Derrick Ferguson: Who Is Frank
Schildiner?
Frank
Schildiner: Oh jeez, start with a hard one why don't ya? That's something I've
been wondering for 49 years and I'm still figuring it out. Well, I was born in
Queens, NY, raised in New Jersey and at night I fight crime under the
name...oops, slipped into my own reality for a minute there...
DF: What do you tell the IRS you do
for a living?
FS: Senior Probation Officer for the State of New
Jersey, Martial Arts instructor for Amorosi's Mixed Martial Arts and writer.
They also wonder if I have time to sleep.
DF: Tell us a little something about
your background.
FS: That'd
take a while, but I think I can sum up. I had amazing parents who managed to
deal with a slightly demented child by channeling him (i.e. me) into useful
areas. I grew up reading classics, both the fun variety like Burroughs and
Doyle, and the serious kind you were forced to read in school. They loved all
types of films and I got to see some of the best and worst old films
as I grew up. This fostered my imagination and made me the rather crazy person
I am today. But it wouldn't have gone anywhere if I hadn't been encouraged to
take up martial arts in my mid-thirties. There I learned discipline and so much
more, channeling what was inside me into a more productive direction.
DF: How long have you been writing?
FS: All my
life, but I wasn't published until I was 40. This was a good thing. I look back
at my earlier work and shudder. I was really bad and it took me that long to
learn the basics of storytelling. But thanks to some amazing teachers/editors,
I'm slowly getting there (I hope).
DF: You a plotter or a pantser?
FS: Pantser,
totally and completely. I tried forever to be a plotter and all my stories were
horrific, stilted and stiff. Then I read Stephen King's “On Writing” and he
explained he wrote his books the way I wanted to do it. I figured if one of the
bestselling authors on Earth, one of my heroes, did it that way, I could avoid
outlines.. .
DF: What writers have influenced
you?
FS: Oh man,
so many! Lovecraft, Howard, Ernst, Jack London, Walter Gibson, Bram Stoker,
Jack Kirby, Harlan Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer, Will Murray, Win Scott Eckert,
JM Lofficier, David Gerrold, Clark Ashton Smith...I could be doing this for a
very long time...
DF: Are you interested in critics or
professional/amateur criticism of your work?
FS: In a
small sense, I think we all are to a degree. I hope everyone likes my work, but
I'm not going to worry about it overly. I do prize and listen to my editors and
friends who give me honest constructive criticism, that’s how I learned to
become a better writer. But a bad review doesn't shake me. A writer needs to be
immune to worries like that one.
DF: What audience are you trying to
reach with your work? Is there an audience for Frank Schildiner?
FS: Hmm,
that's a good one. Well, I think my two audiences are pulp and occult/horror
adventure. My main work is, surprising to me, very much in the weirder end of
the horror universe. My latest novel seems to cover both areas, but time will
tell if I actually have anyone reading me LOL!
DF: Do you consider yourself to be a
New Pulp writer? If so, why? And if not, then why not?
FS: Very
much a New Pulp writer. That's where I got started, writing French pulp
crossovers for Black Coat Press and Secret Agent X for Airship27. I love that
period of writing and the fact that it returned to the publishing world in the
last ten years or so was a gift from heaven, so to speak.
Also I love
the amazing work New Pulp writers produce regularly. There are so many great
new characters coming out these days, Pat Wildman, Dillon, the Royal Occultist,
Sgt. Janus...it's an incredible time to be a writer or a reader.
DF: How important is it to follow
your instincts while writing?
FS: 100%
importance. At times I find myself writing entirely different directions than I
imagined a scene or a chapter would go in a book. It’s a surprising moment, an
internal and unconscious decision that makes the writing process all the more
enjoyable.
DF: Tell us about THE QUEST OF
FRANKENSTEIN.
FS: This is
the story of the French version of the Frankenstein monster. The creature is a
lethal and terrible monster, an evil being who meets up with the American
monster maker, Herbert West, in his quest for a mate. To get his mate, West
requires a list of items, most living and terrible beings themselves, and the
creature, known as Gouroull, wanders around the world to obtain
these items. It’s a sweeping story, introducing monsters, many of whom were
forgotten by horror/occult fans.
DF: This is a different Frankenstein
Monster from the one that most of here in America are familiar with. Can you go
into the origins of this Monster and why you chose to use him for your novel?
FS: Oh yes,
this is a truly amazing story. Back in the 1950’s a French pulp paperback
publisher had on staff a man named Jean-Claude Carriere. He was asked to write
a series starring the Frankenstein monster, though he remade the creature. This
is not the tormented Byronic monster of Shelley, the allegorical Whale version
or the brutish version that followed when Whale stopped making the films. The
creature, named Gouroull, is a giant, chalky skinned, yellow-eyed,
nigh-invulnerable fiend. He’s nearly bulletproof, unafraid of fire and
possessing an alien intelligence.
Carriere
wrote Gouroull in a series of novels that ended in 1959. He then went on to
become an Academy Award winning screenwriter whose work with Luis Brunel and
others has made him one of the legends in the film world. In 2014 he was also
given a lifetime achievement award by the Academy, which is quite a heavy legacy
to follow.
I learned
of Gouroull through my friend and mentor, JM Lofficier and his company, BLACK
COAT PRESS. I’m proud he accepted the book and thus THE QUEST OF FRANKENSTEIN was born!
DF: Tell us about TALES OF THE
SHADOWMEN and how you got involved with that anthology series.
FS: TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN is a yearly
publication by the amazing JM Lofficier and his company BLACK COAT PRESS. In
these anthologies, a writer takes a French character and writes them in a story
with heroes or villains they normally would not have encountered. It’s a
marvelous idea, a mean of introducing the world to the vast French literature
unknown to many.
Characters like
Doctor Omega, Fantomos, Judex, Lemmy Caution, Harry Dickson, Nyctalope and so
many more have become popular thanks to this incredible series of books. Major
writers like Michael Moorcock, Brian Stableford and Terrence Dicks contributed
and writers like myself and
many others got their fiction writing start in these anthologies.
I was
brought in because I wrote a short story for JM, an archaeologist named Jean
Kariven who was involved in ancient alien adventures. I’ve written Kariven
several times and also wrote my first Gouroull tale in the Shadowmen books.
DF: You’ve written quite a few
Classic Pulp heroes such as Thunder Jim Wade, The Black Bat, Secret Agent X and
The Avenger among others. Which one was your favorite?
FS: Thunder
Jim Wade has become my favorite over the years. He was a Doc Savage knockoff that
was done by a great writer, Henry Kuttner (best known for the short story, “The
Graveyard Rats”). Kuttner, though an excellent tale spinner, didn’t seem
interested in the character or action hero pulps. He created a great origin for
Wade, being raised in a lost city in Africa, but the stories were bland at
best. I’ve taken the character a unique and fun direction and really love the
plans I have for the hero in the future.
DF: Any other Classic Pulp
characters you’d like to write?
FS: Operator
#5. Love the idea of a spy fighting lethal hordes who are trying to take over
the United States. I doubt that I ever will write the hero, but we all have
dreams.
DF: Tell us about BIG OL’ SCORPION.
FS: BIG OL’ SCORPION harkens back to my
upbringing. I was blessed with parents who loved old films, good, bad and
otherwise. They showed me the old 50’s sci-fi films when I was young and I fell
in love with the ones starring giant monsters rampaging across the USA. “EARTH
VS THE SPIDER” “THEM!” and oh so many more were available on weekend TV when I
was growing up, so I got to watch them and imagine a world where this happened
for real. I always wanted to write short stories or novellas on these
creatures, even did a few team up tales when I was little. Happily none of
those embarrassing efforts survived, but I came up with the idea of a
rockabilly guitarist who encounters a giant scorpion in a town in the Midwest.
It was a major pleasure to write and seemed to work for many readers, I’m happy
to say.
DF: What are your plans for your
writing career? Is there anything you’re working on now that we should know
about?
FS: I’m
working on a Thunder Jim Wade novella for Pro Se Publishing right now and have
a possible series of novellas in the pipeline with another publisher. I’ve also
got two possible short story
collections in works as well as a pulp novel series. Also coming soon is a
short story collection I’m in called THE
LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION with Airship27. It’s an anthology book with a
total of 62 writers and 38 artists and being used as a fundraiser for Tommy
Hancock and his health problems.
Derrick Ferguson: What’s a Typical
Day In The Life Of Frank Schildiner like?
Frank
Schildiner: Up at 6am, at work by 8. Work until lunchtime, where I do a little
writing if I can. Work until 4:30 and then rush off to my dojo, AMOROSI’S MIXED
MARTIAL ARTS. I train and teach until 9 or so, then home and write a couple of
hours before bed. It’s a non-stop life, I’ve turned into a triple A personality
at nearly 50, which is shocking for me to say the least!
