Interview with Dean Drinkel.

Full Name:

Dean M. Drinkel.

Do you have a nickname or what do your friends call you?

Not really but some people – usually those that don’t know me – call me Deano which I cannot abide.  Ha ha.

Birthplace:

Farnham, Surrey, England.

Current hometown

London, England.

Favorite city and why?

Paris – France

It inspires me every time I visit; the drink; food; culture; I also have some great friends that live there.  I can’t get enough of the place.

Birthday / Age:

Late thirties.

How would you describe yourself physically?

Just under six feet, svelte, full head of hair, perfect vision

How would someone else describe you physically?

“Who brought the bald, fat, dwarf?”
You got me with that one, sir, I snorted.

I know, me too, I could have gone a lot worse.  Ha ha.

The first thing people notice about you is…

“Do I know you from somewhere?”
I used to get that all of the time.  When I was a late teen people used to ask me if they knew me from television.  That was how I knew I was destined for greatness.  In my 20s people always assumed that I worked at any store I went to.  I’d be looking for something and someone would come up and say, “Pardon me… could you help me find…” and I would cut them off with “I DON’T FUCKING WORK HERE!  OKAY?”  I never learned how to fire warning shots.

Now that’s funny and actually could be a good idea for a film – let’s get cracking on it!
I’ll write the screenplay if you can kick me some imaginary money via PayPal, but if you’ve got a guy in mind to write it, at least flip me a “Story by…” credit.  I’m trying to make my IMDB profile awesomer.  http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3678959/

I’ll write it if you can sing it hey?  Let’s see what we can do with it – it’d be a blast I just know it.
Oddly enough, I can carry a tune without the aid of a bucket, keep me posted.

Religion, if any?

Christian, Protestant.

Are you superstitious at all? Any phobias?

I’ve edited two horror anthologies about Phobias and whilst my own haven’t been included – I do not like heights and I certainly don’t like flying.  When I used to play sports I had to have the numbers 12 (after Dallas Cowboy’s QB Roger Staubach) and 18 (after Tottenham Hotspur’s striker Steffen Iversen) written about me somewhere – for instance, in hockey they were on my stick, when playing football they were on my wristbands.

Do you smoke / drink? If so, what? Any bad habits?

Don’t mind a drink or two though try to keep that down to one night a week if possible but it does depend what’s going on – if I finish a particular project then why not celebrate?  Also, if I go to the football that usually ends up in a night of debauchery and vice.

Current occupation / Dream job:

Writer / Director.  I would like to direct features – something which has eluded me up until now but we’re getting there – so let’s see what we can do in 2014 / 2015.

What do you like to do when you’re not at work?
Watching live sports – Football (Tottenham and Southend), Basketball (Hemel

 Storm)

What is your zombie outbreak survival plan?
Oh, I know who I’m going after first don’t worry about that – after I deal with that particular person we’ll take it from there.  Oddly, I’m not really into zombies too much, but I have been working with my friend Don Eminizer on a ‘zombie comedy’ and something of my own, a little more philosophical called ‘The ZombieChrist’.
I hate getting into metaphysics, because it always gets messy.  Messyphysics.  But as a Christian, isn’t that blasphemous?  I mean, I don’t care, I’m an antitheist.  But… isn’t it?

Oh yeah I’m sure it is – I just like the idea that the zombies could have this messiah being that tries to take them down a different path and of course there’s the whole “this is my blood, this is my body” that can be played with.
Well at least you have a sense of humor about the whole thing.  I’ve also puzzled over the whole vampiristic/cannibalistic rituals of Catholicism.  But I’m also not here to tell people what to believe in, as long as they extend the same courtesy to me, which Christians rarely do.

Yeah and isn’t that the sad part about religion?  As I’ve said elsewhere, I’ve grown up and been educated in a lot of countries which of course have their own religions / religious.  It’s such a shame that there’s just no tolerance whether you’re Protestant / Catholic / Muslim et al.  One day I’m sure, when each of us stand before our maker we’ll go something like “Oh, is that what all this is about.” or maybe even “durh”.
Or there is no “maker” and your life is your big shot at making your mark on the universe.  I kind of hope there isn’t a maker.  If there is I’m going to have a lot to answer for.

Weapon of choice:

I’ve always slept with a baseball bat by the bed and I’m pretty handy with that.  I wouldn’t mind using a sword or two either.  I’ve always wanted to fence to a high standard.

Do you have any special skills?
I’m not too bad with a hockey stick, actually maybe that should have been my weapon of choice now that I think of it.
I could totally see that.  Cricket bat’s been done.

Yeah and at the moment us English are terrible at cricket – I mean, losing 5 – 0 to the Aussies – strewth!!!

Did you go to college and, if so, what for?
I double majored in History / American History.  I’m lucky I suppose that during my life I’ve been educated in Saudi Arabia, England and the States.

If you went to college, did you manage to pay off your student loans?
I guess I was one of the lucky few that didn’t need a loan.

Any pets?   If so, what are they and what are their names?
No pets – can’t have them where I live unfortunately.

What is your favorite animal?
A white wire fox terrier called Milou.  I love Milou.  Not sure if Milou loves me though.

Speaking of pets, any pet peeves?
People who don’t answer messages / emails / texts within 10sec of me sending them.  Ha ha!

Favorite / Least favorite Food:
I am allergic to apricots.  I hate rhubarb.  Liver.  Shepherd’s Pie.  Cottage Pie.

What is your favorite quotation / motto / saying?
I’ve got a few but happy with this one:
“Imagination rules the world” – Napoleon Bonaparte.

What is the best thing that ever happened to you?
You know what, I’ve had amazing things happen in my life – I’ve met some pretty cool people and seen things that can never be repeated but I’m fairly optimistic that the best thing ever in my life hasn’t happened yet – I’ll let you know when it does.  That’s a promise.
I usually hate the “It hasn’t happened yet.” answer, but you pulled it off okay.

Hope it didn’t sound crass, but I really think it’s true.  I really have done some amazing things – the first time I did a book signing of my book in Forbidden Planet and there was a queue of people waiting for me to sign in – bloody brilliant.  Recently I was someone’s ‘best man’ that was such an honor too.
Isn’t it awesome doing a book signing that goes well?  I did one that my publisher set up for me for my first book and something like 300-500 people showed up and it was a total mind fuck.  I tried to follow-up on that and schedule my own in-store events and I was usually given a folding table near the door like they give to the animal shelter people and the Girl Scout Cookie people, so I stopped trying to book my own in-store appearances.   *laughs*

Mate – it was such a blast!  I was a little bit ‘merry’ as I had had a script meeting earlier in the afternoon, I think I might have even stopped for a ‘livener’ on the way.  Anyway, we were then high on adrenalin.  After the signing, we then went to a British Fantasy Society event where they were supposed to do another launch for us but I think we were all so drunk they just left us to it.  I will say one thing though – whatever number of books we had with us – all sold!  What a great great day / night.

What is the worst thing that ever happened to you?
I could say seeing my favorite sporting team lose to our fiercest rivals – but let’s go with some recent deaths that happened to the family.

Ever had your heart broken? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?
Yep – I’d better not say any more on that – it’s still raw, even to this day.

Ever broken someone’s heart? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?

You know I want to say no to this but I think I have and it’s nothing to be proud about.  So again, I’ll keep my mouth shut.

What is the best thing you’ve ever done?
As I said above, don’t think the best thing I’ve ever done has happened yet – but I’m pretty proud to call myself an award winning writer and award nominated director.
That’s not too shabby.  I’d go with that.

Cheers – it is so cool when your name gets called.  In December, when I won the Best Screenplay award, it was the first one out of the bag – I promised myself I’d do a speech, it was on the anniversary of my dad’s death too – but again, by the time I got to the stage and there was all the lights and people looking at me, my bottle went.  Next time, I promise I’ll say something more than “Peace, love!” I did get a round of applause though and some high-fives as I returned to my seat.

What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?
I’ll be careful how I word this – two things: one, I wrote a story for a publication which I had my doubts about but the cash was good (at the time anyway!).  The story’s title was changed (which I was happy about at the time and then when it came out I thought what the hell have I done!) and it subsequently became ‘controversial’.  Secondly, I directed a short film which I had absolutely no idea what was happening before, during or after.  Looking back on that experience, I should have voiced my concerns there and then and perhaps it could have been salvageable.  With both of these though – lessons were learnt, and hopefully won’t be repeated.  I also had a ‘run-in’ with a famous British comedian not so long ago – someone that a lot of people say that I resemble (or he resembles me!) – okay, I was drunk and thought I was being funny – apparently I wasn’t.  I found myself in a situation that I just couldn’t get out of – but we’re mates again now.  Ha ha.
I’m going to guess Ricky Gervais.  Was it Ricky Gervais?

Okay – oddly, I am often compared to Ricky and I have been drinking with him, Stephen Merchant and ‘Barry from Eastenders’ – but no, alright, you pulled my chain – it was Vic Reeves – you heard of him?  If you google him and me, we actually look quite similar.  He lives not far from my mum and in the town they live there was a shop that had a ‘talking tree’ for the kids, I reminded him of that fact.  He had drunk a lot, I had drunk a lot and sadly I didn’t need a spade to dig that hole.  I’ve got shivers as I’m typing this.
You lost me at Stephen Merchant.  I’m American.  There are some people that really love British TV and film, and we have a word for them, I believe it’s “nerds”.  I do thoroughly enjoy The Ricky Gervais Show because most people over here are Karl Pilkington stupid and it gets to be a bit tough to deal with sometimes so it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one that thinks that people that stupid deserve to be ridiculed for being so stupid.

I’m not a massive Ricky fan, he did that sitcom over here with Karl too – it was called ‘Derek’ not sure if you got it stateside – that wasn’t too bad and again it was full of stupid people.  If you haven’t, check it out – it is very British.
I’ll make sure to do so.

If you could kill one person, who would it be, and why?
Make love, not war!
Alright then, if you could make love to one person, who would it be, and why?
My rule of thumb is this: You got a pulse? You like me? You got a house? A boat? A car? Right – let’s get down to it.

What do you do?
I write short stories, novellas, poetry; I compile / edit anthologies; I write / direct short films; I write feature film scripts; I write / direct for the theatre.
If you’re ever looking for contributors for your anthologies let me know.  I hemorrhage content.
Cool – you got yourself a deal – let’s see what we can work out.
Let’s do.

We’ll speak over the next couple of months for definite mate.
Hope so.  Just got an acceptance e-mail from an anthology, and I’ll be publishing one myself in April, and I published five books in the past three months and I’m publishing two more this month.  My plan is to keep this year on a leash!

How did you get started doing what you do?
The skinny: whilst I was at uni – I was showering after a game of football.  These words started appeared in my mind and I put them together and thought ‘wow, that sounds really interesting’.  After I got the soap out of my eyes, I rushed to my room and started typing out the story which became known as ‘Weird’.  This appeared in the college magazine and people asked to see more – I held some record over the subsequent three years or so for having a story appear in each month’s magazine.   These stories then formed a collection called ‘The Burial’ which was published by a small press in England a few months after I graduated. I then sat back, expecting one of the majors to knock at my door and offer me a massive advance with a promise to publish everything that I wrote– that didn’t happen so I ended up doing a ‘nine to five’ for a couple of years.  Of course, in the background I kept on plugging away – which resulted in a publication of a number of short stories on-line and limited print-run magazines, I was nominated for several small writing awards, was runner-up for the ‘Sir Peter Ustinov Screenwriting Award’ (which is part of the International Emmys) – I then started writing / directing for the theatre and then in short films – several of which have screened at the Cannes Film Festival.  More recently I’ve moved into compiling / editing horror anthologies for a number of publishers both sides of the Atlantic.  Interestingly, now that I’ve got the rights back to that first collection, I’ve been working on revamping the stories and the new ‘Weird’ appeared in last year’s The Best Of The Horror Society’s anthology.
 

What is your advice to other people that want to get started doing what you do?
Write, write, write then write some more.  Listen to what your elders, betters and editors tell you.  And write.

What are some of the projects you’ve worked on/finished in the past?
Give us a little history if you will.
Again, the skinny (not everything, but a taster):

The Burial - Short Story Collection

Within A Forest Dark - Short Story Collection

Twisted Souls - Poetry Collection

Outnumbered - Poetry Collection

The Empire of Death - Poetry Collection

The Crumps - Play

The Catskills - Play

Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show - Play

Bitten - Short Film
The Crumps - Short Film

East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon - Short Film

Splinter - Short Film Script

Bright Yellow Gun - Short Film Script

Ghosts - Feature Film Script 

Phobophobia - Anthology

The Demonologia Biblica - Anthology

The Bestiarum Vocabulum - Anthology

What projects are you working on now?
Phobophobias - Anthology (Dark Continents 2014)

Demonology - Anthology (Static Movement 2014)

The Grimorium - Anthology (Western Legends 2014)

Kneeling In the Silver Light - Anthology (Alchemy Press 2014)

Victim(e) - Feature Film Script

Kaleidoscope (with Scott Richardson) Feature Film Script

What are you watching?
Right now?  A French film, staring the very brilliant actor Vincent Rottiers, called (English title) ‘Last winter’.

What are you listening to?
Last couple of days?  Jake Bugg, Jonny Lang, Miley Cyrus, Goldfrapp, Throwing Muses.

What are you reading?
The French translation of Clive Barker’s ‘The Hellbound Heart’ (French title: Hellraiser), a book about Paris and a BIG volume about Napoleon.

Favorite author / book?
Anything by Clive Barker, anything on Napoleon or Louis XIV; the poet Arthur Rimbaud.

Favorite band / song?
Like quite a lot of French hip-hop, Bryan Ferry, REM – but will always have a soft spot for Kristin Hersh / Throwing Muses – so much so that I named one of my scripts after one of their song’s ‘Bright Yellow Gun’ of which I will be forever grateful that Kristin allowed me to.
Ooh!  Who do you like for French “hip-hop”?

Thanks for asking!  SoulKast and Orelsan are my favorites.  I took my mate Scott to go and see Orelsan when he played a small club in London last year – it was bloody amazing.  If it’s done well, you don’t need to always understand the words and sometimes they rap so quickly that you only pick up half of it anyway – it’s the tunes, the beats, very sublime.

Least favorite band / song?
Why hate?  Just turn the radio / tv over.

If you could do anything other than what you do now, what would you do?
I wanted to be starting QB for the Dallas Cowboys and then Head Coach.

Who would you want to meet that you haven’t met?
You get three choices: Alive. Dead. Fictional.

Cool:

1. Warren Beatty

2. Arthur Rimbaud

3. The Female Cenobite (from Hellbound, Hellraiser 2) – though have to say, I do know Barbie Wilde very well who played her in the film but there was something about those chains, open throat and that knife thing she wielded.

What’s the best and worst job you’ve ever had?
Writing / directing is pretty cool; worst job – I worked in a bank for six weeks.  Never, ever, again.

Are there any questions that I didn’t ask that you wished I had asked that you would like to answer now?
No, these were cool.

Anyone you recommend I interview that you can put me in touch with?
Barbie Wilde - Actress / Author

Nick Vince - Actor / Author

Tim Dry - Actor / Author

DM Youngquist - Author / CEO Dark Continents

John Palisano - Author / CEO Western Legends

James Powell - Artist (who’s provided covers for a lot of my work)
Excellent!  You make the introductions and I’ll handle the follow-through!

Will do!

Got any questions for me?
No – cheers though for the opportunity.  I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for letting me subject you to being interviewed!
The honor was all mine.

Pitch parade:
Give me all of your links for things you want to promote.   All of them.
Facebook: Dean M Drinkel

Twitter: @deanmdrinkel
Website: http://www.ellupofilms.com
Blog: http://deanmdrinkelauthor.blogspot.co.uk/
Amazon: search Dean M Drinkel

About the Interviewee:
Dean M Drinkel is a published and award winning writer and poet; he compiles / edits horror anthologies for a number of publishing companies; he is an award nominated director and has written / directed for the theatre.  More about him can be found on his blog http://deanmdrinkelauthor.blogspot.co.uk/ and he can be contacted at dean@ellupofilms.com

About the Interviewer:

Scott Lefebvre can write about whatever you want him to write about.
Mostly because when he was grounded for his outlandish behavior as a hyperactive school child, the only place he was allowed to go was the public library.
His literary tastes were forged by the works of Helen Hoke, Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Edgar Allan Poe, and H. P. Lovecraft.
He is the author of Spooky Creepy Long Island, and a contributing author to Forrest J. Ackerman’s Anthology of the Living Dead, Fracas: A Collection of Short Friction, The Call of Lovecraft, and Cashiers du Cinemart.
He is currently working on ten novel-length book projects which will be released in 2014.
He also publishes themed collections of interviews from his interview blog You Are Entitled To My Opinion.
His reviews have been published by a variety of in print and online media including Scars Magazine, Icons of Fright, Fatally Yours and Screams of Terror, and he has appeared in Fangoria, Rue Morgue and HorrorHound Magazine.
He is the Assistant Program Director for The Arkham Film Society and produces electronic music under the names Master Control and LOVECRAFTWORK.
He is currently working on a novel-length expansion of a short-story titled, "The End Of The World Is Nigh", a crowd-funded, crowd-sourced, post-apocalyptic, zombie epidemic project.
Check out the blog for the book here: theendoftheworldisnighbook.blogspot.com
Check out the Facebook Fan Page for the project here: www.facebook.com/TheEndOfTheWorldIsNighBook
Check his author profile at: www.amazon.com/Scott-Lefebvre/e/B001TQ2W9G
Follow him at GoodReads here:
www.goodreads.com/author/show/1617246.Scott_Lefebvre
Check out his publishing imprint Burnt Offerings Books here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Burnt-Offerings-Books/1408858196016246
And here: http://burntofferingsbooks.blogspot.com/
Check out his electronic music here: soundcloud.com/master_control
And here: master-control.bandcamp.com
Check out his videos at: www.youtube.com/user/doctornapoleon
Check out his IMDB profile here: www.imdb.com/name/nm3678959
Follow his Twitter here: twitter.com/TheLefebvre or @TheLefebvre
Follow his Tumblr here: thelefebvre.tumblr.com
Check out his Etsy here: www.etsy.com/shop/ScottLefebvreArt
Join the group for The Arkham Film Society here:
www.facebook.com/groups/arkhamscreenings
Stalk his Facebook at: www.facebook.com/TheLefebvre
E-mail him at: Scott_Lefebvre@hotmail.com