Know a Nominee, Part Seventeen: Jonathan Moore
Welcome to the latest installment of “Know a Nominee,” the interview series that gets you up-close and personal with this year’s Bram Stoker Award nominees. Today’s featured author is Jonathan Moore, who’s nominated in the category of Superior Achievement in a First Novel, for Redheads (Samhain Publishing).
DM: Can you please describe the genesis for the idea that eventually became the work for which you’ve been nominated? In the case of a work wherein you’ve written multiple stories (like a collection) please choose your favorite part and discuss.
JM: Redheads came to me nearly all at once, in the fall of 2009. I hadn’t written any fiction in 10 years. I’d been trying to think of stories, but wasn’t getting far. Then one evening, my wife and I were in our kitchen, talking. I think we were sitting on the floor with a bottle of wine. Her father had suffered a stroke, and we were having a conversation that touched on loss and the way grief warps everything. It was hard seeing her like that, hard not being able to help. And in the middle of that conversation, I had an image of a character who couldn’t bring himself to accept the extent of his loss. Couldn’t believe there was no way back, that something as final as death couldn’t be undone. I started writing that night.
What began as a story about grief quickly transitioned to a very dark revenge story. That’s probably a natural progression of human emotions—tragedy, grief, revenge—but what mattered most to me was that my wife liked the finished story.
DM: What was the most challenging part of bringing your idea to fruition? The most rewarding aspect of the process?
JM: The most challenging part was finding a publisher. Redheads was my fourth novel—the other three were never published and never will be. My goal for Redheads was to get it published. That takes a great deal of patience, and when you’ve just finished writing a novel and editing it, you’ve already invested a lot of patience. On the other hand, the most rewarding aspect of the process was…finding a publisher. I submitted it to Don D’Auria at Samhain, and as soon as he emailed to say he was interested in publishing it, I did what any reasonable writer would do in that circumstance: I started stalking him online. I discovered he was going to be a guest of honor at KillerCon in Las Vegas, so I registered for the convention and went out to meet him. We were standing outside the Stratosphere Hotel when he told me he wanted to offer me a contract. The Stratosphere is maybe the ugliest hotel in the world, but I’ll always love it because of that moment: Holy crap, I’m at a writing convention talking to an editor about contract terms for my book!
DM: What do you think good horror/dark fiction should achieve? How do you feel the work for which you’ve been nominated fits into that ideal?
JM: I think good dark fiction should do the same things all good fiction should be doing. A book should take the reader out of this world and into a richly-realized different one. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a world you’d want to stay in forever—maybe you’re desperate to get the hell out, as long as the way out is through the last page. I think good fiction can take a lot of different forms, but one thing all good books have in common is they’re compelling. They make you want to keep turning the pages. I hope I’ve done that with Redheads.
DM: I’m curious about your writing and/or editing process. Is there a certain setting or set of circumstances that help to move things along? Where do you often find yourself getting stuck, and why?
JM: I have an old sailboat and I did a lot of the first draft of Redheads while hanging out in the boat. Something about her really got me going. It probably helps that she’s full of maps and doesn’t have an internet connection. Whenever I’m writing and I get stuck, I often find that a change of scenery helps. That could mean going for a walk, going to the boat, or visiting a favorite restaurant.
DM: As you probably know, many of our readers are writers themselves. What is the most valuable piece of advice you can share with someone who may be struggling to make their way in this life?
JM: I’d say a couple of things: Write the book you wish you were reading. The more widely you read, the more you’ll understand about your ideal book. When you’re done, try to develop a group of people willing to read and honestly critique your work. It’s hard to get honest criticism from your friends and family. People want to make you feel good by telling you the book is a shoe-in for the Nobel Prize. If you keep talking to people past that point—maybe by bringing up specific scenes that trouble you and by seeking their input on how to fix them—you can usually get your first readers to open up. It takes some coaxing. When I have these conversations, I know it’s working whenever I start getting uncomfortable.
DM: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s Bram Stoker Awards/WHC?
JM: I’m most looking forward to seeing my editors from Samhain and Random House/Hydra, and to catching up with people I’ve met at conventions and online. There are a lot of nice people involved in the Bram Stoker Awards and the WHC.
About Jonathan Moore
Jonathan Moore is a practicing attorney in Honolulu, and is married to another attorney. Before graduating from law school in New Orleans, Jonathan lived in Taiwan for three years, guided whitewater raft trips on the Rio Grande, and worked as an investigator for a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C. He has also been an English teacher, a bar owner, a counselor at a Texas wilderness camp for juvenile delinquents, and a textbook writer.
Jonathan majored in creative writing at Interlochen Arts Academy, and later attended the (now defunct) New College of California for more of the same. While at New College, he wrote three novels that you will never see. Jonathan has lived in Honolulu since 2007, where he tries to split his time between his sailboat and his back porch.
Jonathan’s debut novel, Redheads, was published in November 2013. He wrote Redheads largely aboard his “classic” 1970 Tartan sailboat, and he would like to thank his diesel engine for being so uncooperative that between 2009 and 2011, he did more writing than sailing. His second novel, Close Reach will be published on May 6, 2014 by Random House/Hydra.
