{"id":808,"date":"2018-12-24T16:23:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T21:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/?p=808"},"modified":"2020-12-06T21:20:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T02:20:32","slug":"interview-with-a-new-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/?p=808","title":{"rendered":"Interview With a New Author"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The cover for Eric\u2019s new book.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is a real departure for the Dr. Film blog, and we\u2019re not going to do this very often, but, well, just this one time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s\nan interview between Dr. Film and his alter ego Eric, about Eric\u2019s new book<\/a>. If you haven’t followed the podcasts<\/a>,\nDr. Film is Eric\u2019s utterly hostile, completely film-centric alter-ego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Hi, Eric, nice to see…er… be you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Nice to be you, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> I hear you have a new book coming out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Yes!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Well, it\u2019s about film, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Nope, not really at all. There\u2019s only one section in it that has a film\nreference. It\u2019s a joke, that only film geeks will get. It\u2019s called \u201cPardon Me\nWhile I Have a Strange Interlude.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Then why are you wasting our time with something\nthat\u2019s not about film?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Because I already have an audience here, so I might as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> I see. So tell us about the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> It\u2019s called A Fearful Thing to\nLove<\/em>. It\u2019s a weird science-fiction\/horror sort of story about a young woman\nwho\u2019s turned into a vampire. But not your standard vampire. It\u2019s also a romance\nand sort of a science-gone-wrong story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Wow. So it could be a movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Well, I hadn’t thought of it as a movie. I suppose it could be. It\nwould probably be expensive, since some of it is set in 2091, some of it during\nWWII England, and some of it in late 1600s France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> So she lives a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Yes, a very long time. It\u2019s been compared to the Twilight Zone<\/em> story Long Live\nWalter Jameson<\/em>, by Charles Beaumont, but others have found elements of The Andromeda Strain<\/em> and other things in\nit, except those aren\u2019t about vampires and this is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> OK. What made you write this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> I got tired of reading the standard vampire story about curses and evil\nand stuff, and all the religious trappings. I get that out of the way early in\nthis one, and it doesn\u2019t come up again. This is more like an unfortunate\ndisease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film: <\/strong>How is it that people who have known you for years\nhave never heard you talk about this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric: <\/strong>Because there\u2019s nothing more boring that an author\ntalking about a book he hasn\u2019t written, unless it\u2019s a filmmaker talking about a\nfilm he hasn\u2019t shot.  People write\nyou off really quickly; they can\u2019t be part of your vision because they haven\u2019t\nseen it.  It\u2019s like the people I\nused to see at Star Trek conventions asking me if they\u2019d like me to read their\nstory about Mr. Spock.  NO!  RUN!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> So is there a lot of sex and violence in the book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Some. Not what you\u2019d call a lot, and it\u2019s not explicit, except some at\nthe beginning. It\u2019s more a character study and an exploration of ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> OK, you have a female vampire, so that means we have\nto have lesbian scenes with hot chicks in it, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric: (<\/strong>looks at audience) I\u2019m sorry, folks. He\u2019s a\npolitically incorrect idiot, but what are you going to do? I see that\u2019s what\nyou’re expecting. Well, this is written to go counter to your expectations. If\nyou\u2019re looking for Stoker or LeFanu, or even Hammer\u2019s Countess Dracula<\/em>, you\u2019ll be disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> I\u2019m trying for the hard sell and you\u2019re making it\ntough here, dude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Think moody, think more Outer\nLimits<\/em> or maybe a lighter version of Charles Beaumont or Lovecraft, and\nyou\u2019ll be closer to what this is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Well, that\u2019s something, I guess. How is it that you\nhave time to do this with all your film work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Good question. I didn\u2019t. I get calls and emails all the time so it\u2019s\nimpossible to concentrate on something like this. I gave up writing seriously\nin about 1990 or so, because I just wasn\u2019t producing the results I wanted. I\nworked on this during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years for the last\nseveral years, the three days of the year that no one pesters me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> What made you dig it up after all these years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Easy answer. I\u2019ve been pestered relentlessly by Glory-June Greiff, my\nco-conspirator on the Dr. Film show, to do something with this. She liked it\nbetter than I did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> So does that mean you have more fiction writing that\nwe haven\u2019t seen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> What is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Let\u2019s see how this one does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> No hints?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> A sequel to this one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Not in the works, no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> So this is a different sort of vampire story,\nwritten to counter your expectations. What else can you tell us about how it\u2019s\nunexpected?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> It\u2019s deliberately structured to go counter to the standard English\nteacher way of laying out a novel. It\u2019s not in 3 acts, but rather 5. And\ninstead of escalating action and danger, it has less as the story progresses.\nAnd the last act is almost a comedy, with a happy ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> A happy ending in a vampire story? That\u2019s weird.\nYou\u2019ve still disappointed me that there isn\u2019t a lesbian scene in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> I didn\u2019t say there wasn\u2019t a lesbian scene. There is one, but not with\nhot chicks, and there\u2019s absolutely no sex in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> You have a lot to learn about marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Spoken by the genius.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Does this mean that you\u2019re going to be doing less\nfilm work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Not necessarily. It just means I\u2019m not a one-dimensional cliche\ncharacter like you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> I represent that. What sort of film work do you have\ncoming up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> That\u2019s more of a question for you, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> I suppose it is. Well, there are two projects that\nmay be coming up soon, but I can\u2019t tell you about them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Yeah, I can\u2019t either. But maybe soon. I had some time with no film\nprojects and I put it into getting this and the podcast done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Those podcasts are cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Yeah, you would say that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> We get a lot of requests to restore more film. Why\naren\u2019t you doing that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Because our dear market isn\u2019t strong enough to support the sales of\nthese films, and a TCM sale fell through when Filmstruck collapsed. If I\u2019d sold\nmore copies of Little Orphant Annie<\/em><\/a>, I\u2019d be\nworking on more film projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> So the fact that you\u2019re doing this book is because\nyou didn\u2019t have enough work otherwise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> I suppose you could say so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Does that mean that you\u2019re going to be polluting my\nsacred film space with promoting your junky book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> No, I would never do that to you. I know how it would hurt you. If I\nwrite a film book, then that\u2019s another story. I\u2019m planning one; it\u2019s about\nhalfway done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Well, is there a place that people can go to discuss\nthis book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> I\u2019m glad you asked. There\u2019s a new Facebook forum for it. It\u2019s here: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/graysontext\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> I feel better already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> I knew you would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Any other film tie-ins on this book? You know how I\nam about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> The cover art was done by Larry Blamire<\/a>, the creator of the Lost\nSkeleton series, a talented director and author in his own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Wow, so another hyphenate. But it\u2019s a great cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> It\u2019s a fantastic cover. I may ask Larry if he can make small posters of\nit available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> I think you should plug our new podcast again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> That\u2019s a great idea. We\u2019ve only been working on it since 2015. It\u2019s\nhere: podcast.drfilm.net.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Available on most mobile and desktop services!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric:<\/strong> Well, we should wrap this up before it gets too boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Film:<\/strong> Too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again,\nthat book link is here:  http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/shop\/eric-grayson\/a-fearful-thing-to-love\/paperback\/product-23899576.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a real departure for the Dr. Film blog, and we\u2019re not going to do this very often, but, well, just this one time. Here\u2019s an interview between Dr. Film and his alter ego Eric, about Eric\u2019s new book. If you haven’t followed the podcasts, Dr. Film is Eric\u2019s utterly hostile, completely film-centric alter-ego. … Continue reading “Interview With a New Author”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"powered_cache_disable_cache":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[207,206,4],"tags":[194,25,66,193],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-text","category-views-and-reviews","tag-a-fearful-thing-to-love","tag-dr-film","tag-eric-grayson","tag-vampire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1818,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/1818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}