Interview With Novelist Jonathan Maberry

Jonathan Maberry is a Bram Stoker award winning author whose subject matter includes everything from zombies to martial arts. He is also involved in the Young Voices Foundation, and has worked on the serial graphic novel Thrill Ride, a project featuring members of the International Thriller Writers organization. Proceeds from Thrill Ride benefit Reading is Fundamental. Among Maberry's fictional work is the Pine Deep Trilogy, a series of horror stories focused around a small, eponymous Pennsylvania town. Upcoming works include Heaven Street co-authored with Michael Laimo, and They Bite, a nonfiction account of vampirism. Other works by Mr. Maberry include Zombie CSU and Patient Zero. The following interview was originally conducted for C-Town magazine's Fall 2008 issue

Connelly: First, the most basic question one could ask an author: why do you write?

Maberry: Writing is what I’ve always wanted to do. It was the first thing I can remember wanting as a kid. Even before I could express myself with words I was telling stories through drawings, or creating elaborate stories for my toys. Now I write because it satisfies me and allows me unlimited freedom of expression. And it’s a very nice source of income.

Connelly: What inspires you?
Maberry: That depends on the topic, but the short answer is: everything. Writers are observers of life. We look at things, people, situations, events, and we speculate ‘what it…?’ A day doesn’t go by without some new story ideas popping into my head. Of course that means that I often have far more ideas than I’ll ever have time to get down on paper.

Connelly: What sparked your interest in horror?
Maberry:I came to horror through an interest in folklore. I’ve always been fascinated by what my grandmother called ‘the Larger World’ –a catch phrase she used to describe world myths, folk tales, and beliefs in the occult and paranormal. As a kid I used to grill her for every bit of info she knew about the folklore of Europe . She was born on the border of France and Germany but was descended from an old Scottish family, so she had exposure to a lot of rural folktales. That started the process for me, so I knew about the legends and myths of things like vampires, werewolves and so on before I even saw my first horror film.
Of course, by the time I was ten I’d seen everything Universal Pictures and Hammer Films had put out, including the stuff I wasn’t supposed to see. And in October of 1968 (at age ten), I sat alone in the balcony of the Midway Theater in Philadelphia and watched Night of the Living Dead during it’s initial release. That had a profound effect on me. It was such a powerful story and I knew that I wanted to tell a story that packed as much punch.
Another big step was meeting Richard Matheson when I was 14, back in the early 1970s. He gave me a signed copy of I AM LEGEND for my birthday and sat me down for a long conversation about storytelling, and about the connection between intellect and imagination. Later that same year Ray Bradbury gave me a copy of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES for Christmas. I’ve read both books dozens of times since. Not only were the books important for my understanding of darker subject matter, but I was so incredibly fortunate to have had two giants of the literary field take time out to discuss the nature of storytelling with me.

Connelly: How would you personally describe your writing style?
Maberry:That’s a complicated question because my style changes. My nonfiction style has become much more conversational over the last few years. Instead of writing from a scholarly point of view I’ve started writing as if the book were a discussion I was having with a friend. It’s a much more relaxed way of writing and it more accurately represents my personality. My sense of humor has crept into my nonfiction as well.
For fiction, I definitely shift gears. My first three novels, the Pine Deep Trilogy ( GHOST ROAD BLUES, DEAD MAN’S SONG and BAD MOON RISING) were told in my own take on the American Gothic style.... rich characters, ensemble casts, lots of descriptive language. But again my own sensibilities tweak the model because there’s a bit of my personal philosophy and sense of humor in those books. They also reflect my views on action. Having been in the martial arts all my life, I like to bring very accurate fight and action sequences to the stories.
More recently I shifted gears again for a new series of thrillers starring action hero Joe Ledger, a Baltimore cop recruited by a secret government agency to help stop terrorists with advanced bio-weapons. That series is told from a first person point of view and the style is leaner, less wordy, funnier, and more contemporary.... these books allow me to explore various social and political points of view, and also the psychology and philosophy of heroism: what it means to be a hero, what it means to be a warrior, what it means to be a killer.
I’m co-authoring a dark fantasy novel, HEAVEN STREET , with horror writer Michael Laimo, and that’s a different voice altogether.
Bottom line is that I’m not locked into any specific style. I shift to a style appropriate to the genre in which I’m writing; though I do bring humor, realistic action, a love of character development, and my own pragmatic world view to each project.

Connelly: Where does your interest in martial arts come from?
Maberry: I began studying jujutsu when I was six, first learning from a friend’s father and then studying under two of the great masters of the art --Koju Korofuk and Joshua Johnson, both of whom are, alas, long since passed. I currently hold an 8th degree black belt in Shinowara-ryu Jujutsu and a 5th degree black belt in Kenjutsu (Japanese sword art), and have had exposure, through colleagues, to a variety of other arts. A few years ago I was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
My first books were textbooks on Judo, Jujutsu, Martial Arts History and Women’s Self-Defense for courses taught at Temple University ; and when I went into mainstream publishing I did several martial arts books for small press publishers.
I’ve also written about it extensively for magazines.
More recently I’ve been giving workshops for writers on writing fight and action scenes.

Connelly: Does the discipline you learned from your martial arts training come into play when you write?
Maberry: Sure…it helps you recognize your priorities and to work toward worthwhile goals. But really my dedication to writing gives me all the discipline I need. I write eight to ten hours every day, and I enjoy it.

Connelly: What advice would you give aspiring authors?
Maberry: Be relentless. Don’t let anyone or anything stop you from writing. Also, when you start a project –finish it before moving on to the next project. Completion helps you grow as a writer. And, learn the craft. Learn everything you can about descriptive language, dialogue, story structure…the works. Become an expert on the craft, and that will allow your inner storyteller to speak with the best possible voice. Last thing…have fun. Writing should always be fun. Always.