Interview W. J. Calabrese

by

Jenny Brassel

1) Tell me a little about Tales From Someplace Else. Did it take you long to put together?

It is a collection of my spooky stories. You know--ghosts, monsters, etc. I guess you can say it took all of my life to write it. I've been writing this kind of stuff since I was a child, and that was a while ago. About half of the stories are ones I wrote in years past. The rest of the stories were written especially for the book--in just a few weeks time! It's surprising what you can do when you start the creative juices flowing and keep them flowing by writing every day

2) Have you always had a fascination with the paranormal?

Yes, indeed!. In my childhood, my favorite stories were ghostly ones. My idea of a good afternoon was to spend it reading Lord Halifax's Ghost Book or some such. Early on, I was possessed by the desire to have one of my stories published in Weird Tales, a pulp magazine between whose rough-edged pulp many of the most famous writers of spooky stuff got their start, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Block, and August Derleth to name only four. You can read more about my fascination with Weird Tales in the introduction in my book.

3) How long have you been writing?

Just about as long as I have been reading.

4) What kind of audience is the book aimed at? Is it your favored genre and style of writing?

The book is aimed at those folks who enjoy a good scare. I split my time between “soft” horror and historical novels. Both give me satisfaction. For my novels I like to work in the first person because it tends to do a good job of drawing the reader into a story. First person is a little tougher with the spook story because you usually have to preserve the possibility that something unpleasantly fatal will happen to the main character before the story is over.

5) Do you have a day job like most other authors?

Not any more, as Inspector Clouseau would say. I used to have one in information processing (you know, computers and stuff), but I retired about six years ago and have been writing like crazy ever since.

6) Have you had individual stories published in magazines?

No, but it hasn't been for lack of trying. I have a big stack of rejection slips to prove it. I often read samples of the rejection slips aloud when I give a lecture. Some of them are hilarious!

7) Have you written other books or is this your first?

Tales From Someplace Else is my fifth book, all five published by Wings ePress. My sixth is scheduled for publication in September 2006. My seventh (an historical) is being evaluated by Wings even as we speak.

8) How did you feel when you received your first book contract?

Like I won the lottery and went to Heaven in the same day. (That doesn't make any sense, does it? Where would I spend the lottery money--in the Pearly Gates Mall?)

9) Tell us about your family--do they support your writing?

My wife is very supportive. And my two sons are helpful also. They help me with research for my historical novels.

10) What’s next--what are you working on at the moment?

I like to be working on two or more novels at any given time. I have too many ideas lined up waiting for their day in court to do it any other way. Having two or more going pretty much does away with writers' block. Right now I have three: a novel about the 1926 World Series, a “police procedural” that takes place in New York in the 1790s (my Jonathon Deal series), and the second book in the “Ghost Doctor” series.