10 questions for Jeremy C. Shipp

 

Again, my fine friends, I have been scouring the globe, to find interesting people to introduce you to. Okay, so by scouring I mean, I’ve been sitting her at my desk asking people if I can interview them.  Most of them said, “Are you kidding me? Not on your best day.” So, thanks anyway Mr. King.

So who cares about that. Jeremy Shipp agreed to do an interview with me and I am really excited about this!

Jeremy Shipp is an author of bizarro fiction and horror. He was first published when he was 18 and his work has appeared in ChiZine, Cemetery Dance and other publications. I was impressed to find out that he was a Bram Stoker Award nominee, for his book “Cursed” in 2009. 

Peter Straub, one of my all-time favorite writers, said of Jeremy, “Jeremy C. Shipp’s boldness, daring, originality, and sheer smarts make him one of the most vital younger writers who have colonized horror literature in the past decade. Shipp’s modernist clarity, plus his willingness to risk damn near everything, put him up at the head of the pack with the very best.”

I picked up his book, AtticClowns: Complete Collection, and I am stunned by the way that he writes and the way I was riveted to his stories. This is a complete collection of short stories, Attic Clowns 1-4. I especially liked the stories, “Clown Spiders from Planet X” and “The Ascension of Globcow the Foot Eater.”

He has a new fan.

What inspired you to write your first book? What is it about?

I wrote my first novel when I was 13. My dad read to me a lot when I was a kid, and I thought, “You know, It would be fun to write a book.” So I did. The book was about aliens who possessed the bodies of people on other planets in order to help those planets survive.

Tell us a little about the work that you have written that you like most.

I’ve written a few stories starring an innocent, evil little demon named Globcow. He’s a fan favorite, and I really like him too. If I wasn’t so afraid he’d eat my feet, I’d like to hang out with the little guy.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in writing and what is it?

I hate it when I’m writing at my desk, minding my own business, when I’m attacked by a giant raccoon in a top hat. It always happens when I’m on a roll, and the attack totally screws with my mojo, I thought creatures who wore top hats are supposed to be refined.

As far as the actual writing process goes, I find everything to be quite challenging. I tend to obsess over every sentence, every word. Writing a story or a book hasn't gotten easier over the years, though I feel more confident nowadays that I can accomplish what I set out to do in a tale.

Provided you can stave off the over-sized raccoon magicians, right? Anyway, who is your favorite author and what is it that particularly strikes you about their work?
One of my favorite authors is Arundhati Roy. Her use of language is magic.

I have never heard of her, until just now. Talk about not refined. Anyway, Jeremy, have you ever hated something that you wrote?
I once wrote a grocery list full of foods that I dislike, and I rather hated that list. I hated buying the foods, and I hated eating them. Why would a person even write such a list? It makes very little sense. Anyway, in terms of fiction, I've never truly hated one of my stories. Sometimes I write a sentence and I think, “No! Bad sentence! You are not right.” And I have to work on it until I think, “Yes! Good sentence! You are right.”

Do you have any advice for other writers?
1. Read at least a bit every day.
2. Write at least a bit every day.
3. Write stories that entertain you and interest you.
4. Find out what works for you.
5. Don't give up.
6. Sing to trees.
7. Don't get eaten by a giant Teddy Ruxpin.

I think it’s extremely important that writers take those last two very seriously. Nobody can write while hanging out of the jaws of a Teddy Ruxpin…speaking of that, would you rather be attacked by an alligator in the Amazon or a Yeti?
I'd rather be attacked by an alligator in a Yeti. The alligator would probably present less of a danger to me while trapped in the belly of a furry snowman.

Sounds like we just came up with a solution for the Teddy Ruxpin problem as well. Anyway. I have a real fear of the dark and open closet doors. Do you sleep with your closet door open or closed?
I live in an old farmhouse, and I don't have any closets. So, I sleep with my closet in another dimension. In this dimension, I keep my closet door open and closed at the same time, because that's how things roll there.

I’d love to have a closet in another dimension, then I’d have a place to hide all of my pirate treasure, and there’s a ton of it, I assure you. If you had some hidden treasure, where would you bury it?
I would bury the treasure deep down within myself, the same place I bury all my feelings. I'm kidding. In truth, I would bury the treasure in my basement where I put all the mimes who fail to entertain me. There are a lot of mimes down there.

Isn’t that where everybody buries mimes? My basement is full of…ummm nevermind. I use post-its to remind myself where I hid all of the…nevermind. Do you use post-its and what do you use them for? Do you know where all of your mimes are hidden?
I use them to remind myself to buy Post-it notes, because I don't have any.

Well then, thankfully, you don’t have any so that you could remind yourself to get some next time.

Jeremy, it was a pleasure having you on my blog and finding out more about you. You’re also a little weird, but I like weird. 

If all of you want to find out more about Jeremy Shipp you can follow him all over the place.

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