In this last installment of my interview with fellow author and blogger Paul Hair, we discuss some of his books, the illiteracy/dumbing down of our culture, comic books, the author business, and a little more theology.

Be sure to check out Part One, Two, and Three. Also consider reading some of Paul’s work. It’s rare to find any work in the entertainment industry not crafted by people who hate you–why give such people your money? Virtual Pulp has undertaken a quest to find entertainment by people who don’t hate you, and Paul is one of the authors we’ve found.

Enjoy:

HANK: Talk about your writing: what have you done; what are you working on now; what kind of projects do you anticipate taking on long-term?

PAUL: I encourage everyone to visit my Amazon author page. Please buy, read, and tell others about my books. Also, don’t forget to click on my author name here at Virtual Pulp. I’ve published some wonderful flash fiction and short stories here.

The first, major book I was involved in writing was a nonfiction book I co-wrote/ghostwrote with Matt Barber. It’s called Hating Jesus: The American Left’s War on Christianity. The book was published in 2016, but it’s still relevant today. I encourage people to pick it up.

Hating Jesus was successful. But it was also a lot of work because it was nonfiction. Nonfiction means a ton of citations. And that is a massive amount of work—a job that is so big that it could be a separate job onto itself when writing such a book. But it wasn’t. It was a job we undertook ourselves.

So after that, I thought about doing fiction instead. Fiction means no worrying about citations—no worrying that you are quoting people accurately, correctly representing what they mean, or appropriately using sources. It’s so much easier and shorter. And it’s a lot more fun.

The first fiction I published was Mortal Gods: Ignition. This is an anthology of three short stories that takes place in a universe where superhumans exist in a real-world setting. The book shows that this was my first time writing fiction. I’ve learned a lot about the craft since then. But it’s still good and a quick read.

Then it was onto establishing the Appalling Stories series with authors David Dubrow and Ray Zacek. The first and second books in the series were anthologies. The third is a novella. We’re working on a fourth one now, which will be another anthology of short stories. We have a fantastic group of authors (including you) contributing to this one. I believe it has the potential to be the best yet. I’m certainly excited about the story I’m writing. It should be one of the most fun stories I’ve written; an adventure story with a twist.

HANK: That’s right: we both have a story in the anthology! Will it be coming out late this year or early next year? David said something that made me think late in 2019.

PAUL: Late 2019 is our plan, so we hope to have it published soon.

Beyond this, I’m co-writing/ghostwriting two novels with two people. I won’t reveal their names right now but I’m excited about these novels, and will promote them heavily once we’ve published them. Additionally, I’m working on a young adult novel (or novella) where a teenage boy is struggling with coming to terms with his younger sister who has declared herself to be “transgender.” Through the course of the story, he finds out why she has decided to pretend to be a boy, and from there he works to both address that, and protect her as she deals with issues of self-loathing.

Longer term goals include writing more Mortal Gods tales (again, that’s my universe where superhumans exist in a real-world setting—read a few Mortal Gods short stories here at Virtual Pulp), speculative fiction tales, contemporary tales, and more. I don’t have a particular genre that I enjoy.

HANK: I have too many that I enjoy. Pretty much everything except horror, chick-lit, and the sexual deviancy genres. From a practical business standpoint, I need to just pick one and write series in that genre. But there’s just too many kinds of stories I want to tell.

PAUL: I like working in different genres too. And I think we can successfully do it (including writing series of books).

HANK: What inspired you to write prose tales of superheroes?

PAUL: I have tentative plans for superhero tales, but right now I’ve written superhuman tales. What’s the difference? My Mortal Gods superhuman tales take place in a real-world setting. No one dresses up in costumes and fights as a vigilante (unless he wants to be arrested and imprisoned).

As far as why I write prose tales about them: it’s much simpler than a comic book, and prose allows for a more cultured way of telling a tale than a comic book.

If you want to do a comic book, you have to find an artist capable of doing the artwork. That takes time and money. Fine, if you want to do it. But that’s hard to do. People are turning to crowdfunding to try to do their own comic books. Some succeed, others fail. And if you’re taking two or more years to deliver the final comic book (if at all), are you really succeeding? So from that perspective, it doesn’t make sense for me to do a comic book at this time.

Also, prose is more cultured than a funny book with pictures. I’m not against comic books, but I understand that you can do more from a literate perspective with prose than with a comic book. That’s attractive to me.

Again, I’m not against comic books. I have ideas of what I’d like to do if I ever got the money to do so. But I’m not planning on that right now. I’m enjoying writing prose tales of superhumans; creating the universes and offering a new and exciting vision through prose that no one else is offering.

HANK: Describe the audience you envision for your fiction, past, present and future.

PAUL: Everyone. But to start out, people who are right-of-communist and right-of-satanic are the target audience. Seriously, the mainstream entertainment world isn’t just ignoring this group of people; it has declared war on them.

I’m serious when I say I don’t want to continue supporting them. I imagine others feel the same way.

HANK: Yeah. Me, for one.

PAUL: Going back to my previous comments on theological matters, I’m under no illusion that my works will be read 100 years from now. (I’ll be doing well if I can continue growing the amount of people who are reading them right now.) That’s okay, of course. Everything will eventually pass away. This also means I’m working under the 70% doctrine. I know I’m not going to be the next Shakespeare or literary master. So my goal is to try to publish works that I’m at least 70% satisfied with at a relatively high rate. It makes no sense to try to publish the Perfect Work if it takes forever to publish it. Produce. Get works out there that earn money and create intellectual property. No, I’m not suggesting I become some sort of corporate mill. But I know that I have to earn money to continue writing, and I have to produce stories if I ever want to consider myself an accomplished author.

(Seriously, if one isn’t producing works on a regular basis, and if few people are reading said works, then one isn’t an author; he is effectively a teenage girl who writes in a diary and keeps it under a mattress at night. Both have the same amount of people reading their works.)

HANK: Ouch.

I don’t know if I could stick to the 70% doctrine. It turns out I’m a compulsive editor, revising and rewriting as I go. Even after publishing, sometimes, I go back and tweak.

PAUL: I know what you mean. But for me, it comes down to forcing myself to say something is finished. Yes, there will always be room for improvement. (AARs show us that.) But, again for me, that needs to occur in the next tale. Publishing quality material on a regular basis is a must in my plan.

HANK: Do you have thoughts on the epidemic of illiteracy in our country in recent years?

PAUL: Mass media entertainment has contributed to this. People are simply turning their attention to forms of entertainment that only require passive participation. But I think the aforementioned war on normalcy from the entertainment industry have played a part in this too.

I don’t want to read any of the things that big publishers are producing. I suspect a lot of other people feel this way too. Add in the fact that so many people are now condemning American history and culture, and you have a society that actively is discouraging a lot of people to read. (A lot of fine literature is American. Beyond this, a lot of fine literature can be classified as being part of Western Civilization. And since our betters also condemn Western Civ as well as American culture and history, you have a lot of literature now that people are being told they shouldn’t read.)

Regardless, I spent a better part of a decade writing a lot of nonfiction opinion columns and articles on the decay of culture and society for some pretty well-known websites. That accomplished nothing. So I’ve abandoned that and now am focused on writing fiction instead of complaining. And that’s the best thing one can do when it comes to the state of literacy/illiteracy (or for anything for that matter): do instead of talk.

HANK: Sage advice, for sure.

I appreciate you taking the time for this dialog. Is there anything you’d like to add before we sign off?

PAUL: Buy my books and read my stories here at Virtual Pulp!

 

Again, I thank Paul for his patience and willingness to answer my questions so candidly. I’m thankful to have men like this out there fighting alongside me in the culture war.