What an honor it is to have today’s guest stop by! I’m a huge fan of John Hornor Jacobs’ writing and, as I’ve said before, sometimes I reach out and ask, not expecting an acceptance, but when John said yes, I was over the moon! Not only because I got to interview him, but because I know how many of his fans will be excited to check out his answers!

Please, welcome John!

Steve: What does your writing time look like? Do you try and write at the same time each day? Do you have a word count you attempt to hit?

John: I’m all over the place honestly when it comes to writing time. I’ve recently transitioned from being a partner at an ad agency with a 60 hour a week job to going freelance, giving me a lot more freedom with my time, but my life has been upended in a variety of ways. And that’s gotten in the way of me having any constancy in my life. Multiple deaths of family, mother, aunts, uncles. I don’t really have a good schedule yet. I wrote a novel last summer and during that time I focused on writing around 1500 words a day. Any more than that and I feel like my prose suffers from lack of consideration which, in the end, leads to a blandness.

I tend to write in the morning when I first sit down at my desk (but not always) and do design work and linocuts in the afternoon and evening after my wife has gone to bed (but not always).

Steve: You end up at an estate sale and discover an unpublished manuscript from an author you love. Do you keep it just for yourself or do you share it with the world?

John: The story writer in me finds some problems with the setup. Would I get the rights? Who’d have the rights to the book? Would I just turn it over to the author’s literary estate? Is the book any good? Could I just slap my name on it and make a million dollars?

I guess the question for me really is, which deceased writer would I like another book from? And in that case, I’d probably say Hilary Mantel. I’d love another brutally wonderful historical novel from her like the Cromwell series. It was a shock when she died this year.

Maybe an unpublished Gene Wolfe novel? Something by Charles Beaumont?

But writers I’m always wanting new novels from include China Miéville, Christopher Buehlman, Sarah Hall, Richard Kadrey, Caitlin Kiernan, Brian Evenson.

In other news, I’d really love to read John Steinbeck’s unearthed werewolf novel that they’ve said they’re not going to release.

Steve: Tell me about your newest release (novel/story/poem/novella) and why someone should read it!

John: My newest release was a little while back, in 2020. It came out during the height of the pandemic and was a bit overlooked – granted, there was a lot going on, tbh. It’s a collection of short stories and a novella which is a sequel to my Bram Stoker Award nominated first novel, Southern Gods. It’s called Murder Ballads and Other Horrific Tales.

Steve: Bonus Question! You wake up in a comic book. What is your comic book character and what is your superpower?

John: I read some comics – Barbaric (written by Michael Moreci) and anything by Cullen Bunn or Mike Mignola – but not a lot of DC and Marvel stuff and I definitely don’t have a lexiconic understanding of all the superheroes and the history of comics. I tend toward more horror comics. So, what I’m about to say might already exist and the name might be taken as well but I don’t care.

If I was a superhero, my name would be Godmaker and my superpower would be the ability to bestow upon others superpowers. That way I could deem who was worthy and hopefully make the world a better place without having to wear tights and a cape. Outsourcing and delegation!

Ha! That’s great and a truly great superpower!

Thank you so much, John!

To find more of his work, check the links!

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/John-Hornor-Jacobs/author/B004UAC44G

Website: https://www.johnhornor.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnhornor