Interview With Author Tom Mock
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, I’m Tom, I live in North Carolina, and I’m a fantasy and horror author. I have one completed and published urban fantasy novel, The Long Nights. I’ve also published a few literary short stories. I currently have two other novels, one a prequal to The Long Nights, in various stages of revision.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My debut The Long Nights took 13 years to get right, so over that time it soaked up inspiration from a lot of different sources, and it needed every one of them. I had read a bunch of Steven Brust’s Taltos books about a human (he says) assassin in a world of 7-foot elves (they call themselves human) and I loved the noir voice, which sent me into Raymond Chandler’s work, and later James Ellroy. But then I read Brust’s stand-alone horror urban fantasy called Agyar and it was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. It really blew the top of my head off. Inspired by Dracula, it’s an epistolary novel about a vampire but from the vampire’s point of view. It might have been a typical horror novel if the POV were inverted, but that one subversion changes everything and makes the novel, I think, one of Brust’s greatest achievements. It’s a horror told from the opposite perspective we’d expect, and that conceit made me think about writing a novel with a similar inversion. Instead of a shift in perspective, I thought, what if I wrote a novel that begins where a paranormal horror usually ends, with the mysterious deaths having been solved and the monster (in this case a vampire) dispatched? What would a story like that look like? What if the problem now isn’t the monster, but the threat of his vampiric infection spreading? Enter our telepathic detective Joe whose going to use the vampire’s memories to track down the missing victims before any wake to feed.
Some influences I don’t want to tell because they might give away twists and turns of the novel, but I’m also a big fan of cyberpunk stories that deal with memory, such as Blade Runner, which also influenced the use of abandoned spaces in the novel.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
The more writers I follow, the more I think there’s nothing unusual about any of us. I sit down and get to work, just like everyone else. I strain desperately to separate the good ideas from the bad. At times I run from the creative discomfort of not knowing what to write next. I get things wrong, write poor misguided scenes, wander, ramble, doubt, but then I come back once I’ve thought it all over and tell the story better and clearer, and so far, sooner or later, things seem to come together all right.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I mentioned Brust. I still think he’s one of the best close narrative voice writers ever in fantasy. Greatly overlooked, I think because of … well, skip that. Just go buy his first book Jhereg. The Lord of the Rings is, of course, a book like no other that has more to give, it seems, with every reading. Recently I’ve found the Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski and they’ve been wonderfully immersive, dark, comedic, and surprisingly heartfelt. I think Michael Moorcock’s Gloriana is one of the best and most surprising low-magic fantasies I’ve ever read. Chandler and Ellroy are quintessential noir voices for me; so too are Elmore Leonard and Louis L’moir for their westerns. I love a big cozy British mystery from the likes of Agatha Christie. I’ve read all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes a few times over, loved the swashbuckling Romances of Alexandre Dumas, the adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson and Rafael Sabatini, and have been positively blown over recently by Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels. I am always looking for my next favorite book.
What are you working on now?
I am rewriting an adventure fantasy, Dannica of the Wind, inspired by True Grit, Treasure Island, and His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik. The project has been great fun to write, and a real challenge. It’s a very different story for me. I’ve had to do more world building than ever before, but the tone has been a great departure. It’s been great to work on a story that isn’t dark for a change.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve been most active on Twitter, and meeting readers and fellow authors has been a rewarding experience apart from any books I’ve sold.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the book you want to read, then learn to read what you wrote, not what you intended. Know you’re not going to get it all right. That’s fine. They say writing is a process and if you learn anything you should learn that process. You put together some ideas, you rethink the ideas, and then you put them together better, just like you and your friends do with bad books or almost perfect shows. Realize revision is a superpower. It can make you look brilliant. You just have to take the time to do it. Don’t get too caught up in word counts, either. As long as you’re attending to the creative task of thinking about your project, actively planning and asking tough questions and reasoning out different possibilities, you’re still writing. Remember, you’re a storyteller, not a typist. It’s okay. Come to your work with a light heart. Enjoy it as much as you can. Art is already tough enough, so try not to be hard on yourself. I learn slow and I’m still learning, but I’ve done all right. Also, set a timer and get up every thirty minutes for a five-minute break. It really helps.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Treat yourself like someone it’s your responsibility to take care of.”
Though, honestly, lately I’ve been a bit sad. I’ve had a lot of dogs in my life and now so many of them are gone. My parents are getting older. Mom broke her ribs in a horse-riding accident. Dad is the age now his father was when he died. We’ve all been inside and not meeting friends and wearing masks and living with death and the indifference of our neighbors to what’s happening in one way or another for over two years. I’m not sure what to do about the way I feel now. The years went by and I’m looking at old pictures and wishing I could go back. It’s hard not to be sad, but I guess the thing that’s helped me is realizing I’m sad now because of how happy I’ve been, even though I didn’t always realize it at the time. It’s like Kurt Vonnegut said, it’s amazing how often people don’t realize when they’re happy. I’ve been trying to realize it more. We’ve got a new stray cat at the horse barn. We think he’s the grandson of our last stray cat, Puma. He’s really something.
What are you reading now?
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, Dracula by Bram Stoker, and An Altar on the Village Green by Nathan Hall.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve entered The Long Nights into SPFBO 8 and am eagerly watching as the judges post their reviews. Here’s hoping The Long Nights gets some more positive attention. I’m still learning how to be a published author. There’s more to learn than I thought and I’m doing my best, but the more time I can find to write, the better.
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?
I love books, but, really, my favorite book is always the next incredible book I get to read for the first time. I just wish I knew now which books those books would be. Right now, as I said, I’ve been having the most remarkable experience sailing, quarrelling, loving, and daring death with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin
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