SIX QUESTIONS WITH TODD TRAVIS
Grumpy Is As Grumpy Does...
Todd Travis's interests include conspiracy theories, the poetry of Michael O'Donoghue and pop music and movies of the 80s. He is single and moves around a whole lot. His current whereabouts are at this time unknown. He doesn't like cable news, views cellphones with suspicion and don't even get him started on email. He also believes poker is not a sport and therefore should never be allowed on ESPN.
He is the author of the thriller CREATURES OF APPETITE, its sequels TROPHIES, TALENTS and THE HAIL MARY, which feature Emma Kane and Jacob Thorne, the horror novel SEX, MARRY, KILL, the novella DERELICT and the horror collection THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. More books are on the way. You can contact him via a Facebook fan page that a friend set up for him.
He does not like interviews. He’s being forced to do this because he lost a bet.
SIX QUESTIONS
1 - Which writer who came before, do you admire the most?
Stephen King. The dark master, but he ain’t really that dark. But I love his work. His writing showed me the way, that one can write whatever stories one wants to, even genre stuff that used to be only found in the salacious paperbacks of the past or old Playboy magazines stuffed in a box in our old man’s closet. And yeah, I know I probably spelled salacious wrong, but get bent.
King’s most known non-fiction book is ON WRITING, and it deserves all the attention it gets, but he wrote a non-fiction book on horror called DANSE MACBRE that just really changed how I viewed the horror books I loved.
2 - Which teacher(s) had the most profound effect on you?
Positive or negative? Positive, none, zero… zip. I had bad teachers in high school. I had a couple teachers abuse me, one in middle school which, when you think about it, is a profound effect (is it affect or effect, I get confused, but I’m the self-taught one here, you’re the college boy).
Those bad teachers, however, did inspire me to get revenge. You can see some of their names in my novels (but I ain’t saying which ones). Every time I write, I get revenge on them. I write out of vengeance.
Revenge may be best served cold, but I’ll take it hot or cold.
In fiction, you can kill whomever you want, and not only do you NOT go to jail, you can oftentimes get paid for it. Ain’t that grand?
3 - Besides writing, what’s your favorite hobby or passion?
It used to be drinking, but I sobered up a few years back and now my hobby is NOT drinking. Which, given how the past few years have gone, has been a real and serious challenge. I mean… yeah. Besides that, I love to read. Reading makes life livable.
I think if one calls themselves a writer but they don’t read, there’s something wrong there. Read freaking books. I’m reading SAPIENS now and GETAWAY, the new Zoje Stage book (she’s very good) and waiting for the new Jack Reacher novel to get here.
4 - What is something that those who don’t write fiction do not know or understand about it?
Ah jeez, I dunno. Maybe that it’s hard as hell to make a living off of it? I mean, for real. I think folks seen our books on sale, see the reviews, and figure we’re living high off the hog, but the truth is far from that.
Most of us have day jobs and we’re still hustling like bandits.
It’s like in the movie Goodfellas, you cannot stop hustling. You don’t hustle, you don’t get paid (sell books)… so you keep writing, keep producing content and stories. You stop, it stops. I had to take a break, when I went into recovery, but it’s hard, everything screeched to a halt, in terms of sales and attention.
And it’s not just mid-list writers, either. I know writers who are bestsellers and they still struggle. Something needs to shift.
What I would say is this. I know writers who claim writing is work. And for them, I get it, in a fashion, but for me, the real work, the hard shit, is everything that isn’t writing. If I could only just write, I would be a happy little badger.
5 - Can you think of a key breakthrough moment in your work, for you, that you’d be willing to share?
King’s origin story in ON WRITING, where he talks about the stack of rejection slips and the fact that he gave up on CARRIE and his wife made him finish it. He realized just because something seemed hard didn’t mean it was something he should not write. Hard is good. That inspired me to keep doing this, even when it got hard.
And I’ll keep going.
6 - What’s next for you?
Working on the long delayed next KANE / THORNE adventure called THE DARK TRIAD, hope to have it ready by next year.
And we’re doing a free giveaway for CREATURES OF APPETITE, the first in the series, you can get it here. CREATURES OF APPETITE
And I plan on never doing another interview, ever. You’re lucky I owe you.