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Interview with the Devil(ish)

Sunday, March 29, 2009

As I posted a few blogs ago, one of my favorite discoveries this past year was a technohorror novel titled Afraid by Jack Kilborn. I’ve known this author for several years. We’ve done pub crawls together (okay I was the one doing the crawling; he was still upright), had pizza dinners in Chicago, and both of us have compared and discussed stories. But he kept Afraid, this little horrific gem of a book, secret and just dropped it in my lap about a year ago. I read it in one sitting. And parts of that book still disturb me a year later. 

I thought I’d feature Jack on this blog.  We shared this rough and impromptu back-and-forth interview via an email exchange.  We thought of doing it via Twitter, but the 140 character restrictions made it a challenge as we both had way too much to say.

So without further ado, please welcome Mr. Kilborn: 

Jack Kilborn: Thanks for having me here, Jim. Love the new website.

Jim:  Shameless praise.  Always a good way to start.  But let’s discuss your book.  In Afraid, a government "red ops" experiment is let loose in a small isolated town.  Do you believe such "red ops" teams are operating?  Here?  Abroad?  Paranoid much?

Jack: I have it on high-ranking authority from classified sources that can neither confirm nor deny that my classified high-ranking sources are actually just some guys I met at Spencer's in the mall, hanging out by the Magic the Gathering pewter figurines. I really can’t reveal any more than that. I'm sure you understand. You write about secret government organizations too.

Afraid is pretty gory. You don't shy away from getting gritty, either. Your past books have had a fair share of creative deaths, blood, and occasional torture. How do you approach violence in your writing?

Jim:  Goes back to my roots. I was/am a big fan of the old pulp novels from the thirties and forties:  The Shadow, The Spider, The Avenger.  But it was the writer of the old Doc Savage serial-- a writer named Lester Dent (aka Kenneth Robeson)--who once said when it comes to writing "never kill your characters the same way twice."  I live by this credo (okay, just in my writing).  Rather than just shooting characters over and over again, why not a good garroting, a stabbing, a spike through the eye? And lets not forget eviscerating.  It's all good.

Jack: I read the final draft of your new Sigma thriller, The Doomsday Key, and you've got some crazy deaths in that. Is that knife real? Where can I get one?

Jim:  Yep.  The WASP dagger featured in the novel is real.  Once stabbed into a victim, the press of a button injects a blast of compressed CO2 into the victim.  It freezes and pulverizes internal organs.  So of course, I had to use it in a novel.

But let’s move past blood and mayhem and talk about writing in general.  I've known you for years.  I'm still amazed at your productivity and pace.  What's your average day like when you're in writer mode?

Jack: Every day I get up at 3 am and write a hundred pages. I usually finish by noon, have a light snack, and then write until midnight, usually another two hundred pages. It's all about the discipline.

Also, I lie a lot.

Who's your favorite character in the Sigma books?

Jim:  Really?  You’re going there?  That's like asking who your favorite child is.  Each character has their particular fascination for me.  Kowalski, for his stupidity but stalwartness.  Seichan, for her confliction and contradictions.  Monk, because, heck, he lost his hand and part of his brain.  And on and on.  So it's hard to pick just one.

(okay, it's Kowalski, but don't tell the others).

Jack: I recently demanded that you bring back some of the characters from your stand alones, much like I demanded you bring back Kowalski. You listened to me about Kowalski. Are you going to bring back anyone from Deep Fathom, Excavation, or Subterranean, and have them join Sigma?

Jim:  Actually Kowalski wasn't the first.  Dr. Lisa Cummings, who is Painter Crowe's main squeeze, came originally from Deep Fathom.  She ended up getting jilted in that earlier book.  I felt guilty, so I pulled her into Sigma.  Even Seichan was originally in Subterranean, my first book. But she ended up on the cutting room floor during edits.  I loved her and had to resurrect her.  So who knows who else might show up?

Jack: I take all the credit for you bringing Kowalski back.

Jim:  You were a big advocate.  Back to you.  The popcorn scene in Afraid still gives me the willies.  What inspires such warped and depraved scenes?

Jack: Thanks! With Afraid, I tried to think of the absolute worst things that can happen to a person, and then put my characters in those situations. Our mutual friend, thriller writer Barry Eisler, is

particularly disturbed by the toe-sucking scene in Afraid. Everyone has things that creep them out, and I did my best to include something to creep out everybody.

Let's go back to talking about the writing process. You've been in the same writing group since your first book was published. How helpful is it to have a writer's group?

Jim:  I happen to personally know you're not a big fan of writer's groups.

Jack: I don't need a writer's group, because I trade completed

manuscripts with a lot of my peers, you included, and get my feedback that way. But you're right, I don't attend a group every few weeks while I'm in the middle of a book. What does yours do for you?

Jim:  Writer's groups have been essential to helping me grow as a writer and keeping me honest.  I may try to slip something half-assed past the group, but trust me, they slap me down.  But belonging to a writer's group is also like having a mini-writer's conference every other week. Writing is a solitary profession, but it definitely gets the juices flowing to talk shop with those rarified few who share your passion about books and writing.  So a group is great a motivation boost.  And I also find attending a group is a way to have mini-deadlines built into your writing schedule.  I make sure that I have at least one chapter to hand-out to the group at every meeting.  So the group is also a way to combat procrastination.  And that's barely scratching the surface of all

the advantages.  And in case you're wondering, Jack, we have a seat open and waiting for you.

Jack: That's kind of you. But I live in Chicago, you live in Sacramento, so the commute would be rough.

Jim: mp;nbsp;Wimp.  I had stated that Afraid was one of the best books I had read all year.  What are some of your fav orite books of the past year (excluding my own, of course)?

Jack: That's not fair, because you know I dig your books. Aside from

Eisler, whom I mentioned earlier, there are three writers that I

recommend to everyone. Jeff Strand wrote a book called Pressure, which is one of the scariest books ever. Henry Perez has a debut thriller called Killing Red which I loved. And Blake Crouch's latest is Abandon. All three are coming out this summer. Fans of thrillers will enjoy them, and so will fans of horror.

Jim:  Along a similar vein, I know you are a fan of some sick, sick

movies.  Care to share a few?

Jack:  I just saw Martyrs. That's a real kick in the teeth. I can't even

really recommend it, because it' ipt src="http://www.jamesrollins.com/js/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js" type="text/javascript"> ;s so brutal. If you saw Irreversible,

it's that same tone, but much more graphic. Chaos is a nasty little

flick, and there are some underground indie films that are really mean: The Poukeepsie Tapes, August Underground, Slaughtered Vomit Dogs.

If you like your gore with a sly wink, Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police are like Japanese versions of The Toxic Avenger. Absolutely crazy stuff.

I made you watch Audition and Ichi the Killer and Versus, right? What are some of your faves?

Jim:  Yes, and you made me watch Hatchet, too.  I’m still traumatized by all of them, especially Ichi.  But one of my favorite horror flicks of the past few years was more mainstream (ie., you could see it at the theater).  It was Descent, about a group of women who go caving and end up running into a cannibalistic tribe.  One disturbing flick.

Back to lighter matters.  To paraphrase Barbara Walters:  If you could be a beer, Jack, what sort of beer would you be?

Jack: A very large one. Like the size of a garbage can.

So what's this March Madness voting contest, and how can we get involved?

Jim:  Smooth, Kilborn. Talk about a softball throw toward self-promotion.  But I’ll field it.  It's an event run by HarperCollins Canada.  It's a literary version of the basketball's March Madness, pitting various books against each other.  We're in the final round at the moment, pitting my book The Judas Strain versus a book I enjoyed very much, Kim Harrison's For a Few Demons More.

You can vote for the titles by going to: HarperCollins Canada March Madness

They're also giving away all 64 of the competing titles to one lucky

voter. So vote early and often (I suggest every 10 minutes).

Lastly, speaking of shameless self-promotion, I happen to also know your secret identity as J.A. Konrath.  Why the new persona?

Jack: Under JA Konrath I write thrillers about a cop named Jack Daniels. They have some scares in them, and a lot of action, but they also contain a fair amount of humor. Afraid doesn't have any humor. I call it technohorror. Because it's such a raw, unrelenting book, we decided to use a new name. Some of JA Konrath's fans will like Afraid. But I've already gotten hate mail from others who think I'm the devil and Afraid should be burned. So I think I'm doing something right.

Back to you.  You're a vet. After you die, are you going to be buried at Arlington Park?

Jim:  Not that sort of vet, he said rolling his eyes.  I am a veterinarian.  So any pet cemetery will do me just fine.

Jack: Thanks for having me, Jim. Have you played the Afraid flash game on my website yet?  It's at www.JackKilborn.com and costs $36,892.

Okay, I'm lying again. I did it myself, for free, in about ten minutes.

But it's really fun. I swear.

Okay, I'm lying about that, too. But Afraid the book is fun. If you're

brave enough...

So that’s the interview!  Check out Jack’s book and I’ll be talking more in the upcoming blog about the new middle-school book Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow.

Posted by James Rollins at 10:49 AM

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