William J Jackson is the author of An Unsubstantiated Chamber. You can also find his work included in the anthologies Nebula Rift Vol.03 No.10 and the free Denizens of Steam. And you can follow his blog at therailbaron.wordpress.com.
Perkins: Well, Mr. Jackson, thank you for joining me here at Aeronautics Anonymous. And thank you especially for being my first guest. First of many I hope! Let's start from the beginning. What is your oldest memory of writing?
Jackson: At the age of three, when I began using the typewriter to hack out my name.
Perkins: Were you a natural child-storyteller?
Jackson: Playing with friends, yes. We made up our own Star Wars style adventures to act out, and I loved writing up sci-fi stories.
Perkins: What were some of those first stories?
Jackson: I kept jumping from one idea to another that I rarely finished a tale! Most ideas ended up in RPG's, which helped me hone a story from start to finish. That's where the Rail began in 1993.
Perkins: Well, Mr. Jackson, thank you for joining me here at Aeronautics Anonymous. And thank you especially for being my first guest. First of many I hope! Let's start from the beginning. What is your oldest memory of writing?
Jackson: At the age of three, when I began using the typewriter to hack out my name.
Perkins: Were you a natural child-storyteller?
Jackson: Playing with friends, yes. We made up our own Star Wars style adventures to act out, and I loved writing up sci-fi stories.
Perkins: What were some of those first stories?
Jackson: I kept jumping from one idea to another that I rarely finished a tale! Most ideas ended up in RPG's, which helped me hone a story from start to finish. That's where the Rail began in 1993.
Perkins: How did you cross the line from an amateur hobby writer to a professional level pursuit?
Jackson: My really low self-esteem kept me from pursuing writing seriously most of my life. It wasn't until 2012 that it began to bother me. How much longer will I keep assuming I'll fail at it? Just go do it and see what happens already! Now I'm happy. Ideas are flowing.
Perkins: What first turned you on to steampunk?
Jackson: Before it had a designation, Frank Chadwick's Space:1889 tabletop roleplaying game in the early 1990s. Verne and Wells in a game, not just dragons and dungeons! Now in 2012, when I finally put a boot to my own backside to get to writing, I got on the internet and found this “steampunk” thing. What's this? Oh, it's the same stuff I've been reading and loving my entire life, reclassified!
Perkins: What's one of your favorite steampunk “classics”?
Jackson: Oh! H.G Wells for sure, The First Men in the Moon! Can't be beat, in my opinion.
Perkins: In your novel An Unsubstantiated Chamber you mix a version of superheroes with steampunk; What was your inspiration for this?
Jackson: Growing up as much on comic books as I did on Victorian literature, westerns, James Bond and old movies. I said to heck with making a universe for each thing I love, why not blend them together, and see what comes out? The hard part is people who read my stories like one OR the other, so balancing it is touchy at times. Certain story elements require one to take precedent, then I worry.
Perkins: What are some examples of those ideas that swung too far one way or the other and had to be kept on track in editing?
Jackson: At the end of Chamber, I wanted Green Bag Man to be much more dominant using his powers. But the character cried out he was too hurt for that, so the battle became shorter. Poor guy. Oh wait, he's evil. Too bad for him!
Perkins: What comics are you reading these days?
Jackson: Jem and the Holograms by IDW (true story, very good). Old issues of Hawkman and Enemy Ace. Squadron Supreme looks good, so does Chewbacca...
Perkins: What sucks you into a good comic, the artist or the writer?
Jackson: Being indie and talking to indies made me abandon most of the DC and Marvel I read. Big corporate machines say they need fans. Do they? All of them, comics to sports and on, raise prices to say 'thank you'. I mean, you can get comics in digital format now, and they're still $3.99? They always said price increases were based on publishing costs. What's being published ink-wise on the Net, I ask? Hogwash. You thank fans with freebies, low prices and cool insights. So I browse IDW, Overground and others. I get from the 'Big Two' rarely. Story-wise, I look for a nice idea. Art is second. Right now I shop visually but rarely buy, looking for a nice tale outside mainstream. Now there's room for many genres in comics.
Perkins: If Marvel or DC or Image wanted to adapt your series to a comic, who would you have do the art?
Jackson: Oh, that's a hard one! Ah, I always had a passion for the sketchy look of Lee Weeks. It lends itself to a grittier, steam/diesel feel and he draws realistic characters.
Perkins: I always loved his old issues of Daredevil. What’s your favorite work of his?
Jackson: You said it! I got into him on Daredevil, and when he left, so did I. He makes street life look old, grimy and somewhat Gotham, but nothing looks fantasy. It all remains composed, reality in an unreal setting.
Perkins: Your earlier shorts focused on Professor Flag Epsom who solves crimes with his "chronoscopic vision" into the past, but for An Unsubstantiated Chamber you chose Miss Aretha Astin, the Huntress in Hazel, a totally new character, not only to lead the story but narrate it as well. How did you come to this choice creatively?
Jackson: I wanted a Watson for Epsom, but I also wanted someone very much his opposite and twin all at once. Aretha fits the bill. She's a heartless killer and very self-righteous, unlike Flag. But they're both donkey stubborn, loners, and really very sad people trying to find light in darkness. Her voice lends a different air to compliment/contrast Flag's acidic opinions.
Perkins: Did you struggle writing believably from inside the head of the opposite sex or did you have a key role-model or inspiration to anchor your take on Astin?
Jackson: Miss Astin is the product of my life growing up around mainly females, mixed with my youth when I felt life was black and white, and was sure of it. I'm flattened out when a reader compliments my writing of the Huntress. I don't feel I know women at all, but something clicked.
Perkins: Do you get a chance to interact with fans often?
Jackson: I've had a few contact me on Facebook, and they were positive interactions. Now I see them there regularly. Each one wasn't into steampunk, but took a chance on my book. For that, they'll always have my gratitude.
Perkins: Do you find that fan interaction is constructive to your writing?
Jackson: Yes. So far, they preferred the battles being brief, the dialogue and background being detailed. Note to self. Getting writers as fans is fun, because they're more into critiquing details, so getting an author as a fan is like a sigh of relief!
Perkins: As fans catch on to it, where do you see the series going in the long term?
Jackson: I want to tell you how the Rail rises and falls, how the death of heroes only breeds new ones, albeit in different ways. Every odd numbered book is Epsom & Astin, solving some case. Every even book is third person, and features the duo, plus more characters, as the events of the previous book blow up, way up. Making each stand alone at the same time is tricky, though not impossible.
Perkins: What themes do you like to wrestle with in your work?
Jackson: Isms. Racism, sexism, prejudice against people who are different. My friends loved the X-Men when we were kids. I thought they were a good idea with a poor plot. Most of their time was wasted on grudges and hero versus hero junk. The point (prejudice) was a rare bird. I grew up a multiracial kid in a country town in southern Delaware. Race and being rural came to the forefront when we moved to south Jersey, then I was the "Slower Lower Delaware" kid, the "mutt", etc. Where I was from it was normal. Later it became freak show of the week. Over time, it made my ears perk up anytime I heard of someone getting harangued just for being different. The Rail is about that, Book Two especially.
Perkins: When planning a story, how do you approach tying those tough themes into your work? Does it happen naturally?
Jackson: Well, they are in life, so there really isn't a need per se to make it happen. History is a better guide on putting it in than any plan could be. For example, take the early labor movement, or any movement. If it began with white people, it arguably excluded others. They either had to form their own group, or ended up on the receiving end. In Book Two of the Rail Legacy, readers will see how the Stimuli Club that Epsom & Astin learned of reaches out into the Rail. What happens after becomes as real and true as American history, and was hard to write. All the while, what I wrote was on the evening news coming out of Chicago, Baltimore and other cities. And to think, the roots of the story were formed in my mind in the 90's! Things change. Things don't change.
Perkins: Do you ever find yourself in the midst of a theme or topic that because of current events has become maybe too controversial for steampunk? Or do you just embrace that?
Jackson: Book Two will hit prejudice, so I'm sure it will tweak ears. And for those who feel steampunk can 'only' be whimsical and dressy, well, to be blunt, too bad. Life is stories, stories are life. Even a sitcom has serious episodes. The whimsy, action, fancy dresses, Epsom pffhts and all of Chamber will be there. But now it's "the Stimuli Club Strikes Back", and they're nothing nice. So story dictates a degree of it be nothing nice. The claws come out. The ugly comes out. When it does, other problems surface and Epsom and Astin drown in the flood.
Perkins: Besides your novel series, any more anthology appearances for your short stories?
Jackson: I recently got an early Rail tale in the third volume of Novopulp, and that's thrilling!
Perkins: And lastly the most important question of all: Star Wars or Star Trek?
Jackson: Whoosh! I just saw The Force Awakens days ago, and it rejuvenated my love of Star Wars, but not because of the prequels. I love the prequels. I got jaded by years of constant fan complaints (apparently, so did George Lucas, one of my writing inspirations). But my heart is Trek, because it hits the moral question base that my stories are about. Suffering, tragedy, hope, reason, and moral dilemmas. The Rail is built on these. I love fast adventure stories, but sometimes you have to stop and look around and ask why, like Flag Epsom.
Perkins: Well Future Fans, that's all the time we have for today! If you've got questions or follow-up for Mr. Jackson regarding anything discussed above, feel free to comment below!
Jackson: My really low self-esteem kept me from pursuing writing seriously most of my life. It wasn't until 2012 that it began to bother me. How much longer will I keep assuming I'll fail at it? Just go do it and see what happens already! Now I'm happy. Ideas are flowing.
Perkins: What first turned you on to steampunk?
Jackson: Before it had a designation, Frank Chadwick's Space:1889 tabletop roleplaying game in the early 1990s. Verne and Wells in a game, not just dragons and dungeons! Now in 2012, when I finally put a boot to my own backside to get to writing, I got on the internet and found this “steampunk” thing. What's this? Oh, it's the same stuff I've been reading and loving my entire life, reclassified!
Perkins: What's one of your favorite steampunk “classics”?
Jackson: Oh! H.G Wells for sure, The First Men in the Moon! Can't be beat, in my opinion.
Perkins: In your novel An Unsubstantiated Chamber you mix a version of superheroes with steampunk; What was your inspiration for this?
Jackson: Growing up as much on comic books as I did on Victorian literature, westerns, James Bond and old movies. I said to heck with making a universe for each thing I love, why not blend them together, and see what comes out? The hard part is people who read my stories like one OR the other, so balancing it is touchy at times. Certain story elements require one to take precedent, then I worry.
Perkins: What are some examples of those ideas that swung too far one way or the other and had to be kept on track in editing?
Jackson: At the end of Chamber, I wanted Green Bag Man to be much more dominant using his powers. But the character cried out he was too hurt for that, so the battle became shorter. Poor guy. Oh wait, he's evil. Too bad for him!
Perkins: What comics are you reading these days?
Jackson: Jem and the Holograms by IDW (true story, very good). Old issues of Hawkman and Enemy Ace. Squadron Supreme looks good, so does Chewbacca...
Perkins: What sucks you into a good comic, the artist or the writer?
Jackson: Being indie and talking to indies made me abandon most of the DC and Marvel I read. Big corporate machines say they need fans. Do they? All of them, comics to sports and on, raise prices to say 'thank you'. I mean, you can get comics in digital format now, and they're still $3.99? They always said price increases were based on publishing costs. What's being published ink-wise on the Net, I ask? Hogwash. You thank fans with freebies, low prices and cool insights. So I browse IDW, Overground and others. I get from the 'Big Two' rarely. Story-wise, I look for a nice idea. Art is second. Right now I shop visually but rarely buy, looking for a nice tale outside mainstream. Now there's room for many genres in comics.
Perkins: If Marvel or DC or Image wanted to adapt your series to a comic, who would you have do the art?
Jackson: Oh, that's a hard one! Ah, I always had a passion for the sketchy look of Lee Weeks. It lends itself to a grittier, steam/diesel feel and he draws realistic characters.
Perkins: I always loved his old issues of Daredevil. What’s your favorite work of his?
Jackson: You said it! I got into him on Daredevil, and when he left, so did I. He makes street life look old, grimy and somewhat Gotham, but nothing looks fantasy. It all remains composed, reality in an unreal setting.
Perkins: Your earlier shorts focused on Professor Flag Epsom who solves crimes with his "chronoscopic vision" into the past, but for An Unsubstantiated Chamber you chose Miss Aretha Astin, the Huntress in Hazel, a totally new character, not only to lead the story but narrate it as well. How did you come to this choice creatively?
Jackson: I wanted a Watson for Epsom, but I also wanted someone very much his opposite and twin all at once. Aretha fits the bill. She's a heartless killer and very self-righteous, unlike Flag. But they're both donkey stubborn, loners, and really very sad people trying to find light in darkness. Her voice lends a different air to compliment/contrast Flag's acidic opinions.
Perkins: Did you struggle writing believably from inside the head of the opposite sex or did you have a key role-model or inspiration to anchor your take on Astin?
Jackson: Miss Astin is the product of my life growing up around mainly females, mixed with my youth when I felt life was black and white, and was sure of it. I'm flattened out when a reader compliments my writing of the Huntress. I don't feel I know women at all, but something clicked.
Perkins: Do you get a chance to interact with fans often?
Jackson: I've had a few contact me on Facebook, and they were positive interactions. Now I see them there regularly. Each one wasn't into steampunk, but took a chance on my book. For that, they'll always have my gratitude.
Perkins: Do you find that fan interaction is constructive to your writing?
Jackson: Yes. So far, they preferred the battles being brief, the dialogue and background being detailed. Note to self. Getting writers as fans is fun, because they're more into critiquing details, so getting an author as a fan is like a sigh of relief!
Perkins: As fans catch on to it, where do you see the series going in the long term?
Jackson: I want to tell you how the Rail rises and falls, how the death of heroes only breeds new ones, albeit in different ways. Every odd numbered book is Epsom & Astin, solving some case. Every even book is third person, and features the duo, plus more characters, as the events of the previous book blow up, way up. Making each stand alone at the same time is tricky, though not impossible.
Perkins: What themes do you like to wrestle with in your work?
Jackson: Isms. Racism, sexism, prejudice against people who are different. My friends loved the X-Men when we were kids. I thought they were a good idea with a poor plot. Most of their time was wasted on grudges and hero versus hero junk. The point (prejudice) was a rare bird. I grew up a multiracial kid in a country town in southern Delaware. Race and being rural came to the forefront when we moved to south Jersey, then I was the "Slower Lower Delaware" kid, the "mutt", etc. Where I was from it was normal. Later it became freak show of the week. Over time, it made my ears perk up anytime I heard of someone getting harangued just for being different. The Rail is about that, Book Two especially.
Perkins: When planning a story, how do you approach tying those tough themes into your work? Does it happen naturally?
Jackson: Well, they are in life, so there really isn't a need per se to make it happen. History is a better guide on putting it in than any plan could be. For example, take the early labor movement, or any movement. If it began with white people, it arguably excluded others. They either had to form their own group, or ended up on the receiving end. In Book Two of the Rail Legacy, readers will see how the Stimuli Club that Epsom & Astin learned of reaches out into the Rail. What happens after becomes as real and true as American history, and was hard to write. All the while, what I wrote was on the evening news coming out of Chicago, Baltimore and other cities. And to think, the roots of the story were formed in my mind in the 90's! Things change. Things don't change.
Perkins: Do you ever find yourself in the midst of a theme or topic that because of current events has become maybe too controversial for steampunk? Or do you just embrace that?
Jackson: Book Two will hit prejudice, so I'm sure it will tweak ears. And for those who feel steampunk can 'only' be whimsical and dressy, well, to be blunt, too bad. Life is stories, stories are life. Even a sitcom has serious episodes. The whimsy, action, fancy dresses, Epsom pffhts and all of Chamber will be there. But now it's "the Stimuli Club Strikes Back", and they're nothing nice. So story dictates a degree of it be nothing nice. The claws come out. The ugly comes out. When it does, other problems surface and Epsom and Astin drown in the flood.
Perkins: Besides your novel series, any more anthology appearances for your short stories?
Jackson: I recently got an early Rail tale in the third volume of Novopulp, and that's thrilling!
Perkins: And lastly the most important question of all: Star Wars or Star Trek?
Jackson: Whoosh! I just saw The Force Awakens days ago, and it rejuvenated my love of Star Wars, but not because of the prequels. I love the prequels. I got jaded by years of constant fan complaints (apparently, so did George Lucas, one of my writing inspirations). But my heart is Trek, because it hits the moral question base that my stories are about. Suffering, tragedy, hope, reason, and moral dilemmas. The Rail is built on these. I love fast adventure stories, but sometimes you have to stop and look around and ask why, like Flag Epsom.
Perkins: Well Future Fans, that's all the time we have for today! If you've got questions or follow-up for Mr. Jackson regarding anything discussed above, feel free to comment below!