Ask the Author: Jonathan L. Howard
Answered Questions (18)
Jonathan L. Howard
Thanks! I really appreciate hearing how folk have enjoyed these. The Russalka Chronicles are something of a red-headed child of my output, the books people forget about, but I am very fond of them and have huge plans for their future. Unfortunately, the rights for KATYA'S WORLD and KATYA'S WAR are mired in the smoking wreckage of the Strange Chemistry closure, and no publisher will touch a third book without the rights for the first two also being available. I know exactly what happens in the third book, and am champing at the bit to write it, but there's no point until the rights return to me.
Jonathan L. Howard
Cabal No.5 should be out at around this time next year. I'm working on the second draft at the moment.
Jonathan L. Howard
I tend to add rather than cut material, so there's not a great deal of deleted stuff. The most notable, I suppose, was the old preamble to JOHANNES CABAL THE NECROMANCER, which went into some detail about one soul out in Limbo, that of the failed bandit of the Old West, Dan "Mad Dog" Clancy. I was fond of it, but two readers I trusted said independently that it blurred the focus of the book for those vital first few pages -- Who is this "Mad Dog" guy? Is he the protagonist? -- and I should cut it. So I did, and instead used an opening culled from an unfinished Cabal short story that had a terrific start but then stalled. That scene is the summoning of Lucifuge Rofocale.
Jonathan L. Howard
Often, yes. I also tend to come up with Spotify playlists for my stuff. There's a JOHANNES CABAL THE NECROMANCER one and an incredibly long GOON SQUAD one. I was never very fond of The Smiths or of the Stone Roses, to be honest. Both because I wasn't that taken with their music, but also because Morrissey's idol-worship of Myra Hindley was at best distasteful, and the Stone Roses got word of mouth when they were starting out by spray painting their name on a bunch of stone surfaces in Manchester, several being historical buildings. That was a flat-out cynical and shitty way to seek publicity.
Jonathan L. Howard
Alas I've only got around to answering these last questions after the event. My apologies for the tardiness. For literary horror, I always support the classics. M.R.James, Arthur Machen, William Hope Hodgson, Edith Wharton, and E.F.Benson, even if the lattermost has this odd horror of good-looking middle-aged women. They are invariably evil in his stories. Given he also wrote the Mapp & Lucia novels, one can only assume his mother was startled by a good-looking middle-aged woman while he was in the womb.
For film, my goodness, that's a long list. Again, I tend to prefer older stuff. From ancient to modern, I'd suggest "The Bride of Frankenstein," "The Dead of Night," "Night of the Demon," "The Innocents," "The Haunting," my favourite four Hammers ("The Plague of the Zombies," "The Devil Rides Out," "Quatermass and the Pit," and "Captain Kronos -- Vampire Hunter), "The Company of Wolves," "Re-Animator" (Yes, that's Lovecraftian, but tremendous fun), Svankmajer's "Alice" (not actually a horror film per se, but nightmarish in places and a film I think anyone with a scrap of imagination should see) and then bang up to date with "Crimson Peak," which is the epitome of gothic. Loads and loads more than that, really, but that's enough to be getting on with.
For film, my goodness, that's a long list. Again, I tend to prefer older stuff. From ancient to modern, I'd suggest "The Bride of Frankenstein," "The Dead of Night," "Night of the Demon," "The Innocents," "The Haunting," my favourite four Hammers ("The Plague of the Zombies," "The Devil Rides Out," "Quatermass and the Pit," and "Captain Kronos -- Vampire Hunter), "The Company of Wolves," "Re-Animator" (Yes, that's Lovecraftian, but tremendous fun), Svankmajer's "Alice" (not actually a horror film per se, but nightmarish in places and a film I think anyone with a scrap of imagination should see) and then bang up to date with "Crimson Peak," which is the epitome of gothic. Loads and loads more than that, really, but that's enough to be getting on with.
Jonathan L. Howard
Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.
Watch this space. Or don't.
Watch this space. Or don't.
Jonathan L. Howard
Not currently, although I wouldn't mind doing some content creation work if any developers are reading this (hint, hint). When JOHANNES CABAL THE NECROMANCER was published, the publisher suggested creating a small adventure game to promote it. I said that sounded like fun and gave them a rough costing for art and coding, given that I would design and write it for free. They looked at the figures and suddenly went off the idea.
I have been approached by a well-known board game designer to do a Cabal-based game, but unhappily the film option includes merchandising rights so I wasn't able to go ahead with that. Perhaps as and when the novels are filmed, they production company might consider issuing a board game license. I hope so; I'm very fond of board games.
I have been approached by a well-known board game designer to do a Cabal-based game, but unhappily the film option includes merchandising rights so I wasn't able to go ahead with that. Perhaps as and when the novels are filmed, they production company might consider issuing a board game license. I hope so; I'm very fond of board games.
Jonathan L. Howard
He just has a top hat personality, I think. Also, it has been decided without reference to me that the Cabal stories are steampunk, and therefore top hats are de rigeur. I have nothing against steampunk, incidentally, but I must admit I was a little surprised for Cabal to end up so characterised. Back to the subject of hats, I think I have put him in a Müller (a short top hat) at least once.
Jonathan L. Howard
That's an interesting question. After some thought, I've decided on the following.
"The Call of Cthulhu." Perhaps an obvious choice, but it's probably his best known story because it deserves to be. I like its slightly unusual structure, and especially the very big ideas it contains. More so than any other, this is the one that defines his take on what "cosmic horror" is really all about.
"The Haunter of the Dark." This was Lovecraft's good-humoured riposte to Robert Bloch's "The Shambler from the Stars," in which Bloch killed off a protagonist who was obviously modelled on Lovecraft. The protagonist of "The Haunter of the Dark" is one "Robert Blake," and he doesn't fare so well either. Despite its cheerfully tit-for-tat origin, it's a flat-out good horror story. It's also apparently the last Lovecraft wrote.
For my final choice I was going to go for "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," because I'm fond of the Dreamlands, or perhaps "The Horror in the Museum" (a story Lovecraft nominally revised but essentially ghostwrote for Hazel Heald) since it was the first Lovecraft story I ever read. Instead I'm going to go for another oddity; "The Thing in the Moonlight." This is actually a chunk from one of Lovecraft's letters detailing a nightmare he'd experienced that J. Chapman Miske subsequently couched as a story after Lovecraft's death. It's a fragment of a figment with barely any narrative at all, really, but the description of finding an obsolete trolley car out in the back of beyond and its inhuman crew is very vivid and stays with me.
"The Call of Cthulhu." Perhaps an obvious choice, but it's probably his best known story because it deserves to be. I like its slightly unusual structure, and especially the very big ideas it contains. More so than any other, this is the one that defines his take on what "cosmic horror" is really all about.
"The Haunter of the Dark." This was Lovecraft's good-humoured riposte to Robert Bloch's "The Shambler from the Stars," in which Bloch killed off a protagonist who was obviously modelled on Lovecraft. The protagonist of "The Haunter of the Dark" is one "Robert Blake," and he doesn't fare so well either. Despite its cheerfully tit-for-tat origin, it's a flat-out good horror story. It's also apparently the last Lovecraft wrote.
For my final choice I was going to go for "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," because I'm fond of the Dreamlands, or perhaps "The Horror in the Museum" (a story Lovecraft nominally revised but essentially ghostwrote for Hazel Heald) since it was the first Lovecraft story I ever read. Instead I'm going to go for another oddity; "The Thing in the Moonlight." This is actually a chunk from one of Lovecraft's letters detailing a nightmare he'd experienced that J. Chapman Miske subsequently couched as a story after Lovecraft's death. It's a fragment of a figment with barely any narrative at all, really, but the description of finding an obsolete trolley car out in the back of beyond and its inhuman crew is very vivid and stays with me.
Jonathan L. Howard
Antiquarian, Criminal, Dilettante... the very epitome of a party of player-characters in a game of "Call of Cthulhu," and exactly the sort of people who would make off with a copy of the "Necronomicon."
I really must annotate that book one of these days; it is absolutely awash with little references like that.
I really must annotate that book one of these days; it is absolutely awash with little references like that.
Jonathan L. Howard
The planet Russalka was populated by Russians from around a single area in an attempt to head off one potential source of tension in the colony, thereby making racism moot. When I was coming up with the background for the story, I took it as read that the colony would be founded by either the US, Russia, or China. I didn't want it to be the US, because it seemed too obvious. I very much doubted I could get a convincing handle on Chinese culture, so that left Russia.
As for Nadiya Kysla I wanted a character who wasn't British, but was European; she used to be a member of the Mischief, and that's a very continental sort of organisation. I settled on Ukraine as somewhere a little underrepresented in fiction, perhaps.
As for Nadiya Kysla I wanted a character who wasn't British, but was European; she used to be a member of the Mischief, and that's a very continental sort of organisation. I settled on Ukraine as somewhere a little underrepresented in fiction, perhaps.
Jonathan L. Howard
Sometimes. I've written pronunciation guides and little WAV files to clarify things for readers. That's about the limit of it, though.
Jonathan L. Howard
I don't actually make the audiobooks at all; Skyboat Media does. I just write GOON SQUAD and they record them. If they sell enough copies, there may be more. I hope so.
Jonathan L. Howard
Yes, I enjoy reading aloud. It's definitely one of my favourite parts of being an author. As to difficult, not usually, but sometimes you hit something that you could absolutely manage easily if there wasn't a microphone in front of you. So, apart from the more irksome retakes, I wouldn't say that I find it essentially difficult. I'm not planning on narrating anything else, but would be delighted to do so if the opportunity arises again.
Jonathan L. Howard
I don't especially have a specific number of novels in mind for either series, to be honest. Johannes Cabal will keep rolling along until I run out of moral atrocities for him to inflict upon a startled world, or he reaches his goal, or dies permanently, or -- heavens forfend -- I get bored of him. I'd much rather end the series before the lattermost occurs.
Carter & Lovecraft is a rather different case; although Dan Carter and Emily Lovecraft are my creations, the books are works for hire and I do not own the copyright. I'll keep writing them until I run out of ideas, want to do something else, or if Macmillan pulls the plug or even -- and it's perfectly within their rights to do so -- hand the gig to a different writer.
Carter & Lovecraft is a rather different case; although Dan Carter and Emily Lovecraft are my creations, the books are works for hire and I do not own the copyright. I'll keep writing them until I run out of ideas, want to do something else, or if Macmillan pulls the plug or even -- and it's perfectly within their rights to do so -- hand the gig to a different writer.
Jonathan L. Howard
Well, I can't say anything definite for the moment, but you should keep an eye out for the announcement of the next Cabal novel. You may hear something you like. Or you may not. But you may.
Possibly.
Possibly.
Jonathan L. Howard
Indeed it will. I'm contracted to write at least one more C&L novel, possibly more if the series is successful. Given the very good response to the first book, I think there's a decent chance of that. As ever, however, sales figures will be the final arbiter. Publishing's a business, after all.
Jonathan L. Howard
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