Interview with author and music journalist, Jon Black
“You can’t do a one-to-one transition of role-playing to fiction.”
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Episode 74 – Jon Black
- No preference for medium but a natural geography and cluster in terms of word counts
- Mix of a plotter and pantser. Influenced by role-playing games
- Environment is important – quirky 24-hour coffee house and writes throughout the night
- A music journalist but does not actively listen to music while writing
- Supernatural, historical fiction with a twist
- Themes of power of human curiosity, music, exploring the interplay between folklore, mythology and history
- Cultivating a sensate writing style: all five senses to bring the reader into the scene
- Benefits of role playing in writing fiction and pitfalls
- Experimenting with less exposition and background for characters
- Caleb Carr, Harry Turtledove, Stephen King, Garrison Keilor, Daniel Pinkwater
- Gabriel’s Trumpet – second wave of spiritualism and Jazz Age
- Expanding short stories into novel-length
- Currently editing an anthology about searches for lost books
“I’m not sure whether I have a genuine love for it or whether it’s a Stockholm syndrome thing.”