PJ interviews J.R. Blackwell

J.R. Blackwell

J.R. Blackwell is a writer and photographer among many things.

What I love about her is the broad spectrum of activities she does. For example, she recently modeled in a fashion show for Mayfaire Moon Corsets at Dorian’s Parlor.  She’s also a role-playing gamer and creator of a role-playing game coming out soon. Her writing projects are always interesting to me and I love to look at her photography work.

All in all, she’s an incredibly interesting person. So of course, I was ecstatic when I asked her to do an interview and she responded with, “Let’s do it.”

*squee*

…okay, I’m a touch fangirl about J.R. but it hasn’t seemed to bother her too much yet.

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What originally gave you the idea to write the 14 Lovers of Charles Bachelor, the flash fiction collection recently posted in its entirety here:
http://blackwell.livejournal.com/306862.html

The idea for 14 Lovers came from a game I created that centered around the mortal servants of a vampire. One of the themes of the game was about class, so the names of the characters were lifted from the work of Charles Dickens because his character’s names are so wonderfully descriptive. Charles Bachelor’s name was to evoke the idea of the eternal bachelor, who would always be looking for love and never completely find it. 14 Lovers was my way of documenting my ideas for Bachelor outside of the game.

I wrote 14 Lovers for Tumblr, because I wanted to create a tumbled fiction, something that would work best with that particular format. I can’t imagine a magazine purchasing this story, but released through Tumblr, it works, because they can be read as stand alone pieces of flash fiction, or someone can click on the “14 Lovers” tag in Tumblr and read them all. Read one at a time, they are about the lovers that Charles takes, while read all at once, they are a character piece about Charles himself. It was also a chance for me to experiment with various forms – telling a story as a list, or in the second person.

Can you tell us a little about the vision you have as the photographer behind the 6 covers you’ve done thus far for Mortal Coil?

The biggest thing I wanted to do with my covers for Mortal Coil was to use gamers as my models. I wanted gamers to be able to see themselves in these photos, so that was very important to me. Taking photos for role-playing games is fun because I get to create example characters that would occupy the world the author has created. My two favorites would be Old Gods and That Which Rises.

Old God’s was special because there is such a strong sense of character for that cover, all of the models exemplify definitive character types.

I love That Which Rises, because the backdrop, costuming and the model fit the tone of the game. The model, Chris Morse, who is an actor in Philadelphia, added a richness to the shoot because of his awareness of how to convey emotion with his body.

Your game, Shelter in Place (http://shelterinplace.wordpress.com/) will be released by Galileo Games in the summer of 2011. For the new-to-gaming readers out there, how would you introduce it to them? And really, can’t we play a round or two at PhilCon 75?

Shelter In Place is a survival game designed to capture the frenetic and cinematic character of zombie movies. Players take on the roles of delicious Humans or undead Zombies caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The goal for Humans is to try to survive in an area plagued by Zombies. The Zombies goal is to eat some brains. The Humans must use their wits to survive, making sacrifices in order to live through the night. The Zombies must use their brute, unrelenting strength and teamwork to overpower the humans and eat some delicious brains.

I would love to run Shelter In Place at any convention that wants me to be there!

I first met you in person at PhilCon 2009. You gave a great panel on networking for new and aspiring writers. What piece of advice would you give to the new and aspiring writers visiting my blog?

Getting published is like dating: persistence and confidence, tempered with a little self reflection is the path to success, or, at the very least, having a good time. Persistence has been important to every successful project I’ve been a part of. It’s easy to just give up and walk away, but hanging on and pushing through is incredibly rewarding. Like dating, sometimes a publication just isn’t the right one for your story but that doesn’t mean your story is bad, it might just not be what that publication is looking for. However, if you get rejected again and again, you need to do a little self reflection to see what might be helpful to change.

I find the supervillain, Dr. Mercury, and her penchant for kidnapping people she finds adorable fascinating. Aside from Bunny, what makes a person adorable in Dr. Mercury’s eyes?

One thing that differentiates Dr. Mercury from other villains is that she’s not filled with hate for the world, and she isn’t out to destroy everything and everyone. She wants people to flourish, to bloom so that she can challenge them. A desirable person, to Dr. Mercury, is someone with strength in their convictions. She adores intelligent, vibrant people, people with character and a moral code. People with inner strength. But it’s not just adoration – she wants to possess them. The sad thing is there that if she really could posses them, she might not like them anymore, because it’s their strength that she admires.

Questions for Dr. Mercury:

Given the choice of triggering natural disasters or building technological wonders of Doom, which would you do?

Technological Wonders of Doom, as if it’s even a choice.

Having gotten that question out of the way so quickly, my little fluttering angel, let’s talk about you, shall we? A new writer, all fresh and eager, getting your first liquid taste of what it’s like to be adored by strangers. That must be pure sweetness, little soul. It would be delightful if you could demonstrate all those martial arts moves you’ve been learning for me. We should fight. I do so enjoy a good struggle. It’s the flailing, I think, the useless and wild flailing. Mm. Do you bite? I hope so.

Considering your preference for hot magma, what do you think of the legends of the Goddess Pele?

I appreciate any Goddess who can create something new out of pure destructive force. Do you identify with Pele, my fluttering angel? All force and power and flow? Would you like to see the hot magma in my volcanic lair? Are you, like Pele, aching for a release of fire? Or perhaps you are simply interested in melting. Fortunately, I am an expert in both.

You may directly torture a singular, pure soul for but a few hours or you may indirectly torment an entire world for decades. Which would you choose?

Little angel, come to me and we’ll find out.