Dark Myth Comics: So what can you tell, about your comic the “Convict Volumes?”
S.B.: It has been a lot of fun to write. I’ve never tried to write in this format before and I really enjoy it. The story is meant to be scary but not in the way that you find so often in movies that rely on loud music or banging sounds at high decibel range to scare the wits out of you. It’s more that the thought of what is happening is scary.
I want the reader to identify with the characters and their feelings. I think that’s what any author wants. If my readers tell me that they could imagine just how a character felt under certain circumstances then I will feel I have done my job.
If readers can see themselves able to step into the story and become part of the action, then I would be thrilled.
As for the story itself, it has the usual components. A hero and his dog, a couple of goofy, comic relief characters, the love interest, the strong, quiet sheriff, the sinister plot, the doomsday prophet, the mysterious disappearance, a couple of horrendous natural disasters and of course, the slimy, deadly, destroyer of life as we know it, all presented with outstanding illustrations that ice this cake to perfection. What more could you ask for?
Dark Myth Comics: So what can you tell, about your characters?
S.B.: They are real to me. It’s odd how I associate with them. It’s like someone with multiple personalities must feel when they begin meeting their “other selves” during psychotherapy. These characters have been inside me all along and I didn’t even realize it until I let them out on paper.
Dark Myth Comics: What do you think about your artist on the project?
S.B.: I think he is the best! When I first saw his work on the “Convict Volumes”, I knew he had somehow managed to get inside my head. He was drawing what I was seeing with my mind’s eye. True, I gave him verbal directions for what to draw, but he has so nailed every character, every scene, every nuance of the story, it is uncanny.
Dark Myth Comics: So, what do you think about your publisher?
S.B.: I am so grateful to him. I literally would not be writing this if it were not for his insight and encouragement. He looked at one of my children’s books and suggested that I try to turn it into a thriller. I did and the “Convict Volumes” is the result.
I think he has great vision and he is so open and receptive that I am encouraged me to be the same. The minute a writer allows him or herself to be open and receptive is the moment that gives birth to an unexpected level of creativity. Creativity that is born from those little whispers insisting to be put on paper.
Dark Myth Comics: When did you first start writing?
S.B.: Actually, I haven’t been writing books very long. Back in my “hippie” days I wrote a lot of music, some of it for kids and some for “more mature” audiences. After my kids were grown I returned to college where I wrote a few pieces for my English classes and even won a writing club contest there.
The “Convict Volumes” is one of my first commercial attempts.
Dark Myth Comics: What writers, if any, have influenced your own writing?
S.B.: Well, I am a big Mary Higgins Clark fan and also a huge fan of Clive Cussler, of Dirk Pitt fame. Dean Koontz and Stephen King are also two writers whose work I will stick with to the end of the book. There are others, of course, all of whom collectively have helped to create a crazy quilt of dark, sinister places in my consciousness that I love to visit for a good scare every now and then.
Dark Myth Comics: Why is that?
S.B.: I love to be taken into the darkness and terror, knowing it’s safe and I will be able to return to the light of the ordinary at my choosing. Doesn’t everybody? Actually, they don’t. My youngest son is not a fan of the genre at all. And that’s ok too, but I am and for me, because I was blessed with a very active imagination, the thrill is quite realistic.
I think that as humans evolved away from living every moment in literal fear for their lives; once we became a part of the so-called civilized world where “safe” places can be found, we relinquished our connection to many of the terrors experienced by our ancestors.
Sadly, there are people whose lives are assaulted by terrorists in one form or another every day. There are also those of us whose lives are, by comparison so ordinary that terror, especially “pretend” terror of the type found in literature, movies and TV, is a welcome departure from that which we consider humdrum, dreary, mundane. To us, the gorier, the better. Our mantra is, scare me, I dare you. Our challenge, make me imagine how I would survive this horror.
It may not make sense to some, but I believe it is human nature. We love to imagine, those of us who still remember how to, a life situation different from our own.
For just a few moments we can see ourselves in another world and the experience is so satisfying that it is often not important what kind of world it is, so long as it is different from our own.
We return to our childhood games of “let’s pretend”.
This is what is unfailingly given to their readers by those authors I’ve mentioned.
Dark Myth Comics: What type of books do you enjoy reading in your spare time?
S.B.: Well, aside from that mentioned above, I really love to read cookbooks. Again, my imagination lets me visualize the result of any given recipe, which is at once good and bad. If I am on a diet, I stick to horror/adventure novels instead.
Dark Myth Comics: Do you ever use any personal experiences when doing your writing?
S.B.: All the time. Truthfully, I can say that a lot of what I write is based on something I have experienced. I am blessed with a very happy life. I have a great husband who is possibly the strongest person I have ever known, two sons of whom we are extremely proud, beautiful daughters-in-law, perfect granddaughters and extended family members and friends. These are some of the things that have given me whatever insight and experience I may incorporate into my writing.
As for the horror and monsters, those are just hiding out inside my deranged mind. It only takes a little imagination to ferret them out.
Dark Myth Comics: Do you have another project which you are working on now or is there something else coming in the future we should know about?
S.B.: I do. I have three children’s books, (written under a different pen name), that I hope will be out soon. I am working on a cookbook for the beginning cook of any age and I just recently began work on a non-fiction piece that is primarily autobiographical. It is, as yet, untitled.
It is about my experiences living and working in Liberia, West Africa, in 1971.
Dark Myth Comics: What do you do with your life when you are not writing?
S.B.: I am into almost anything that involves my husband. We are attached at the hip. We throw pots, prospect for gold, go fishing, work in our garden. We weep together watching touching movies, hide behind each other’s hands watching scary ones. We shop. Yes, I said, “shop”. I told you he is great. He is one of a very few men who love to shop. It doesn’t matter what we shop for, he is up for it.
Dark Myth Comics: All right. I really want to thank you taking the time to talk to us, today. Is there anything we didn’t cover that you would like to share with our readers?
S.B.: I hope they like my work.
Dark Myth Comics: Great. Well, thank you again, Sadie. Thank you for your time and must success with your ”Convict Volumes!”