Bob Freeman, a native of the Hoosier State of Indiana, is a proud father and a doting husband who just so happens to derive pleasure from writing two-fisted tales of tumultuous terror. Bob is an editor and senior writer for Lion's Den Art & Entertainment Studios, a small press publisher of comic books and magazines; a columnist for Dimestore Productions' Self Publisher! Magazine; and an investigator for the Nightstalkers of Indiana, a paranormal research group that has been published in the Encyclopedia of Haunted Places. Cairnwood Manor: Shadows over Somerset is his first novel.
Questions and Answers
What are you currently working on?
I am currently knee deep into the sequel to Cairnwood Manor: Shadows over Somerset. For now it is being called Keepers of the Dead and I’m hard at work establishing the cosmology that was hinted at throughout the first book. KotD will also be a bit more of a crime mystery than the more traditional horror tale that SoS was.
I am also working on another series that requires a lot of research. This one grew from a comic series that I worked on with Lion’s Den Studios called Sangrael. The first book will be titled Templar Nights and it’s a noir influenced supernatural thriller… sort of a Nightstalker meets Kingdom of Heaven with a bit of that old Bill Bixby show The Magician thrown in for good measure.
Are you a member of any writing groups?
You know, I’d love to be. I gave a go at forming one a few months back but it didn’t really work out. As much as I’d have liked for it to, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Even meeting once a month was just too hard to co-ordinate.
Who or what has been a major influence on your writing and why?
I got tremendous encouragement as a kid. My parents really fostered an environment where my creativity could be explored on my own terms. My brother and I really benefited from that. We were given our own trailer to live in when I was about eight, so my brother would have been five-ish. We turned the living room of the place into a massive toy room theater where we put on lavish productions. I think those years playing in that room did more to create the writer that I am more than anything else. It was really quite wonderful.
Who (Fact or Fiction) would you most like to meet, and what would you ask them?
That’s a tough one. I’m sure this would change daily, you know. Today I’m of a mindset to want to have a sit down with the Great Beast. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on Aleister Crowley for Sangrael: Templar Nights, though "Old Crow" has been a hobby of mine since the late seventies. The guy was bloody brilliant and so far ahead of his time. He would have been so at home in the modern age.
I’d really like to know more about his time at Boleskine and the working of the Abra-Melin ritual. I know it was interrupted and that the ramifications of it being incomplete could have had far-reaching effects on the rest of his life. I’d wonder along those lines, though I’m sure he would perform a bit of mental gymnastics on me and we’d end up talking chess.
Is there a book or story you wish you had written?
Oh, without a doubt, Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. That book was so bloody brilliant. I mean, his turn of a phrase and twist of a plot is, without question, truly masterful. That book had it all...
Now, I could have been facetious and said Jo Rowling’s Potter books, which are brilliant in there own way and has made that young lady a wee bit of pocket change, but I’ll stick with the Eco.
Is writing your full time occupation, if not what is?
I wish. No, I’m still new to the game of book publishing, so my day jobs are varied. I teach computer-related skills to union employees of a major U.S. automaker and manage a Technical Support Center for nine Internet Service Providers.
As a reader do you prefer Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror?
My preference is for books that make you question what genre they fall under. My own horror novels lean heavily toward fantasy and I like a novel that follows similar conceits.
What was your first professional sale? How did it feel when you received the acceptance?
A short story for Wicked Karnival magazine. It was a tremendous feeling of relief. Wow, someone is actually willing to pay me for something that grew out of my head. How crazy is that?
Who is you favourite author?
I’m a Robert E. Howard man. That guy... I mean, he wrote with such power, such passion. There in no pretense in Howard’s fiction. He wrote yarns that speak to your primordial soul.
If you could give one piece of advice to a would-be author, what would it be?
Write. It’s as simple as that. Oh, and trust that little voice inside your head.
When did you first decide that you wanted to be an author?
At birth, maybe? I’ve always had the desire, if not the drive, to be a writer. It’s taken me a long time to find my inner voice. For years I was easily distracted by the chaos of living. My early writing was chaotic and heavily influenced by Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson and the illuminated Robert Anton Wilson. The counter-culture was my world until the mid-nineties. I’ve mellowed a tiny bit since then.
When did you first feel that you were an author?
The first time someone other than a friend or family member read one of my tales and said they liked it.
Are you for or against e-books?
There are pros and cons. Electronic media is a hell of a lot cheaper and really opens up the marketplace. What e-books lack is a comfortable way to read them. And I’m such a fan of books... the look, the feel, the smell... that’s something e-books will never be able to reproduce. That being said, it is the future of "print media". I’m sure my son (who is 21 months old at the time of this interview) will find board and paper books to be quaint antiques of a different era, relegated to museums and collectors.
Are you a music fan? If so, what?
I love music and am quite diverse in my tastes. My favorite band would be Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page’s guitar work and production in particular. Lately I’ve been getting into artists like Loreena McKennet and Blackmore’s Night. The new Coldplay is good and I’m enjoying the Killers and Keane quite a bit. But hey, I still like to throw on some Misfits or Iron Maiden now and then.
Do you have a favourite place to write?
I just completed a new den to write in so I guess the answer would be: "Now I do". I like to write in a darkened room, with a bit of candlelight and some instrumental mood music playing in the background, be it a John Williams score or the Russian Symphony hammering out some Paganini.
Do you enjoy book signings/conventions?
Now there’s a love hate relationship if ever there was one. The easy answer is "yes". I enjoy the camaraderie with other authors and I like to stay in hotels, oddly enough. The downside for me is my family. I hate to be away from my wife and kid and hope to have them tagging along to events in 2006.
Why do you like SF/F/H?
Because in the "fantastic" anything can happen, and it’s in those moments that we learn the most about ourselves.
What is the scariest story you have read?
I had a few late nights with Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, but I think the scariest story was probably Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.
What gives you nightmares?
Lately I’ve been dreaming of my son being in peril and not being able to get to him in time. I’m a new father and I can’t think of anything worse than something happening to that little boy. He’s my whole world. I am so thankful that he has a good mother that watches over him like a hawk.
Have you ever used real life horrors for inspiration?
So far I’ve only written one bit of fiction that has tapped into a real world series of events, but I’m more than willing to tap into such inspiration. I’ve got things percolating all the time in my head that are born of CNN and A&E crime stories.
Given the high quality of horror fiction available, why do you think there are so few great horror movies?
I don’t think that is necessarily true. Sure there are a lot of bad horror films out there, but for every Jason takes Manhattan there’s an Angel Heart. I love the old Hammer Films with Lee and Cushing, and there is a whole host of classic horror to tap into, from the Exocist to Rosemary’s Baby, or the Omen. Recently there have been some real winners, like 28 Days Later and Frailty.
Is there anything more that can be done with vampires, demons and zombies?
Yes. Yes. And… yes. Those who say there isn’t have no imagination. Karen Koehler and S.L. Viehl have done wonderful things with vampire fiction, Graham Masterson and Jeff Long have traversed new ground with demons, and c’mon, zombies... Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series opened up a whole new door to what can be done from that angle. It is not the subject matter that is limited, it is the imagination of the author.
Short story, single novel or novel series - which do you think is the best medium for horror?
Short stories probably fit the horror genre best but horror can easily find a home in any length of story. It all depends on the writer’s aims. I prefer to read and write horror related serial fiction because I enjoy character development that comes from extended soap opera-ish sub-plots that play out over the course of several novels. Dark Shadows is the perfect model for what can be done with the "Gothic Romance". In serial form, it plays out beautifully, with multiple layers and textures that touch on all forms of supernatural horror, all the while offering up tremendous depth to character.
What book are you reading at the moment?
I just finished The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and Richard Layman’s Bite. I’ll be tackling Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince next.
Do you enjoy collaborating?
Never tried it, though I’d be willing to give it a shot. It takes a certain type of personality to work with someone else in that vein... but I always got marks for playing well with others, so why not? Any takers?
Do you always know a Story's Ending When You Begin Writing?
Oh no. I have a rough idea where it might be heading, but rarely does the ending even come close. When I write I let the little voice inside my head do all the talking. I trust it to tell me a good story.
What's the most memorable thing said in a review of your work?
That they couldn’t put the book down. For me, that’s the pinnacle... to reel them in so that they don’t want to turn away from the story because it’s grabbed them and sucked them in. Nothing is more rewarding than that.
Have you won any awards for your writing?
No, but then I’m not writing for awards, I’m writing to entertain.
Is there something you are particularly proud of?
You mean other than being a good husband and father?
In regards to writing, any time I write the words "The End" I feel a sense of pride.
In addition to your novel writing you also write for comics. Can you tell us a little about the comics you write?
Loose Cannons is a grim and gritty super-hero tale that takes a look at a world that has outlawed costumed adventurers and the ramifications of this when a super-villain decides to take advantage of the situation. It’s a very character driven piece, but with all the action of a summer blockbuster. Three issues have been released so far, with a comprehensive graphic novel in the works.
I have also dabbled in science fiction (with a title called Startide: the Adventures of the H.M.S. Bannockburn focusing on the crew of a Wilderness Fleet Starship patrolling the frontier of deep space) and heroic fantasy (Tales from the Land of the Midnight Sun followed a slave girl shipwrecked in the frozen north and her "barbaric" saviors).
My current project is a comic strip about a young boy who discovers that the items he orders from the back ads in his comic books are different from the ones ordered by his friends at school because his actually work. True Grit is set in the mid-sixties and is sort of a cross between the Wonder Years, the Hardy Boys, and Jonny Quest.
And how does the process of scripting a comic for someone else to illustrate differ form novel writing?
Comics are a visual medium so when you script a comic you have to keep in mind the limitations of your artist, the number of pages that you have to tell your story (usually 22 pages), and you need to make sure that the last panel of each odd numbered page grabs the reader and urges them to turn the page like it’s a mini-cliffhanger.
Comics work an entirely different set of writing muscles and it’s a lot of fun to "see" your characters in action.
Plug away - what do you have coming out?
Shadows over Somerset, the first book in the Cairnwood Manor series is currently available from Black Death Books (an imprint of KHP Industries) and I have a short story in the current issue of Wicked Karnival magazine.
Visit my website, [link below], for more information.
Many Thanks, Bob!
Relevant Links
Bob Freeman's Website