Ten Knives interview with Graham Masterton
Knife 1) Please name at least three contemporary authors who write generally better than you do and why
[Graham Masterton] I presume by this you mean authors of fiction. But I never read fiction. By anybody. Ever. If you were a chef would you want to go home and cook all evening? I have some past heroes of fiction, in particular Vladimir Nabokov, Herman Wouk and Nelson Algren, because their writing so was strong and evocative and they never allowed their personalities to get in the way of their narration.
Knife 2) Has ever something happened in your life that made you think of giving up writing?
[Graham Masterton] No. I can't give up writing. My wife Wiescka died in April last year and I only really wrote for her, but now I write in her memory.
[Graham Masterton] No. I can't give up writing. My wife Wiescka died in April last year and I only really wrote for her, but now I write in her memory.
Knife 3) Which compromises did you have to accept for commercial reasons?
[Graham Masterton] I was trained as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor and I write to make a living. I am a professional writer and I will write anything that anybody asks me to write, so there is never any question of compromise. I have written humorous books, thrillers, disaster novels, sex instruction books, novelizations of films, magazine articles, you name it. If it is good of its kind, no matter what it is, there is no compromise.
[Graham Masterton] I was trained as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor and I write to make a living. I am a professional writer and I will write anything that anybody asks me to write, so there is never any question of compromise. I have written humorous books, thrillers, disaster novels, sex instruction books, novelizations of films, magazine articles, you name it. If it is good of its kind, no matter what it is, there is no compromise.
Knife 4) Is it very important to win literary prizes? Does it help to sell?
[Graham Masterton] No. But possibly.
Knife 5) When you have no ideas for writing, how do you bring down yourself and whom do you phone to?
[Graham Masterton] I never run out of ideas for writing. I have already sold enough ideas to keep me writing until the end of 2013.
[Graham Masterton] I never run out of ideas for writing. I have already sold enough ideas to keep me writing until the end of 2013.
Knife 6) What do you think when you read your country's best seller rankings?
[Graham Masterton] I can't be bothered to read them, I know from having worked in the trade how unreliable they are.
Knife 7) What do you reproach to American publishing? What are its limits?
[Graham Masterton] I have never had trouble with American publishers. All publishers in whatever country have their limitations, My main criticism of all publishers is their sloppy proof-reading.
[Graham Masterton] I have never had trouble with American publishers. All publishers in whatever country have their limitations, My main criticism of all publishers is their sloppy proof-reading.
Knife 8) How many times have you refused to participate to a no-profit project?
[Graham Masterton] If there is no profit in a project, I don't see the point in doing it, but I have never been asked, My own collection of short stories Scare Care was published in aid of children's charities and I personally made no money from that, although I was able to donate over $100,000 to children's charities worldwide.
Knife 9) What did you do right after signing major book deal?
[Graham Masterton] Nothing out of the ordinary. Go to my local pub and have a drink with my friends as usual. What else is one supposed to do?
Knife 10) Whom to (or to what) would you throw a knife?
[Graham Masterton] Nobody. I believe that we should all lead our lives according to the Hippocratic Oath: "First, do no harm." I believe in kindness and tolerance and understanding and helping people who are in problems, especially very pretty women.
Profile
Graham Masterton's (Edinburgh,1946) debut as a horror author began with The Manitou in 1976, a chilling tale of a Native American medicine man reborn in the present day to exact his revenge on the white man. It became an instant bestseller and was filmed with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens and Ann Sothern. Since then Graham has published more than 35 horror novels, including Charnel House, which was awarded a Special Edgar by Mystery Writers of America; Mirror, which was awarded a Silver Medal by West Coast Review of Books; and Family Portrait, an update of Oscar Wildeis tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger in France. Three of Graham's stories were filmed for TV in Tony Scottis horror series The Hunger, and The Secret Shih-Tan, starring Jason Scott Lee, was shortlisted for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers Association. Another short story, Underbed, about a boy finding a mysterious world underneath his blankets, was voted best short story by Horror Critics Guild.
Graham's latest horror novels to be published in the United States are Spirit (Leisure, 2001); Trauma, (Signet, 2002), The Chosen Child (Tor, 2002), The 5th Witch (Leisure, 2008) Death Mask (Leisure, 2009), Blind Panic (Leisure 2010). Graham's latest horror novels to be published in the UK are: The Darkroom (Severn House, 2004), Manitou Blood (Severn House, 2005) Descendant (Severn House, 2006), The Painted Man (Severn House, 2008), Ghost Music (Severn House Publishers, 2008), Blind Panic (Severn House, 2009), Fire Spirit (Severn House, 2010), Demon's Door (Severn House, 2010), The Ninth Nightmare (Severn House, 2011), Petrified (Severn House, 2011).
Motion picture rights in Trauma have been optioned by Jonathan Mostow, who directed U-571. The Chosen Child, set in the sewers of Warsaw, was named Best Horror Novel of the Year by Science Fiction Chronicle and highly praised in Publisheris Weekly. Altogether Graham has written more than a hundred novels ranging from thrillers (The Sweetman Curve, Ikon) to disaster novels (Plague, Famine) to historical sagas (Rich and Maiden Voyage - both appeared in the New York Times bestseller list). He has published four collections of short stories, Fortnight of Fear, Flights of Fear, Faces of Fear and Feelings of Fear. A critical biography and bibliography, Manitou Man, was published in 1999 by the British Fantasy Society. Web Site
Motion picture rights in Trauma have been optioned by Jonathan Mostow, who directed U-571. The Chosen Child, set in the sewers of Warsaw, was named Best Horror Novel of the Year by Science Fiction Chronicle and highly praised in Publisheris Weekly. Altogether Graham has written more than a hundred novels ranging from thrillers (The Sweetman Curve, Ikon) to disaster novels (Plague, Famine) to historical sagas (Rich and Maiden Voyage - both appeared in the New York Times bestseller list). He has published four collections of short stories, Fortnight of Fear, Flights of Fear, Faces of Fear and Feelings of Fear. A critical biography and bibliography, Manitou Man, was published in 1999 by the British Fantasy Society. Web Site
Buy "Descendant" by G. Masterton on Amazon
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