Ask the Author: James Maxey
Answered Questions (2)
James Maxey
I grew up mostly in Roanoke, Virginia. I've lived briefly in Union, Mississippi and Statesville, NC went to college near Asheville, worked after college a few years in Richmond, Virginia, then lived near Greensboro for several years, and now live in Hillsborough, NC. I scatter a lot of real place names and settings through my writing. My Bitterwood novels unfold in a post apocalyptic south, and, as you noted, my Nobody universe superhero novels mention a lot of places I've either lived or at least visited. I find that the inherent weirdness of the idea of superheroes gets a bit if a boost by yanking them out of big famous cities and putting them into smaller settings.
I saw that the Pizza Hut on Battleground was gone last time I was through the area. Back in the late nineties, I used to work at the FedexOffice in that shopping center and would go there for their lunch buffet. I now eat a much healthier diet than unlimited pizza every day for lunch, but I was still a little sad to see it was gone.
I saw that the Pizza Hut on Battleground was gone last time I was through the area. Back in the late nineties, I used to work at the FedexOffice in that shopping center and would go there for their lunch buffet. I now eat a much healthier diet than unlimited pizza every day for lunch, but I was still a little sad to see it was gone.
James Maxey
Eric, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. If I got a notification someone asked a question, I completely overlooked it. But, if you're still out there waiting for an answer, it's probably pretty obvious from the story that I'm a huge comic book geek. At one point, I was reading a Justice League story and some minor JLA member had passed away and two pages later the character was completely forgotten. But, I figured that the characters had to be pretty bored with death and dying, since pretty much ever single member of the Justice League had died at one point or another, then revived, sometimes in continuity, sometimes by reboot. And, for ever superhero death, villains perish at least a dozen times, but then they come back and everyone is, like, "Whatevs. Folks come back from death all the time. Yawn." I really wanted to write a story where the cost of not being able to die a permanent death was explored. As far as a message, I don't know. For comic book fans, the story is probably an interesting take on a common trope that hasn't been looked at with the depth it deserves. If there's a message to be extrapolated into the real world, I guess it could be summed up as "death sucks, but never dying might be worse."
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