Christmas Lites Madness--Introducing S. Patrick Pothier

That's right! We have even MORE madness to share...

Today, we're chatting with Mr. S. Patrick Pothier.

JournalJabber: Hi there! Can you tell everyone out there a little bit about yourself?

S. Patrick Pthier: Greetings viewers, I am S. Patrick Pothier (the S stands for Sean) and I am pleased to be here. I am pleased to be anywhere... I like shiny and fuzzy things. I write as a hobby and I work in a machine shop to pay the bills. I am also an amateur artist, working mostly digitally on my iPad or computer and I love making things out of metal. I like things that combine sweet and salty, and the sound of people whispering makes me tingle. I am also an amateur photographer and occasionally make electronic music for fun. I have another job where I dedicate two weekends a month to caring for disabled people in their home, a worthy and emotionally rewarding pursuit that needs big-hearted people willing to donate their time and energy. Let's see, what else... um, I recently had my appendix taken out. I do not care for Skrillex.

JJ: You are currently working on a few things (zombie lovers read on!). Can you give us a taste on what you have in store for people?

SP: Seeing as how the holidays are coming to a close, I can get back to working on a few projects. First and foremost is a full-length novel based on "The Road to Comfort" from the first edition of Christmas Lites. I'm about twenty thousand words into the first book of a planned trilogy. The series will provide more background into the start of the end of the world, it will see Yannika grow from the girl she was in the original story into an adult fighting to survive in a world where the dead are so numerous they are practically a force of nature and most of the surviving people have either gone mad or given up while the power-hungry have rebuilt society to reflect their twisted and selfish needs. The series will be large in scale, focusing on human conflict and the politics of apocalypse, but full of plenty gory, grabby, bitey Draugrs to satisfy the most hardened Zed Head.

Another project would be to neatly wrap up some started novels and turn them into novellas for a themed anthology, zombies of course, but not your undead ones. It would consists of three long tales. In one, college kids at a rave fight to survive when a biological weapon turns people into stronger and faster monsters hell-bent on consuming flesh. In another, a parasite infects a city after a hard rain, those afflicted wake up after a short coma with an uncontrollable urge to commit terrible acts of violence, bringing the city to chaos and giving the few unaffected a bloody battle for survival. In the third, a genetic virus has decimated humanity: the infected are physically incapable of processing food and millions die of starvation before it is discovered that the only food they can eat is human flesh. Those immune to the virus live in fear of being prey to an enemy that cannot only think like them, but can organize into a nation and declare war, subjugating the healthy into cattle bred for meat.

I'm hoping to write some more short stories, too. I'd love to do a short-story collection.

Also in the works is a YA sci-fi tome about time travel and super-powered people dealing with their blooming hormones.

Don't you just want to squish them???? :-)

JJ: Okay, just because I MUST talk about this. Can you tell everyone out there about our Journal Jabber mascots, Mammoth and Lenny?

SP: Mammoth and Lenny are my pet rabbits—adorable little blobs of fur that bring light to my days. Mammoth is a spayed female, a dwarf breed called a "Mini-Rex," a white, brown, and black piebald lump of personality and spunk. Lenny is a neutered male, a mix of Mini-Rex and a breed called Harlequin. He is a wuss and has a constant look of confusion, his hair is short but gets all over the place, and he has brown and gray bands like an earth-toned tie-dye shirt.

Rabbits are great because I live in a small apartment—think of it like a Turkish prison cell with modular furniture and tasteful faux-hardwood flooring. Rabbits are like cats—they are smart, have a mind of their own, and can be trained to use a litter box. Some breeds, like my dwarfs, grow to only about 3-5 lbs; there are breeds that can grow to 25 lbs and are the size of some dogs.

Though I bought Mammoth first from a pet store, Lenny was adopted from a shelter, and I would advise anyone looking to get a pet rabbit to do their research and please adopt. Rabbits are similar in maintenance to a dog or cat and do best inside with plenty of room in a safe environment free of cords and hazards. They are healthier when fixed (all rabbits from shelters are fixed) and need lots of love and attention. They do best in bonded pairs; that's when you get to see all their fun behaviors. They are a great addition to a family and, if taken good care of, can give you 12 or more years of love.

JJ: How long have you wanted to be a writer?

SP: I've told stories as long as I could talk. My mind is such that I've always been fascinated with figuring things out, which led to a great love for reading. I mostly read non-fiction when I was a child, maxing out my check-out limit from the school library in the "reference" section. A love of reading invariably leads to a zest for writing. I've been writing stories ever since grade school. I never seriously gave thought to trying to publish anything until I was in high school and some teachers told me I had talent. I won some contests then, had work published in textbooks, and wrote a couple of stories for some short-lived online zines.

JJ: This is the second year you have participated in Christmas Lites. What made you come back?

SP: I had a blast the first time around. It's such a worthy cause; the NCADV is a great organization that needs all the support it can get. Plus, on top of that I was given the permission to write Christmas ZOMBIE STORIES. I mean, who gets to do that? Add to that the honor of being published alongside really talented and dedicated people—it's like several dreams stacked up on each other... I keep wanting to spin a top to see if it's real.

JJ: Tell us something about yourself that no one would expect?

SP: I am actually a twelve-year old Asian girl—kidding, I wish. Though I can sometimes write very graphic sequences in my work, I am HORRENDOUSLY Plasmaphobic (afraid of blood). I can't stand other people's or my own. On more than one occasion I have thrown up and passed out at the sight of blood. Though, I did recently almost get over this after a work injury nearly severed the tip of my finger—I treated the whole thing as a meditation on overcoming fear and appreciating the pure fragility of these meat-bags we call bodies. I also took lots of pictures and grossed people out with them for months. My finger did heal quite nicely (the saw blade missed the nerve, so I did not lose feeling or movement) and now no one can tell.

JJ: What did you want to be when you grew up?

SP: For the longest time I wanted to be a robotics engineer, to combine my love for science with the ever-growing realities of science-fiction. Then I wanted to be an architect. Then an artist. I actually went to school and studied to be a graphic designer, but I'm so scatter-brained I couldn't see that through to the end. Though I just turned thirty, I'm still in that mindset of "when I grow up;" this farce of "adulthood" is just that. Give me a cardboard box and some markers and I'll turn it into a castle or a rocket ship... or a castle ship. I have a bumblebee costume that I sometimes put on to go out and check my mail.

JJ: Who are your favorite authors?

SP: My favorite of all time is Stephen King. I've read him since fourth grade. Next would be Michael Chrichton, a great literary and scientific mind that we lost way too soon. Throw into that Isaac Asimov who sparked my love of sci-fi. And, as of late, I've really gotten into Chuck Palahniuk. Some more authors I've enjoyed watching their success grow are fantasy author China Mieville as well as Dave Eggars, who seems to be leading a wave of new fiction writers and whose memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is as profound as it is funny.

JJ: Any authors who have been particularly influential on you?

SP: I would definitely count King and Chrichton as influences. King’s Dark Tower series had such incredible scope and versatility that I think it can inspire writers of any genre, especially the first three books.

JJ: Where can people find and follow you?

SP: They can find me on Twitter and Facebook. If they want to see pictures of Mammoth and Lenny, they can follow me on Instagram. I am working on getting a domain name and creating a blog, news of which will be on Twitter and Facebook.

Facebook: S. Patrick Pothier

Twitter: vapid_waste

Instagram: merglap

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Christmas Lites Madness--Get to know JA Clement

The madness continues... We hope you all are recovered from your New Year's merriment and are well on your way to achieving your resolutions for 2013!

Today, our lovely guest is J.A. Clement... Get ready to laugh! :-)

JournalJabber: Hi, there! Can you tell everyone out there a little bit about yourself?

J.A. Clement: Hola! Well, let’s see. I come from a large-ish family in the North of England. My family is all mad so there have always been a lot of stories to tell, and we love telling them! I’ve always been obsessed with words, as far as I can remember, both reading and writing them, and in all honesty it seems odd to me that everyone doesn’t want to.

JJ: You have a great series, On Dark Shores, out there. What is a good summary of this series?

JAC: Oh Lord, I’m rubbish at summaries! (But thank you for the compliment!)

On Dark Shores is the story of Nereia and her journey. It starts on a small scale in the first couple of novellas, as she tries to free herself and her beautiful younger sister Mary from the hard, threatening situation in which they are trapped, but the choices she makes back in the little town of Scarlock set her feet on a path that will take her across a world threatened by war, and possibly farther.

It’s not going to be a short series, I should add...

JJ: You live in England. Do you ever find it difficult to connect to us Americans at times? :-)

JAC: Do you know, for the most part I absolutely love working with Americans! We Brits are a bit cynical and snide for the most part—not deliberately or individually, it’s just our base setting. We can sometimes be a bit sniffy about America, and when I went to the US a couple of years ago, I was absolutely blown away because I suddenly realised that we are sniffy about it because we imagine the US as being like the UK but bigger, more rumbustious, and without that vague sense of apologetic embarrassment which we would refer to as patriotism if we didn’t cringe at the vague concept.

In fact, I loved the US because you guys seem to be really genuinely lovely. The customer service is gobsmackingly good, the people were really friendly and nice, and I came away thinking “I want to go back there again!” The only thing is the language, which trips me up on a regular basis. Lesson number One from America: grits are not the same thing as hash browns—and I still haven’t found out what you guys understand the word “jumpers” to mean...

An American Jumper... :-)

JJ: How long have you wanted to be a writer?

JAC: For-ever. I don’t know how not to be one; I just never expected to get picked up by a publisher. Do you ever get that, when you just know something? It doesn’t happen to me often, but it’s usually right. I knew I would publish a book, but I also knew I’d never be traditionally published and as that was the only way it happened back then, I was a bit confused by that. Decided not to worry about it and just concentrate on getting a chunk of stuff written, which it turns out was not a silly thing to do!

JJ: This is the second year you have participated in Christmas Lites. What made you come back?

JAC: Are you kidding? The people, first, and because it’s a cause I believe in. Christmas should be a time of sharing and love and joy; these days it’s fallen into must-have commercialism and stress for many people. If you’re in a loving family you can minimalise the friction, but if your relationship is not healthy in the first place, it’s a recipe for disaster.

No one should be made to feel less than they are or have to live in fear. If I can help by writing a story (which is something I love doing anyway) for a book whose royalties will continue to go to NCADV and help these families year after year, that’s a real privilege. Just try to keep me out!

JJ: You went back in time for your story in Christmas Lites. What was your inspiration for the story?

JAC: On Dark Shores is a bit dark and gritty. I’ve been thinking for a while that it would be good to write something related to it that was a little lighter, partly to show that I’m not just a misery-merchant, and partly because my characters have had a bit of a rough ride for a while and a snippet of something kinder will remind me and my readers that brighter, better times are possible. I can’t write future stuff, as that will constrain the story going forward, though.

When I thought about what to write for CL2, it seemed an ideal opportunity. A little further along the path in On Dark Shores there will be a detail which relates to this tale, and this little slice of backstory was warm and joyful. “The Locket” is set in Nereia’s childhood, on the occasion of her very first participation in her family’s Yuletide ceremonies. She is just six years old, the only child of doting parents, and living in a very comfortable house. I really enjoyed writing it, actually!

JJ: Any Christmas traditions that you love?

JAC: My family makes our own advent calendars. For every December day in the run up to Christmas, we fold a piece of A4 paper so that it is A5 with 2 doors to open, then we decorate the outside. Inside we draw a picture of something funny that happened to someone in the family during the year. All 24 are stuck up on the kitchen wall and a big one for Christmas Day showing a Nativity scene with all the family pets in the stable. Every day the person who is the butt of that day’s joke opens the calendar, which is usually an occasion of mild embarrassment and much sniggering. After Christmas we take them all down and bag them up to go into the loft. We have sets of calendars going back to before I was born, and it’s a wonderful record of our family life. I absolutely love that we have that.

JJ: What was the best present you ever gave or received?

JAC: We have a bit of a history of prank presents and for reasons best known to ourselves, they are usually put under the tree with a tag reading “From Sir Stanley Livingstone.” The first year my sister’s new boyfriend came over to ours for Christmas. We had been making some rather tremendous furry cushions for my young nieces and had leftover scraps of fur in leopard skin print and also in white fur with big purple spots on, so in the grip of that Christmas silliness that hits in about 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve when you’ve finished all the sensible pressies and really should be going to bed, my mum and I carefully constructed two pairs of horrendous thong-type knickers from the fur. Then we packaged them up as “His ‘n’ Hers Luxury Jungle Pants,” set on cardboard and wrapped in cellophane, with an endorsement from some famous politician of the time saying “I’ve never even been in a jungle, but I’m never without my Luxury Jungle Pants.” Then we put it under the tree, carefully wrapped and signed from Stanley Livingstone.

My sister opened the package and of course, great hilarity ensued. The cool bit was her new bloke’s reaction; at first he was totally at a loss for words as his family never did anything that daft, and we all thought “Oh dear, we might have freaked him out...” Then all of a sudden he roared with laughter and joined in, even going so far as to impress the lot of us by donning his Luxury Jungle Pants over his jeans and wearing them for the rest of the afternoon. Kudos for stylish reaction, that man!

JJ: What do you want under your tree this year?

JAC: A new house! We’re moving out of our house on 21st Dec and there will be a bit of a gap where we’re renting for a month or so before we can move into the next one. At the moment we appear to be a bit mired in the negotiations and our move-out date is getting awfully near... In all honesty, there isn’t anything I need and not a lot that I want (yes, I am an awkward one!) so I have my lot primed to get me vouchers for paint, DIY, etc. And a bag of chocolate stem gingers, of course!

JJ: What can we expect to see from you in the future?

JAC: Well, until I move, not much writing is going to happen, but there will be odds and sods which are currently in editing. I’ve just released “A Sprig of Holly,” my story from CL1, as a freebie in an effort to raise awareness of the anthologies themselves (there are links to both CL1&2 in the Afterword), so I’m hoping that will help.

I also had a slightly harsh moment where I realised that an 80-thousand word chunk of Book 3 of ODS needs cutting, as it is all backstory and will only slow the pace and confuse people. Harsh! But fortunately I have plan B in the shape of my Parallels series, which is where I’m putting short stories and side stories and backstories set in the world of On Dark Shores. So, that 80k chunk is currently with my editor, as it should stand together by itself, and will be released in the New Year. It details the first part of the flight of the Mother from the Shantar Mountains, so while you lot are waiting for Book 3, there is something to keep you amused... That was a bit of a low blow, though—I thought I was nearly there with Book 3 and now it’s back to 15 thousand words! It’s the right decision though, I think.

Other than that, I’m giving a hand to author Dulcie Feenan with her humorous short Christmas story set in an English parish, and watching with awe and a little jealousy at the reviews garnered by my colleague Jo Edwards, whose book “Work Wife Balance” I’m about halfway through and cringing and giggling at in equal measure (reminds me of “The Office” in fact).

But mostly for the moment I’m trying to organise moving out, renting over Christmas, visits to my family and my partner’s family, working some of the days in between, and hopefully buying a house at the end of it! Oh, and Christmas too.

But AFTER that, I’ll be back to the writing again—as Roger McGough would say, no peas for the wicked…

JJ: We hope your move has gone smoothly and you're well on your way to the new place! Thanks for the laughs!

About the author: J.A. Clement lives near London with her partner and as yet, no dogs. She has been writing her fantasy series, On Dark Shores, for some years but only uploaded the first book The Lady in 2011.

Book 2 in the series, The Other Nereia, is currently available as a single (and will also be packaged with The Lady in omnibus form) and book 3, The Mother, is half written.

The first paperback, On Dark Shores: Omnibus Edition is due out in the next couple of months and there's a deal of story yet to be told...

JAC works fulltime, commutes farther than might be considered strictly necessary, and would tell you what she does in her free time if she could remember the last time free time occurred.

She loves meeting readers and hearing feedback, so do find her on http://jaclement.wordpress.com, or email her at jaclement.ondarkshores at gmail dot com and introduce yourself!

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