We are starting an Ask Me Anyting (AMA)that will be posted here on the blog from time to time. The first episode is basically an interview with Joe on creating The Hunger: Book One of the Diary of Charlotte. So without further ado, let's get to the questions and answers.
How did you come up with the idea to write The Hunger?
In my teens I read the HP Lovecraft story, “The Outsider.” I assumed then that the protagonist was a ghoul. The story left in me this sense that maybe some undead didn’t realize that they were undead. Maybe some of them just went about trying to live their lives as they remembered. Well not exactly as they remembered since there would be times of extreme violence followed by gluttonously devouring living or very recently living people. I used this idea in a Dungeons and Dragons game I was running a couple of decades later. The ghouls sat in their finest wares at a dinner table in the middle of the dungeon. The players first heard them talking about random stuff people might talk about at diner, but they weren’t fooled. If I had people in a dungeon, something was wrong with them.
Another decade later, (I stew on things far too long sometimes), and my family and I are going to attend Gen Con for the first time. Gen Con has a Writer's Symposium. I wanted to start taking my writing to the next level and had been reading more about the craft. I saw this as a fantastic opportunity and ended up attending more hours of writing panels than I did gaming related events. I needed a story for an 'editor pitch' style panel, and I thought about those two ghouls I had in that dungeon.
I wrote three or four versions of the story from the ghouls’ point of view where they are eating, and a servant brings another victim to them to eat. She thinks she’s going for a job. The servant kills her, hangs her from a hook in the ceiling, bleeds her dry, and then they all eat. That story was hard because I didn’t want the reader to figure out that the speakers were anything other than a pair of aristocrats at diner until things slowly started to seem odd and then outright weird. So like a coward, I switched points of view and wrote from the girl’s perspective.
After that, I got advice from the panel, and refined the story some more for the 2014 San Antonio Writer’s Guild short story competition. Unbelievably, I did not win. I mean I’d been seriously writing for all of six months! I did make it to final judging and got some great advice from the judge. One thing he stated however that I took umbrage with was that even though the story was incomplete (it was the first half of a found diary type story), he believed that the end story was a revenge story and only a revenge story. I hate being obvious. In fact, I revised the ending of that story three times because one of my beta readers said “well yeah, that’s what would happen” each time. So when I decided to turn the story into a novel, my #1 goal was to not turn it into a revenge story. And I succeeded … for book 1 … and 2. Book 3 is all about revenge unless I can find a better ending, but I’m kind of married to the ending I have. Someone just needs to tell me “well that was obvious.”
How was the process of self-publishing? Would you ever consider trying to get traditionally published?
There’s a lot more work in self-publishing than I expected, and I expected a lot of work. I wouldn’t change any of it however. Well I’d change how slowly I’ve progressed. I’ve let a lot of my own fear get in the way of moving forward.
I originally sort of assumed that I would try to become traditionally published. This was almost six years before I finally published book one, and self-publishing was not what it is today. During my time learning the craft of writing, I was also learning the business aspects as well. The more I learned about the process of becoming traditionally published as well as all the control one relinquishes for the ‘honor’ of being published the more. I despised the idea. Now in order to be lured into a traditional publishing contract, the money would have to be really good. I’m just too much of a control freak and free spirit otherwise.
So what is up next book-wise? I’m going to finish up Charlotte’s story, and then I have an epic fantasy I want to start.
Any special projects coming up? I have a short story that I’m making out of a section of deleted chapters from book 2 of Charlotte’s tale. I also have an idea for a Giorgio short story I want to write and give away to my readers. Finally, I’ve been writing a series of short stories around my fantasy world characters which will hopefully give readers an idea of what my fantasy writing is like as well as introduce some of my epic’s characters.
How was it being male to write a female lead? How did you research how to write a female voice? I have three sisters and two brothers. My bothers’ wives, my sisters, and/or my mother’s female friends would come to my house when I was a kid and would talk. And talk. And talk. So I’ve had some experience as to what the minds of women are like. Basically they are just like men … just slightly different. When I wrote Charlotte, I simply wrote the character like I might write a man and just swapped gender references. There were obvious situations where I thought a woman might have wildly different experiences than a man would. When I came to those situations, I simply asked the women in my life what they thought.
What is your research process? I’m currently a programer, so I know the super secret about how to research. That secret is Google. When I found situations where I needed a little more in-depth knowledge about a topic, I’d buy a book on the subject, skim it, and then hyper-focus on any portions that could.
Who is The Hunger written for(audience)? I wish I had the foresight to write toward a particular audience. I don’t think I yet have that skill. I just wrote the story I wanted to tell. That said, Charlotte’s story is probably going to be more satisfying to people who enjoy characters over plot, fantasy over reality, and style over substance. I like to think I have some of all of those in the story however.
If The Hunger was made into a movie, who would you like to see cast as Charlotte? Maisie Williams has the right build and look.
How long have you been writing? What is your background? I hated reading when I was a kid. Hated it. Then in high school I found out they have books with dragons in them, and suddenly I became an avid reader. I had been playing D&D since I was nine or ten and was the only person to agree to be the DM (Dungeon Master - the person that creates and/or runs the game). Being a DM requires a lot of creativity. Slowly over time I pushed the creative envelope and tried to subvert expectations of the players. When it was time to go to college, I was thinking I might major in English, but a person I respected who was a writer didn’t think I had it in me. I decided to go another route in college and failed at that instead. Over time I kept playing D&D and making more stories in that realm. Even when I didn’t have a game to create for, I’d create new characters with complete backgrounds. I’d even create new locations and turn them into characters of their own. It was like an incredibly slow, exceedingly shallow dive into "how to be a writer.” Six years ago I found a website that posted Bradon Sanderson’s lessons on creative writing at BYU. I watched those videos repeatedly. There was also multiple failed attempts at participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Then came the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium and SAWG Short Story Competition.
Is there a sequel to The Hunger planned? What is next for Charlotte? Oh yes. Charlotte book two is called “The Monster of Paris,” and after that is “The End of Hunger” … although that book three title isn’t set in stone. I’ve written the beginning and ending of book three and much of book two already. In these works, Charlotte gets a fancy new leather suit, she makes a best friend and learns how to fight with a sword, there’s a new ghoul in Paris, Theo teaches Charlotte how to swear with style, Theo and Charlotte miiiiiiiight become a “thing” or they might not, and a bunch of people die.