Contagion: War Stories was released on Wednesday (the 30th of November) and it contained my first ever published work. Daron Kappauff brought Contagion publisher Travis Legge and myself together for an interview earlier in the week. Since I had the opportunity to talk about my story at length, it only seemed proper to return the favor and cast the spotlight on some of my compatriots.
Obviously I’m extremely excited about my story. As excited as I am, there are a number of other fine ladies and gentlemen that are just as thrilled as me. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with four of my colleagues from Contagion: War Stories. Without further ado, let me introduce to you: Jason Huntress (credited as ssg), Luke Pierce, Kenneth Mack, and MaGnUs. It was a lot of fun talking about the book, getting to know the guys a little better, and soliciting some writing tips. Hope you enjoy reading the interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it!
Chris Delloiacono: First, tell our readers a little about yourself. Have you had any published work?
Kenneth Mack: Well I’m sort of a geek, I’ve been into anime, comic books and Hong Kong action flicks for many years. You could say that I’m shy unless I find something that peaks my interest then I come out of my shell. To describe myself in short, I’d be the guy that you would see amongst a crowd debating about who were the great influences in comic books and actually justifying those influences. I also play videogames mostly RPG’s like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series. I’m working currently on two graphic novels with my artist John Ruiz called Ebony Samurai and Teddee Bear. They’re due out in ’06.
Jason Huntress (ssg): I consider myself compulsively creative – I’ve had some short fiction and poetry published here and there (mostly under the name ssg), though I’ve always done a horrible job of keeping track of just where all I’ve been published, and have only been paid for my written work on a couple of occasions, so, I guess if you keep your eyes open, who knows, you might notice something. I’ve also engaged in a fair number of live readings, and have from time to time organized open mics featuring everything from poetry to short fiction to general ranting to impromptu musical performances, often organizing these things using the name Nascent State. Visual art is actually where the bulk of my attention is kept, and some of my visual art has been in other publications, mostly local, as well as many of the projects published by Aegis Studios, the same folks who put out this short fiction anthology.
I was an artistic contributor as well as art director and cover illustrator on much of the print versions of the Contagion RPG books, including the Contagion Second Edition Corebook, which also features some more of my writing, though I believe most of this is credited under the name Jason Huntress, and I have one experimental track on The Contagion Soundtrack, under the name ssg (a track I have since re-mixed, though not yet re-released).
Since moving on from Aegis Studios, I’ve continued with my own work- a little painting, a little writing, as well as expanding my reach and doing more video and music work- though I persist in referring to myself as a “non-musician” (for which I get very little argument). I’ve been spending a fair amount of time lately on a new project called “The Progrum”-something kinda like a short online variety show in VODcast form- comedy, video art, interviews, etc.-with Episode Seven actually including an interview with Aegis Studios’ founders (yeah, there’s a lot of creative incest in this town, everyone ends up working with everyone else at some point or another). My job title with “The Progrum” is producer, though I’m not sure how well that relates to my duties- I composed the theme and incidental music and have contributed other background music to a couple episodes so far, do most of the camera work, less than half of the editing so far, and have a sizable hand in scripts, brainstorming new content… pretty much whatever. “The Progrum” comes out of a long standing partnership between me and one of my best friends, Tim Stotz, and we have something like a one-third to two-thirds share in making the show happen (with Tim being the two-thirds – he handles all of the technical stuff to get the thing online, and all of the web-mastering duties, as well as being the host and main writer, editor, what-have-you). You can check out “The Progrum” at www.TimStotz.com/vodcast.
Luke Pierce: Well, I’m a fully paid up member of the Limey club. Born and bred and all that, unfortunately I don’t have a cockney accent like Dick Van Dyke’s. Which is a good thing of course!
I’m sure that I may have mentioned this in the anthology, War Stories, but I guess my ignition for writing came when I was in the fourth year of secondary education, which meant I was 14 years old, I’m guessing that put me around 8th grade? I’m not sure because the UK uses a completely different method of schooling than the US. If you’re interested, you have day-care (Known as pre-school, but I remember it being called playschool) from around 2-5 years, I went to the Royal Navy “playschool” when I lived in Gibraltar. Then from around 4-11 years there’s the Primary School phase, which I think is known as the elementary period for you guys. Then from 11-16 years, you have secondary school and all of your major tests are taken in your final two years. At this point you can completely drop out and go join the workforce, which may appeal to some of your readers, or you have the choice of going to college for two years (like a prep school for University) and, if you want to, you can go to University from 18 onwards, yes we really like to get them young here!
Personally speaking, I think all the starter years should be shifted back two years so that by the time people decide to go to University, they’re actually mature enough to handle it. This may get a lot of people on my case like a ton of bricks, but my point holds true; if someone is mature enough to go to university then they generally won’t go and finish it nearly £30,000 in debt (approx. $60,000) and that’s without the interest. Anyway, back to the question (!), when I was 14 my class was given the assignment to re-write the final scene of Romeo and Juliet in order to gauge how well we understood “the context of the play”, rather than having us write an essay which boiled down to saying “It’s pornographic and excessively violent, so it would be perfect fodder for Quentin Tarantino”. I jest you not, is a Love Story supposed to have a couple of the characters boasting about killing the men of a household and then raping all of the virgin women? And Mr Tarantino, if you’re reading this, I so want a cut for suggesting the idea. Back on topic, I basically re-wrote the entire play instead, which scored pretty highly and salvaged my grading! [laughs] I really shouldn’t joke about it, because it’s a little silly to rely on one great piece of work, instead spread your love a little better. Hmm… I think I’m also a qualified English Language Professional, certified by Brainbench, so I don’t know if it counts or not. It was a hard test though.
Publication wise, this is the first fictional work that’s ever been published but I do write occasionally for the Refereeing Today magazine. This is a publication which serves practically as the trade journal for soccer officials across the UK (of which I’m one), but I’m also due to be published in Mangaquake as the illustrator for “To Live Like Kings”, written by Ady Hall. It’s pretty funny stuff actually and I’m beginning to dig it a little more now. Seriously, when you’ve been fairly sheltered and you’re having to deal with all these slang terms for masturbation which you’ve never heard of before, it can bring a little detriment to the story. But at least I got to learn something new! Hopefully, this wouldn’t be the end of getting published! Can I ask that if anyone likes the work, they’re quite welcome to harass me on the email address? I’ve already done it haven’t I? [laughs]
MaGnUs: Well, about myself. I could fill pages, you know? But I’ll keep it short.
I write many different kind of media; short stories, articles (mostly about RPGs, comics and sci-fi), roleplaying materials, comics and radio plays. I’m co-producer and co-host of a radio show about comics and related subjects, Perdidos en el Eter.
I’m very active in the fan scene of my country, Uruguay, having founded Montevideo Comics, the first local comic book (etc) convention (held yearly since 2002), and I’m one of the founders of Caballeros de Montevideo, a non-profit organization which promotes RPGs through charity events. Also, I’m founder of the USS Artigas, the local Star Trek fan club.
Graphic design is also one of my creative outlets, mostly posters and logos, but I have dabbled into set design for movies (I’ve already taken part in a feature film called “Ruido”), and I like acting as well, although except for a short film for a friend’s movie class, my own radio plays, and a role as an extra in “Ruido”, I haven’t had much exposure there.
All of my creative endeavors, such as the comics, the radio show or my stories, are gathered under the banner of Studio Robota, the studio I founded along with my partner in crime, Endriago.
In my free time, I’m actually nothing like all that: I collect stamps and insects, I also race dragsters. No, really, as you might have surmised, I like to read comic books and sci-fi, watch sci-fi movies and shows, play and gamemaster RPGs, and listen to music, a field I haven’t dared (yet) to terrorize with my own creations.
Alas, nothing of the aforementioned pays my bills, so I work as an administrative policeman, and I’m happily married to my wife Cindy. We have a one year old son, Gabriel, who makes us very proud, he watches wrestling with me, and “reads” comic books.
As for published work, I run stuff written by myself almost weekly in my radio show, both articles and fiction. I have published articles in online magazines like the Kryptonian Cybernet, and I have a column in Inforol (an RPG and other subjects emag in Spanish), and a weekly column in an English language emag, the Comic Book Electronic Network Magazine. Print wise, before War Stories, I’d only published an article in a local magazine, Strange Days.
Chris Delloiacono: How did you get involved with the anthology?
Jason Huntress (ssg): As I mentioned, I did quite a bit of work with Aegis Studios. Travis Legge, who I’ve known and been very close friends with for something around a decade, mentioned to me that he wanted to put together a short story anthology, and, though no longer working much with Aegis, I decided to write a quick, kind of stream of consciousness bit from the point of view of a normal person who has realized that monsters are real, that they are out to kill, and now the ball is in this normal person’s court – what do you do? What CAN you do? And, of course, how can you be expected to stay completely sane? I specifically kept the character gender neutral (though I’ve been told they “sound male” – you be the judge) so that no matter who the reader is, they might be more able to look through this person’s eyes. I hope it worked, heh.
I showed it to Travis, he liked it and said he wanted to use it, and I told him to go ahead and any royalties that he would normally pay me for it could go to one of Travis’s favorite charities, an organization that helps fund programs aimed at preventing child abuse. So, now you have another reason to buy it – it’ll help the kids!
Luke Pierce: Let’s try and keep this a little shorter shall I? [laughs] Well, I like to keep abreast of what goes on in the comic world, so I do a little surfing to keep my hand in, especially as I do have ambition to write comics properly one day. Actually, saying that, I did get some tremendous help from Leslie Lancaster when I first started out and signed up to Tudec Entertainment, she edited a script and got it to a more acceptable standard with her editing skills and then, this is the best part, I submitted a script more or less to that standard which produced such an upsurge in quality I seriously think she didn’t believe that I wrote it. Leslie, it’s true! I swear it! See? I’m writing now! [laughs]
Anyway, plugging the site, there was an advert on Digital Webbing from Travis asking for writers to submit story pitches for an upcoming anthology way back in March, I think. As it was horror, I wasn’t initially tempted to go for it but eventually decided to have a go and do it on a whim.
Given the brief, I did as much research as I could on the subject and I always wondered why St. Michael didn’t figure that much in Contagion, so maybe they operated in secret? Much like the Knights Templar or Illuminati who both crop up from time to time connected with some conspiracy or another. Using one of those groups seemed like pushing it out a little too far as clichés went, so I thought creating the Order of St. Michael would do it for me.
It had only gone as far as that, but then I started watching Noir, an anime show which had been quite widely acclaimed by fans of the genre (I confess, I’m one, sorry) and the idea of someone who was pretty much mortal being a killing machine sounded like a good idea to swipe. Actually, I’ll rephrase that as “reimaging for the American Market”. Trained assassins are always cool. Anyway, I did also wonder what would happen to Slayers who weren’t quite good enough to get involved in that particular branch of the world or had simply got caught up in it through no fault of their own, like Christina did.
One of the principles in Noir was that it was about two young women who killed and killed and killed again for the Soldats and would, presumably, finally be consumed to hell for their sins. I took it the other way and thought, if St. Michael is essentially God’s “Heavy”, then if there were humans who had been trained to kill sinners in the name of God, then they would be blessed in the fact that they would be doing the Lord’s work and yet their sins would be forgiven anyway.
I did give it a slight twist, which I’m not sure worked now, because I’m so critical of my own work. On the other hand, purchasing the Noir album was also a stroke of good fortune because it meant that I could imagine how the series worked and where the inspiration for some aspects came from and I, in turn, drew inspiration from this. It’s actually really riveting stuff and I have managed to listen to it all day. Even if you’re not a fan of anime, I would seriously advise anyone to get the album and listen to the music, it’s pretty inspirational stuff, or if you don’t just get Fiction by Yuki Kajiura or Dreamland by Robert Miles instead. They put you into a reflective mood and can give all sorts of inspiration…
Right, the pitches. There were, I believe, around 50 or so pitches at one point (judging by the mass emailing), which were then narrowed down to about sixteen potential writers. I personally thought that I did well to even get this far, so even if I didn’t get any further, I’d achieved something pretty damn awesome for a first ever attempt!
The pitch itself was literally a paragraph long, it’s probably all you need and I wrote it more or less in the third person and in the style of if you were reading the little description at the back of the book, as if it were going to be the book itself. Apparently, this is something people forget? I don’t know, it seemed obvious at the time…
Then we obviously had all our drafting stages, Travis obviously saw something he liked in each of our stories, my original draft was a little later as a member of my family had died during that stage and it was really hard to write at that point, luckily for me, Travis was happy to accept this and, encouraged, as well as realising that the said family would send a rocket up my jacksy [note: slang for ass] if I let this get the better of me, I was inspired to finish it off pretty quickly. Deadlines were met after that, thankfully.
As the deadline loomed, I then got to see the unprofessional side of some people when I noticed a few names dropping out and commenting on this during email. I do wonder why people to commit to projects and then do something like that? I mean, why?! But it did mean that I got published with everyone else who were committed enough to do it for real.
Oh, and horror is hard! I admire people who can write the genre at any standard. I’m just a “Dark Adventure” type of guy. Saying that, I have noticed my writing style is gradually getting a little more twisted, I’m not sure if that’s such a good thing for writing this new piece I’m doing which is an overly happy genre…
MaGnUs: I answered an ad placed in Digital Webbing, bounced a couple of ideas on Trey (Legge, the editor) he liked two, I only had balls to write one of them… and here we are. I’m very honored to be part of this book.
Kenneth Mack: I got involved with the anthology by answering an ad they’d posted online. I submitted my story pitch to Travis Legge and he was impressed with it. It was interesting and both hard to pick a character and write about it. The main character in the story was someone that the reader could relate to. Not to mention drawing those similarities of my own experiences into the character as well.
Chris Delloiacono: Since we’re talking about a short story, you obviously don’t want to give too much away, but can you tease our readers about your story?
Luke Pierce: My story can really be termed more of a “Dark Adventure”, more than Horror. It’s about this young woman (lady or girl if you want to be un-PC about it, heheh) who is a member of the Order of St. Michael and goes around on contract kills on those who’ve contracted with demons. She then gets told something which makes her question her role and, uh, that’s about it. Amazing how bad some stories can sound when you pitch it in a single sentence. Please don’t hate me! [laughs] Okay, you can if you really have to. Actually, the story is a little more complicated than that but my submission is actually the shortest in the entire book, think it runs at 10 A4 pages overall, and I personally think that it was more of a challenge to write something so short but with two major plot points. Yes, two.
As someone who also tries his hand at writing comics and manga (as well as illustrating in the latter form), the one thing I always remember is that the shorter the story, the fewer characters you can write with. A case in point would be the (in)famous British comic 2000AD. Not to bash the American comics or anything, but normally with these “5 pagers” there is often far more story in them than there is in the regular 22-page comic, the simple reason is that you essentially have to “cut the crap” and tell the story instead of filling it up with almost pointless fluff. Just look how popular the runs Grant Morrison or Mark Millar are when they write a few comics. It’s because they’re telling the stories and introducing the sub-plots without getting unnecessarily bogged down and both cut their teeth on 2000AD.
It’s rather sad that the American comics industry is becoming so reliant on talent outside of their borders that there is a very serious danger of the talent being stifled or becoming so aggrieved at not getting their chance that they give up completely or become relatively obscure in the Indie industry where fewer people can appreciate their talents.
It’s not a bash, necessarily, but I hope people can see the point I’m coming from and take inspiration in doing something about the situation, the UK is six times smaller than the US in population size, dammit! [laughs]
Has that obscured my answer enough?
MaGnUs: The butler did it. :P No, seriously, I must confess that I haven’t actually read the rest of the stories (guys, I PROMISE I’ll do it soon, honestly), but this was supposed to be a horror story anthology… and there’s nothing horrible in my story (other than the writing, that is).
Sure, I take fantastic elements from the Contagion RPG such as demons and use them, but my story is more of humoristic tale, or, better said, a story about human ingenuity. A week or so ago I realized it’s inspired by a story called “Convergent Series”, by Larry Niven, one of my favorite writers; in that it is a tale of a human (albeit in my case, with a little help) besting a demon in a contest of wits. There’s also a Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett reference in there.
So, if you want gore, if you want violence, if you want to see heads fly… then don’t read “This House For Sale”, ’cause you ain’t gonna find it there. A friend of mine says that all my stories have someone killed in a violent fashion; with this one I proved her wrong.
Kenneth Mack: To answer your question, my story is about a Bystander encountered with a Casanova. The main character is an entrepreneur that gets lured into another world he didn’t believe existed. Once the reality has set in that they’re dark forces at work, he finds it difficult to cope with and has to ultimately choose a side.
Jason Huntress (ssg): Haha! Suffering from a bit of run-on-iness, I think I did that in response to your second question. Um…it’s a musical journey…
Chris Delloiacono: Do you play the Contagion RPG? If so, did you use any previous campaigns to aid in crafting your short story?
MaGnUs: No, I don’t play Contagion, but I have already procured the main book, and I don’t like the D&D 3E system, the OGL rules it uses, but either I convert it to something else, or get someone to run it for me.
Kenneth Mack: I haven’t played the Contagion RPG yet but I plan to once I finish off some of my projects and have some down time available.
As for using previous campaigns for my story, well, obviously not Contagion campaigns, but I might have taken ideas from other campaigns in my 8 years and a half of roleplaying. I’ve only read a short introduction, fastplay kind of thing on Contagion, and thus my story could fit in almost any fictitious world with supernatural elements. Although I must say, it’d be neat if Contagion players used my characters in their games, or if one of my characters makes it to a gaming supplement. Does that read as if I wanna write for gaming books? Well, yes, I do.
Jason Huntress (ssg): I was one of the initial playtesters, actually, well before the rules looked anything like what they do now. I can’t even remember what the initial system was- it bore almost no resemblance to the finished product. I think that was… maybe four years ago or so.
Um, actually, the character in my story isn’t much like any specific character anyone played in game, at least not outwardly. As it’s an internal monologue, I guess it’s similar to the thoughts of just about any “Bystander”-like character, or, most obviously, a brand new “Slayer”-type character. As far as the story’s setting- no, it just popped out that way.
Luke Pierce: Unfortunately, I haven’t yet simply because comics or RPG roleplaying still carries a massive stigma of “Comicbook Guy syndrome” in my country. To be honest though, it’s true. I did, however, did as much research as I possibly could on the Contagion world, including the devouring of the download that we were provided with. Looks pretty fun to be honest and I would certainly make my way to the local Games Workshop to get them to play the game.
Some of you might not know what that is, but basically they sell models of Dark Elves, Space Marines and other races (I can only remember these) and they were basically a spin-off from the Fighting Fantasy Books, which in turn were a spin-off (of sorts) of Dungeons & Dragons. Which I really should have mentioned sooner, sorry! [laughs]
Short answer: No I haven’t! [laughs]
Chris Delloiacono: Personally, I found the requirements for length and the research necessary to ensure my story fit firmly in the world of Contagion very challenging. What was the greatest challenge you faced in writing your story?
Kenneth Mack: The greatest challenge I’ve faced in writing my story was consistency and believability. It was important to have my story travel at a constant pace without losing the reader and believable to the reader that this can happen in the world of Contagion.
Jason Huntress (ssg): I’m embarrassed to say- it’s very very short. I asked myself those “how would a normal person react” questions, gave myself what seemed like obvious answers (well, one take on them, anyhow), and the story was written about a half hour later. I came up with a preliminary title for it an hour after that, which, if I’m remembering correctly, I changed the next day- so, that would by default mean the title was the “most challenging” part.
Luke Pierce: As annoying as it might be for some people, I don’t think that I actually had too much of a problem coming up with a concept which would fit quite well within the Contagion Universe as well as telling a riveting story (I hope!). Personally, I’m one of those naturally hateful people who can get a spark of an idea from probably the most mundane places. For instance, a couple of years ago, a friend of mine (I really wanted to say “mate” there) was going on about this picnic basket he got his girlfriend for their anniversary and somehow, just from the stuff inside it, we managed to come up with an idea for a porn movie! I really wish I wrote it down now, because it was so funny, it was a surefire hit! I think the expression “bollocks” now comes to mind…
I think it helps some when you immerse yourself in research as well, as Contagion is practically this world, but with a few monsters and angels thrown in to put it loosely, you have to be careful not to make it too unbelievable. For example, a few of the stories actually contain weaponry and in my particular example, I used the Czechoslovakian weapon, the CZ-78 First Edition, which is supposed to be one of the finest handguns that has ever been made. Having not fired one myself, I asked my father about it and he helped a little with the weapons aspect. Seeing as he was in the military, it would have been stupid not to ask!
As I have already mentioned, this was also my first time in writing horror, in essence a Horror Virgin, although I can appreciate how some of the more seminal horror writers craft their trade. I also thought it would be a good idea to sit in front of the DVD player and watch a few movies to get an idea of how the sense of fear was put across to the viewer. It didn’t really work as I forgot to plug in the TV! [laughs] It went all right after that.
One other challenge I had to try and overcome was the ridiculously upbeat way I write most of my other work, which can verge on the absurd. It was, at times, quite draining to put myself into a mindset that really darkened the story enough to create some sense of atmosphere. So the short answer would be that the challenges were, researching suitable weaponry, working the horror angle and combating the happy-go-lucky attitude and adding “They lived happily ever after”, actually come to think of it what the heck does that mean in a story? I mean, seriously?
MaGnUs: The greatest challenge in my story was hiding the twist until the end, and I don’t know if I’ve succeeded. Only readers will tell me that.
Chris Delloiacono: It has been an absolute pleasure sitting down with my mates from Contagion: War Stories. Thank you all very much for taking the time out to do the interview. Take a moment for any parting words you’d like to add.
Jason Huntress (ssg): Enjoy. Take care. Adios. –ssg
Luke Pierce: Parting words? Blimey, I think this might actually be the shortest answer that I’ve had to give! [laughs] So let’s try to rectify that then!
The semi-serious answer I’ll give is: Eat your breakfast, love your parents, live healthily, enjoy each day as it comes and never EVER look under the bed unless you want to be dragged under there by the scary little imp wielding a nasty looking scimitar…
Out of fantasy land, I want to at least thank Travis and the rest of the Aegis Studios team for at least letting me have the opportunity to add something to their Contagion game and for putting up with the shortest story in the anthology which had one of the most glaring errors on submission! Actually, funny story, I forgot to add in the part how Christina gets injured! Whoops…
I’ll also thank those fans who buy the book and enjoy it, if they especially enjoyed my story and actually would like to see where the Christina character first began, I want them to actually email [lukepie@yahoo.com] me and tell me to pull my finger out and get the story published so the work that went into it hasn’t gone to waste!
I hope that the fact that I managed to even get published gives hope to all the other aspiring writers out there to get themselves published as well and to not take heart in any rejection letters. Take them, read them and learn from them, you may not actually be suited to the style you’re trying to write so always try an alternative style and you might actually be able to get published in the genre that you’d prefer one day!
I would also love to thank my family for their support and I also wish to say an almighty thank you to the moshimoshineko.com community for putting up with my crazed stories for the last few years and also to Sweatdrop Studios who gave me enough confidence about my artwork to encourage me to actually think about submitting pitches to other companies about completely non-manga/anime related stuff! It does work y’see…
One final mention should also go to the Digital Webbing for actually running the talent search section, without which I don’t think Contagion: War Stories would have come together quite as easily. Um, also to Natalie Man who is also just an inspiration with her work and who is also a very funny girl!
I shall also leave you with this thought: Please read my story with the Yuki Kajiura album, Fiction, playing to help with the mood I tried to set. Also, why do Doctors call what they do, practicing? [laughs] There’s plenty more where that came from and I hope that I’ll be able to do some more writing on the next anthology as well if there is one! Yes…
MaGnUs: No, thank you, Chris for the questions, I’ve enjoyed the interview as well. As parting words, well, I just hope all my fellow writers in the anthology do well in their careers, and that we might work together again.
Kenneth Mack: Thank you, Chris. I hope everyone will find this anthology to be both chilling and exhilarating as we have writing it.
Contagion: War Stories is now available for just $10.99 at Lulu.com. Also, don’t forget to visit Aegis Studios for more information on both Contagion: War Stories and the Contagion RPG.
