Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Interview with Peter Mark May.


Full Name:
Peter Mark May

Do you have a nickname or what do your friends call you?
None.

Birthplace:
Walton-on-Thames, Surrey UK

Current hometown:
Hersham, Surrey UK

Favorite city and why?
London – everything you ever wanted or did not want in one place – I live 30 mins away by train which is the best place to be.
I don’t know about all that.  I used to live a seven dollar train ride away from Manhattan.  I’ll have to check out London someday and see how it measures up.
I’ll show you the sights my friend and the pubs.
Well-appreciated.  I’ll work extra hard on getting rich or famous so that I can either be rich enough to afford to pay for the trip myself or be famous enough that it will be worth flying me out for a guest appearance.  I’ll keep you posted.
Cool Beans. I’ll work on the stinking rich part.

Birthday / Age:
29th Dec aged 45

How would you describe yourself physically?
Average build, but expanding around the waist.

How would someone else describe you physically?
A young Harrison Ford with glasses…

The first thing people notice about you is…
the large knife in my hand when I slip out of the darkness.
That’s not creepy at all.  I’m just going to go stand over here… *walks backwards out of the room*

Religion, if any?
Agnostic Tolkienist Tree worshipper.

Are you superstitious at all? Any phobias?
Nope / don’t like using the telephone much.

Do you smoke / drink? If so, what? Any bad habits?
Don’t smoke, might take up smoking a pipe if I hit 80 – like real ale, and port.
I think you’d look quite dignified smoking a pipe.  Then again, everyone looks quite dignified when they’re smoking a pipe.  As long as it’s not a crack pipe.  No one looks dignified smoking a crack pipe.  Maybe Sir Ian McKellen could pull it off… but, then again, he IS Sir Ian McKellen.
Oh yes a nice long hobbit pipe and try and blow smoke rings over my garden all day long.


Current occupation / Dream job:
Part-time writer / full time author.

What do you like to do when you’re not at work?
Write.

What is your zombie outbreak survival plan?
Grab my collection of swords and head for Leeds Castle and hole up there.  The moat and drawbridge would come in handy.
So, pretty much the movie Doomsday.
Yes but with less Scottish people.
What do you have against Scottish people?
Nothing, I know several fine Scottish peeps.

Weapon of choice:
Bastard Sword.
That’s probably the coolest sounding answer yet.  If this was a cool kids club you’d have my vote.  I know what a bastard sword is, but I just like saying it.  BASTARD sword!
Fetch me the bastard sword, got a nice ring to it.  The bastard shotgun and my bastard bacon sandwich.
I believe sandwiches are feminine in our new linguistic system, so go make me a bitchin’ bacon sandwich!
As long as the bacon is there I don’t mind.

Do you have any special skills?
I can cook a mean roast dinner.

Did you go to college and, if so, what for?
Esher College  for a year, but only to retake some exams.  Missed having money so got first job at 17.

If you went to college, did you manage to pay off your student loans?
Don’t think they had them way back then.

Any pets?   If so, what are they and what are their names?
Two cats Treacle & Smudge – or our Grand Overlords as I call them.  I’m forever opening and closing doors for them.
Some people think cats are stupid.  I, on the other hand, have seen a cat try to open a deadbolt lock.  If they had prehensile thumbs the shoe would be on the other foot.  As things stand they’ve already tricked us into providing them with food and shelter.
They make us lazy, no taking cats out for walks like dogs. They sit and bide their time, flexing their claws.

What is your favorite animal?
Foxes.

Speaking of pets, any pet peeves?
People who put author after their name on FB.  You don’t see people put Undertaker or Postman.  Also people who put on articles that say Must Read Article…which my mind instantly goes fuck-right-off I’m never reading that.
You know what’s worse?  Go ahead, guess, I’ll wait for it…
“Authoress”.  That’s not even a fucking thing and just because you say it is doesn’t make it so.  I actually went on Facebook and proactively searched out and preventatively blocked anyone delusional enough to call themselves and “Authoress”.  They’re not the kind of person I’d want to know anyway.
Off to change my profile name to Authoress now.
Do it… you won’t!  You’d be dead to me, but at least you’d prove that you’ve got moxie.
Still taking the pills to get rid of the moxie.

Favorite / Least favorite Food:
Chicken in all its forms…..Jellied Eels

What is your favorite quotation / motto / saying?
“Opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one.” Clint Eastwood ~ Dirty Harry



What is the best thing that ever happened to you?
The birth of my two sons & having five novels published, and James Herbert asking me for a copy of one of my books.
Oh shit!  I love James Herbert!  I mean, in a platonic author kind of way.
Great shame he won’t be on my reading list anymore.
No?  Why not?
No more new novels to read, as he died last year, very sad.

What is the worst thing that ever happened to you?
The death of my father and my two older brothers – all at young ages.

Ever had your heart broken? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?
Yes, too many times in the past.

Ever broken someone’s heart? Is there a story worth telling behind your answer?
I doubt it, I’m more of a fart-maker than a heartbreaker.

What is the best thing you’ve ever done?
Become a dad.

What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?
I’m quite square really, the odd bit of teen thievery or riding around on a stolen motorbike…
I’m just going to pretend that Quadrophenia was based on your life.
More a rocker than a MOD.
Well, yeah… I kind of figured as much.

If you could kill one person, who would it be, and why?
Tony Blair – he is the devil alive on earth.

What do you do?
As little as I can get away with?  I write horror novels, short stories and run two small genre presses.
I’d ask you to tell us more about your two small genre presses, but I presume that you managed to mention them somewhere in this interview.
Let’s mention them again, Hersham Horror came about by accident really, wanted to do a small 5 author ebook anth, but just got out of hand.  7 books later still doing it for fun. Karoshi I got charmed into doing.

How did you get started doing what you do?
Started when I was 17 as a bit of fun, just love writing… hate editing though.
You could always hire someone else to edit.  That’s a thing nowadays.
When I’m stinking rich, I will hire an editor person.

What is your advice to other people that want to get started doing what you do? Read a lot, always having an ending in mind before you start a book.  Do things your way and take most advice with a pinch of salt.

What are some of the projects you’ve worked on/finished in the past?
Give us a little history if you will.

I’m the author of Demon, Kumiho, Inheritance [P. M. May], Dark Waters (novella), Hedge End and AZ: Anno Zombie [Samhain].
He also runs Hersham Horror Books publishing six anthologies so far (editing three himself: Alt-Dead, Alt-Zombie and Fogbound from 5) and has somehow found the time to co-found Karōshi Books with Johnny Mains and Cathy Hurren.
He’s had short stories published in genre Canadian & US magazines and the UK & US anthologies of horror such as Creature Feature, Watch, the British Fantasy Society’s 40th Anniversary anthology Full Fathom Forty, Alt-Zombie, Fogbound From 5, Nightfalls, Demons & Devilry and Western Legends The Bestiarum Vocabulum.
Did you start referring to yourself in the third person?  Or did you just cut & paste your author bio?

Cut and paste – droops head in shame.
I can spot a cut & paste like a fart in a car.  I’ll let it pass… this time.
Thank you, sir.  I bet Stevie King doesn’t type out all his many works either.

What projects are you working on now?
Bloody loads, a novel and a novella at the moment.  Thinking of writing a murder mystery novel set in ancient Greece.




What are you watching?
Classic Ghost Stories of M R James read by Robert Powell on the BBC from 1985.

What are you listening to?
Old metal.
Continue…
Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, ZZ-Top I could go on more ages.
Rock of ages?  http://youtu.be/ncjcjpQzceQ
Sad to say I enjoyed the film, even with Tom Cruise in it.

What are you reading?
Hater by David Moody

Favorite author / book?
J.R.R Tolkien Lord of the Rings.  My English teacher at school was taught by him you know.
I didn’t know.  Now I know.  And you know what they say… knowing is half the battle!  I always wondered what the other half of the battle was.  I think it had a lot to do with firing laser beams at the Illuminati.
You do a lot of interviews – you must know lots of useless stuff now.
If you only knew.
It’s like showing up to a blind date, and you figure out in the first five minutes that you’re not going to have sex.  So you spend the rest of the time talking out the clock and poking at your food.
Okay, it’s not that bad.  I try to have fun with it.  Some people don’t know how to have fun.  I hate those people.
Ladies you have five minutes. Poor ladies.

Favorite band / song?
Iron Maiden – Still Life

Least favorite band / song?
Westlife

If you could do anything other than what you do now, what would you do?
Be stinking rich.
How rich is stinking rich?
So rich you can wipe your arse with £20 notes, then your money would stink.

Who would you want to meet that you haven’t met?
You get three choices: Alive. Dead. Fictional.
Sasha Grey (or Peter Straub). Bobby Moore. Dracula.

What’s the best and worst job you’ve ever had?
Best job is being an author (except the shit pay) and the worst job I ever had was retrieving lobsters from Jayne Mansfield’s Arse…

Are there any questions that I didn’t ask that you wished I had asked that you would like to answer now?
Don’t think so, least you didn’t ask where I get my ideas from…
Everybody asks that, and no one ever has a good answer for that question.  Except Ray Bradbury… Why?  Because he was motherfucking Ray Bradbury.  That’s why!

Anyone you recommend I interview that you can put me in touch with?
Joe McKinney, he’s a nice zombie bloke, who I have published.
You’re, like, the fifth person to recommend that I interview Joe McKinney.  Now if I can only get him to finish his interview survey I’ll be able to have it over and done with and be able to write “Got that!” and post the link to his interview.  Put an icepick in his ear about finishing his interview would you so kindly?  Thanks in advance!
He’s a very busy chap.
I get being busy.  I’m busy too.  But I also get “Finish the fucking interview, mate!”.  I’ve got two more interviews to finish before I lock the contributors for the first part of what has grown into a two-part collection of interviews with zombie-genre authors.  It’s kind of an “If the boat sails, and you’re not on it, you’ll just have to wait for the next boat.” kind of thing.  And since the next boat is mostly “busy” people and procrastinators and people that need prodding, it might be a while before the second part gets released.
Boats are good in a zombie apocalypse.  I will tread on women and children to get in the first boat.

Got any questions for me?
Where’s the beer?
I thought you brought the beer!  Damn it!   No beer?
Screw you guys, I’m going home.


Thanks for letting me subject you to being interviewed!

Pitch parade:
Give me all of your links for things you want to promote.   All of them.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peter-Mark-May/17492695997
Website:
http://petermarkmay.weebly.com/ & http://silenthater.wix.com/hersham-horror-books#Amazon Author Listing: http://www.amazon.com/Peter-Mark-May/e/B0034OOHSK


About the Interviewee:
Peter Mark May was born in Walton on Thames Surrey England way back in 1968 and still lives nearby in a place you’ve may now of heard of called
Hersham. He is the author of Demon, Kumiho, Inheritance [P. M. May], Dark Waters (novella), Hedge End and AZ: Anno Zombie [Samhain].He also runs Hersham Horror Books publishing six anthologies so far (editing three himself: Alt-Dead, Alt-Zombie and Fogbound from 5) and has somehow found the time to co-found Karōshi Books with Johnny Mains and Cathy Hurren.
He’s had short stories published in genre Canadian & US magazines and the UK & US anthologies of horror such as Creature Feature, Watch, the British Fantasy Society’s 40th Anniversary anthology Full Fathom Forty, Alt-Zombie, Fogbound From 5, Nightfalls, Demons & Devilry and Western Legends The Bestiarum Vocabulum.

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

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