Emerging Author of the Week #1, the very dark and interesting Clive Carpenter. Horror writer, expert Israeli martial artist, boxer and someone people might feel like avoiding but a genuine and nice guy. His writing is amazing, trust me! He writes a tight, believable dialogue and narrative and some excellent horror. His fight and fright scenes will blow your mind! Add that that Clive;'s quite the interesting and amusing guy and you have a a multitude of reasons to check this man's work out! He's a writer of the good old pulp style, he's a screenwriter and he's someone we'll all be using those immortal words "I knew him back when..." about one day in the none too distant future...
On with the interview
So, tell me about yourself, the person, not just the writer. You have 2000 words (ish, very ish)
I’m from Louisiana, born and raised most of my life there. My dad was in the Army, so we moved around quite a bit when I was a kid. By the time I got out of high school, I had been in 13 different schools, mostly due to moving to different school districts in one city, so I was always the “new kid”.
Bullying makes me extremely angry. I was bullied a lot, it seemed that almost every new school I attended had a team of bullies I had to deal with. Later in life, I had a turn about when I began taking self-defense and studied Krav Maga for about 10 years. I also took up boxing and worked as bouncer in several clubs and ran security for a large hotel owned by the Osmond family.
In Missouri I did some stand up comedy, worked as a special effects makeup artist, photographer, graphic artist, and became a screenwriter and a filmmaker; I helped pioneer the film making community in southwest Missouri.
In 2011, I reconnected with a childhood sweetheart and we’re together to this day. We live in Michigan now and she’s probably my biggest cheerleader. I also have a son attending college in Missouri.
How did you first get into writing?
My grandfather was a master storyteller. I got the bug from him. I really got into writing, though, in my teens when I got into playing Dungeons & Dragons. I would go home and spends days just writing about my adventures in the game. Eventually, I took up Dungeon Mastering and really honed my storytelling skills.
Have you published or received awards for anything you have written?
Yes. I’ve published 3 books, numerous short stories, and have won several awards. My favorite was when my controversial story, “Confession”, took the Gold in the 2016 Horror Olympics hosted by Deadman’s Tome online.
I’ve also written over a dozen screenplays, several of which I’ve produced or have had produced.
Tell me all about your current project, add a 200 hundred word excerpt if you like of your favourite part.
Well, I usually have 3 or 4 writing projects going at the same time. I write horror mostly, but I stepping away from it for a while to play around in a few other genres.
One of my current projects is a pulp-style action/adventure series called Max Remington: Nazi Hunter. Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 2:
Like a king cobra, I struck before his eyes ever fell on me.
Grabbed the AR15 with my right hand as my left wrapped around the back of his head. I yanked hard, driving his face into the jagged mountain ridge of steel that framed the gaping hole of the M1.
Now let me tell you this: I’ve seen some pretty gruesome shit in my time, but Jesus Christ, this was right up there with the worse of it. If I hadn’t removed my hand from his head in time, I would have sliced it wide open when that jagged steel went through his dome like a finely sharpened hatchet blade. I took off the left side of his head. He gurgled a nasty little moan as his body slumped to the ground and twitched. His skull spilled brain matter and fluids that pumped in rhythm with his heart until there was none left.
It was swift and silent.
He never knew what hit him.
I was left holding his AR15 in my hand.
I checked the mag - about half. Then, I grabbed the full mag from his belt.
Have you ever or would you ever think of doing a collaboration (this is not an offer). Why/Why not?
I work best on my own, though I have been approached about collaborations. I’ve considered it. Sometimes, I guess it can’t hurt to have a second or third brain in the mix.
What experience or part of your personal life has been the biggest influence on your style and writing?
Pulps and screenplays had a big influence in the way I write.
I’m a fan of the pulps and how quickly you can get through 2 or 3 books because of the way they’re written. I don’t waste a lot of time with long, descriptive prose and my readers enjoy it; you know what a babbling brook sounds like or what a sunset looks like so why should I waste my time -and yours- describing it? A lot my sentences are one or two words. Even my paragraphs can be that way. It just depends on the flow of the scene and the ride I want to take my readers on. I consider myself a pulp writer, whether it’s horror or action or whatever it is I’m writing.
Your writing and all projects…time to plug away..
My books can be found on Amazon, which you can access through my website at www.AuthorOfHorror.com
If you want to check out and follow Max Remington’s journey to creation and publicatin, you can find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MaxRemingtonUSA
You can also catch me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BloodTypeH
If you want to see a couple of my earliest short film projects:
The Shed was my first one in 2003. It won a couple of awards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSGuHNsPFJc&t=10s
Chlorine was my second one. It was shot in the hotel that I ran security for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iHGqxlNtiY&t=2s
New writers, what would be your most serious best advice?
1- Stop being pussies and just write. Stop worrying about who the hell you’re to offend. You’re a storyteller and sometimes the story being told is not going to be the most popular – controversy sells. Nobody ever became successful without some risk. But be prepared for potential backlash. My story “Confession” is about an elderly woman giving a deathbed confession to a newspaper reporter about how she murdered her infant children over the course of her life. Most people find it offensive and sickening, but it’s also a best selling story on Kindle and an award winner.
2- If you CANNOT take criticism, stop writing and go flip burgers or dig ditches. Criticism comes with the territory and if you’re too thin skinned to handle it, then you’ll never do anything but cry about how much people don’t like you. I deal with criticism, myself. So again, stop being pussies and just write.
3- Goddammit learn the difference between words like “their”, “they’re” and “there” or “its” and “it’s”. That’s basic English. If you can’t learn this, then don’t be offended when someone calls you out for it. Also learn what commas and periods are and use them.
4- DON’T just share you ideas with people online who ask for them. You may as well just send them some cash. What if they’re a bit more motivated than you and they end up writing and publishing something from an idea of yours? People who ask for ideas are only doing it because they lack the imagination to create on their own.
5- Do your own writing. Stop asking people to help you create your characters, world build for you, or even write for you. If you’re not talented enough to create all of this on your own, then, what are you doing? Getting feedback is one thing, but I’ve seen “writers” in FB groups who ask these questions constantly. I’ve been writing since I was 13 (over 30 years) and I have never gone into a room of strangers and asked them to create character motivations for me, or help create a fantasy language. Do you see writers like Stephen King or Clive Barker on FB asking these questions? Of course not. They own every word they write. Even Tolkien created his own world without any outside help.
Ok controversial perhaps but what most irritates you with the world of writing today?
The bullshit Disney pulled with lobbying congress to extend the copyrights. Disney has used public domain stories to create a ton of their own movies and make millions, yet everytime the copyright of Walt’s own creation, Mickey Mouse, is about to enter public domain, they push congress to extend copyrights even further. This sucks for literature because the length of time on a copyright can actually keep a lot of classic literature hidden from the world. In a good way, it forces writers to create original rather than derivative, works, but a copyright that lasts for over a century can actually do much more harm than good.
So what's your way forward in 2018? What can we expect?
Aside from my 4 books, this year I will be working on several projects for others, including writing for several series to be pitched to Netflix and Hulu. At the moment, I can’t discuss them due to non-disclosure agreements.
Poetry or prose, be honest? Why?
Prose is what I write.
I’m not good at rhyming words.
I write fiction best.
Finally, one hundred years from now, how will they remember you? Why?
I’ll be remembered for exposing the moon landing as a fraud.
Social Media links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BloodTypeH
Max Remington on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaxRemingtonUSA/
My publishing on FB: https://www.facebook.com/Bloodtypeh/
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ScorpiosMediaBloodTypeH
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbrian/
Webpage: www.AuthorOfHorror.com
Thank you Clive! You're one those interviews I wish I could make longer, sort of ramble the entire night away jawin' an d yappin' and shootin' the breeze! Ah well! Lol
Comments