EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS OR AS WE LIKE TO CALL IT FIVE MINUTES WITH AUTHOR PETER SALOMON

Peter Adam Salomon is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Horror Writers Association, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, the Science Fiction Poetry Association, the International Thriller Writers, and The Authors Guild.

His debut novel, HENRY FRANKS, was published by Flux in 2012. His second novel, ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, published by Flux in 2014, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Young Adult fiction. Both novels have been named a ‘Book All Young Georgians Should Read’ by The Georgia Center For The Book.

His short fiction has appeared in the Demonic Visions series among other anthologies, and he was the featured author for Gothic Blue Book III: The Graveyard Edition. He was also selected as one of the Gentlemen of Horror for 2014.

His poem ‘Electricity and Language and Me’ appeared on BBC Radio 6 performed by The Radiophonic Workshop in December 2013. Eldritch Press published his first collection of poetry, PseudoPsalms: Prophets, in 2014, and his second and third poetry collections, PseudoPsalms: Saints v. Sinners and PseudoPsalms: Sodom, were published by Bizarro Pulp Press. In addition, he was the Editor for the first books of poetry released by the Horror Writers Association: Horror Poetry Showcase Volumes I and II.

He served as a Judge for the 2006 Savannah Children’s Book Festival Young Writer’s Contest and for the Royal Palm Literary Awards of the Florida Writers Association. He was also a Judge for the first two Horror Poetry Showcases of the Horror Writers Association and has served as Chair on multiple Juries for the Bram Stoker 

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
My best friend turned 13 on June 13, 1980 and even though I was still 12 we ended up going to see Friday the 13th. It was terrifying and fascinating and illuminating and served as a gateway drug to Stephen King and so many others. There’s something deeply rewarding about shining a light into the shadows through fiction and poetry.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
 
There’s a lot of reading, a lot of exploring Atlanta with my girlfriend, a lot of talking about writing and even more writing and reading. Too much television, a bit of theater, and a very eclectic assortment of music.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
Science-Fiction/Fantasy, as a child of the 80’s was thriving and there was so much horror within those genres (Alien/Aliens, for instance). And even going into mystery, The Silence of the Lambs, or the Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels which are, in their essence, psychological horror. And, of course, poetry, from Poe to Coleridge to Eliot to all the contemporary dark poets writing today.
 
The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations.  What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?
 
So many genre terms are freighted with the tropes of the past, but the breadth of writers working today have reclaimed ‘horror’ in the best of all possible ways. Every branch of horror, from body horror to comedic and everything in between has been reborn in the rich flowering of horror going on today.

A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?

There’s such an appetite for horror fiction and dark poetry, I think horror goes to the same place the entire industry is going: indie. Just as the music industry was revolutionized whether they wanted to be or not, publishing is facing the same revolution. It’s going to be an amazing journey producing astonishing amounts of fascinating stories from an incredibly diverse breadth of authors. It’s an honor to be a very small part of it all.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
Frankenstein, creating genres and proving that terror can be philosophical, that horror can be thought-provoking, and that literature is wide enough for all types of stories.
 
Those classic 50s Poe movies, and the entire canon of Vincent Price, proving how powerful a story can be.
 

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
Brian Kirk, might not be new to everyone but WILL HAUNT YOU will, in fact, haunt you. Darrell Grizzle, combining a wicked sense of humor with, well, wickedness, in short stories that linger, as all the best stories do. Jillian Boehme’s debut novel, STORMRISE, comes out in 2019 and she’s is a fantasist to watch.

How would you describe your writing style?

Poetic. I think of myself as a poet first and a novelist second even though I had two novels published before selling my first poem. Since then my poetry has appeared on BBC Radio 6 (performed by The Radiophonic Workshop, who do the music for Dr. Who) and I’ve founded National Dark Poetry Day (Oct. 7, the day Poe died) and the annual Horror Writers Association’s Dark Poetry Showcase competition.
 
Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

Booklist’s starred review of my first novel, HENRY FRANKS, included the line “…the thinking teen’s horror choice of the year” which will go on my tombstone, obviously. And Publishers Weekly described my second novel, ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, which was nominated for a Stoker, with the line: “Salomon creates the sensation of slipping between the worlds of the living and the dead. A complex, intense mystery that surprises and chills.”

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

Plotting, not sitting down and just starting to write. I am an incredibly impatient/lazy writer, and just want to get all the ideas down on paper so I can start making it better.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
That is a difficult to question without going into the differences between my fiction and my poetry. While my fiction is YA, the poetry is definitely for adults and deals with any subject matter that I feel like writing about. Themes in my fiction deal mainly with identity and memory whereas my poetry delves deeply into religion/sexuality and sex/violence/as well as identity and memory. With poetry, I feel almost as though I’m dared to erase any boundaries or borders, that nothing should be off limits to poetry no matter how difficult to write or read that can lead sometimes. So, I have poems that deal with intensely sensitive and personal matters. With fiction, where there’s far more world-building and character development, I tend to stay a little bit closer to ‘coloring inside the lines’ even I blur over them every so often.
 
If I can think of a subject I would never write about, I’d likely take that as a challenge to write a poem about it.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
Fully depends on the book. I always include names of people I know, for minor characters at least, when needed or possible. My first novel, HENRY FRANKS, was a modern-day re-telling of Frankenstein, so the majority of the names are from the original book. Some more obvious than others, obviously, but I also needed a name for the main character which would work as a plot point, which Henry Franks does perfectly.
 
With the novel releasing in April, 2019, the main characters don’t actually know their own names (as I said, memory and identity are familiar themes for me) so they spend practically all of the book known as ‘L’ and ‘M’ based on the letters found on the clothes they’re wearing (the parallel with ‘Large’ and ‘Medium’ being actual clothing sizes didn’t even occur to me until quite recently, long after I wrote the book).
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
So much better, I hope. HENRY FRANKS took 5 years from idea to published and went through dozens of drafts. ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS took 2. EIGHT Minutes, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS I wrote in 21 days. Still had to edit it, but it started so much better than the first drafts of the books I’d written before so I was able to streamline the process tremendously. I hope that continues. Also, writing a book in 21 days isn’t the best way to write a book, but I’m glad to know I can do it.

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?       
 
Someplace comfortable to write. And that means everything from the seat to the atmosphere to the music. Write where you feel comfortable and safe, so that you can focus on the words and the magic and the inspiration. Anything else is just an extension of ‘comfort.’ Computer v. typewriter v. legal pad v. feather pen: whatever you feel comfortable with. iPad v. laptop v. phone v. the Magnavox VideoWriter I wrote my first novel on 30 years ago. All that matters is that you’re comfortable with the tools you’re using.
 
And save your work. A lot. More than you are even if you’re saving a lot.   

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
Write more. Keep writing. Don’t give up. Don’t stop writing.

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
Probably lazily and impatiently, the way I approach everything. Having been traditionally published, there were a few things that having a publishing house helping simplified (getting review copies out, but even then I was assisting in ways large and small). I am still working on this one, and have always tried to ‘pay it forward’ as much as possible, knowing how the horror community is so incredibly welcoming and supportive.

To many writers, the characters they write become like children, who is your favorite child, and who is your least favorite to write for and why?
 
Justine, in HENRY FRANKS, makes the book work. There wouldn’t be a book without her. And, in ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, while the story is told by Richard (in the first person), he is telling Melanie’s story, not his own. With EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS, there is no question but L is the star of the book, as she is, literally, the only living person. Writing a book where you kill over eight billion people, doesn’t leave much room for poorly drawn characters. It is L’s story, and she her strength and fierceness and vulnerability make the book far better than I could have ever hoped.

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
I’ve a feeling this will change over the years, as I now look back and wish I had one more chance to edit things in my published novels from 2012 and 2014 because I’m a better writer now. I’m incredibly proud of my poem ‘Psalm’ which was an honorable mention for last year’s HWA Dark Poetry Showcase at only 5 lines. I’m usually far wordier than that but managed to capture something special in those 25 or so words. And the book I have coming out now, EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS, is by far the best novel I’ve ever written. It’s a roller-coaster ride that does not let up, at all. With blurbs from Jonathan Maberry (“EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS is a twisty and unnerving horror thriller! Scary, mind-bending and fast-paced! Brace yourself…!”) to Rena Mason (“A taut sci-fi thriller fusion of pure adrenaline and fear that will leave you trembling to the very last page.”) and dozens of other Stoker winners and nominees, the response to this book has been exceptionally gratifying.

And are there any that you would like to forget about?

So many. Thankfully my memory isn’t what it was.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?

ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, nominated for the Stoker for YA fiction, is lyrical and poetic and was extraordinarily difficult to write. I threw out all those fiction rules (ie: no repeated words, no run-on sentences, no sentence fragments, for example) and replaced them with the rules of poetry. And still wrote in prose, not verse. I knew while writing it that there would be critics who couldn’t get past the strong ‘voice’ I was using and that there’d be others who would love it. That proved true with opinions very divided on the book, with some calling it melodramatic and others, like Publishers Weekly, seeing the dream-like aspect of the writing as being a part of the mood of the book, almost another character, the way the weather was a character in HENRY FRANKS.
 
And, of course, the new book is a must.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us
 
Actually, my favorite line is more of a moment, and it’s in a novel that might never be published. It’s called THIS IS WHERE I STAND and is a vigilante/superhero tale featuring a young woman who finally meets the woman of her dreams, only to realize that she’s killed her brother (I did mention the vigilante/superhero part). The moment where they meet is the culmination of 150 pages of despair and she earns that brief incandescent scene even while the reader knows how intensely bittersweet the meeting is.
 
So, I’ll share the poem ‘Psalm’ instead:
 
Psalm
 
Shroud me in a shallow grave
Bury me with wildflower seeds
In an ancient forest
For while life was only rarely beautiful
Death
I want to be a garden

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

As for my most recent novel, EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS, is post-post-dystopian. There is no evil corporation to topple, no tyrant to overthrow, no government to rebel against, no rag-tag army of survivors to lead. There is no one and nothing. Eight billion people died when the world the world ended. Two survived. And they have no idea who they are or why they’re alive or what killed everyone else.
 
They only know what the AI tells them. And what they learn every time they die. Addicted to a drug that kills them for eight minutes, thirty-two seconds, they treasure the high, for during that time, they visit the past. They see the world as it was. They live as six lonely teens, and with each death, they stitch a little more of the truth together. As the withdrawal symptoms get worse, forcing them to kill themselves more often in order live, they fear they’ll be dead long before they learn what really happened.
 
After that, I’ll have a poetry collection, my fourth, out this summer, and another novel, MORSUS, this fall.

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?
 
No need to erase any, just a need to reclaim some of them. They became clichés because they work, because there’s a need for familiarity. It’s a matter of innovation and breathing new life into the dead.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
Am I allowed to say the Washington bio by Chernow disappointed me? Hamilton and Grant were astonishing, but Washington, while still richly researched and amazingly well-written suffered for lack of a certain humanity in the subject. Hamilton and Grant had tragic, fatal flaws, and those flaws gave their bios a depth and richness lacking in the similar bio of Washington, who had relatively few flaws (in the ‘dramatic character’ sense that makes for great drama…) so the bio seemed to suffer for the lack of that tragic flaw in the subject. Of course, that might just be me and your mileage may vary.
 
The last great book I read was THE RUIN OF KINGS by Jenn Lyons. A new dark twist on fantasy.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
“How did it feel to win the Academy Award?”
 
“It felt pretty good, I have to admit. A lifetime of dreaming, of hearing people say that ‘dreams come true’ and they do, they really do. And those ‘swag’ bags are pretty amazing.”
 
I’d REALLY like someone to ask me that someday.

To find out more about and to follow Peter on Social media check out the links below 
www.peteradamsalomon.com
www.facebook.com/peteradamsalomon
https://www.instagram.com/pasalomon
Twitter: @petersalomon

Eight Minutes, Thirty-Two Seconds by Peter Adam Salomon  

Over eight billion people died when the world ended. 
Two survived.

L and M don’t know why they’re alive. They don’t remember what happened. Addicted to a drug that kills them for eight minutes and thirty-two seconds, they risk the end of humanity in order to learn the truth.

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