Featured Interview With John James Minster
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
John James Minster was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania. He commenced a successful international business career since the 1980s in the technology sector, all the while publishing horror short stories in major magazines and horror anthologies since 1990. In July, 2018, his first middle-grade full-length horror novel, Dreamjacker, which met with five-star reader reviews, was born of nightmares.
As a child he walked in his sleep; his parents found him at the top of the stairs about to leap down, dreaming that he could fly. Every night since childhood he still talks and punches walls in his sleep during nightmares, which he describes as "Nightly mini horror movies. Terror is feeling dread at the possibility of something frightening; horror is the shock and repulsion of seeing the thing: hello! This is my head every single night of my life—so no writer's block on the horizon or chance that I’ll run out of stories.”
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
By age, 1971, I was well-read. I read everything I could find. The entire World Book Encyclopedia. Every Hardy Boys novel. I once read the entire dictionary. As a young teen hungry for fiction especially horror and sci-fi, I jumped straight into Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, Jerzy Kosiński, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Golding, Jonathan Swift, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Stephen King…it’s a very long list. I also read everything my parents had on shelves: Reader’s Digest compilations and such. Today, I rarely miss anything by Nelson DeMille, Lawrence Block, or Lee Child. I read at least one hundred books a year.
A major magazine publishes twelve lead fiction stories per year; in 1990, they bought three of those from me, my first time getting paid for writing. Then tech business took up all my time, though I published (unpaid) pieces in various print and online newspapers and such; also creative writing every day for business. Not until 2018 did I decide to start writing books.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
99% of what I read is horror, true for fifty years. Edgar Allan Poe. Best writer ever. Brilliant, disciplined, gifted mind. Whenever in Baltimore, I go touch his grave and have a little talk with him. Brother from another mother, he is. Don’t ever think that dark horror stories come from dark horrible people. His life indeed was dark and yet his was a loving, sweet, and tender heart. I love the man.
Today, best of all I think is probably Neil Gaiman. The man can turn a phrase like nobody else. I would describe many of his sentences as ‘delicious’ with an almost musical quality. Like most writers I love to read and buy just about everything published. Erin Morgenstern nailed it with her debut novel, Night Circus. J.K. Rowling’s Potter books are labeled Kid’s Lit, but no, they are simply excellent literature for the ages. Of those active in my lifetime: Stephen King, Clive Barker, Cormac McCarthy, Anne Rice, F. Paul Wilson, Isaac Asimov, Lawrence Block, Mario Puzo, Nelson DeMille…I love their product and always learn a little something from each. And who doesn’t love Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books?
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Adult horror novel, The Undertaker's Daughter, is due to hit bookstores in about a month, from publisher Hellbender Books. Anna Dingel, raised in the family funeral home, turns eighteen. Israeli archaeologists unearth an ancient stone fragment; on it, a name missing for millennia. Anna’s best friend Naomi uses it to piece together old Jewish magic. The exceedingly creepy, supernatural, violent eldritch power the two friends unleash takes dark and unexpected turns. Children learn about love, forgiveness, consequences—and never to play with dead things.
I decided to write a story about a golem, something I've wanted to do for a long while. Deep research turned up a treasure-trove of fascinating Old Testament magic. When I sat before a formatted Word .doc on my screen, the entire story (characters, plot) came to me in under a minute. The author job involved writing down the 'movie scenes' in my head, which sometimes come from nocturnal nightmares but in this case a powerful, detailed daydream. It took about 100 hours to get it down, polish it up and make it submission-ready.
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John James Minster Facebook Page
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