Action Pulp!

Please introduce yourself.

Glen Held here, born in the heart of Brooklyn and bred in the suburbs of Long Island. I’m a big fan of comics (DC), Doc Savage, Edgar Rice Burroughs, classic science fiction and the pulps in general. Began writing in earnest about three years agofor Reese Unlimited, Airship 27 and Doc Talos Magazine. I currently live in Farmingdale, New York with my wife and my good friend Eddie the dog. I also just won the Pulp Factory Group’s award for Best Pulp Novel for my book Legends in the Earth!

 

What genres do you write and why?

I write what I like to read, so mostly heroic New Pulp in the style of Doc Savage and The Shadow. My three most recent books are The Devil You Know (a pulp team-up adventure featuring public domain heroes from the 1930’s fighting the incredibly evil Doctor Satan), the aforementioned Legends in the Earth (a New Pulp hero on a journey to save the world – nominated for Best Pulp Novel of the Year), and the anthology The Killer (five Doc Savage pastiche stories.) I’ve also written a romance (what?) and a young adult science fiction tale that I self-published.

What is your earliest memory of reading?

I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you about my earliest memory of not being able to read. I was watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon, probably in the early 1960’s, and Bugs held up a sign. I think the adults in the room laughed, but I didn’t get it. I remember thinking to myself, this cartoon is really funny, but it’s going to be so much funnier when I can read.

When did you know you wanted to write? How did it happen?

It seems like I always wanted to write. I loved the thought of writing comics or composing advertising slogans like Darren Stevens did in the show Bewitched. I had some almost successes early on, having been a semi-finalist in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writer’s of the  Future contest and getting to the final stages of DC’s New Talent Showcase (it really hurt when the editor I was working with was fired and the new guy didn’t like my stuff.) Ialso was in talks about bringing a character of mine to anindependent comics company (believe it or not, I forgot thecompany’s name!) when they went out of business. Ugh! I put that aspect of my life on hold when I started raising my kids and moving up at work, but I didn’t give up entirely. Now that I have the time, I’ve started to have some actual success. Yes, I’m in my sixties now, but age is just a number…albeit a really big number.

What’s one of your favorite scenes in one of your books?

In Legends in the Earth  Max Davies, the Peregrine wakes up from a near death experience in a rural town from his childhood. The place has all the people, sights and sounds from when he was a young boy and spent summers with his aunt, uncle, and cousin. The scene is straight out of The Martian Chronicles, but with a decidedly different twist. That being, what if one’s dark memories are hidden so deeply that they can’t be read? If that happened, when these terrible memories bubble to the surface, you would eventually know the idyllic situation you’re in can’t be true. At that point, what would hurt more, realizing these wonderful memories aren’t true, or having to live through them again? 

What makes a good character? A bad one?

A good character is one I can fully envision and inhabit. I work with pictures in my mind, thinking up situations and plopping the character in it. If it’s a good character, then he/she will move the action along and the plot is pretty much written by them.Sometimes, I give them the personality of a celebrity; usually an old-timey one such as Errol Flynn or William Bendix.

A bad character is fashioned just the same as a good one, but obviously their actions make them opposites. The reason for these actions determine if they are ‘good’ bad characters. And, sometimes, a bad character becomes a good one, then back to bad. In my book The Devil You Know, Doctor Satan does that whereas in Legends in the Earth, The Ghost winds up to be… nah, I’m not going to give that one away.

What moves the story for you?

Short, quick chapters that end on a cliffhanger. Like him or loathe him, there’s a reason why James Patterson is the top selling author in the world. I don’t like to plot. To me, plotting takes the fun out of writing. However, it also makes the story a lot harder to construct, as you have to go back and forth putting out logic fires. Ultimately, though, I think the story is better for it.

What is your favorite book and why?

Easy question for me. That would be The World According to Garp by John Irving. It’s simple, yet intricate, with so many wonderful ideas running through it. I actually enjoyed it toomuch! Garp intimidated me as a writer and, knowing I’d never be able to come up with anything near as good, I gave up writing for a few years after reading it. I bet that’s a review that John Irving didn’t expect.

What do you want to say to your audience?

Thanks for your interest in my stories! When you read a story that I wrote, you can rest assured that it will be thoroughly researched and be meant to entertain. If you want a story filled with action, some humor, adventure that keeps moving forward, I think you’ll find that in the things that I write. Or at least I hope so!

What advice do you have for new writers?

Keep at it! Stories don’t write themselves. Should you paint yourself into a corner with your writing, then go back and try to change things so that corner will never have existed. If that doesn’t work, move on to something else. There are plenty of other tales out there. And you can always come back to your unfinished story later on – even if its years later!

Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Read to write and write to read!

Website: I wish I had one.