Ask the Author: Barry Lee Dejasu
Answered Questions (11)
Barry Lee Dejasu
I don't have a ritual, per se, but one thing that I often do to help inspire my work and "get in the zone" is listening to appropriately-vibing music. Sometimes the music sets up a good mood for what I'm working on, and sometimes it inspires or even directs my work outright, with at least 2 stories inspired directly from specific songs, albums, and artists. But often, the tactic that works best for me is Joe Lansdale's method: "Ass on chair in front of keyboard."
Barry Lee Dejasu
One morning in high school, I was walking around with my hands in my pockets, and in my left pocket was an uncapped ballpoint pen. I later took my hands out of my pockets, and discovered a very strange symbol had been scrawled on the palm of my hand, far too intricate to be mere scribbles. I memorized it immediately, and have drawn it throughout my life since then. I now have it tattooed on my left bicep, and have adopted it as an integral symbol that appears in a number of my stories.
Barry Lee Dejasu
Possibly Bas-Lag, in China Miéville's anti-trilogy of novels and at least one short story. It would be good to escape from this world and into something simultaneously less technological and far more advanced, and to say nothing of being remade...
Barry Lee Dejasu
I know he's spending more and more time by that hole in the ground in the woods at night.
I just don't know what it's telling him.
"Correspondence"
5/25/2021
I just don't know what it's telling him.
"Correspondence"
5/25/2021
Barry Lee Dejasu
My TBR piles (yes, plural) are always frustratingly growing. That said, a few particular highlights that I'm looking forward to include (in no particular order) Junji Ito's UZUMAKI, Kij Johnson's AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER OF BEES, Bracken MacLeod's 13 VIEWS OF THE SUICIDE WOODS, Stephen Graham Jones' A MAP OF THE INTERIOR, and Charles S. Grant's THE HOUR OF THE OXRUN DEAD.
Barry Lee Dejasu
There's no "right way" to write. Yes, grammar counts, and yes, if you're telling stories, storytelling is a craft you'd learn as you go - but unless you're writing FOR a specific person or place that has very specific rules and guidelines, you can't limit yourself by thinking that you have to do things a certain way - just WRITE, and figure out the details later.
Barry Lee Dejasu
You're writing! Isn't that rewarding in and of itself?
Barry Lee Dejasu
Sometimes, you just need to step away and come back to the project at hand. It won't necessarily work every time, but I find FORCING oneself to sit down and write isn't discipline--it's punishment; you end up sitting there, groaning and clutching your head, muttering, "Write...c'mon, write!" - and where's the productivity in that? No, just make yourself comfortable, take a deep breath, and see if you can take another crack at it when you know you're ready.
Barry Lee Dejasu
I've always had a love of fiction, so it was pretty easy to want to write!
Barry Lee Dejasu
Fiction. I can say no more.
Barry Lee Dejasu
My story in Shock Totem 9.5, "Before This Night Is Done," was actually inspired by the film score to Batman Returns (1992), composed by the one and only Danny Elfman. I get into more detail in the issue's "Howling Through the Keyhole" section, but in short: some of those tracks on that album are CREEPY!
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