, werewolves and ghosts, zombies will always be popular subjects for horror fiction. You just need to separate your zombie or vampire from the ones readers have seen before.

Hellnotes: What do think about mash-ups?
D’Auria: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a very clever, original and funny idea. But after a while, as more and more mash-ups were published, I think the joke got a little stale. Of course, the danger with using horror figures in humor is that it diminishes the monsters to a degree. I think Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is a terrific movie, but it virtually ended Universal’s horror franchise. Even though the monsters themselves were played straight in the movie, no one could take them too seriously anymore once they chased Lou Costello through a castle. We’re running the same risk with the mash-ups. That’s why we need new takes on zombies and other mashed-up monsters to make them scary again and reclaim them for horror.

Hellnotes: We all bring personal likes and dislikes to the work we do. What are your personal horror tastes?
D’Auria: My tastes in horror are very broad. I like almost all kinds, from ghost stories to slashers and everything in between. For someone in my position I think that’s a real plus. If I only liked subtle, psychological horror, for example, I couldn’t acquire extreme, over-the-top gore, or vice versa. I like to think, because I like so many different types of horror I’m able to publish a wider spectrum of it at Samhain. I really don’t want Samhain pigeonholed as only doing a small section of horror. I like books all across the genre, and I think other horror readers do too.

Hellnotes: What does being a good editor require today that it didn’t ten years ago?
D’Auria: In terms of the content of the books, not much has changed. What made a book great ten years ago will still make it great today. But nowadays an editor needs to be familiar with a very different marketplace and with new technologies and ways of publishing and marketing books. The Internet and ebooks have changed the way publishing works, and an editor needs to be able to adapt to that.

Hellnotes: Do you see any new horror trends developing?
D’Auria: I think we’re entering a more experimental era, a period where publishers are willing to try new things, things that maybe wouldn’t have worked in the days when mass market books had to be aimed at as broad a readership as possible. With the advent of ebooks, it’s easier to reach different readers who are willing to try something they haven’t seen before. It’s very exciting, really. New ideas and new writers can only help keep the genre alive and growing.

Hellnotes: Is Samhain Horror open for submissions, and if so, what are you looking for?
D’Auria: Samhain Horror is definitely open for submissions. I’m very actively looking for new authors. It’s very important to me to not rely on the same names, but to find new talent as well. I’m also very open to authors who’ve published horror at other houses in the past, but who are looking for a new home. Folks should check out our website to see our guidelines. I’m not looking for any one specific thing right now, as long as it’s horror and fits our word length, 12,000 to 125,000 words. The important things to me are the voice, the writing and the story being told. Samhain’s motto is “It’s all about the story,” and I agree completely.

Hellnotes: Any advice for writers?
D’Auria: Two very important things: One, you have to submit your work somewhere if you want it to be published. No publisher can come to you; you have to take a chance and go to them. And two, don’t be discouraged. Even if many publishers reject your work for whatever reason, you have to keep trying. What isn’t right for one editor might be perfect for another. Probably every editor in the business has bought something that someone else has turned down. You have to have faith in your work and keep at it.

Hellnotes: Any teasers for readers?
D’Auria: There are some very exciting things coming from Samhain Horror. We have a few names that should be very familiar to readers of the old Dorchester horror line, and of course some writers from other places too. And some authors you’ve never had a chance to read until now. That’s the mix I want, some old, some new, but all great.

Want to see what their new line is all about? Check it out: Samhain Horror

by David Niall Wilson

Of the authors who have worked steadily through several decades, providing horror, fantasy, mystery, westerns and a variety of other tales, I find the works of Al Sarrantonio, creator of such diverse stories as The Pumpkin Boy, The Orangefield Series, Haydn of Mars, and his buffalo soldier detective, Thomas Mullin, with his penchant for Sherlock Holmes stories, to be among the most memorable.

Starting in 2010, Crossroad Press began the long trek to return all of these old books to the hands of a new generation of readers. Working in digital formats, including eBooks and MP3 downloadable audiobooks, a wide sampling of Al Sarrantonio’s books have already been returned, sporting new cover art, re-constructed and copy-edited text, and talented voice actors bringing a variety of these works to life.

I had the chance to do a short interview with Al recently about this electronic rebirth, his experiences, lessons learned, and what’s coming next. Here’s what he had to say:

DNW: You’ve been writing for a long time, and have a lot of books out there in a variety of genres. Is it strange to see the work coming back in digital forms – things that have been out of print for a long time, and possibly out of mind?
AS: Strange, and wonderful. It’s like visiting old friends come back from the dead. The older works have only been available on the secondary book market, some of them hard to find, which is lousy for the fans and me alike. I wish everyone in this industry (agents, publishers, writers) would finally wrap their heads around the fact that the great value of the e-book is that it is saving work, not destroying it. In the long run, it will bring more books back from undeserved (and of course in some cases deserved) obscurity than the paper print business ever has or could. It is a salvation device. And we’re just at the beginning. This is steam engine time for eBooks. The publishers are still running around like chickens without heads clucking about what the price the newest bestseller in e-book form should be. Who cares! That’s not the real point. They’ll figure that out, like they always do, and maximize their profits (like they always do). I’ve been reading Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole series, and bought the first couple for my Kindle – until I realized it was cheaper to buy them as paperbacks! That’s insane! As a consequence, I’ve already cut my Kindle purchases for books that are also available as print books in half. It’s the backlist, at a reasonable price (wouldn’t it be great to have the entire of John D. MacDonald’s Travis Mcgee series on your little reading device? Well, at this point none of them are available in e-book format) and the out-of-print sector, where the gold lies, and where the e-reader will prove invaluable. Or so I say.

DNW: Have you gotten any reactions from readers since the digital books began coming out?
AS: Every reaction I’ve gotten has been positive.

DNW: How do you feel about the older work – the stories and series books, the fantasy and mysteries and westerns? Did you write all these genres at the same time, pretty much, or do they represent periods in your career?
AS: Yikes, you’re making me think. I had a nice balance going for a while between genres, so nothing got stale. I wrote a western, then a detective mystery, then I was doing some TV novelizations for a while, then the trilogies started coming along (in both SF and horror) and that kind of broke up the juggling act. But I enjoyed it all. My buddy Joe Lansdale and I, who started out pretty much at the same time, have had a running commentary on such matters as multiple-genre work for decades. We figured out that a lot of guys we knew before the horror bust in the early ’90s were no longer around if they didn’t learn (or want) to do different things. You must remember that I was primarily a science fiction fan when I grew up – but discovered that I was much more comfortable writing horror stories. But that didn’t keep me away from my first love, or westerns (which I thoroughly enjoyed, because in West Texas and Kitt Peak I got to incorporate Sherlockiana). I love it all!

DNW: Of your older work, what do you consider the most memorable?
AS: Isn’t that like choosing a favorite child, something you should never do? Though, if I had to choose, I think Moonbane, West Texas (which was under movie option, with a script at one point, for ten years, and never got made, *sigh*) Skeletons, House Haunted and the Five Worlds trilogy (which was an attempt to meld horror and space opera) contain some of my best novel work. But then there’s Toybox, my first story collection, which I think contains the best work I’ve ever done, period. That’s just me talking. (Publisher’s Note: All of this either is or soon will be available in eBook form, and some in audio).

DNW: What do you think of the experience, so far, of having your works brought to audio – a format that was previously very limited in the titles represented?
AS: The audio stuff is great. When you get the right voice doing the material, it’s magical. I had an experience lately with the wrong voice reading my story “The Cult of the Nose,” which appears in Stories, which I edited with Neil Gaiman. The guy reading paused after almost every sentence. It sounded like he didn’t know what he was reading. But the audio version of the book won the Audie Award this year for Best Short Stories/Collection (it’s a lovely piece of crystal, sitting on my shelf) so what do I know?

DNW: You have a lot of books out already in digital. What is left? Are there more gems waiting out there? Orangefield, perhaps?
AS: Hoping to get some of the overtly Halloween stuff out there. The Five Worlds trilogy will be out soon, as well as Hornets And Others, my second short story collection, which has some Halloween stuff in it. In fact, it has the very first Orangefield story, a novella titled “Hornets.”

DNW: Last question … what are you doing now? What project is filling your days and thoughts, and what do readers have to look forward to?
AS: I’m working on some shorter Orangefield pieces, and brooding over a new novel. There’s a new short story collection in the works, and I just published Portents, a new signed, limited edition anthology with new work by Gene Wolfe, Ramsey Campbell, Gene Wolfe, Joe Lansdale and fifteen others. Information at Alsarrantonio.com.

Already available at Crossroad Press & Most eBook vendors are:

Novels

Moonbane / Campbell Wood / Skeletons / October / West Texas – Featuring Thomas Mullin / Kitt Peak – Featuring Thomas Mullin / The Boy With Penny Eyes / The Worms / Totentanz
House Haunted / The Complete Masters of Mars Trilogy / Haydn of Mars / Sebastian of Mars / Queen of Mars / Summer Cool – A Jack Paine Mystery

Collections
Toybox / Halloween & Other Seasons

Unabridged Audio

Moonbane – Narrated by Kevin Readdean
Soon to come will be another round of revived eBooks, and audio versions of The Boy With Penny Eyes, the collection Toybox, and several others in various stages of productions.

Donna Maree Hanson’s blog, Dwelling In Fantastic Places, is currently running an interview with Ellen Datlow on the fine art of editing.

In response to a question about the most important aspect of her editing role, Datlow says, “Working with a writer whose story is almost there and helping that writer make it better; and to continually encourage the writers whose work I admire to produce powerful stories (and I hope, allow me to publish their work if I have a venue to do so). That’s the creative side. I also have a responsibility to buy stories that readers want to read whether in a magazine/webzine I’m editing or an anthology. If my anthologies don’t sell I: 1) will have no income and 2) have no way to buy and publish stories/writers.”

You can catch the entire interview here: Ellen Datlow On Editing

We recently told you about new publisher Crossroad Press launching a shared-world series titled O.C.L.T., standing for Orphic Crisis Logistical Taskforce. It sounded intriguing, so we thought you might enjoy hearing from one of the two writers behind the series … David Niall Wilson.

HN: Before we get into all the details, can you give us a general overview of the O.C.L.T. series so readers have a point of reference?

DNW: This is the abbreviated explanation from our Bible:

The governments of the world have always been aware of other life forms – aliens, occult creatures, humans with powers beyond normal understanding, and monsters. It is considered important that such knowledge be kept from the general populace. Such creatures and situations are dangerous in more ways than one. They attract the curious – and through that curiosity they can grow stronger, build followings, and disrupt the natural order of things.

O.C.L.T. (affectionately known as OCCULT) is a central office for otherworldly operations. They interface with black-ops wings of the FBI, MI6, CIA, and other military and paramilitary organizations, as well as a number of “contractors” – hunters, slayers, wizards, and other individuals and groups with particular expertise in handling paranormal matters. Their credo is “Track, Balance, Protect” to keep track of otherworldly creatures, smooth over conflicts and other issues, and try to keep people from getting hurt. They strive to protect both sides of the event if possible, but they’ll protect the underdog first, even if that means shielding a band of monsters from a murderous pack of human hunters.

There is a central team – a leader, and several agents – whose job it is to interface with all these agencies and teams, and minimize threats. Each book in the series will start with either an incident that is reported to the OCCULT network and filtered through to the team, or the team leader receiving a direct request and acting on it. One or more of the main agents will be dispatched if necessary, or just a communication will go out. It isn’t necessary for an agent to be dispatched for every story, but they must be consulted or involved in some way. The novels will have the core of O.C.L.T. but will be original and stand-alone at the same time.

HN: Did you set out to develop a series or did the initial concept evolve into something that surprised you?

DNW: In the case of O. C. L. T. we definitely set out with the purpose in mind of creating a series. Previously, we did the same thing with The Tales of the Scattered Earth. In that series, myself, Aaron Rosenberg, and Steven Savile, all of whom have written tie-in work for Stargate and Star Trek and Dr. Who – most of the main space opera series – thought it would be interesting to see if we could mirror the success of such series novels with our own concept. Of course, we didn’t have a TV show and all its fans to back us, but to our surprise (and delight) The Birth of the Dread Remora, Aaron’s debut novel, has been the best-selling Crossroad Press title for several months, while my own more “steampunk” novel, The Second Veil, is … well … picking up steam.

Part of the concept was that we could re-jig ideas we had already come up with and liked, but that were rejected for one reason or another by existing licensed book lines. This led to the realization that we all also had X-files, Buffy, Fringe, and other more occult related projects that had also been shelved, and THAT led to the idea that we should start a second series. We designed it as loosely as possible so that each new author coming in could play with one or two of the core characters while writing a totally unique novel of their own, and creating what we call “second-tier” characters that will remain available to others who might need them. It’s a lot less restrictive to write for O.C.L.T. than it is for a licensed series, because the ‘rules’ – such as they are – are very lax.

HN: Was there any particular trigger for the concept?

DNW: For me, the kicker was my own series, The DeChance Chronicles. I think, in reality, that those books are what set it all off, because they are what got me talking to Steven and Aaron in the first place about The Scattered Earth. I wrote the two (so far) books of The DeChance Chronicles because, after years of writing novels in the World of Darkness for White Wolf and being told, no, that clan doesn’t do that, and please use these gaming powers, and no, they would NEVER do that, I wanted to see what it would be like to write a novel of the TYPE that I wrote for White Wolf, but without the restrictions.

It’s the same with the O.C.L.T. books, and we’re hoping it will have a wide appeal to both authors and readers, helping us widen the scope. Who knows, maybe we’ll take one of these series works in reverse and get approached for a web or TV series one day.

HN: How thoroughly have you and Aaron planned out the series?

DNW: We created the core characters. We created the “team.” Aaron’s upcoming novel, Incursion, will depict the creation of the central headquarters, based around the worldwide IT Network already put in place by my own character, Wendell Macklemore.

Beyond that? The rules are simple. Novels based on the core characters only will only be written by myself or Aaron, unless at some point we agree to let someone with a great idea break that rule. Most of the books, novellas and novels, will be based on some sort of crisis where our team is contacted, and one or two of our agents are sent out to work with the second-tier character structure of each author. There are no real rules. Aliens, monsters, ghosts, supernatural, we’re open to all of it. We have a very cool time-traveling Sci-Fi from the sixties book upcoming, as well as a few others, and I’m already plotting further books of my own, including the notion that I might blend in Donovan DeChance from my other series. He’s already been mentioned (for those who follow my work carefully) as a second-tier resource in both of the works that I’ve created.

HN: You’ve invited various authors to write for the series, before we get into who and what, why did you choose to take this approach instead of doing all the writing yourselves?

DNW: No one wants to be a one-trick pony. Both Aaron and I write for both of the two series we’ve created, and we also do our own writing, which is important. Part of the idea here is to remove the rules and pressure of most tie-in style writing, so we want it remain fun and interesting. Letting other authors play in the playground gives us more breathing room, and helps develop a breadth and vision that is beyond what just two authors could give it. It’s also important for a series to have constant output. Our only requirement so far has been that the authors we work with be established. As with my publishing company, we just don’t have time or staff to work with a “slush” style system … we have to choose authors we trust to deliver the good without much supervision.

HN: How did you go about selecting the other writers?

DNW: I’ve asked a few of the authors I work with through Crossroad Press, my publishing company, and a couple of others have approached us after seeing information on the series on our Facebook page and so far, we have turned no one down. We welcome new talent. The titles feed off of one another for sales, and each author has their own group of fans to be drawn into the madness.

HN: How much guidance do you provide the writers? Is there a series “bible” with all the background, characters, etc. detailed?

DNW: We do have a series bible. It covers the background of the unit, all of the core characters, and outlines the basic “formula” for an O.C.L.T. novel or novella. Beyond that, the process so far has been to have the author submit a synopsis or outline to let us know how they intend to tell their story, and to tell us which of our core characters they see either being directly involved, or “liaising” with their second-tier characters. Beyond that, our only concern is to keep the characters and the organization consistent. To that end, we have a “historian” of sorts, Kurt Criscione, who keeps track of the details as each work is written. He has an almost eerie sense of continuity in his reading, and it allows us to capture changes and timelines and not take a character or situation out of context.

HN: You’ve written the novel The Parting, and the novella The Temple of Camazotz, and Aaron has written the novella Brought to Light, with the novel, Incursion upcoming. How do these fit together? And are they meant to kick off the series?

DNW: All three of the currently published works are meant to set the scene. In Aaron’s Brought to Light, which was the first thing we published in the series, we meet “RC,” who will later on become the head of the team. In this first novella, he comes face to face with a very other-worldly creature – and survives. It marks him and helps to define him as the right man to head up the O.C.L.T. team when the power that be go searching.

Next up was my novella, The Temple of Camazotz, in which we introduce two more core characters, one of whom is computer genius and extreme sports enthusiast Wendell “Mack” Macklemore. Even before the group is formed, Mack has a computer network tracking odd happenings and sending out notes and messages to those he has met who might be able to help. His network is code-named O.C.L.T. – which is where they get their eventual name. In that novella, we also meet Geoffrey Bullfinch, who is an expert in legends, folklore, and a lot of other odd tidbits.

And then there is the novel, The Parting, which I also wrote. This one introduces Rebecca York, who is a spiritualist and practitioner of magic. She and, again, Mack, are drawn into an International web of intrigue involving another woman, an ancient Egyptian talisman, and a terrorist attack. In this novel, I tried to set the stage for the “formula,” where there are a number of other characters not involved in the O.C.L.T. that are central to the story. They will make great recurring resources. One such is David Karmi, a Mossad agent, and another is a detective named Danny Lavinder in NYC.

All of these works lead up to Aaron’s Incursion. In each of the early works it is made clear that – if there had just been a central place they could go for help, a place where people were standing by and listening, that danger could have been averted. Lives could have been saved. It becomes more and more apparent that just Mack’s computer network isn’t going to cut it. Enter the O.C.L.T.

HN: The series revolves around a core team of nine characters. Could you tell us about these?

DNW: Sure … these are the abbreviated bios. More info is available on the Facebook page:

Geoffrey Bullfinch – Folklorist, explorer, adept in some early primitive magic. Has an uncanny knowledge of mythology. It is up in the air whether he is a descendant of the Bullfinch who wrote “Bullfinch’s Mythology,” or possibly is that same man, still walking the earth and learning.

Isabella Ferrara – Isabella is a deeply religious and extremely deadly woman. Her specialty is hunting, tracking, and killing monsters. She often allows her religious belief to cloud her judgment, and is more likely to want to kill first and study later when it comes to otherworldly creatures. She is adept with most weapons known, and a few not so well known.

Reed Christopher Hayes (RC) – Leader of the O.C.L.T. – has a background with military intelligence and the FBI. Has had numerous encounters with unexplained crises and has proven level-headed and capable of finding ways to deal with them. He’s older now, and though he’d prefer to be in the field, is best utilized as the military and tactical mind behind operations (though give him a chance and he’ll be out kicking ass).

Gunter Krieg – He is a theoretical physicist and sort of a “mad” scientist who likes to move from theory to physical testing sooner than is wise. He is (at heart) good. He would never harm anyone purposely, and he believes that science and those who understand it owe their gifts to a higher purpose-he will fight tirelessly to stop science from being used for evil but he does not know how to interact with most people beyond seeing them as mathematical constructs and treating them as such. He is, of course, brilliant. Think Walter from “Fringe”.

Elizabeth Lapsey – Elizabeth is a short, overweight Cuban-American woman in her forties with high-functioning Asperger’s, who always provides more information than is necessary and also is incapable of not finishing a sentence she starts. She has a gift for languages in particular, but in general loves to find patterns. She enjoys talking to people, and tends to be almost magical in her ability to draw anyone into conversation. She is also the researcher of the group.

Wendell Macklemore – “Mack” is a computer and electronics wizard. Graduated from college at age 12. Went to MIT and dropped out because he was bored and had things he wanted to “work out”. Has worked for the defense department, and been released from several projects because of an inability to work within boundaries. Responsible for numerous breakthroughs in technology. His hacking is beyond brilliant, and his quarters are, basically, a mainframe with a bed and kitchenette. He is jacked into every electronics system in the world, largely because he is security consultant to some of the most powerful governments and industry giants in the world. He runs the OCLT computers and databanks, and is quartered in Arizona, not that far from Area 51 (which he is also jacked into).

Malana Tai – Malana is a pyshcic from the island of Tuvalu. Though not particularly pretty, Malana exudes a certain friendly, healthy appeal, and can win people over with a single bright smile. Malana is a telepath and an empath, most of it subconscious-she constantly picks up thoughts and emotions from those around her, and automatically adjusts her own behavior to suit, making her something of a social chameleon. She can look below the surface if she focuses, but too much contact can make her dizzy, nauseous, and even unclear on the boundary between herself and her target.

Hideyoshi Tidijin – small, slight, delicate Japanese man of indeterminate early to late middle-age (he’s actually fifty but could pass for thirty easily). Dresses impeccably, usually in hand-tailored brown or gray suits unless he’s in the field. Wears gloves most of the time, and often a face mask. Tidijin – who insists upon being addressed as “Professor,” “Professor Tidijin,” or “Tidijin-sama” – is an archaeologist specializing in early human history and pre-history (and in nonhuman history, though that isn’t on his public CV).

Rebecca York – Rebecca York: Indeterminate age, very attractive and dark, appears late thirties to early forties, but over time will be found to be much, much older – Rebecca, daughter of Ivan of York from Ivanhoe, was thought to be a Jewish Sorceress, and Rebecca may possibly be the source of the character in the first place. She has a working knowledge of most of the schools of magic, but is particularly adept at the Kabala and the type of ritual magic practiced by Crowley and the Golden Dawn crowd. She has served in Israel with the Mossad, but has been an advisor to leaders in many places.

HN: Since the Hellnotes audience is made up of horror fans, what is horror’s role in the series?

DNW: The majority of the stories in the O.C.L.T. world will involve supernatural creatures. There’s plenty of the dark in my novel The Parting, and while it’s not precisely a horror novel, the appeal to the audiences of dark urban fantasy will be strong. The Temple of Camazotz is a more overtly horror story involving ancient South American deities. I suspect that there will be a lot of monsters, supernatural creatures, and occult emergencies, as well as some Lovecraftian leanings. Oddly, we are stretching somewhat back to the pulpish horror and early days, and mixing it with a modern team. There will be no lack of horror in this series. Even our other series, The Scattered Earth, while it’s a space opera, is based on a Lovecraftian creature who destroyed the earth. Remember who we’re dealing with. Among the first O.C.L.T. authors are myself, Sidney Williams, and Steven Savile, all of whom have pretty solid horror backgrounds.

HN: You’re kicking off the series with trade paperback editions and you’re also doing audiobooks, I believe. Any plans for hardcover editions? Or signed, limited editions?

DNW: We’ll have to see how the popularity grows, and if there are requests. We have done one HC so far (waiting on the proofs to come back) of Steven Savile and his weird Western Hallowed Ground, but despite a lot of grumbling about books being eBook only, orders weren’t promising. Considering the extra work and time going into such editions, and the glut of publishers producing them, while we might do some reasonably priced trade hardcovers at some point, the immediate plan is to stick with digital, audio, and trade paperbacks. When we have four to six novellas, we’ll collect those and print them as well, hopefully appeasing the readers who still prefer to hold the book in their hands.

HN: It seems that this is the sort of series that could potentially run for years to come. Do you see an end to it, or is it currently open-ended?

DNW: Absolutely open-ended. The more it builds, the more it’s good for authors and readers alike, and even if one group of authors tired of it, once it’s in place and working smoothly, new talent can be brought in to keep things alive. I’m actually hoping a fandom is going to pop-up that has favorite characters, and starts chatting it up on Facebook or elsewhere, tossing out their own wish-lists and thoughts. So far, I can’t imagine putting a cap of any kind on it.

HN: Any television or movie interest in the series?

DNW: Not yet, but it’s very early on, and we haven’t actually run the series past anyone yet … we’re sort of hoping to build some hype with the books, build a fandom, and see if that’s not enough to catch the eye of someone in film or television. It’s a backwards approach, but sometimes the innovative route is best.

HN: Anything you’d like to add?

DNW: I think that covers it pretty well. I’d just like to point out that the books are available at the Crossroad Press online store, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and even (shortly) at the local library in eBook and audio editions. There will be some exciting new titles announced soon, and the list of authors is growing fast.

[Editor's Note: Crossroads Press is extending two great opportunities to Hellnotes. The first is a 20% savings on any size purchase at the Crossroad Press store. All you have to do is enter the code HELLNOTES (all caps). This offer is good any time.

The second opportunity is a chance to win a set of free copies of the ebook edition (whatever format you prefer) of the three current O.C.L.T. titles. To enter, either comment on this interview or like the Crossroads Press page on Facebook and mention Hellnotes. The drawing will run until midnight this Friday, September 9th. We'll announce the winners on Hellnotes.]