SIX QUESTIONS WITH RUSSELL NOHELTY
Writers Talking 'Bout Writing
Russell Nohelty is a USA Today Bestselling author and publisher at Wannabe Press. He’s written comic books like Katrina Hates the Dead, Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter, and Pixie Dust, along with more than two dozen novels, including his Godsverse Chronicles and The Obsidian Spindle Saga series. He also edits the Cthulhu is Hard to Spell anthology series. If you like magic, mythology, and/or monsters, then the easiest way to learn about new projects is on my website www.russellnohelty.com where you can sign up for my mailing list. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and dogs.
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SIX QUESTIONS
1 - Which writer who came before, do you admire the most?
There are so many, but I keep coming back to Neil Gaiman, and he has been my guiding light for most of my writing career.
There is something about the way he talks about writing that is infectious, and you get a sense that he truly loves his life. He created a category that is basically “Neil Gaimaneque” and when you pick up a Neil Gaiman book, you know what kind of feeling you are going to get throughout it. I’ve tried to bring that to my own writing, even though we have very different styles.
I am constantly thinking about what makes a “Russell Nohelty” book, and how to define my own category so that people know exactly what to expect when they pick up my word. When my old management team used to ask me about projects, I would tell them “It’s the thing I do. If you like the thing I do, then you’ll like it”. I spent a long time then figuring out the thing I do, and then bringing it to my writing.
He also has a confidence to his writing that I really admire. He has the strength of his convictions to lead you down a path and tell a story, which is something very few writers have in their prose. It is so important to make the reader confident that you know how to tell the story you plan to tell quickly so that they can settle in and enjoy the right. Nobody does that better than Neil Gaiman.
2 - Which teacher(s) had the most profound effect on you?
When I started making comics, the teacher I looked up to the most was Jim Zub. I never took a class from him, or even heard him speak before we met in person, but I studied his blog religiously, and the fact that he was so open with his successes and failures had a profound effect on me, and the way that I come at my own career.
I am as transparent as I am because I hope that people can study my career like I studied him. For me, teachers don’t tend to come in a classroom, or in a course, but in simply the way people conduct themselves.
I will say that the most influential teacher I ever had was Lisa O’Hara, who was my drama teacher in school, and directed our school plays. She taught me how to create things, and gave me the confidence to go headfirst into any project. I wouldn’t have ever had the courage to pursue creativity as a profession without her.
3 - Besides writing, what’s your favorite hobby or passion?
I am super boring, because the only thing I really do outside of write is read. I mean I watch TV and movies and stuff and love that, but when I’m not writing, I’m almost always reading…oh or listening to actual play podcasts. Even though I don’t play RPGs, I have become quite obsessed with listening to other people play them.
4 - What is something that those who don’t write fiction do not know or understand about it?
It seems that people think fiction magically comes fully formed, but it’s more like a wad of clay that needs to be kneaded and prodded into shape. It is such a delicate balance and nearly impossible to get right. I spend the majority of my career trying not to destroy the universes people love than I do excited about the next installment of a popular series, because it’s so easy to mess it up.
That is why I don’t critique anything else that exists in the world, because the time and energy it takes to create even a bad thing is immense, and the talent it takes to forge even the worst piece of garbage is incredible. The universe defaults to entropy, and creating is fighting against the universe’s pull to do nothing. It is putting something new into the world, and the energy needs to break through the entropy of the universe and put something new into the world, especially with how brutal critics can be, is nearly unfathomable.
5 - Can you think of a key breakthrough moment in your work, for you, that you’d be willing to share?
I spent a large part of my career drifting aimlessly, switching genres and trying new things, trying to figure out what books I wanted to write. It wasn’t until about 2018, after I had written nearly 20 books, that I had a lightning bolt moment and realized exactly the kinds of books I wanted to do, and what I wanted to say. It’s one of the most incredible moments in my career, because suddenly I had clarity, and could definitively move in the right direction.
This is one of the hardest things for new writers to figure out, and it’s mostly because they haven’t written enough. I hope it doesn’t take anyone as long as it took me to figure it out, but it’s okay if it does. Creating is, in essence, playing, and we should be free to play in as many sandboxes as we want until we figure out what we want to do. In fact, it’s in that playing in thrillers and romance and science fiction that allows your brain to make something that is uniquely you, and for me, that is everything.
6 - What’s next for you?
Oh boy, that is a loaded question. The future is a little hazy for me right now, but in 2022 I plan on finishing out three series: Cthulhu is Hard to Spell, Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter, and The Godsverse Chronicles.
I have been playing in a couple new universes, trying to figure out my next big project, but I’m not there yet. Nothing has really clicked for me in the way that I need in a project that I expect to consume the next several years of my life. Right now, though, I have projects written for release all the way into 2023 already, but that is because I write 1-2 years ahead of my release slate, so I’m confident in what’s coming in the short-term future, but my long-term future is murky at best.
I have never not had a long-term project to work on, but as I wrap up production on The Obsidian Spindle Saga, in 2023, I have nothing to work on after that, and it is partially freely, but also very scary.
That’s not to say I’m not busy.
Right now, I’m releasing a new book with Monica Leonelle all about how to get your book selling on Kickstarter, which is a book about selling books on Kickstarter, currently funding on Kickstarter until November 13th.
I’m also constantly writing small pieces for anthology projects, and I will figure out my new piece. I’m just not sure what it will be yet. I want something big and bold that I can sink my teeth into for the next several years.