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Order THE MIND IS A RAZORBLADE here
Other Max Booth III titles
Max Booth III is a horror writer based in Texas. No, he's not an alias of Joe R. Lansdale, so don't bother sending me conspiratory emails about it (i.e. visual evidence offered). I had the privilege to read his upcoming novel THE MIND IS A RAZORBLADE and whew! Start holding on to your belt buckles right now, gentlemen.
So I'm happy to have Max over today, for a quick interview. Thanks to his publisher and friend of the blog Kraken Press for setting this up. I am going to review THE MIND IS A RAZORBLADE tomorrow, so don't bother sending me conspiratory emails about it. It's indeed part of the concept, of the Greater Scheme of Things.
So without further ado, six questions for Max Booth III...
Walk us through your ''I gotta do this'' moment, where you sat down and wrote fiction for the first time.
When I was maybe seven years-old, my dog and best friend, Penny, was hit by a snow plow. I was devastated. It was my first real brush with death. I didn’t know how to react. Eventually I developed my own therapy via writing: I started coming up with stories starring myself and Penny. With the power of the written word, I managed to bring my dog back to life. It was wonderful.
What piece of your own writing are you the most proud of, why is that so and where can we find it?
That would be my new novel, THE MIND IS A RAZORBLADE. It is my second full-length book and it really best represents my love for both the horror genre and the comedy genre. I was also able to sprinkle in a little Satanism and occult stuff, which is my favorite horror subgenre, so that was a whole lot of fun. It's published by Kraken Press on September 18 (today!). You can find it here.
What was the single best writing advice you were ever given? What was the worst?
Craig Clevenger taught me a great deal about emphasizing power plays within characterization. He also helped me cut back on dialogue tags, which I’ve found extremely helpful, because seriously, fuck dialogue tags. They’re lazy and the majority of the time they aren’t needed.
The worst? Shit. I don’t know. I guess it would have to be the many folks who constantly encourage shitty presses to take advantage of oblivious writers by praising “for the love” markets.
Who are the five authors you would recommend to someone who wants to familiarize himself with what you do?
The best way to familiarize yourself with an author is to read the author, so I would suggest just reading my own books. But five other authors that are kinda similar, I suppose, are Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry, David Wong, QuentinTarantino, and the Coen Brothers. I know those last two are technically screenwriters, but in my eyes they are the best comparisons.
Hardboiled, Crime, Noir, Gun Porn, Fairies, Whatever. Should genre label matter? Yes or no and why is that so?
Genre should only matter once the book is complete and you are ready to market it. Worrying about genre rules while writing a book will only limit your creativity.
What are going currently working on and what can we expect from you in the next year or so?
Well, now that THE MIND IS A RAZORBLADE is finally out, I’m working on a horror novella titled SOMETIMES IT'S OK TO DIE for a publishing company I can’t yet announce. I’m also juggling between three different novels at the moment: STRANGE NIGHTS, a novel about a hotel night auditor; GIVING UP THE GHOST, a weird on-the-road type of novel about a man with cancer attempting to become immortal; and THE CATCH-LIE PEOPLE, a pure horror bloodbath about a schizophrenic trying to solve a murder.
I also recently edited an anthology called TRUTH OR DARE? that’ll be dropping Halloween 2014 from my own small press, Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. It’s a shared-world horror anthology featuring a shit-ton of crazy talent, including Joe McKinney, Nik Korpon, Richard Thomas, and a whole bunch of others.