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August 9, 2018 12:00 pm PDT
RK: I really wanted him off-balance. He felt off-balanced in The Kill SocietyStark was basically hiding who he was. But I wanted him to be genuinely fucked up in this book. He thinks everythings going to be fine now and nothing is fine. Everything is fucked up. Theres no problem he can solve by punching it. Yeah, theres bad guys, but his overall situation cant be solved with violence. In the book, a lot of the truth of what[Stark]is comes out of Kasabians mouth, the way it always has. The world without Stark has been better, in some ways, so hes begging Stark to just not be there. If nobody wants you there, thats kind of it. Theres no way of getting around it. None of Starks abilities will help him work through that. SB: Youve had a long time to live with this character. How does a character thats traditionally solved problems with blood and fire, grow?RK: Im growing and changing with the character. So, Im seeing the world differently, too. Im seeing the stuff that my friends are going through, for instance. Thats how the issue of PTSD with Stark came up. Starks never going to be OK unless he deals with his own trauma. That was never in my head when I started writing the character. But if Im going to deal with somebody like him over a long period of time and have some kind of truth in it, first, he has to admit that he has PTSD. The second thing is that he has to, at least, attempt to do something about it. Of course, the world conspires against him. Every time he says that hes going to try and do something about it, something awful happens and it stops him. But hes at least acknowledging that theres something he can do to be more of a human being. Becoming more of a human being is at the core of what this series is about. In the first book, Stark is a genuine monster, just back from Hell and wanting to kill everything. Wanting to kill the world. Over the course of the books, thats changed. I want to keep exploring that. I dont know how far I can take that or how far I want to. Im following what I think Stark would do and Stark would want. Im hoping Im getting that right, in letting the character lead me a bit in the rest of the series. SB: Every time you set out to write a new book you crack out a new Moleskine to plot it out. Did you have any idea of what the series was going to look like or do you sort it out as you go? RK: I worked out what happens to the end of the series. I know where its going, although there are questions on how its going to get there. I know what has to happen for the rest of the series because I needed to. The things Im doing now, I cant just wing it forever, although there were points at which I was doing that. Theres a certain amount of the series that I had to come up with as a matter of panicking, because originally, Harper only bought three books. I thought that might be it. When I finished the third book, and they were doing OK, they said that they wanted more. Suddenly, I had to get a lot deeper into the situation. Thats when I started creating more. More of an arc than I had before. Where I left it in book, three, it could have stopped, easily. For it to go on, and again, for Stark to deal with who he is, back in the world, I needed to do a lot more homework. The last half of the series, Ive pretty much mapped out what needs to happen and now were getting towards the end of it. Its all coming together. SB: Are you able to say how many books are left in the series?RK: I could say it, but I dont want to.SB: Lets talk about the movie. How does it feel to have someone else manhandling your characters after spending so much time with them. Do you have your fingers in the production?RK: Im doing some consulting on it. Theres a brand new screenplay. I havent seen it yet, but Ive heard really good things. Kerry Williamson is doing the screenplay. Shes worked with the director, Chas Stahelski a lot, so I like that. Plus, you know what man? Im really happy to have a woman working on the screenplay for this. Its been such a dude-heavy project all the way through. To have a woman with [Williamsons] credentials and her point of view is why Chad though of her as a good person to do it. Apparently, she worked in stunts: she has a writers point of view and understands action. In her body, not just intellectually. I think thats great. I have a lot of faith with what they want to do with it. I have talked with Chad about the direction he wants to take things in. Im excited. I trust this team completely. Top to bottom, I think theyre really quality people.SB: What are your plans do you have once youre finished with Stark? The books youve been writing outside of the series have been doing pretty well. Is getting past Sandman Slim something youre looking forward to or more of a shit, what do I do now? Youve spent a long time with this stuff, man.RK: Itll be weird to end it, but theres the movie is moving forward and theres the talk of a comic and things like that, which Ive discussed with the movie people. If they want to do a comic, I have ideas of what it should be. And what it shouldnt be, which I think is more important. And yeah, I have a lot of stuff that I want to do afterwards. Its why Im working very hard on this new book right now, called The Grand Dark. In the way that Sandman Slim reestablished my career, I want to take a chance towards the end of Sandman Slim of rebooting myself. I love writing Sandman Slim. I love writing violence and actionpulp sensibilities. But I dont want to be locked into that for the rest of my life. I want to do larger things, and thats what the Grand Dark is.SB: Tell me more about The Grand Dark. Whatcha got? Whats going on?RK: Im doing a massive rewrite right now, its driving me crazy. It is the story of a young man in a very different world, a world that feelssome people would use the word steampunk. I never used to like the word, but Im ok with it now. Im going to use that word, which I used to not like, to say Steampunk-Kafka. Thats what Im working on now. Its not going to be a huge book, but its been a huge undertaking because theres no aspect of it thats like my previous work. Its right down to my use to my use of language and the way that I write the book. With Stark theres very specific rules of how the text appears on the page. This is sort of the opposite of that. Its much more straightforward in someways and far more twisted in others than anything Ive ever written.SB: It sounds like youre challenging yourself. Thats where its at. If you get bored, whats the point?RK: Thats exactly it. Its me pushing myself to do something new and hoping to establish myself to a broader audience while trying to bring my current audience into a new kind of work that I want to do. Certainly, theres action and guns and crazy stuff going on. But its not presented in the hyperbolic way that Sandman Slim is.Headshot via Richard Kadrey, photographed by Tristan Crane; Book photo via Samus Bellamy
Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/B4OhMoVsXqU/richard-kadrey-talks-about-his.html
Richard Kadrey talks about his latest book and what comes next after Sandman Slim
RK: I really wanted him off-balance. He felt off-balanced in The Kill SocietyStark was basically hiding who he was. But I wanted him to be genuinely fucked up in this book. He thinks everythings going to be fine now and nothing is fine. Everything is fucked up. Theres no problem he can solve by punching it. Yeah, theres bad guys, but his overall situation cant be solved with violence. In the book, a lot of the truth of what[Stark]is comes out of Kasabians mouth, the way it always has. The world without Stark has been better, in some ways, so hes begging Stark to just not be there. If nobody wants you there, thats kind of it. Theres no way of getting around it. None of Starks abilities will help him work through that. SB: Youve had a long time to live with this character. How does a character thats traditionally solved problems with blood and fire, grow?RK: Im growing and changing with the character. So, Im seeing the world differently, too. Im seeing the stuff that my friends are going through, for instance. Thats how the issue of PTSD with Stark came up. Starks never going to be OK unless he deals with his own trauma. That was never in my head when I started writing the character. But if Im going to deal with somebody like him over a long period of time and have some kind of truth in it, first, he has to admit that he has PTSD. The second thing is that he has to, at least, attempt to do something about it. Of course, the world conspires against him. Every time he says that hes going to try and do something about it, something awful happens and it stops him. But hes at least acknowledging that theres something he can do to be more of a human being. Becoming more of a human being is at the core of what this series is about. In the first book, Stark is a genuine monster, just back from Hell and wanting to kill everything. Wanting to kill the world. Over the course of the books, thats changed. I want to keep exploring that. I dont know how far I can take that or how far I want to. Im following what I think Stark would do and Stark would want. Im hoping Im getting that right, in letting the character lead me a bit in the rest of the series. SB: Every time you set out to write a new book you crack out a new Moleskine to plot it out. Did you have any idea of what the series was going to look like or do you sort it out as you go? RK: I worked out what happens to the end of the series. I know where its going, although there are questions on how its going to get there. I know what has to happen for the rest of the series because I needed to. The things Im doing now, I cant just wing it forever, although there were points at which I was doing that. Theres a certain amount of the series that I had to come up with as a matter of panicking, because originally, Harper only bought three books. I thought that might be it. When I finished the third book, and they were doing OK, they said that they wanted more. Suddenly, I had to get a lot deeper into the situation. Thats when I started creating more. More of an arc than I had before. Where I left it in book, three, it could have stopped, easily. For it to go on, and again, for Stark to deal with who he is, back in the world, I needed to do a lot more homework. The last half of the series, Ive pretty much mapped out what needs to happen and now were getting towards the end of it. Its all coming together. SB: Are you able to say how many books are left in the series?RK: I could say it, but I dont want to.SB: Lets talk about the movie. How does it feel to have someone else manhandling your characters after spending so much time with them. Do you have your fingers in the production?RK: Im doing some consulting on it. Theres a brand new screenplay. I havent seen it yet, but Ive heard really good things. Kerry Williamson is doing the screenplay. Shes worked with the director, Chas Stahelski a lot, so I like that. Plus, you know what man? Im really happy to have a woman working on the screenplay for this. Its been such a dude-heavy project all the way through. To have a woman with [Williamsons] credentials and her point of view is why Chad though of her as a good person to do it. Apparently, she worked in stunts: she has a writers point of view and understands action. In her body, not just intellectually. I think thats great. I have a lot of faith with what they want to do with it. I have talked with Chad about the direction he wants to take things in. Im excited. I trust this team completely. Top to bottom, I think theyre really quality people.SB: What are your plans do you have once youre finished with Stark? The books youve been writing outside of the series have been doing pretty well. Is getting past Sandman Slim something youre looking forward to or more of a shit, what do I do now? Youve spent a long time with this stuff, man.RK: Itll be weird to end it, but theres the movie is moving forward and theres the talk of a comic and things like that, which Ive discussed with the movie people. If they want to do a comic, I have ideas of what it should be. And what it shouldnt be, which I think is more important. And yeah, I have a lot of stuff that I want to do afterwards. Its why Im working very hard on this new book right now, called The Grand Dark. In the way that Sandman Slim reestablished my career, I want to take a chance towards the end of Sandman Slim of rebooting myself. I love writing Sandman Slim. I love writing violence and actionpulp sensibilities. But I dont want to be locked into that for the rest of my life. I want to do larger things, and thats what the Grand Dark is.SB: Tell me more about The Grand Dark. Whatcha got? Whats going on?RK: Im doing a massive rewrite right now, its driving me crazy. It is the story of a young man in a very different world, a world that feelssome people would use the word steampunk. I never used to like the word, but Im ok with it now. Im going to use that word, which I used to not like, to say Steampunk-Kafka. Thats what Im working on now. Its not going to be a huge book, but its been a huge undertaking because theres no aspect of it thats like my previous work. Its right down to my use to my use of language and the way that I write the book. With Stark theres very specific rules of how the text appears on the page. This is sort of the opposite of that. Its much more straightforward in someways and far more twisted in others than anything Ive ever written.SB: It sounds like youre challenging yourself. Thats where its at. If you get bored, whats the point?RK: Thats exactly it. Its me pushing myself to do something new and hoping to establish myself to a broader audience while trying to bring my current audience into a new kind of work that I want to do. Certainly, theres action and guns and crazy stuff going on. But its not presented in the hyperbolic way that Sandman Slim is.Headshot via Richard Kadrey, photographed by Tristan Crane; Book photo via Samus BellamyOriginal Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/B4OhMoVsXqU/richard-kadrey-talks-about-his.html
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