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Q
& A with Tamara Thorne
author of Thunder Road
Question: What inspired you to write Thunder Road?
Tamara Thorne: One day, a tall, lanky, modern-day cowboy named Tom Abernathy
ambled into my head, sat down, put his feet up and waited for a book. A year or
two later, it jelled after three things happened: First, I had a vivid,
multiple-viewpoint dream about a serial killer and his victims. Second, we took
a trip to Calico Ghost Town in the Mojave Desert. Third, I'd been reading a trio
of non-fiction books by Jacques Vallee called Dimensions, Confrontations, and
Revelations. The material that fascinated me most was devoted to commonalties
between today's ET stories and older folklore. It made a huge amount of sense to
me. Some of Vallee's influence showed up subtly in Bad Things' elementals, and
it became the driving factor behind Thunder Road. The connections fell easily
into place. Calico is known as more than a tourist stop -- it's alive with
folklore, ghost stories, and UFO sightings. The desert is a mysterious place
where people who don't wish to be found like to be, where things are looser in
many ways. It's easy to get lost there. Also, the amount of ores in the earth
around these old mining towns -- Calico was a real silver boom town at one time
-- often have, in my opinion, some effect on behavior. It's a place that draws
more than its share of eccentrics. Mix that up with my laconic cowboy who'd
simply be drawn to the landscape and the wild west shows, and there's the plot.
Question: Thunder Road covers UFOs, science, theology and legal/police
procedure. What was the most difficult/most rewarding part of researching this
title? Please share how you approached your research for Thunder Road.
Tamara Thorne: The most rewarding parts were probably getting to wallow in Dr. Vallee's theories to my heart's content and tilting with the windmills of
extreme religion. Also, it's a big book of many viewpoints, and any time I get
to see out of various characters' eyes, I'm happy. My research on religion,
ufology, and cowboy culture spanned at least a year before I wrote the book,
probably longer. Other aspects were already well-researched, such as police
procedure and criminal psychology.
Question: Thunder Road has a large cast of characters, and they all get their
share in the spotlight in the novel. Who is your favorite character from the
book? Why?
Tamara Thorne: Tom the cowboy. He identifies with Gary Cooper's Will Kane in
High Noon. He's an alpha male, in control, but he doesn't like to get involved.
He's shy around women. Love those reluctant heroes. My other favorites were
Carlo Pelegrine, Moss Baskerville and, to my surprise, the Prophet Sinclair. He
was a pistol, refusing to do anything I had planned for him. I love it when
characters take off like that. He was, from the instant he appeared on paper,
John Corbett, the actor. I have no idea why -- but he still is. Mr. Corbett, if
you're available. . .
Question: Do you have plans to write any more books featuring characters from
Thunder Road? Why or why not?
Tamara Thorne: I don't have a clue. I don't want a clue. If it happens, it
happens. I like surprises. The world of Thunder Road -- Madelyn and Old Madelyn
Amusement Park -- are part of my entire book world, so I wouldn't be surprised
to see mentions pop up here and there. My new website,
GrimmAcres.com, will treat all the towns
I've created as locations just as real as others you'll find written up there;
the ones you find on any ordinary map. Thunder Road's locale, along with Calico,
one of its major inspirations, will be featured soon.
I'm not much for series. Sometimes a character, like David Masters (Haunted),
will pop in and out of various books, and I do like to keep the localities
constant, but I prefer new things for the most part. Even if I adore a
character, the thought of writing about him forever more just doesn't appeal to
me. As I said -- I like surprises!
Question: How large a role did the 1990s Waco incident play in creating the
character of James Robert Sinclair? Who is the inspiration behind Justin Martin
--- one of the most terrifying characters in Thunder Road?
Tamara Thorne: None, not consciously, at least. I was thinking about religious
cults long before Waco. The Prophet Sinclair started out as a lounge-lizard
evangelist, all greasy sexual charisma and white Spandex. He's absolutely not a Koresh, though his lieutenants have the cultish, creepy aspects that reflect
Koresh's group and most other fanatical cults. With Sinclair's Prophet's
Apostles, I was going after religious dogma and blind belief. I've always been
fascinated by people who are willing to buy into whatever they're told, who
believe that questioning things is somehow "sinful." Of course, that's been bred
into practitioners of Christianity and other religions for centuries upon
centuries, so it's understandable to some extent. Most people, religious or not,
tend to at least believe in some sort of judgmental, usually anthropomorphic,
god. This endlessly fascinates me because I don't quite understand how they
believe without question. Of course, people believe in what newspapers and
politicians tell them, too. Often, especially in non-fanatical ways, simply
taking all these things at face value gets people through their days.
I think faith in anything other than yourself and maybe some trusted friends is
silly --- and intriguing. But in Thunder Road, I was examining religious
fanaticism, a very different animal. And I wasn't feeling kindly toward
government types either. But then, I never do have warm fuzzies for either of
those things!
Question: Your novels cover multiple genres --- horror, science fiction,
thriller --- and always a hint of comic relief. What draws you to these genres,
as both a reader and a writer?
Tamara Thorne: I want lots of stimulation when I read and write. When reading, I
usually prefer intricate plots. With a few notable exceptions, I need an element
of the fantastic in my entertainment. Without it, I'm easily bored. I'd no more
be able to sustain interest in a Danielle Steel sort of novel than a movie in
that genre. I seek out ghost stories when I can find good ones -- but they're
very hard to come by. I mainly enjoy reading techno-thrillers and
conspiracy-oriented books. I shamelessly devour Dan Brown - there is a strong
element of the fantastic to his fiction, and as non-supernatural as it may be,
it scratches my itch. Nelson DeMille needs no fantastic element to draw me in
because his characters are witty and his plots riveting. I also like to dig into
something like American Gods by Neil Gaiman or his collaboration with Terry
Prachett, Good Omens, now and then. Some Chris Moore is a pleasant change and I
never get tired of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Or Hitchcock movies. Or
Stephen King or Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, or Richard Matheson. Or MAD Magazine
or Mel Brooks' farces. Van Helsing most recently scratched my itch for action
and humor -- deadpan funny is often better than a pie in the face! And I never
get tired of movies like Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Terminator,
Independence Day, Valmont, or Amadeus. They're all exciting in various ways.
My very favorite thing is the ghost story -- and that's why most of my books are
built around hauntings of some sort. Thunder Road's UFOs are really a show of
interest in folklore, just as The Sorority's variation on the Green Man -- the
Forest Knight -- reflects a lifelong love of Arthurian lore. I wasn't a
girly-girl. I wanted to be the knight, not the princess. I just like slapstick,
fighting, and sex. And ghosts. What can I say?
Question: How did your interest in the occult/supernatural begin? Please share
with us some of your experiences as a ghost hunter and journalist covering
alleged hauntings.
Tamara Thorne: I think I was just born that way. I like mystery. I love knowing
that it's impossible to know everything, so I'll always have things to explore.
Ghosts are the main focus of that attitude; I don't remember a time I wasn't
begging for ghost stories. I liked fictional ones, just like I loved folklore,
but what really did it for me were books of allegedly true stories. I was
collecting those along with books of folklore by first or second grade. I've
never stopped.
As a ghost hunter, I'm skeptical. I feel there are far too many charlatans
causing people to believe things that simply aren't true -- fanatics of any sort
make me uneasy. Part of the reason I created
GrimmAcres.com is to shed a little light on such things, in a
tongue-in-cheek way.
I've experienced many phenomena, including a number that have so far defied
identification. Sometimes there are occurrences you simply must accept, rather
than get caught up trying to rationalize them in incredibly ludicrous ways. I've
seen a couple apparitions that I can't explain away, experienced lots of cold
spots, and even some aport/deport phenomena in the house we own that can't
possibly be written off to cats playing soccer. I've been in only one truly
frightening loop-type residual haunting involving the sounds of stomping
footsteps and slamming doors and an absolutely fascinating (after the fact) aura
of darkness, of fear -- of something nasty. I can't define it, except as the
ghost of a very negative emotion, one that inspires terror. I've also seen
plenty of poltergeist activity, some of which was much more intense than the
terror-inducing loop-haunt -- but it caused me no terror, just "Oooh! Do it
again!" reactions. I went through one poltergeist attack that was obviously
fueled by the conflicted emotions of a friend. It was an absolute hoot, very
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, with all the air pressure changes affecting our ears
and static electricity raising goosebumps. Not scary though, to me, anyway. My
reaction was to swear at it. Worked like a charm. In retrospect, I wish just
once I'd let the mass of energy actually land on me just to see what would have
happened. But my inner sailor was on automatic!
I very much enjoy staying in haunted places and consider it one of the perks of
being a novelist -- it's research! The perfect excuse to do it! I can have my
ghost and write about it, too.
Question: Did you know you wanted to make the transition from journalism to
writing fiction? Please share with us some stories along your path to
publication.
Tamara Thorne: Oh, I never wanted to be a journalist. Telling the truth all the
time is much too boring! I first took journalism in high school because the
creative writing class never had anyone else sign up for it. Now I'm glad --
that could have done a lot of harm with the wrong teacher. Journalism was
marvelous for me. I recommend it to any student who wants to write fiction or
fact. Aknowledge of journalism is an invaluable tool. I did all right with it,
had a scholarship, lost interest. I worked as a freelance journalist while
writing my first novels. That's how I started getting into haunted places. It
was much more fun than covering school board meetings!
I was also born writing, I think. Very young, I did it to get out frustrations
rather than call attention to myself. I'd scribble out the mad, then shred it.
By about third or fourth grade, I was writing my own stories, from TV shows like
Star Trek first, then my own ideas. By junior high, I'd gotten into the habit of
staying awake in class by writing satires -- back to Star Trek! By high school,
I was the newspaper editor and politically charged. I liked to write about
aliens abducting presidents, things like that. My journalism teacher and one
English teacher always encouraged and didn't judge my sarcasm or, in fiction, my
gore. Dedicated a book to those ladies. But I was always told, from childhood
on, when I'd pound out the Beatles' Paperback Writer on the piano for hours,
that you couldn't make a living writing fiction. I didn't consider it by the
time I grew up, not for about ten years, when my spouse suggested I give it five
years. So I did. And I sold. And I've been doing it ever since. It's the perfect
career. Before, I'd hold a job for a year or two, until I knew every aspect,
then I'd quit and find something new to learn. Books are like new jobs -- and
there's the reason I don't want to do true series books -- horror, to me, is
being stuck doing one thing over and over.
Question: What authors inspired you or continue to inspire you?
Tamara Thorne: My mother read Baum's Oz books to me every morning from infancy
on, and they still resonate. Ray Bradbury, H. Rider Haggard, and Arthur Conan
Doyle were my early favorites. Then came the science fiction phase. Then I found
Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, lots of Richard Matheson and Roald
Dahl. Also, I was glued to MAD Magazine half the time and science magazines the
other half. Houdini was my idol and I devoured his books on his misadventures
with spiritualists.
Novelists who continue to inspire me would include the early ones, even if I
don't read the adventures of Alan Quatermain or Sherlock Holmes much anymore,
and some horror writers from the 80's, primarily Michael McDowell. I also
consider George R. R. Martin's Fevre Dream one of those books that top the heap
-- especially impressive because vampires aren't normally my bag. Robert
McCammon is wonderful. Now, for sheer delight -- by that I mean that feeling
that you don't want the book to end and you also want to go work on your own
manuscript, it's mainly Stephen King and Nelson DeMille, then Dan Brown, and
occasionally the Child/Preston duo or Caleb Carr, or Michael Crichton. Michael
Slade is tasty. But mainly King and DeMille rock my world. Though entirely
different in content and style, they are both supremely talented at bringing
characters to life, and that's probably what I most care about. Sitting down
with a book by either of them always makes me feel good! DeMille in particular.
I'm horribly jealous of my spouse, since he's just in the middle of his first
DeMille. I envy him!
Question: Are you consciously trying to "be scary" as you write a horror story,
or do the horror elements creep in and surprise you, just as the elements would
surprise a reader?
Tamara Thorne: I'm not terribly conscious of what I'm doing while I write --
thinking about it would let the dread "Inner Critic" out and stop the flow. I'm
a gestalt type. I have a big blob of sensation and a vision in my head and I let
my fingers type it out while I "feel" what's going on. It's often rather erotic,
though I don't necessarily mean sexual. Hedonistic. I like experiencing the
sensations, so I concentrate on that and let my hands channel the analytical
part. If I think much, I stall out. When I describe something spooky, for
instance, the opening of Bad Things with the child Ricky scared of the shadows
outside, I feel it and write about it. It's part memory, I'm sure, and part
imagination. But the descriptions of spooky places are pretty much a
conglomeration of sensations, sight, scent, temperature, sounds. All those
things. And I end up just sort of watching my fingers put together words.
Question: How do you decide how many graphic details to include in a scene? Do
you ever stop to think --- "this might be going overboard?" Why or why not?
Tamara Thorne: I put in whatever feels right. Generally, I'm far less sexually
graphic with protagonists. It's unlikely you'll see a hero or heroine's private
parts -- I prefer to shut the door when intimacy starts so they can be alone. I
have no such scruples with not-so-nice or simply minor characters.
As for violence, I probably do cut back on things that seem overboard now and
then, but I can't think of any offhand. I tend to edit myself before it gets on
the page. Simply put, I use my own sense of morality in any given situation.
Yep, there are things I won't write about that others might, and vice versa.
Generally, if I use extreme violence, it's to drive a point home. As for sexy
scenes, I don't do them to attract readers, I do them because it's fun! I really
write for my own pleasure, not to others' expectations. Been there, done that.
It takes all the joy -- and life -- out of writing!
Question: Which of your books is your personal favorite? Why? Which book do you
recommend a new reader start with if he or she is exploring your work for the
first time?
Tamara Thorne: That's a toughie. Usually, whatever I'm writing is my favorite.
The ones that stand out to me over time, though, are Haunted, Bad Things, and
Thunder Road. Thunder Road is just something I absolutely had to do. One of the
biggies. It and Bad Things are not very genre-oriented, but Haunted is pure
genre. It's a love letter to haunted houses and every wonderful cliche they
harbor. Bad Things, in retrospect, is rather personal, though I didn't realize
that until I finished writing it. People frequently ask if a particular female
character in each book is really me. Absolutely not! But Bad Things' Ricky Piper
is about as close to identifying with a character as I've ever come.
What book to start with? It depends on what you like. I go from silly/scary to
fairly dark and cover lots of subjects. Probably reading about the books on my
two websites (GrimmAcres.com or
TamaraThorne.com) is the best way to
choose.
Question: Is there a particular genre you have not yet explored that you would
like to?
Tamara Thorne: There are some things in the planning stages that are rather
different in nature, but they still fall solely within my interests, which means
they contain fantastic elements. I'm likely to go back to conspiracy-oriented
material in a different way than in either The Forgotten or The Sorority trilogy
(Eve, Merilynn, Samantha). I do lots of research on conspiracies, psychological
manipulation, and I never get bored with the study of haunts and anomalies. One
of the joys of writing is that it's an excuse to gleefully delve into everything
that interests me.
Question: What can you tell us about your current work(s) in progress?
Tamara Thorne: It's a big old ghost story and I'm having a good time with it. I
haven't had time to do a more intricate book in a while and this one is giving
me satisfaction with its twists and turns. The story is fictional, but heavily
based in a real location's history, lore and rather active haunts! I'll begin
dropping hints in my newsletter and on Grimm Acres before too long. In fact,
there are tiny clues on Grimm Acres already, but they're very much under wraps.
. .
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