{"id":2255,"date":"2016-09-13T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T23:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2016-09-13T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T23:32:08","slug":"author-interview-jp-sloan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/2016\/09\/13\/author-interview-jp-sloan\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Interview | JP Sloan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Yea-Though-I-Walk-Sloan\/dp\/1620075733\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2256\" src=\"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/14341599_1300076013350368_966396870_n.jpg\" alt=\"14341599_1300076013350368_966396870_n\" width=\"629\" height=\"960\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/14341599_1300076013350368_966396870_n.jpg 629w, https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/14341599_1300076013350368_966396870_n-98x150.jpg 98w, https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/14341599_1300076013350368_966396870_n-262x400.jpg 262w, https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/14341599_1300076013350368_966396870_n-610x931.jpg 610w, https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/14341599_1300076013350368_966396870_n-197x300.jpg 197w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I recently had the pleasure of reading YEA THOUGH I WALK by JP Sloan, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After reading the first two books in his Dark Choir series, I was predisposed to want to read this, but after I read the preview chapter, I had to finish it.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been awhile since I&#8217;ve posted an author interview; fortunately, JP was gracious enough to agree.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Tell us a bit about YEA THOUGH I WALK. What would you say the primary story arc is, genre, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the face of it, YtIW is a horror\/western crossover&#8230;a moody, existential thriller with monsters and outlaws in the Old West. It&#8217;s the story of Linthicum Odell, a Union Army deserter attempting to redeem his cowardice in the service of a cadre of monster hunters who call themselves the Godpistols. He squares off against a horde of cannibal wendigo, blood-drinking strigoi (Old World vampires), and a corrupt, land-grabbing justice&#8230;all of which terrorize the innocents in the valley of Gold Vein.<\/p>\n<p>Digging deeper, it&#8217;s a story of redemption, an exploration of the nature of good and evil that prods at time-worn notions of loyalty, fidelity, and what it truly means to adhere to a personal code. It&#8217;s a bit subversive, something of a pitch battle between deism and humanism.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">YEA THOUGH I WALK is a bit of a departure from the DARK CHOIR series. Where did the inspiration come from?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve always been a fan of westerns. The first novel I read on my own as a child was Louis L&#8217;amour&#8217;s SACKETT&#8230;a book I pilfered from my Dad, who owned most of L&#8217;amour&#8217;s books. Though, I never seriously considered writing a western&#8230;until I was elbow-deep in researching monster lore for a conference panel, and found that wendigo are somewhat under-represented in horror and urban fantasy. From there, it was an easy step setting it in the Old West.<\/p>\n<p>I decided to write a wendigo vs. vampires story (not a SyFy Original), as I found a nifty parallel between the encroachment of the Transylvanian style of vampire into the frontier and the decades of Manifest Destiny&#8230;especially as the wendigo are a native American myth.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">You&#8217;ve got a few different supernatural creatures in YEA; how much of them is based on real world legend vs what you created to fit your world.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I mentioned, I stumbled across the seed of this story as I prepared for a panel on Paranormal and UF as Folklore for the Mid-Atlantic Fiction Writer&#8217;s Institute&#8217;s annual conference. The more I read up on the wendigo, the more I crafted the story. I did enough research to realize that I had to shoe-horn the mythology a bit to fit the setting, but I ultimately decided that accessibility for the reader served the story better than absolute adherence to the language and time frame of the wendigo origins.<\/p>\n<p>And if you&#8217;ve read the book, you&#8217;ll recognize that I spent no time &#8220;playing around&#8221; with the rules of the wendigo. That&#8217;s all part of the mystery that lies central to the plot.<\/p>\n<p>As for the strigoi, I originally elected to represent a classic &#8220;upir&#8221;, but as things often go I spun my own mechanics and rules for the vampires in this story. Primarily, I needed the monsters to serve the story, as there are so many parallels involved with the plot.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Without giving away anything, the storyline requires a certain delicate touch in handling the scenes in the first two thirds of the book. Did you outline things to keep the story on track?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m a notorious outliner&#8230;I&#8217;ve published blog posts demonstrating my spreadsheet obsession. However, this story took a full year to write (my longest drafting period to date), and I admittedly only outlined up through Act II. By the time I reached what would become Part 3 of the final draft, I was winging it. This created a lot of revision for me, however, so I suppose I&#8217;ve learned my lesson.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">What would you say was the most challenging aspect of writing YEA vs the least taxing?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The greatest challenge in YtIW was the language. I strived to create not only a strong voice, but one that was reasonably current for the time. I read several letters written by Civil War soldiers to get my hands around the frontier parlance I wanted, and was surprised to find a curious mix of elevated language and profanity. Hence, I strove to find a balance between florid and salty prose for Odell. Folger, on the other hand, was more of a polished East Coast type, and as such he was easier to write.<\/p>\n<p>The least taxing part of YtIW was in the plot itself. The whole thing really landed on me at a point, once I&#8217;d hammered my way to the end of what I had outlined. For a plot with so many twists and turns, I was surprised at how easy it was to stitch together.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">There is some similarity in the supernatural elements between YEA and your DARK CHOIR series. Do you foresee the events of YEA ever becoming a factor in a future DARK CHOIR book, or are they separate worlds?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No, I fully intended YtIW to be a stand-alone from the very beginning. This book was more of a labor of love, an attempt to write something with a bit more pith than the Dark Choir books&#8230;which are page-turners in spirit. Once I&#8217;d wrapped up revisions on YtIW and had moved on the Book 3 of the Dark Choir series, the kernel of an idea for a sequel to YtIW actually needled its way into my brain. We&#8217;ll see if that ever bears fruit, but for now my focus is on finishing the Dark Choir series.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Tell us a bit about what motivates Linthicum Odell. How would you say he differs as a character from Dorian Lake? (aside from not being a practitioner).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lin is a bit of a mess. One could say the same for Dorian, but in a wholly separate, and one might say more literal, sense. The character of Linthicum Odell from the beginning of the book is on a quest to satisfy a higher authority&#8230;in this case Gil McQuarrie. His character navigates his way through impossible odds to discover ultimately that his sense of worth can, and must, come from within.<\/p>\n<p>Dorian Lake&#8217;s through-line is in many ways the inverse of that. Dorian begins as a loner, adheres to his sense of superiority to the detriment of his relationships and practice. And as the books progress (I&#8217;ve just wrapped up Book 4), he finds that to succeed he must rely on and cultivate relationships with those he never trusted before.<\/p>\n<p>These two would NOT get along&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">If YEA were a movie, who would you pick to play the major roles?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I took Sam Elliot as my mental and vocal model for Linthicum Odell, and even though he&#8217;s the perennial go-to for leathered sumbitches in westerns, I know that the dialogue was written for his voice.<\/p>\n<p>Denton Folger, the milquetoast intellectual from Baltimore, could be portrayed by the likes of Adrian Brody. Give him shoulder-length locks, spectacles, and a printing press&#8230;and I think you&#8217;d have a winner!<\/p>\n<p>Katherina Folger was written to be a strong Hungarian (which housed modern-day Transylvania at this time period), with remarkable tenderness for her husband, and Hell&#8217;s absolute fury for anyone (or thing) who would lift a finger against him. I wonder if Fairuza Balk has time between seasons of Ray Donovan?<\/p>\n<p>As for Richterman, well&#8230;read the book, and you&#8217;ll know why that&#8217;s a difficult question to answer!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Can you give us some insight regarding the cover design \/ symbolism there? Did you suggest that cover or was it something the cover artist came up with?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The symbol on the cover is a solar cross, which is the symbol of the Godpistols. That was my only contribution to the cover design. Beyond that, I feel the artist simply captured a texture and typeset that reflected a gritty, bloody western feel.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Do you have any idiosyncratic habits around your writing? (Need certain things in place to be able to write, or tend to do something while writing like my first word thing?)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve developed a new schedule for writing since going part-time at my day job. I now have two hours carved out of each day to dedicate to nothing but writing. This new schedule has allowed me to wrap up Book 4 of the Dark Choir series in short order, and hopefully I&#8217;ll keep the pace going!<\/p>\n<p>As for idiosyncrasies&#8230; I require absolute silence when I write, and so I banish myself to my upstairs office when the family watches TV downstairs. An odd exception to this is when I take my laptop to write out and about. In the past, I&#8217;ve been known to hunker down at local brew pubs and bars to hammer out some word count. Alas, I&#8217;ve recently given up liquor, so I&#8217;ll have to find a nice coffee shop somewhere to haunt!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I\u2019m with you on the silence thing. When I\u2019m drafting I can\u2019t even tolerate music being on. Also, kudos to your effort for health.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">How long have you been writing and what inspired you to first write a novel?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I first decided to pursue long-format fiction in earnest about twelve years ago. I&#8217;d been writing bits of fiction since high school, and even took a couple courses in college. Somewhere around 2004, I returned to the quest, realizing I&#8217;d probably have to write some drek before I had anything publish-worthy. The Curse Merchant was my eighth complete novel, but the first I felt was ready to pitch to agents. It was ultimately picked up by Curiosity Quills Press, and they&#8217;ve been devouring my manuscripts ever since. YtIW was the first non-series property I pitched at them, and as you can see, they felt it was worth a gamble.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">What would you say is your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your preferred genre to write?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;ll catch hell for this, but I actually rarely ever read Urban Fantasy. My favorite genre to read is Science Fiction, actually. I&#8217;ve recently enjoyed Andy Weir&#8217;s THE MARTIAN, Hugh Howey&#8217;s WOOL and SHIFT series, and Joe Haldeman&#8217;s THE FOREVER WAR.<\/p>\n<p>I also devour horror&#8230;my favorites include Koontz&#8217;s THE TAKING, Max Brooks&#8217;s WORLD WAR Z (that dreadful movie notwithstanding), and most everything Blake Crouch writes.<\/p>\n<p>I have a series waiting in the wings once the DARK CHOIR series is complete, which blends elements of science fiction and fantasy. I also have two science fiction stand-alones in partial states, waiting for me to return.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">What&#8217;s been the most surprising reaction you&#8217;ve gotten to your writing? Best? Worst?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The best reaction I&#8217;ve ever received from something I&#8217;ve written was actually nothing that I&#8217;ve published, but rather a wrap-up fiction I wrote for a role-playing game I ran for a year and change. I wrote it for my players as a sort of &#8220;farewell and thanks for playing&#8221;. I sent it out to my players the same weekend that Rowling released the Deathly Hallows. I had a dyed-in-the-wool Harry Potter fanatic tell me that she actually put off reading Deathly Hallows to read that wrap-up&#8230;and told me it made her &#8220;ugly-cry.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The worst reaction isn&#8217;t really a reaction, but an overall disappointing return on some of my books. I knew going into publishing that it takes a while to gather a readership&#8230;but my last two releases haven&#8217;t really stirred the pot the way I&#8217;d expected them to, and it&#8217;s disheartening at times.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;then there&#8217;s that guy who insisted that I invented the term &#8220;lowball glass&#8221;, and mocked me on Amazon for it. Alas&#8230;the man clearly isn&#8217;t a whiskey enthusiast. That, and he has no access to Google.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Did you have the title YEA THOUGH I WALK in mind before or after finishing the story? What led you to choose this as the title?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I come up with most of my titles before I begin writing. I chose &#8220;Yea Though I Walk&#8221; most clearly as a reference to Psalm 23, reflecting the deep spiritual journey Odell undergoes in the story. But I also had a notion early on to include traditional zombies in the story, and the term struck me as a fun way to reference &#8220;walkers.&#8221; I cut the zombies from the outline early on, but kept the title not only because it sums up the character journey, but also because it just looks creepy in a bloody western font.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">In YEA, it seems the lines between good and evil are pretty well blurry. One of the most benevolent-seeming characters is one most would expect to be something evil. Did you make a deliberate decision to keep characters from embodying too much vice or virtue, or did the characters evolve naturally to where they wound up on the page?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I began the whole manuscript with the notion that what we perceive as good and evil can often (but not always) be the opposite of our prejudice. I&#8217;m a humanist at heart, and as such I often enjoy turning the tables on man&#8217;s reliance on God or any manner of Kantian ethical scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Also, I require that my ancillary characters possess full ranges of virtue and vice, largely up to the perspective of the reader and\/or the protagonist. That&#8217;s just a guideline I adhere to.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">What&#8217;s next for JP Sloan writing wise?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The mission right now is to wrap up my current Urban Fantasy series. THE CURSE MANDATE, Book 3 of the Dark Choir series, will be released this December, and I suspect I&#8217;ll be drawn well into the marketing machine around the end of the year. I&#8217;ve recently wrapped up my first draft and revisions for Book 4 of the Dark Choir series, THE DARK INTEREST. Once I finish a short story project I&#8217;m working on, I&#8217;ll dive directly into Book 5, THE DARK PRINCIPLE, and then on to the final book, THE DARK CHOIR.<\/p>\n<p>Once Dorian Lake is in my rearview mirror, I plan to embark on that sci-fi\/fantasy super-setting I mentioned earlier, which will likely involve four novels and several short stories that I plan to release as &#8220;membership&#8221; materials for my loyal fans.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Links<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">JP&#8217;s Website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jp-sloan.com\">www.jp-sloan.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Yea-Though-I-Walk-Sloan\/dp\/1620075733\">YEA THOUGH I WALK &#8211; on Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/J-P-Sloan\/e\/B009Y9OGV2\">JP&#8217;s Bio<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>My Review<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I have read JP&#8217;s prior novel, The Curse Merchant, so I was already a fan of his work. When YEA came out, I gave a quick glance at the preview chapter and decided to buy it to keep going.<\/p>\n<p>Yea Though I walk is an expertly crafted story set in the old west (1800s) where a man is forced to deal with supernatural creatures plaguing a quiet town under the thumb of a land-hungry justice of the peace. Gravely wounded, Lincthum Odell winds up under the care of a woman who nurses him back to health. In doing so, he gets tangled in the local creature problem. The woman has secrets, and despite being another man&#8217;s wife, he falls for her.<\/p>\n<p>So as not to spoil anything, this bit is going to be deliberately vague: The story contains a twist, and the &#8216;expertly crafted&#8217; part comes into play how all the events leading up to the reveal weave together into that truth. While I can&#8217;t say I&#8217;ve ever read &#8220;western horror&#8221; before, I quite liked what I read here, and would recommend it to anyone who&#8217;s a fan of cowboy westerns, vampire novels, and horror.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The story is full of well developed characters, none of whom can really be called completely good or completely bad. It&#8217;s a thought-provoking commentary on the nature of human (and sometimes inhuman) morality.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Check out the publisher&#8217;s website here &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.curiosityquills.com\">www.curiosityquills.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently had the pleasure of reading YEA THOUGH I WALK by JP Sloan, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After reading the first two books in his Dark Choir series, I was predisposed to want to read this, but after I &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/2016\/09\/13\/author-interview-jp-sloan\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[88,66],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-author-interview","tag-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2257,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions\/2257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matthewcoxbooks.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}