It's a big night here in the Vault, Creature Feature Fans, because I'm presenting a fascinating interview with a very special repeat offender…er, guest! Please join me in welcoming back our multi-talented friend:

Kevin Lucia

TK: Welcome back to the Creature Feature Vault, Kevin! The last time you were here, we discussed your contributions to Shroud Magazine. This time I want to talk about your newly published novella, HIRAM GRANGE & THE CHOSEN ONE. Hiram Grange is quickly becoming a literary cult figure! Before we discuss your novella, could you give us a little background about the character?

KL: Hiram is a pretty disturbed guy. Equal parts lethal and ludicrous, he’s a walking repository of cynical supernatural knowledge driven not only by dark, internal demons but also a strange sense of duty. His life consists of protecting the world from the things that slither in the dark, but because of that, he’s forever tainted by the very darkness he fights daily.

As a teenager, he saw his mother commit suicide and obsessively uses the same revolver she killed herself with, his father disappeared shortly thereafter and Hiram forever tries to be him, even going so far as to wear nothing but his father’s old fitting suits. He hates the world, hates the darkness, but probably hates himself most. Adrift between drunkenness and sobriety, he’s often just as destructive as the things he hunts.

He loves nineteen-year-old Goth girls. He’s obsessed with Jodi Foster and craves absinthe. Hates the wide outdoors. He distrusts magic, but isn’t above using it: because he’ll use anything and anyone to his advantage. Officially, he works for a clandestine organization run by a mysterious ‘M-like’ figure known only as Mrs. Bothwell. She doles out his assignments and sends him hopping across the globe.

TK: In your rollicking dark adventure novella, HIRAM GRANGE & THE CHOSEN ONE, Hiram is given the task of saving the universe. What is the secret of making a seriously flawed character like Hiram so heroic and likeable?

KL: All the Hiram authors have done this differently, but for me it’s always about emotion. Hiram is a man beset by crippling addictions, guilt-ridden over the terrible things he’s done, but he’s also a man of great, overwhelming passion. In some ways, he’s the pulp incarnation of Shakespeare’s tragic hero: he’s forever aspiring to great and wondrous things, always dragged down by his almost bestial nature. I tried to focus on this; the disparity of who Hiram is and who he wants to be, and also on his grief for everyone he’s lost. In HGCO, he’s offered the chance to balance the scales a bit.

Also, HGCO offers a second perspective in Therese Fitzgerald, which gives the novella a different tone. The previous novellas only show the world from Hiram’s skewed perspective, while in HCGO we see Hiram through Therese’s eyes, a young woman whose life rests in his hands. That’s going to change how the reader feels about Hiram, which was my intent.

TK: Is there some kind of blueprint that writers must follow when composing stories for the Hiram Grange series, or is it more of a free-wheeling, cumulative progression?

KL: Like in many series I imagine, we have a pretty extensive “bible” full of Hiram facts that readers will never see, facts we needed to craft the character. However, I give Shroud’s Tim Deal the ultimate props: he created a world but allowed us own styles and stories. That being said, the process was a very fluid thing as we spent nearly two years – as of this summer – writing and exchanging emails saying, “would Hiram do this..?”, “should he act this way..?”

TK: You’re still a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine; in fact, you’re going to be editing the upcoming Halloween issue. How’s that coming along?

KL: Wonderfully. Tim extended me the invitation to edit an issue a while ago. I love Halloween and all its trappings, so I eventually asked permission to edit a Halloween themed issue. Some great fiction has come in, and like always I hope the finished product will prove a pleasing mix of well-known genre names and brand new voices. I was also able to secure some excellent nonfiction pieces and as always there’ll be some fantastic art, so I hope readers will be pleased.

TK: Which do you find most challenging, writing or editing?

KL: Depends. With prose I’d definitely say writing is harder, because then the quality is all on my shoulders. When editing prose, I’m extremely ruthless – I want only the best writing and voices I can find – and in that case, it’s not hard to edit a collection because the writers have done all the heavy lifting, in my opinion. I’m just the guy putting them together; though it’s never far from my mind that the collection’s quality will inevitably be attached to my name and Shroud’s.

Now poetry is another matter. I recently finished editing Shroud’s first poetry anthology, The Terror at Miskatonic Falls, which was MUCH harder than writing, because editing poetry is very different. There are many different styles and voices, plus the poems were composed from an entire town’s perspective, so there was a higher degree of back and forth between editor and poet. I had to stretch past my own perception of “quality”. I’m sure many will disagree, but I think there’s a firmer standard of quality for prose than there is for poetry, so editing that was definitely harder than writing.

TK: You’re also a columnist. What subjects do you write about?

KL: I’m the Review Editor for Shroud Magazine so I review a lot of the newest books, collections and novellas in the genre. I’ve been doing it through various venues – both print and online – almost five years now, and it’s a weird gig...worth talking about in a separate interview. I think I’m nearing the end of my run in this...of course, I’ve been saying that for two years now, so we’ll see.

TK: In addition to writing and editing, you’re also a teacher, a grad student and a family man! How do you manage to do it all?

KL: Three years ago, when I received my acceptance into Binghamton University’s Creative Writing MA program, saw my first short story published and received my first paid freelance gig writing book reviews for our city newspaper - all after the birth of our second child – I knew a radical solution was needed to do all I wanted to. I changed my eating habits, lost weight, started exercising and waking up at 3 AM in the morning, every day. 3 AM – 6AM is when I do my best work, and now after three years, it’s pretty hardwired into my system.

TK: What attracted you to the horror genre?

KL: It’s funny, because for the longest time I just read many different genres and what I wrote was classified as “weirdly speculative”. However, the more acquainted with the horror genre and all its varieties I became, the more I realized that for me, anyway, it was the best medium to explore the human condition’s wonders, and, well...horrors. Writing about the human condition and this wonderful/terrifying thing that is humanity will always be my primary motivator. That being said, in what other genre can you take slimy monsters, supernatural beings from beyond the ether, high tech weapons, conflicted characters and very real, human fears and jam them all together for a whole lot of insane, edge of your seat thrills?

TK: What upcoming projects are you working on now?

KL: I’m currently halfway through my first novel, to be published by Shroud sometime 2010/2011. It’s VERY different from Hiram Grange and anything I’ve written so far, very personal, emotional and even spiritual. It deals with many things I’m not sure I can pull off but I’m going to try to anyway: chaos theory, the interconnectivity of life, destiny, very “high-brow” things like that. We’ll see how it pans out...

TK: It sounds great! We’ll be looking forward to reviewing your first novel downstairs in the Tomb! Speaking as a writer and an editor, what do you think is the biggest mistake a fledgling writer can make?

KL: Not being open to or seeking out critique. If you can’t take critique of your writing flaws – which we all have – you’ll never grow as a writer and will only find limited success. Period.

And, as always…

Good night, everybody!

Yours from the darkside,

J. L. Comeau

The TombKeeper

www.horrorwriter.com