Author Interview - Jeremy C. Shipp
Author of Vacation
Copyright 2007
Raw Dog Screaming Press
http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/
Quick Synopsis:
It’s time for blueblood Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a year long, corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn’t once miss his secure American Dream.
A review by Jesse Gordon:
"On the surface, Vacation is about a disgruntled English teacher named Bernard Johnson who goes on Vacation (yes, proper capitalization) with an ex-student, once-male, now-female friend and discovers the world is not what he initially thought it to be. Okay. Simple enough premise--you see it all the time in various forms of literature (well, maybe without the sex change). Peel away that superficial layer, though, and you soon find yourself entangled in a labyrinth of spiritual testing and social commentary unflinchingly portrayed by Shipp's characters. In this world, society exists in two major flavors: the Tics and the Meeks, the former being the well-to-dos of the industrialized nations, the latter being the poor, the exiled. Using this metaphor, it quickly becomes obvious the Tics are our own pop culture, the pill-popping, credit-card-wielding, overfed, and over-stimulated masses who have been shielded from the terrible truths of the world in a sort of global propaganda scheme to bolster big business. The Meeks are, well, everyone else--a grassroots conglomerate of militants who have cleansed their bodies and minds of all social poisons. Somewhere in between is the Garden, an external haven lead by Noh, who seeks to seed truth back into the world, one mind at a time."
The interview:
Q: Hi Jeremy. It took me one paragraph to realize that this was going to be a wacky kind of novel, like a rated-R version of Norton Juster´s The Phantom of the Tollbooth for part-time grown ups. One of your reviewers refers to you style as psychological fantasy. Is that how you like to describe your work?
A: Howdy hi, Jennifer. Thanks for the interview, and thanks for comparing my book to The Phantom of the Tollbooth. That makes me feel all warm, fuzzy, and fizzy inside (although the fizzy probably comes from the sparkling peach juice I drank earlier.) Anyway, when I’m writing, I try to free my mind of genre boundaries and conventions. I never think of any of my stories as horror or psychological fantasy or bizarro. I get published in magazines and anthologies that are looking for science fiction, fantasy, horror, literature (whatever that means), bizarro. I love all of these genres, and so no matter how my work is described, I’m happy. Personally, I just think of my work as (rather dark and strange) fiction.
Q: Many of the themes in your story, like the meaning of the title Vacation, the need to understand and complete "assignments" and the need to reconnect with a deceased sibling, seem to take on mythological or allegoric elements. Can you explain further?
A: In my books and stories, I like to create layers of meanings with complex interconnections. That’s how I see the world, so that’s how I write. Vacation may be about a character named Bernard Johnson, but at the same time it’s about humanity and civilization’s festering wound.
Q: You made a choice for the story to be dialog-driven, can you explain why?
A: Vacation is, on the one hand, a letter, but on the other hand (or hook, if were speaking in pirate terms), it’s an exercise in catharsis. Bernard’s an ex-English teacher, so this catharsis manifests, predominantly, in words. He unlearns his old life with words, and he learns a new one with words. Also, I really like writing dialogue.
Q: Something that always interests me is the spark of life of a story. What was the first image, phrase, or character that you imagined that drove you to write the rest of the novel?
A: It was an idea that sparked this story initially. I thought about how human beings can travel around the world, visiting numerous countries, and really only see their own home, over and over again. If people limit themselves to certain resource bubbles, they don’t get a clear picture of the global community. And so, the story exploded in my skull from there.
Q: How did you find your publisher and how have you been promoting your book?
A: John Lawson of Raw Dog Screaming Press has been a fan of my short stories for quite a while, and I’ve been a fan of Raw Dog Screaming Press for quite a while. I told him about my novel via email, and he said he’d like to read it. And so that’s where this all started.
And for over a year now, I’ve been promoting my book almost every day. I create contests, fake interviews (with people such as the Devil), and I’ve tried mind control, but I can only seem to control eggplants at this point. I like to post a lot of free fiction on my website, which helps to promote my writing in general. Unless the person reading hates the fiction, in which case, I’m promoting other people’s writing.
This November/December, I’ll be going on a virtual/online book tour, where I’ll be visiting blogs and doing many other virtual sort of things. It’ll be as fun as a firefly (and they're quite fun, really.)
Q: Dude, I felt the So. Cal vibe. Can you tell more about where you live and write?
A: I live in a very religious city called Loma Linda. I say “very religious,” because in almost every station of power here, you’ll find Seventh Day Adventists. The religious influence has even caused the mail not to come on Saturday (because that’s the holy day), but on Sunday instead. Yep, we get mail on Sunday. There isn’t much else to say about Loma Linda, except that it has a cool Farmer’s Market, and the hills are filled with rattle snakes and coyotes. I love hiking there.
There are some cool places around. Riverside, Redlands, Idyllwild, Oak Glen, L.A. , San Diego, etc.
We live in a Victorian Farmhouse that me and my family renovated (or rebuilt, more like.) It’s the third oldest house in the city, and it’s haunted. The ghosts are lazy though, so they don’t cause much damage. (Just the occasional dust bunny flinging.)
Q: Do you have any other writing projects in the works?
A: My short story collection, SHEEP AND WOLVES, is coming out this November. I also have a short film called EGG in the works, and an animated short film based on my short story, DOG. Currently, I’m working on a new novel entitled CURSED.
Q: Would you like to post any links to websites that feature your writing?
A: I most definitely would! Thanks!
Here’s my officially official website (where you can check out some of my short stories for free):
http://www.jeremycshipp.com/
I’m also constantly posting new stories/blogs/ramblings on my MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/jeremywriter
Q: When did you first realize that someone was spiking your Fruit Loops?
A: My pet coconut monkey told me, actually. He decided to tell me using interpretive dance, and since I can’t understand interpretive dance, it took me about three years to figure out what he was saying. For the longest time, I thought he was saying “fruit shoes,” and I didn’t own any fruit shoes at the time, so I was very confused.
JP: Thanks, Jeremy for a fun read. I think you win the prize for an opening hook. I went from feeling sad to giggling in about 30 seconds.
JS: Thanks very much, Jennifer! :)
Author of Vacation
Copyright 2007
Raw Dog Screaming Press
http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/
Quick Synopsis:
It’s time for blueblood Bernard Johnson to leave his boring life behind and go on The Vacation, a year long, corporate-sponsored odyssey. But instead of seeing the world Bernard is captured by terrorists, becomes a key figure in secret drug wars, and, worse, doesn’t once miss his secure American Dream.
A review by Jesse Gordon:
"On the surface, Vacation is about a disgruntled English teacher named Bernard Johnson who goes on Vacation (yes, proper capitalization) with an ex-student, once-male, now-female friend and discovers the world is not what he initially thought it to be. Okay. Simple enough premise--you see it all the time in various forms of literature (well, maybe without the sex change). Peel away that superficial layer, though, and you soon find yourself entangled in a labyrinth of spiritual testing and social commentary unflinchingly portrayed by Shipp's characters. In this world, society exists in two major flavors: the Tics and the Meeks, the former being the well-to-dos of the industrialized nations, the latter being the poor, the exiled. Using this metaphor, it quickly becomes obvious the Tics are our own pop culture, the pill-popping, credit-card-wielding, overfed, and over-stimulated masses who have been shielded from the terrible truths of the world in a sort of global propaganda scheme to bolster big business. The Meeks are, well, everyone else--a grassroots conglomerate of militants who have cleansed their bodies and minds of all social poisons. Somewhere in between is the Garden, an external haven lead by Noh, who seeks to seed truth back into the world, one mind at a time."
The interview:
Q: Hi Jeremy. It took me one paragraph to realize that this was going to be a wacky kind of novel, like a rated-R version of Norton Juster´s The Phantom of the Tollbooth for part-time grown ups. One of your reviewers refers to you style as psychological fantasy. Is that how you like to describe your work?
A: Howdy hi, Jennifer. Thanks for the interview, and thanks for comparing my book to The Phantom of the Tollbooth. That makes me feel all warm, fuzzy, and fizzy inside (although the fizzy probably comes from the sparkling peach juice I drank earlier.) Anyway, when I’m writing, I try to free my mind of genre boundaries and conventions. I never think of any of my stories as horror or psychological fantasy or bizarro. I get published in magazines and anthologies that are looking for science fiction, fantasy, horror, literature (whatever that means), bizarro. I love all of these genres, and so no matter how my work is described, I’m happy. Personally, I just think of my work as (rather dark and strange) fiction.
Q: Many of the themes in your story, like the meaning of the title Vacation, the need to understand and complete "assignments" and the need to reconnect with a deceased sibling, seem to take on mythological or allegoric elements. Can you explain further?
A: In my books and stories, I like to create layers of meanings with complex interconnections. That’s how I see the world, so that’s how I write. Vacation may be about a character named Bernard Johnson, but at the same time it’s about humanity and civilization’s festering wound.
Q: You made a choice for the story to be dialog-driven, can you explain why?
A: Vacation is, on the one hand, a letter, but on the other hand (or hook, if were speaking in pirate terms), it’s an exercise in catharsis. Bernard’s an ex-English teacher, so this catharsis manifests, predominantly, in words. He unlearns his old life with words, and he learns a new one with words. Also, I really like writing dialogue.
Q: Something that always interests me is the spark of life of a story. What was the first image, phrase, or character that you imagined that drove you to write the rest of the novel?
A: It was an idea that sparked this story initially. I thought about how human beings can travel around the world, visiting numerous countries, and really only see their own home, over and over again. If people limit themselves to certain resource bubbles, they don’t get a clear picture of the global community. And so, the story exploded in my skull from there.
Q: How did you find your publisher and how have you been promoting your book?
A: John Lawson of Raw Dog Screaming Press has been a fan of my short stories for quite a while, and I’ve been a fan of Raw Dog Screaming Press for quite a while. I told him about my novel via email, and he said he’d like to read it. And so that’s where this all started.
And for over a year now, I’ve been promoting my book almost every day. I create contests, fake interviews (with people such as the Devil), and I’ve tried mind control, but I can only seem to control eggplants at this point. I like to post a lot of free fiction on my website, which helps to promote my writing in general. Unless the person reading hates the fiction, in which case, I’m promoting other people’s writing.
This November/December, I’ll be going on a virtual/online book tour, where I’ll be visiting blogs and doing many other virtual sort of things. It’ll be as fun as a firefly (and they're quite fun, really.)
Q: Dude, I felt the So. Cal vibe. Can you tell more about where you live and write?
A: I live in a very religious city called Loma Linda. I say “very religious,” because in almost every station of power here, you’ll find Seventh Day Adventists. The religious influence has even caused the mail not to come on Saturday (because that’s the holy day), but on Sunday instead. Yep, we get mail on Sunday. There isn’t much else to say about Loma Linda, except that it has a cool Farmer’s Market, and the hills are filled with rattle snakes and coyotes. I love hiking there.
There are some cool places around. Riverside, Redlands, Idyllwild, Oak Glen, L.A. , San Diego, etc.
We live in a Victorian Farmhouse that me and my family renovated (or rebuilt, more like.) It’s the third oldest house in the city, and it’s haunted. The ghosts are lazy though, so they don’t cause much damage. (Just the occasional dust bunny flinging.)
Q: Do you have any other writing projects in the works?
A: My short story collection, SHEEP AND WOLVES, is coming out this November. I also have a short film called EGG in the works, and an animated short film based on my short story, DOG. Currently, I’m working on a new novel entitled CURSED.
Q: Would you like to post any links to websites that feature your writing?
A: I most definitely would! Thanks!
Here’s my officially official website (where you can check out some of my short stories for free):
http://www.jeremycshipp.com/
I’m also constantly posting new stories/blogs/ramblings on my MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/jeremywriter
Q: When did you first realize that someone was spiking your Fruit Loops?
A: My pet coconut monkey told me, actually. He decided to tell me using interpretive dance, and since I can’t understand interpretive dance, it took me about three years to figure out what he was saying. For the longest time, I thought he was saying “fruit shoes,” and I didn’t own any fruit shoes at the time, so I was very confused.
JP: Thanks, Jeremy for a fun read. I think you win the prize for an opening hook. I went from feeling sad to giggling in about 30 seconds.
JS: Thanks very much, Jennifer! :)
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