Ask the Author: Jack Castle
Answered Questions (8)
Jack Castle
What a fun question!
I would love to visit Stranger World for the same reason I like writing in it. You never know what's around the corner or behind the next door. In one (Stranger) World you can dine in restaurants situated on the backs of a herd of colossal-sized wooly mammoths, or in another, stay in the underwater leisure palaces and explore submerged temples patrolled by leviathans.
I think one of the most exciting days of my life was when several producers took me out to lunch to discuss their interest in using the Stranger World i.p. (intellectual property) to produce actual Stranger World Theme Parks! So who knows, maybe one day, we will all get to visit Stranger World in person.
What about you? If you could visit any Stranger World, which one would it be?
I would love to visit Stranger World for the same reason I like writing in it. You never know what's around the corner or behind the next door. In one (Stranger) World you can dine in restaurants situated on the backs of a herd of colossal-sized wooly mammoths, or in another, stay in the underwater leisure palaces and explore submerged temples patrolled by leviathans.
I think one of the most exciting days of my life was when several producers took me out to lunch to discuss their interest in using the Stranger World i.p. (intellectual property) to produce actual Stranger World Theme Parks! So who knows, maybe one day, we will all get to visit Stranger World in person.
What about you? If you could visit any Stranger World, which one would it be?
Jack Castle
Hi Samantha,
First, Great Question! Simon the psychopath in "Bedlam Lost" was easily my all-time favorite character to write.
While working law enforcement duties in Alaska one of my jobs was transporting the criminally insane from city to city either by plane, patrol vehicle or boat. As you can imagine, during transport I often had to spend a lot of time in close quarters with these highly dangerous individuals who often turned on you without a moments notice. Some transports thought they were being hunted by aliens, others thought they were aliens and I once transported three individuals all claiming to be the Messiah in just one week! What I found the most interesting was how much each of them really believed this fantasy world they had created for themselves.
Additionally, another thing that surprised me about ALL criminal behavior is no criminal ever thinks they are bad. I was amazed how often criminals would try to justify their criminal behavior whether it was shoplifting because they really needed it or they didn't consider themselves a monster because they only brutally harmed one child instead of several.
So to answer your question fully, Simon (a.k.a. the Naked Man) was not based on any one individual, but created by keeping these two train of thoughts in mind, i.e. Simon doesn't believe the insane criminal acts he does in the town of Havenport are evil.
Now here's the kicker... what if he's right?
First, Great Question! Simon the psychopath in "Bedlam Lost" was easily my all-time favorite character to write.
While working law enforcement duties in Alaska one of my jobs was transporting the criminally insane from city to city either by plane, patrol vehicle or boat. As you can imagine, during transport I often had to spend a lot of time in close quarters with these highly dangerous individuals who often turned on you without a moments notice. Some transports thought they were being hunted by aliens, others thought they were aliens and I once transported three individuals all claiming to be the Messiah in just one week! What I found the most interesting was how much each of them really believed this fantasy world they had created for themselves.
Additionally, another thing that surprised me about ALL criminal behavior is no criminal ever thinks they are bad. I was amazed how often criminals would try to justify their criminal behavior whether it was shoplifting because they really needed it or they didn't consider themselves a monster because they only brutally harmed one child instead of several.
So to answer your question fully, Simon (a.k.a. the Naked Man) was not based on any one individual, but created by keeping these two train of thoughts in mind, i.e. Simon doesn't believe the insane criminal acts he does in the town of Havenport are evil.
Now here's the kicker... what if he's right?
Jack Castle
I don't think I've ever had it. If anything, its trying to turn it off is the problem. Most of the time it's difficult to find time to even jot notes down in notebook, on a napkin or into the voice recorder on my phone. By the time I actually sit down to belt out a first draft, it's pretty fast and furious. I love-love-love to write.
Jack Castle
It never seems to turn off. Just yesterday, I took the family on a canoe trip. It wasn’t enough to be paddling past the beautiful and amazing Rockies, I had to write a story of how we were sojourning across a dangerous Neolithic world.
Jack Castle
Currently we are marketing Europa Journal, preparing Bedlam Lost for this year’s Fall release and editing White Death for next year.
Jack Castle
Write because you have to. If you do it for fame and fortune, no measure of success will ever be enough.
Jack Castle
The greatest thing about being a writer is it forces you to experience new things you might never normally do. For example, one of my future novels takes place in the middle of the Everglades. So I flew down there to do some research. My best friend and I did a canoe trip down a river teeming with gators. We tried gator meat at a seedy, biker bar and nearly got eaten by a gator later that night. Okay, I nearly got eaten by a gator, because my best friend runs a lot faster than I do.
Jack Castle
I first got the idea for Europa Journal as a little boy growing up in Florida. My Uncle Tony, who fought in WW II, came over to my house one day and gave me a TBM Avenger toy plane. He told me the story of how five torpedo bomber planes mysteriously vanished in the Bermuda Triangle. My interest was peaked. Like most little boys, I was also into Star Trek and Star Wars. So it wasn’t long before my friends and I were dressing up as WW II pilots and flying our TBM Avengers, (substituted by my dad’s box trailer on the side of the house), and crash landing on alien worlds. Over the next three decades that alien universe grew as I traveled the globe.
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