New Book Spotlight
A Wereshark’s Memoir I & II
A mini-interview
Justin T. O’Conor Sloane
Tell us about your new books?
There are periods of time during which I literally must create something. Nothing else matters. The passage of time becomes immaterial and I will write, paint or sculpt until I am no longer able to, either momentarily or for a bit longer, due to either sheer mental exhaustion or the need to turn on a light or to relieve myself or having to go to work overrides the creative process. Food and drink are not necessary during these times, though caffeine, alcohol and nicotine do provide fuel. Only the inspiration matters. A Wereshark’s Memoir and its continuation, Dread Lord of the Seven Seas, were written during two distinct periods of this inspirational mania. Good, bad or mediocre, it’s my own unique creative product and it fills me with a sense of meaning and accomplishment. If someone else enjoys that product too, all the better! The idea of a tormented sea captain, an immortal wereshark bound to the sea, fired up my imagination and then forced me to write the stories. I may turn it into a novel some day, but the inspiration hasn’t hit me yet and so I will wait for the Muses to get back to me.
What aspect of the books was the most fun to write?
Man, I enjoyed every fucking second of writing these books! I’ve sold some copies, but if no one had ever bought one, the sheer inspirational exhilaration was the real reward. I would choose inspiration over any other ride the world has to offer. I don’t need to jump out of an airplane to feel alive, I just need to feel inspiration! It’s the ultimate high and I don’t need to look outside myself for it.
If there is one emotion or theme that you would hope that the reader connects with, what would that be?
I honestly don’t know. It’s up to them. People can connect with whatever they want to. Or with nothing at all. I connected with the crazy journey that is this sea captain’s life through the ages, which is anyone’s life, really, on this surreal, spinning glob cum globe of water and whatnot, in this utterly bizarre spacescape of weirdness that defies every attempt to figure it out. I suppose that I hope that in the fictional life of this sea captain, we can see threads of the infinite which enrich our own ideas of existence, amplified through a sense of the fantastical.
