Derrick Ferguson: Who is Raymond
Embrack?
Raymond Embrack: Escritor independiente de la ficcion
DF: Where do you live and what do
you do to keep the bill collectors away?
RE: Currently
in Los Angeles with years in an unnamed position in an unnamed industry.
DF: Tell us a little something about
your background.
RE: Some
film, some theater, some science fiction. Nothing much. Planning to start a new
background in the future.
DF: How long have you been writing?
RE: Since
1978.
DF: What writers have influenced
you?
RE: Harlan
Ellison. Ernest Tidyman. James Ellroy. Hunter S. Thompson. Iceberg Slim. Andrew
Vachss. Quentin Tarantino. Walter Mosely. Elmore Leonard. Robert B. Parker. Mickey
Spillane.
DF: What’s your philosophy of
writing?
RE: Never
be boring. Leave out the slow parts. Write books that are non-stop pleasure. Write
like books have to compete with video games, blockbuster movies, strippers and cocaine.
DF: How important is it to follow
your instincts while writing?
RE: Always.
But I’m learning the critical instinct to question everything, including my
instincts.
DF: Are you interested in critics or
criticism?
RE: Of my
stuff? Your criticism helped me rewrite my first superhero novel. I don’t think
a writer can improve without criticism. But that opinion is subject to change
too.
DF: Do you crave recognition?
RE: Anything
that hard to get deserves to be craved, hunted down, taken, beheaded then eaten.
It has taken a long time.
DF: What audience are you trying to
reach with your work? Is there an audience for Raymond Embrack?
RE: I write
for outlaw bikers and Japanese strippers. I made the mistake of writing the
work before defining the audience. Maybe I’ll do better next time.
DF: How do you use social media to
promote your writing?
RE: That’s
something I’m still figuring out.
DF: One of the things I love about
your writing is that it so fearlessly non-PC and for me that’s refreshing. Was
that a conscious decision on your part or did your writing just develop that
way over time?
RE: Why
does the best stuff tend to be anti-PC? It just is. For better or worse I have always
gone for that in my writing. To me there’s no point in holding back.
DF: Who is Peter Surf? Where did he
come from and why does he make you want to write about him?
RE: Surf has
been around since the 1990s. He got his name from the music in “Pulp Fiction”. From
there my action hero took shape. Surf is a comedian, a badass, a killer. Surf
is not an anti-hero, he is my version of the most interesting man in the world.
That is a guy who does all things with swagger. Is he a male fantasy? I can’t
pretend he’s a realistic character. The action hero exists to hit that sweet
spot just short of the mask & cape.
DF: I love the concept of Blonde
City. Where did that come from?
RE: For me
there was more escapism value in making up a city than using an existing and
probably over-used setting. It gives me way more to play with. This is
America’s newest city, one made of sudden wealth, gloss and hype. It only hires
policemen who are hot. It gives the homeless lipstick.
DF: Which Peter Surf novel was your
favorite to write?
RE: Has to
be The
Guns of Tony Franciosa. I took it off the market just so I could keep
rewriting it.
DF: What is the future of Peter
Surf?
RE: He
seems a few books short, so more Surf will happen.
DF: Perhaps my favorite book of
yours I’ve read so far is EL MOROCCO. It’s the swingin’ 60s on crack. What was the
inspiration for that story and the characters?
RE: The
inspiration was John Ridley’s “A
Conversation with the Mann” his comedian/swingin’ 60s novel. Had to write
my own version, plus I’m a fan of the “Mad Men era.”
DF: How much of a superhero fan are
you?
RE: I’m an
unfrozen fan. I have to work my way up to “nerd.” Real nerds read and watch
everything and know all. After years focused on crime fiction, I’m returning to
the thing I started with. I now get that the superhero can be as ambitious a character
to write but one even closer to the brain’s pleasure center.
DF: Marvel or DC?
RE: DC
DF: Who are some of your favorite
comic book writers?
RE: Howard
Chaykin. Alan Moore. Neil Gaiman. Ed Brubaker. Scott Snyder.
DF: Your five favorite superheroes?
RE: Batman.
The Hulk. The Black Panther. Rorschach. Black Canary.
DF: Explain the concept behind the
AXIS Superhero Novels.
RE: Typically
superheroes exist in a world where comic book superheroes never existed. In the
AXIS world they exist in this world
with its same comic book culture. That is only possible when somehow the
reality follows the archetype. I took that premise and fused it with my older
sci-fi concept of an alien that takes the form of an Earth city. That formed the AXIS concept.
I wouldn’t
call it “alternate history” more like “alternate present.” In 1970, from
nowhere the city of Brutalia appeared in one day. It is the only city where
superpowers exist. Outside the city superpowers cease to exist. There, three
major organizations are at war, AXIS, the superheroes who seek to keep
superpowers from reaching the outside world; the OGD (Order of Global
Domination) the supervillains who seek to export superpowers to conquer the
outside world; O.U.T.S.I.D.E., superheroes seeking to export superpowers to
benefit the outside world.
Oddly
enough, I see these characters with the realism I don’t see Peter Surf. These
are not anti-heroes or anti-supervillains, they are multidimensional people
redefined by gestalt myth made reality. Their superpowers are their career.
Both AXIS and the OGD have Washington lobbyists. Like real people, they don’t all
automatically invent new super identities, they become existing fictional
superheroes, as when one of them attempted to become a real Wonder Woman. The
leader of AXIS becomes the (fictional) KM Comics brand superheroes of his teens.
The novels
are themselves a process as, from an amnesiac fog, Brutalia, its people, their
memory, its mysteries, and the culture around it evolves, mutates, take shape.
There is room for years of this to come.
DF: The AXIS Superhero Novels are
quite explicit when it comes to sex and violence. Again, was this a conscious
decision on your part or did the novels just develop that way over time?
RE: That’s
what they are, adult content in comic book terms. The superheroes and
supervillains are adults at play with real weapons. The sex and violence are unleashed
id. I see the art by Howard Chaykin with splattered heads and “Black Kiss” nymphos.
DF: Are there graphic novels or
comic books based on characters from the AXIS Superhero Novels planned for the
future?
RE: In 2015
AXIS will start going visual. The
plan involves art, graphic comix and novels and animated films. And merch. In
the future there will be action figures. Someday, a Taco Bell tie-in.
DF: Have you thought about opening
up the AXIS Universe to other writers in a fashion similar to the “Wild Cards”
series?
RE: That
never occurred to me. I don’t think other writers want a piece of this.
DF: What is the future of the AXIS
Universe?
RE: There
will be more new superheroes and supervillains. The Carousel will change his
name to Spinrax. There will be more like Bag of Green Army Men that take
place in the multiverse of KM Comics. I have a thing for steampunk, so I see an
AXIS steampunk series.
DF: What are your plans for your
writing career? Where is Raymond Embrack going to be five years from now?
RE: Going full
time writer. Five years from now: even more full time with extra full time.
DF: What are you working on now?
RE: Planning
the next Surf novel and the next AXIS novel, both to write in 2015.
DF: What’s a typical Day in the Life
of Raymond Embrack like?
RE: It
begins in the compound known as Embrack Wonderland. Report to the day job,
which is at home, at a desktop. Maybe lunch at Fat Sal’s. Whistle blows. Return
to Wonderland. When an Embrack novel is in production, writing may occur.
DF: Recommend a book, a TV show and
a movie.
BOOK: The
Storm Giants by Pearce Hansen
TV SHOW: The
Pleasure (Playboy TV Latin America)
MOVIE: The
Raid 2
Derrick Ferguson: Anything else we
need to know?
Raymond
Embrack: This has been boss. Thanks for letting me kick it with you, Derrick.
