Recently New York Times Bestseller and multiple Bram Stoker Winner Jonathan Maberry took time out of his busy schedule to sit down and answer some of Speculative Book Reviews questions. Maberry discusses his latest Joe Ledger novel The Dragon Factory, his latest young adult series starting with Rot and Ruin, and the possibility of seeing Joe Ledger on the small screen.
Speculative Book Review: Why should Patient Zero or THE DRAGON FACTORY be the next book everyone reads?
JONATHAN MABERRY: The Joe Ledger series combines elements of hit shows such as 24, The X-Files, Fringe, and The Unit, puts them in a blender with some smartass humor and cutting-edge science, and shotguns then mix into your system. The books are fast, action-packed, funny, but they have heart and strong characters.
SBR: Who is the inspiration for Joe Ledger?
MABERRY: He’s an amalgam of a number of folks I know (or have known) who do some edgy stuff. Special Ops guys, SWAT shooters, street cops, detectives and others. His childhood trauma and martial arts background –and his smartass sense of humor—are mine.
SBR: In Patient Zero you had the DMS go up against genetic terrorists, in THE DRAGON FACTORY they went up against genetic Nazis. In the next book THE KING OF PLAGUES, they will go up against plagues created by a mad scientist, how do you come up with your ideas for antagonists/threats and do you have a concern with science and its oversight?
MABERRY: I read a lot about politics and science, and about the military. I’m idealistic enough to hope that man has a better nature; but cynical enough to accept that with any new technology, the first people to use it are the ones who can profit from it or use it as a weapon. We have decades of proof that this is so.
I interview scientists, doctors, cops, and soldiers quite a lot, always looking to learn what they’re working on now, and what they expect to be working on soon. Everything in my novels –from the prion plague in Patient Zero to the transgenic monsters in THE DRAGON FACTORY —is based on things that either are possible now or WILL be possible in the future. Usually in my lifetime.
A good example is a subplot in THE DRAGON FACTORY, which deals with cloning Neanderthals. The same month the book came out, Archaeology Magazine did a cover story on how scientists are working toward cloning Neanderthals.
Michael Crichton wrote, in Jurassic Park, that ‘we spend so much time wondering if we can, we seldom stop to consider whether we should’. Because I know that most modern science follows that line of reasoning, I will always have plots for my thrillers. And, disturbingly, most of them will probably come true.
SBR: With each new Joe Ledger novel we learn more about the elusive “Mr. Church,” will we ever learn his real name, motivation, and background?
MABERRY: In THE KING OF PLAGUES, we meet one of his family members, and we learn about some personal tragedies. As far as his real name…you’ll have to wait on that.
However, I have worked out his entire story. He’s the most interesting character for me to write.
SBR: The Joe Ledger series has been optioned by Producer Michael De Luca on behalf of Sony, could you tell us where it is in terms of production and how much influence will you have in the final product?
MABERRY: Can’t really say much at the moment due to contractual restrictions. What I can say is that a major network is looking at a pilot script and we should have an answer from them in late May.
The screenwriter is a brilliant guy, and even though there are some changes in the script that differ from my novels, I love what he’s doing with it.
SBR: Many of your novels deal with zombies and vampires, how did you become so enthralled with the undead?
MABERRY: My grandmother taught me a lot about folklore and what she called ‘the larger world’, so that by the time I was ten I knew about the myths and legends of supernatural creatures ranging from Redcaps to Draugrs. I got into ‘horror’ by writing several nonfiction books on these themes. VAMPIRE UNIVERSE, THEY BITE, and THE CRYPTOPEDIA (all from Citadel Press) deal with various aspects of the supernatural.
My interest in zombies came about from an incident when I was ten, back in October 1968. I snuck into a movie theater and up into the closed (and condemned) balcony and watched NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It terrified me….so, I stayed to see it again. From then on zombies were my favorite monster.
SBR: What is the most satisfying aspect to writing?
MABERRY: It’s all satisfying. But I guess the best part is when a reader contacts me to say that he or she has been genuinely touched by something I wrote. Or that a character, scene, line, or theme helped them feel connected to something else they value. I get a lot of that from soldiers overseas who like to read about heroes with a strong moral sense and who understand what it means to sacrifice so much for what they believe. Sometimes these connections transcend party lines or political affiliations. They connect us as people.
SBR: What authors/works have had the most influence on you and what type of influence (e.g. good/awful) were they?
MABERRY: I never comment on authors who have had a negative impact on me. It’s counterproductive.
However, I’ve been fortunate in my life to have met a number of great writers, many of whom took some time to offer guidance and advice. As a young teenager I got to meet Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson. Both of them were amazing, and very generous with their time. Bradbury gave me tons of practical advice about managing a career as a writer; and Matheson engendered in me a love of books of all genres, saying that the best books always overlap two or more genres.
More recently I’ve become friends with David Morrell, James Rollins, MJ Rose, Peter Straub, and a number of others, and it’s wonderful to be able to pick their brains and learn from their many successes.
As far as influences on style (or, at least, on the various forms my personal style has taken while on the path to a comfortable individual style), I can look back to quite a few. Reading Edgar Rice Burroughs as a kid showed me how much fun can be had with heroics. Ed McBain taught me that the devil was in the details. John D. McDonald influenced my love of rational and layered thought; and Sprague DeCamp influenced my sense of fairness and honesty as a writer. And as a person.
SBR: What are you currently reading and what is in your to-read pile?
MABERRY: I’m currently working through a stack of manuscripts in order to give cover quotes. The only chance I have to read published work right now is on audio disk while driving, and at the moment that’s Rough Country by John Sandford; and next up is A Dark Matter by Peter Straub.
SBR: Aside from your own work, what series or novel should people be reading?
MABERRY: Anything by John Connolly, Peter Straub or James Lee Burke.
SBR: You have a new young adult series about to be released in October entitled Rot & Ruin that is being described as “George Romero meets Catcher in the Rye: a coming of age story set during zombie times.” Care to tell us a little bit more about the series?
MABERRY: Rot & Ruin takes place fourteen years after a zombie apocalypse of the kind described in George A. Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead. Zombies rose, we fell. All that’s left of humanity are a few scattered fenced-in communities in central California.
Benny Imura has just turned fifteen. That means he has to get a job or have his rations cut in half. After trying –and failing—to land an easy job in town, he reluctantly agrees to apprentice to his zombie-hunting brother, Tom.
What follows is an adventure where Benny, who loathes Tom and believes him to be a coward, learns the realities of the world that his generation will be inheriting. It’s a broken world that the adults have all lost faith in. And there are seven billion shambling, mindless zombies who have, for reasons no one can explain, not rotted away completely.
Tom Imura is a ‘close specialist’. He is hired by survivors to look for relatives and loved ones who have become zombies, and he puts them to rest. But there are other bounty hunters in the Rot & Ruin who do horrible things –to the zombies and to kids they capture and use in the Z-Games.
In Rot & Ruin, Benny and Tom go on a rescue mission to save Benny’s friends from the Z-Games and avenge the murder of the woman Tom loves.
The book comes out October 5, a hardcover from Simon & Schuster. I’m currently writing the second in the series, Dust & Decay.
SBR: Final Question, you hold an eight-degree black belt in Shinowara-ryu Jujutsu and have been inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame, can you describe a head to head (or fist to feet) battle between you and the legendary Chuck Norris, using your skills as an author?
MABERRY: Chuck’s a good guy and I know him. We wouldn’t fight each other. We’d get a beer and talk about the ‘old days’.
Everyone at Speculative Book Review and I would like to extend another thank you to Mr. Maberry for taking the time to answer our questions. If you have not had the chance to read anything by Jonathan Maberry we suggest you get down to the bookstore and pick up
Patient Zero or any of Maberry's other books. You will not be disappointed.
Jonathan Maberry can also be found at his
website and
Facebook page.
