Today on the Wrapped in Black tour, I had the awesome pleasure of interviewing Michael G. Williams once again! Just so you know, he’s a little shy, but likes to wear gray underwear with skull and crossbones. As a fellow vampire author, I am akin to Michael, and he is seriously one hilarious dude!
Check out the dream cast for his latest short story titled, Stories I Tell to Girls, featured in the latest Wrapped in series by Sekhmet Press. I truly enjoyed this story since it was told in true Wiccan form with a Maiden, Mother, and Crone. And of course, his Crone totally kicks ass!
Sooooo Michael, if you received the chance to produce this short story into a movie, who would be your dream cast and why?
This story is about a coven of witches and a figure from far back in the life of one of them.
For the figure of the maiden, Maria, I would want Naya Rivera (Santana from Glee). Her role on Glee really demonstrated her ability to play both innocent and manipulative, which is true of that character in my story.
For Lorraine, who is the narrator and the mother figure of the coven, I would insist on Sheryl Lee (Laura Palmer and Maddy Ferguson, Twin Peaks). The character of Lorraine is extremely powerful and commanding without being a dictator.
Lee has a million roles under her belt in which she plays persons of great power and great sensitivity. I would watching anything with Sheryl Lee in it. If Lee couldn’t do it, Laura Linney (Mary Ann Singleton, Tales of the City) would be my second choice. They are both so incredibly amazing with their craft.
The most important role in this story is the group’s Crone, Auntie Ann. For this role I would have to have Cloris Leachman (I won’t even try to pick one of her roles). She has the subtle power and incredible composure along with human warmth required and she’s almost old enough.
The figure from one of these characters’ past would probably best be played by Jimmy Bennett (in the initial Star Trek reboot, he plays the young Kirk who steals a convertible). He’s still a teen, handsome, and can show the degree of brashness required for that part.
Have you considered your main character landing her own novella or novel one day?
Yes. I’ve had multiple readers ask me if I would consider writing a novel about The Book People (this coven’s name for itself). I am most definitely planning to do so. One does not tell readers they are wrong to be interested in more of one’s writing.
What should Sekhmet Press produce next? Maybe a Wrapped in Moonlight – for dystopian stories with zero sunshine? What say you – what content topic would also spark your pen?
I would give just about anything for Wrapped in Silver: Thirteen Tales of Horror in Space. I would love to write a short story about terror between the stars as a mashup of the creeping fear of Alien and the bubble-helmet derring-do of classic sci-fi.
What is the “must have” or “must do” before you sit down to write?
I have to consume lots and lots and lots of caffeine. However much you’re imagining: it’s more than that.
How do you relax?
I’m a distance runner. Running is how I let my body occupy itself while I listen to weird podcasts or good music or just watch the world go by. A couple of hours on the trail is extremely relaxing to me. I’ve figured out as I’ve gotten older that I am really terrible at doing nothing. Relaxation means doing something I don’t get paid to do just as hard as I do anything else.
If you had a chance to live off the grid – would you do it?
Oh hell no. Never. Not in a million years. Give me more of the grid. Give me a direct network link in my brain. Take this body away from me and let me become digital fauna.
Silly Question: Essential oil or Poison – which one would you be an why would you be beneficial or harmful to people? What form of self-gratification to you receive?
Poison. I am extremely introverted. I do not easily reach out to others and I can think of plenty of times in my life when I have pushed others away so I could be left to myself. Self-gratification, for me, is about surprising myself with how well I do something or how well I entertain myself. If I can think up something I think is clever, I’m happy.
What is your favorite meme?
Internet meme? My absolute favorite of all time was the brief period of time in which people on Tumblr were using non-explicit stills and animated gifs from gay erotic films to express their intense emotional reactions to this or that. It was a little dirty and a lot silly and the reactions people had when they figured out they were watching two seconds of someone looking shocked in gay porn! was just absolutely priceless to me. Yes, I’m weird.
If instead you mean memes in general, as in a unit of ideation, behavior or style spreading from one person to another, I’m going with Posthumanism/Transhumanism. Clearly technology is going to be the next major evolutionary pressure on humankind and watching how that idea has been transmitted and modified and re-expressed within western culture over the last 15 or 20 years is endlessly fascinating to me. Hey, come to think of it, in a way Internet memes are an example of that since they have created a lingo that distinctly separates those who understand it from those who don’t and encourages modified communications by offering compressed meaning to be transmitted verbally or visually, at a distance, across a delay of time. That’s a big step up from regular old spoken slang.
What is your favorite mythological creature?
Vampires, every time. I realize I’m probably/possibly supposed to be choosing from something non-monstrous, like unicorns or whatever, but nope: vampires. If I’m trapped in meatspace I might as well live forever and get to stay up all night.
What is the best killing scene you have ever written?
There is a moment at the end of my third novel, Deal with the Devil, when the narrator – a curmudgeonly vampire who hates people but likes individual persons just fine – is a witness to the death of someone for whom he has developed tremendous personal respect.
They have a conversation as she fades in which she asks if the narrator could save her by turning her into a vampire. He says yes, he could, but he isn’t going to. She replies that she would not want him to and, further, that she takes his refusal as a sign of his high regard for her. She wouldn’t have wanted that “life” and he respects that rather than save her. I thought it was very powerful to have a dying hero remind myself and the reader and even the narrator that immortality does not mean an escape from death and that not every death is a bad one.
Have you ever killed your boss or a co-worker in a story because you didn’t want to go to jail for actually doing it? LOL
No, but I have killed off plenty of people who sat next to me in restaurants and on planes.
What is your worst FEAR? How do you handle it?
If I were going for kneejerk phobia-framed answers, I would say snakes. I mean, snakes, man. SNAKES. They are the scariest things alive.
If I’m really honest, though, and I talk about what I fear deep in my soul, it’s making decisions. I am always afraid of being wrong. I’m always afraid of being thought to be stupid or senseless or ill-informed. I’m terrified of having to be in a leadership position and having others’ fates in my hand. I have yet to figure out in a real actionable way that the likely healthiest response would be to become better at delegation.
Where can we learn more about Michael?
Michael G. Williams is a native of the Appalachian Mountains and grew up near Asheville, North Carolina. He is the award-winning author of several novels and many short stories. Michael describes his writing as wry horror or suburban fantasy: stories told from the perspectives of vampires, unconventional investigators, magicians and hackers who live in the places so many of us also call home. Michael is also an avid athlete, a gamer and a brother in St. Anthony Hall and Mu Beta Psi.
He can be found blogging occasionally at www.theperishablesproject.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/perishables.novel and on Twitter at @mcmanlypants (personal) or @PerishablesBook (writer stuff).
