Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My bio reads: Jason R. Richter is a perennial runner-up in Jason R. Richter look-alike contests. The orphaned love child of Kilgore Trout and Margaret Dumont, he was raised by marauding gypsy accountants. When the bottom fell out of the interplanetary death ray market at the dawn of the new millennium, he turned his hobby (a game he calls “Lies to Strangers”) into a career. He currently lives.
What that all means: When I first got on the internet I didn’t know any better and used my actual name “Jason Richter” for everything. I was immediately bombarded with people telling me how awesome I am from all over the world: The Seychelles, Mexico, Bolivia, England, Australia. Turns out, the main actor in Free Willy is also named Jason Richter. So, people were always disappointed to learn that I’m not the Jason Richter they were looking for.
I’m a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut (Kilgore Trout) and the Marx Brothers (Margaret Dumont).
Marauding gypsy accountants is a Monty Python reference.
I worked in optics (eyeglasses) for 18 years and I once told someone that at a party and they responded, “Death rays?”
Lies to strangers is a game the main character plays in my first book.
The first short stories I got published required a bio. By the time the stories went live the bio was no longer true. In this order, I stated that I was dating someone that I had since broken up with, then stated I lived in Colorado when I had since moved to Oregon, and that I lived with my new girlfriend and our four cats when one of the cats had since crossed the Rainbow Bridge.
So, I stopped tempting fate and made a humorous and, more importantly evergreen, author bio that I use everywhere.
I have published three books. “I am Leonard and other stories” and “L.I.F.E. in the 23rd Century” are available now.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“L.I.F.E. in the 23rd Century” was inspired by the commemorative merchandise epidemic following 9/11. And also the President or Dick Cheney saying something along the lines of, “You either agree with us or you’re a terrorist.” I took those ideas and moved them several hundred years into the future where you can get a ticket for not having enough commemorative bumper stickers on your car and you had to endure “Patriotism audits” where you have to quote amendments from the Constitution verbatim or it’s off to Patriotism Rehab with you.
When I started writing the novel in 2003, I tried to think of what would happen 300 years after the beginning of the War on Terror. I came up with ridiculous things like a wall around the United States and government-enforced social distancing. It’s 1984 but with social media and flying cars.
When I finished “L.I.F.E.” I wanted to write a futuristic novel that was its opposite. Instead of a “Chosen One” that is trying to overthrow an authoritarian government, there’s one guy that just wants to work in a cubicle instead of making art. And he’s grumpy about it.
That’s the genesis of the novella “I am Leonard.” The novella owes a great deal to the Richard Matheson novella “I am Legend.” (Not the Will Smith movie, the book.) In the original “Legend,” it’s reverse Dracula. Instead of one vampire on a planet of humans, there is one human on a world full of vampires. “Leonard” is very much that idea. There is a world full of artists and this one person that insists on working in a government office instead of being creative.
The three stories after “I am Leonard” are stories that I had previously published, but weren’t available online anymore. So, I fixed some typos and brought them back.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Everything I’ve written in a different way. “L.I.F.E.” was written over several years as a Word document. I would take a chapter to my writer’s group, get some advice, then go back through each previous chapter and apply that advice. Then I’d scramble to write another chapter the night before the next time I was supposed to read. I do not recommend this method.
“Mating Rituals” I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo, then slowly brought chapters to the writer’s group after I had finished. Neither of these books used an outline or any pre-planning, it was all by the seat of my pants.
In my current projects I’m using outlines and beats to see how that improves my writing process. My writing software has evolved from Word to yWriter to Scrivener. Most recently I’ve been writing everything long-hand in a notebook and then dictating it into my computer.
The only consistent thing is that I almost always write with a Morphine album playing.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
This is going to cover the waterfront. Harry Harrison, Fred Saberhagen, Mickey Spillane, Hunter S. Thompson, Anthony Bourdain, Philip K. Dick, Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, Charles Bukowski, Gregory Mcdonald, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams.
I don’t like reading just one genre. I don’t like writing just one genre because of that.
And to be brutally honest, if the question was “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” or “Who do you want your career to most resemble?” my answer would be Harry Harrison.
Harry Who?
The only really famous thing he did was write a short story called “Make Room, Make Room.” That was optioned and turned into a movie called “Soylent Green.” Though the original story didn’t have anything about eating the elderly.
Mr. Harrison wrote on multiple different levels. He wrote “The Stainless Steel Rat” series which is a cross between intergalactic James Bond and Ocean’s Eleven. He wrote “Bill, the Galactic Hero” which is really funny low brow stuff, but also “Deathworld” which is edge of your seat hard science fiction. He wrote “The Hammer and the Cross” trilogy about the Vikings conquering England, then Scandinavia, then the Middle East and also “Stars and Stripes Forever” about what would have happened if the British assisted the South during the American Civil War.
Unfortunately, we are all victims of the Amazon algorithm now. Writing in all those different niches would prevent you from building an audience. So, in the future I will probably put titles out under different pen names.
What are you working on now?
I have two projects in the works. One is a nominal sequel series to my first novel “Mating Rituals of Migratory Humans.” The series follows the nameless protagonist from being a bartender at the end of “Mating Rituals” to a life working in a corporate optical environment. But because of the injuries at the end of “Mating Rituals” and the experimental medication he’s on, the entire book is hallucinatory. So, it’s “The Office” meets “The Twelve Labors of Hercules,” co-directed by William S. Burroughs and Salvador Dali.
The other series is a different type of alien invasion story. One day, giant humanoid creatures fall from the sky all over the earth. They look human, just larger. Are they aliens? Are they angels? Are they something else?
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m going to be honest with you, I am still trying to figure that out. I’m decent with the writing and the ideas. I know editors. I know cover designers. The promotion thing is something I’m trying to get right this time around. I’m hoping Awesome Gang is going to help me out with that.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep it secret, keep it safe. Don’t write something and immediately show it to your friends or talk to your friends about what you’re planning on writing when you first start out. Our brains are dumb and will confuse talking about writing with writing and you won’t get any writing done.
That said, find a writing critique group. I lucked out and fell into a group in 2002 that I’m still a member of. The group should give you advice on ways to make your story or your grammar or whatever better. You don’t want a mutual appreciation society that just thinks everything is perfect. You also don’t want to surround yourself with people that just tell you your writing is garbage. Or that won’t give you advice because they don’t read in your genre. Story structure is story structure possibly with the exception of romance and erotica. If they aren’t making you better, they’re wasting everyone’s time.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“You can crap in my hat, but that doesn’t mean I have to wear it.”
Oh, do you mean writing advice?
“You’re allowed to suck.” / “Writing is re-writing.” When I first started trying to write novel length, I kept trying to make everything perfect. I combed over the first three chapters again and again. And then I’d lose interest. I have the first three chapters of a lot of dead projects.
There’s a character in Robert Crais novels named Joe Pike. Pike has giant red arrows tattooed on his deltoids pointing forward. Pike’s philosophy is you only have an advantage and can only stay alive if you’re moving forward. Like a shark. Like a claymore with the warning “This side towards the enemy.”
Your mission as a writer is to get to “The End” of the first draft. It doesn’t have to be pretty. It doesn’t have to make sense. It could fall to pieces like the Bluesmobile. Keep moving forward. If you think of something you need to fix in chapter four, make a note in a document and you can change it when the rough draft is done. Don’t go back, that way lies madness.
What are you reading now?
After Anthony Bourdain’s death his first book “Kitchen Confidential” was re-released with new chapters and Tony’s notes on the margin. I’m just about done with that.
Then, one of my favorite authors, Leod Fitz, just came out with the fourth book in The Corpse-Eater saga called “Delectable Detritus.” I’ve been waiting for that.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to spend some time figuring out how to promote my books. See what works and doesn’t work. Then apply that to the next series of books.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Good question. “Journeyer” by Gary Jennings which is the fictional autobiography of Marco Polo. “Night Watch” by Terry Pratchett which I think is his masterpiece. And “The Hammer and the Cross” by Harry Harrison which is fantasy / alternative history about the Vikings learning how to make siege weapons so they can conquer England.
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