Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hello! I live in Ohio, near the shores of beautiful Lake Erie.
I’m kind of a geek-of-all-trades, a fan of comic books since I can remember – reading The Phantom and Spider-Man in the daily paper and comic books. I simply adore cartoons, anime, movies, and TV shows of all genres – but I’m a sucker for classic science fiction, horror, kaiju and tokusatsu. I especially love films from the 30s, with all of that art deco gorgeousness. I’m an ardent fan of music, appreciating wild genre swings, but I really love complex and passionate music, bands like Iron Maiden, Rush, Yes, Dream Theater, Opeth, and Jinjer.
I have degrees in Creative Writing and Popular Culture and did my Master’s Thesis on Godzilla as ideological expression in Japanese culture.
I taught English and Popular culture for quite a while and decided it was time for a change, so here I am.
I started writing long fiction in 2018 and have published three books since. My first, a cozy mystery, ‘Twas the Week After Christmas, my second, a grim and violent pulp western, Gauge Black: Hell’s Revenge, and Toxic, my non-fiction. It’s funny – I never had read a cozy mystery until I got the notion to write one. I was also cognizant that I did not want to be pegged into some kind of genre stagnation – no hobbling by super-fans for me! – which is why I quickly followed my cozy with its antithesis, coined a “splatter western” by one beta reader. I wanted to let everyone know that I was going to the be the kind of writer who wrote what made me happy. Fortunately, a decent portion of my readers have told me that they’re willing to read what I write, no matter the genre, so it’s exciting to have readers who are as adventurous as I plan to be as a writer.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called Toxic. It’s a non-fiction book which examines my decades-long struggle with the Christian faith I grew up being taught to believe. I carefully and academically examine the Bible, focusing mainly on portions of scripture that the Toxic Christian Church tends to ignore or gloss over. I engage these troublesome passages in order to show a much more complete picture of the Christian God.
Through Toxic, I invite anyone who has ever struggled with their faith, whether current believer, former believer, agnostic, or believer-turned-atheist, to examine their faith closely, carefully, and honestly. Ultimately, I want anyone who’s ever struggled with their faith to know they’re not the only ones who’ve done so. I want them to feel heard, understood, and validated.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure if it’s unusual, but I have to have some kind of music playing while I write. That music can’t be too engaging or something that’s one of my favorites because that would get too distracting. I tend to put on atmospheric movie soundtracks, like Ravenous or Alien, which is beautifully eerie and hollow, almost like a soundscape. Musical tracks like these allow me to have something going on to occupy some needy part of my brain and allows other parts to give full attention to what I’m trying to do, creatively.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Frank Herbert, especially his Dune series, which may contain two of my favorite books of all time: Dune and God Emperor of Dune.
I am a huge Robert E. Howard fan and consumed his heroic pulp in my teens and twenties. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, Angela Carter, Lee Falk, and Stan Lee.
As far as non-fiction goes, I really do enjoy Stephen King’s book about writing. They’re every bit as inspiring as they are practical.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on the next book in my cozy mystery series as well as gearing up for the first book in a new pulp series – my homage to The Phantom. I also have a Gothic horror pulp in the works, two more stories in my grim western pulp series, and a gut-puncher of a horror novel which is still a few years out.
Looks like I’ll be busy for the next eight years or so!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use Facebook and Goodreads for the most part, with a little overlap on Instagram and LinkedIn, but as I don’t have the patience to take pictures every time I want to say something, I don’t utilize Instagram that much. I am not a Twitter guy. I don’t feel the need to make quippy observations every ten minutes. That’s too exhausting. Facebook and Goodreads are more my speed. I can interact when I want in a format that’s comfortable for me to do so.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t let fear stop you from writing what you want to write. I spent too many years avoiding long fiction out of fear that I could not write realistic dialogue. I’d spent years writing poetry, which is what my BFA thesis is, and I a handful wrote minor short stories, nothing of note. Fear kept me from really tearing into fiction like I had always envisioned myself doing, though. Years of writing poetry had honed my use of imagery and concise phrasing, but sadly, I let fear dictate what I wrote for too long.
It wasn’t until 2012, when I started a no-budget movie-making company, Cyclops Movies, that I overcame that fear through writing scripts. I realized I could tell an entire story with nothing but dialogue, so after my third movie, I moved to writing long fiction.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write for yourself, not for anyone else. Not for a potential audience. Not for a potential agent or publisher. Write for you. If you are happy with what you write, that’s all that matters. If someone else likes it, so much the better, but if you write seeking approval from others, you’ll cheat yourself of all who you can be as a potent force.
Piggybacking on that, I take to heart advice that Stephen King offers in his audio commentary in The Perfect Storm. He says to let the Id out, and let it run wherever it goes, nothing held back, no inner censor, no concerns. Just write whatever is in that noggin of yours, and get it out, no matter what it is.
What are you reading now?
I am reading H. P. Lovecraft: the Complete Works, The Crusades: The Authoritative History, by Thomas Asbridge, Herodotus’s The Histories, and Heretics of Dune.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Boy, if I get through everything I have on the docket for the next eight years or so, I have no idea what I’ll do! Actually, I was thinking of some kind of epic fantasy series – something that is way too vast for me to tackle now, but I’m planning it as bits and pieces come. I have the rough picture of the story, but there are going to be layers upon layers to this beast, so it’s going to take years of planning, like how Frank Herbert approached Dune, with nearly a decade of research.
What is your favorite book of all time?
Speaking of, I have a small list of books I absolutely love, but my two favorites are Dune and God Emperor of Dune. They represent the pinnacle of Herbert’s master vision, something that I have envied and wanted to emulate since I read them at age sixteen.
Mark Justice’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile