Author
interview C. Robert Cargill
Author Bio:
Cargill began his career with Ain’t it Cool News under the pseudonym
Massawyrm, writing there for over a decade, subsequently becoming a
staff writer for film.com, hollywood.com and co-founding the animated
movie review site Spill.com. In the meantime he appeared on countless
podcasts, webshows and in the occasional local film. During a fateful
drunken night in Vegas, Cargill pitched the idea for the film SINISTER
to friend and director Scott Derrickson, resulting in both the film and a
screenwriting partnership between the two. When not writing films with
Derrickson, Cargill spends his time writing novels and painting
miniatures.
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Hi Robert, welcome
over at The Book Plank and for taking your time to answer these few questions
for us.
BP: First off,
could you give us a short introduction as to who C. Robert Cargill is?
RC: I was a
professional film critic for ten years beginning in the early days of blogging
(before it was even called Blogging.) I’ve since become a professional
screenwriter, my first outing being the film SINISTER, and an author, just now
putting out my second novel.
BP: You have been
active in writing business for over 10 years writing firstly for AIN’T IT COOL
News and other sites as well as having written various screenplays. Do you
still know the moment that you decided that you wanted to become an author?
RC: When I was 8
years old. I had a huge crush on Drew Barrymore – we’re the same age – and
desperately wanted to see her new movie. But my parents wouldn’t take me.
“We’re NOT taking you to a Stephen King movie!” My aunt heard about this and
bought me a copy of the book FIRESTARTER with drew on the cover. She honestly
didn’t think I’d read it. I read it three times. During my third reading of it,
it dawned on me that this Stephen King guy wrote this stuff for a living and I
knew that this was exactly what I wanted to do. I’ve been working toward this
ever since.
BP: Dreams and
Shadows was your debut book, how did you come up with the idea of an Urban
fantasy – folklore inspired story?
RC: There were a
dozen different ideas all coming together at once, really. But it was meeting
and spending some time with Neil Gaiman at a convention in ’99 that brought all
of the elements together. He was reading THE DREAM HUNTERS for the first time
and he was, at the time, still claiming that it was based on an old Japanese
fairy tale. While this would later prove to be a fib on his part, the idea of
using folklore in place of the fantasy elements really took and all of the
errant pieces of D&S gelled together. When it came time to sit down and
finally write it nine years later, everything just felt right.
BP: Writing a debut
is a daunting task, how did you tackle the first steps? Do you think that your
previous writing experience helped out?
RC: Absolutely.
Being used to the daily grind of writing and having to write even when you
don’t want to, proved invaluable. The toughest part was finding my voice. The
voice you use when writing reviews or copy is quite different from narrative
style, so I struggled a bit at first looking for it. A friend of mine, Scott
Derrickson, took an active interest and really helped me find it. Shortly
thereafter, I pitched him SINISTER over drinks and he loved it – and knew that
I could write from his work with me on the book. We’ve been screenwriting
partners ever since. But that book was really cobbled together over two years
during whatever time I could find when I wasn’t blogging.
BP: Comparing
writing a screenplay or book, which is the most difficult or do they both have
easy and hard parts?
RC: They’re two
different beasts with their own pros and cons. Screenwriting is about telling a
story in as few words as possible; you’re always cutting, trimming and
rewriting. It’s often about the moment and not the tiny details. Novels are
about the details. You can take your time, you have room to breathe, you aren’t
so married to structure. But a novel is often 10x as many words as a
screenplay, so a 2000 word day on a screenplay is 1/5th of the
story. That’s most of your first act! A 2000 words on a novel is a short
chapter. So a novel can feel more daunting at times, despite the amount of
freedom there is in writing it.
BP: With your
Dreams and Shadows series you are being compared to Neil Gaiman, he is one of
the biggest names in fantasy, how did this make you feel?
RC: Well it’s
tough. He played a definite, direct role in the story coming together the way
it did, but the aim wasn’t to write a Neil Gaiman novel. The biggest thing I
worry about is people being disappointed because it doesn’t live up to his
standard. No one wants to hear that they
don’t live up to a comparison like that, and I’ve heard that very thing. But
it’s always a tremendous complement when someone thinks it does. So it cuts
both ways.
BP: The second book
in the Dreams and Shadow series, Queen of the Dark Things is out May 15th
by Gollancz, if you would have to sell your book with a single sentence, how
would it go?
RC: There are
scarier things than fairies, and now they’re coming for Colby.
BP: When you were
writing the Dreams and Shadow series, have you encountered any specific
problems?
RC: They say the
second book is always the hardest and that certainly proved to be the case
here. It was a tough book to write and I certainly learned a lot during the
process. The biggest hurdle is finding a way to repeat your success without
simply repeating yourself. With sequels people want a similar experience but
with a different story, and that’s not easy. I hope that people feel I threaded
that particular needle.
BP: What has been
the hardest part in writing either Dreams and Shadow or Queen of the Dark
Things series so far?
RC: The funeral
scene in DREAMS AND SHADOWS. It was a strange moment to say goodbye to several
characters that had lived with me for so long. I always knew they were going to
die, but the moment you type the words, it’s real. That was quite possibly the
most emotional moment I’ve experienced while writing.
BP: Besides the
hardest part, which scene/chapter did you enjoy writing about the most?
RC: The scene in
which Kaycee tries to break the Bunyip like a bronco. Everything you need to
know about Kaycee can be found in that scene. Writing that scene made me fall
in love with her as a character and from that point on I really knew who she
wanted to become.
BP: You incorporate
mythology in the Dreams and Shadow series, did you have to carry out additional
research in order to check and keep certain things straight?
RC: Constantly. I
do several months of research before each book and fill a notebook or two with
all of the details I find. I keep a rather large folklore reference library
next to my desk for quick reference, which I use fairly frequently. With QUEEN
OF THE DARK THINGS I had to do a lot of research into the Aboriginal mythology
and was very careful to get everything right because these are people’s beliefs
and you have to be respectful about that sort of thing. In addition, I read a
number of books on the mutiny of the Batavia to make sure I got all of those
details right. In fact, the largest section of the book that was edited out was
an overabundance of needless details about what really happened on that ship. I
went a little overboard.
BP: Queen of the
Dark Things is the second book in the Dreams and Shadows series, have you
already planned on how many books the series will run?
RC: Three. Colby
has a very definite arc. There might be other books set in the world that come
later, but Colby’s story has a beginning, middle and definite end. QUEEN OF THE
DARK THINGS is Colby’s second act.
BP: Next to the
Dreams and Shadows series, do you have any other projects that you are
currently working on or that you wish to pursue in the near future?
RC: Several. There
are a number of film projects in the pipeline – SINISTER 2 and DEUS EX are both
chugging along – as well as a couple of other projects coming together behind
the scenes. As for books, I’ve got a science fiction novel and an anthology of horror
stories that are both in some stage of assembly.
BP: Everyone enjoys
science fiction and fantasy in their own way, what do you like most about it?
RC: The big ideas.
When done well, sci-fi/fantasy can be really great analogies for really big
concepts. Sometimes it is right up front out in the open like cyberpunk; other
times it is about getting to the nitty-gritty of who we are as people by
changing the rules we have to play by. Either way, the stories can be both
viscerally engrossing and intellectually challenging at the same time. And I
love that.
BP: If you would
have to give your top 5 favorite books which would they be?
RC: REALITY IS WHAT
YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH by Robert Anton Wilson, EXTERMINATOR by William S.
Burroughs, NO EXIT AND OTHER PLAYS by Jean-Paul Sartre, PRIDE AND PREDJUDICE by
Jane Austen, and THE COMPLETE FAIRY TALES OF HERMANN HESSE by Hermann Hesse.
BP: and just
lastly, can you give us a sneak peak as to what is in store for the reader when
they will pick up the Dreams and Shadows series? And possibly a hint of where
the story will go in a possible third book?
RC: The dark things
on the other side of the veil wait for you, that’s what. Drunken angels,
whiskey soaked fairies, scheming manitous, children who get themselves in way
over their heads and adults later paying for those mistakes. And Texas, lots of
Texas. Book three? What I can say now is, if I do my job right, it will end in
a place I’ve not seen in this kind of book before. You’ll also see a lot of old
friends coming back for the biggest fight of Colby’s life. They just might not
be on his side.
BP: Thank you very
much for your rime Robert and good luck with your future writing projects!
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