Hello, Doug, and welcome to my blog! Thanks so much for agreeing to become my minion…erm…be interviewed.

You’ve been writing stories since childhood and started publishing novels in your late twenties – was writing something you always knew you’d make a career from, or did you think it was just something fun to do?

I always felt I was a writer, whether I ever had a career or not. I started writing at age 8, and just never stopped. I was a middling student in school, but every now and then I’d write a short story and it would jump me into some accelerated program. I went to some great schools as a kid — well, great for me.

But I must be honest: I never did well in classes in which I had no interest and in which the teacher couldn’t reach me in some way. But writing and literature were my passions as a kid and in college.

So, I hoped to make a career from writing but I had no real indication that it could be done. I’m still never sure — I feel it can all end tomorrow. But I’ll keep writing stories, regardless.

Your first novel, Goat Dance, appeared in 1989. The eighties experienced a surge of popular horror fiction. What were you reading in the eighties and did those books affect your decision to write Goat Dance? Where did the idea come from?

I had been thinking about the book that became Goat Dance for at least five years before I sat down to write it. I was preoccupied with mating, work, and other things and I never really thought I’d sell anything I’d write at that point. I just didn’t think it would happen. I wasn’t depressed about it — I wrote stuff and I just kept it to myself, mostly.

Goat Dance was bought by Pocket Books in 1987 — about a year after I’d finished its final draft — but they didn’t bring it out until 1989, and by then I had two more books nearly done. I would write the books — back then — fairly quickly and then spend months doing other things, discovering places and people and enjoying life a bit too much.

The horror market actually was pretty much kaput by ’89 when the book came out, but it still had a little steam left in it. I’ve been very fortunate. I find it unbelievable that I’ve had all these books published over the years — and the books are exactly what I wanted to write at the time and they all found homes with major publishers. I could not have predicted any of that.

In fact, I doubt I could’ve predicted my life from indicators in childhood. I would’ve thought I’d be living in a box on the side of the road by now.

What scares you?

Normal life. If I told you more, I’d have to hunt you down.

Do you try to write about what scares you, or what you think might scare someone else?

As odd as it will sound, everything I’ve written is autobiographical, only twisted and hidden and hyper-exaggerated and prevaricated and turned around and made upside-down so that the metaphor of some experience is all that’s there.

So, to me, I don’t write “scary,” I write “what this really meant or means to me, taken to some fantastical nth degree.”

Do you have a typical writing day?

Never. But every day, I write, whether I put words down on paper or not. My entire orientation to the world is as someone who is constantly storytelling, one way or another. And by that, I don’t mean “lying,” but I mean, I’m always reshaping experience and outlook and whatever understanding I have into a story.

My current book, Isis, while ostensibly a throwback to the gothics of the late nineteenth century, is genuinely from experience — but not a supernatural experience. Again, it’s hyper-exaggeration of an experience I’ve had, turned around, twisted, undone, stripped down to a metaphor.

The Priest of Blood, my vampire epic, is purely a re-telling of an aspect of my experience through a filter of a supernatural tale. And no, I’ll never tell.

At this point, your career’s spanned about two decades. How has your writing changed from when you started? What publishing differences have you experienced?

My writing’s changed insofar as my understanding of what I’m doing and what might be done in fiction has changed. Despite having a marketable storytelling ability, I’ve never thought of a market when I write (or when I have, it didn’t matter — I always ended up telling the “Doug Clegg” story). I’ve always written from experience, with my twists.

But what has changed is I now understand craft more deeply and can see where and why a story of mine has gone wrong, and where I can now go back and fix it, editorially. There are aspects of storytelling that create a narrative dynamic, and there are aspects of character that are important to create so that the effect of the story becomes more powerful.

Those are the things I’ve spent the past three years slowly studying and working on. It has helped to revisit classics, re-read great Greek tragedies, re-visit Shakespeare’s work, go to the great movies and novels of the 20th century that have unbeatable stories that hold up years later — essentially, the modern classics of storytelling. Turning to the world of art also helps — the great artists also have these characteristics in their work.

So I keep studying craft and keep learning from masters. It has both slowed my output a bit and re-energized my love for story.

Regarding publishing differences, well, one of the big differences is co-op in bookstores. It has changed the way marketing is done for books, which used to reach out more to the consumer outside the bookstores. Now, the bookstore itself is the front line of the marketing and promotional budget for those books that get displayed.

When I started, it was indie stores and Waldenbooks and B. Dalton. As big as a B. Dalton might be, it never reached the physical space of B&N and Borders or the unlimited spaces of Indiebound.com, BN.com, Amazon and Borders.com. This changed how many books could be shelved, which I think transformed how publishers put books out. Publishers adapt to the bookselling and book-buying environment, and as those have changed, publishing has followed.

On the other hand, I don’t think publishing changes fast enough — the internet has turned things upside down in terms of bookselling and reader attention and patterns of consumer behavior. It takes a keen mind to keep up with it, and luckily there are a few publishers who have kept pace with the changes. But not all. I think constant innovation is the future of any business with an online component, and I think people need to be hired in those companies who have these kinds of creative, innovative minds.

On the other hand, a lot has remained the same in publishing, too. Since I’m not on the other side of the wall with the publishers, I don’t know enough about the changes or lack of them. I just know it from my side of the wall, as a writer.

You were on the forefront of epublishing and utilizing the Internet to get your work in front of readers. Now you’re a writer who uses social networking to connect with readers often, with your Ask Me Thursdays and Tell Me Fridays. So tell me the truth: Facebook, huge time suck or valuable promotional tool? And how have you resisted playing Farmville all day instead of writing books?!

I never play games online, unless it’s the Isis Game.

Regarding Facebook and Twitter as timesucks, they can be, but here’s what I do: my husband set up an exercise bike in our TV room. On it, he created a desktop where I can take my laptop and a water bottle.

So when I go on Facebook or Twitter, I’m usually doing about 3 miles of exercycling. That way the timesuck is lost to “exercise time.”

Additionally, I go on Facebook and Twitter when I’m waiting in the car (not driving) with my iPhone or when I’m standing in line somewhere. That way it’s more “filler time.”

I like communicating with people. When it gets to be too much, I just don’t go to Facebook or Twitter. But I like the people on there and learn a lot about what people are reading and doing — and I like answering questions about writing, since it’s been my entire life.

And when the internet gets to be too much, I use my Alphasmart Neo, which you recommended to me. It’s a great device, I can get a ton of writing done on it because it provides zero distraction and I can even go up to my roofdeck, sit in the sun, and write.

Your website is amazing, including free downloads, games, serial stories…did you ever imagine having such a hands-on, immediate connection with readers when you began? What’s the best part about having that connection?

Megan, I really love the internet. Before I was aware of the internet much (back in the late ’80s and very early ’90s when I only went on GEnie occasionally) it always felt like deathly silence when a novel of mine came out. Now, I get to hear from readers, I get to communicate with other writers, I get to email manuscripts to my editors, I get to see upcoming cover art right after it’s been created, and I never have to stand in line for movie or theater or train tickets again. I never have to spend hours in a mall (I’m not a fan of malls) to buy something. I just go click and buy it.

Publishers have found me via the internet and have become aware of my fiction that way — as have readers. I love it. My neighborhood is not just the people who live on my block — they’re the people I communicate with online.

Tell me about your bunnies!

Okay, well, there’s a whole saga. Years ago, when Raul and I were biking out in Jersey City at Liberty Park, we saw a furry little thing at the side of the road. I thought, from a distance, it was a Himalayan cat. Turned out it was a bunny. Now, I wasn’t a rabbit person. I saw them as cute rodents. (They’re not rodents at all, I discovered.)

So this little rabbit had been dumped by someone. She was eager to be picked up and taken home. There were feral dogs and cats all over this one area of the park, plus owls and other predators. We called this part of that park the Buddha area, so we named her Buddha. And she became a Buddha to us. We fell in love with her — she had a remarkably social personality with us, and she taught us a lot about the prey animal. I mean, how could something so wonderful and fascinating be the meal for every predator out there?

Years later, Buddha sadly died (she was at least 7 or 8 by then.) We decided we’d honor her by adopting another bunny, who was sadly sitting in the local Humane Society — surrounded by yowling cats and howling dogs. This was Luka, and he came home but barely moved because he’d had no real stimulation. So we adopted Rosemary from a rescue group, and she was feisty and even up for fights. Eight months later, wedding bells (no babies — they’re both fixed.)

They’ve pretty much taken over half a room in the house, and have two three story condos as well as the floor. They’re remarkable.

And you haven’t even asked about the mouse (rescued from our cat, the mouse came up to us for help. She now has three aquariums to choose from, with tubes running through them — and like Buddha, is the most personable of little mice. She’s been with us about six months.)

What’s your favorite book by you?

Hard to say. Neverland and Isis are up there, but so is The Hour Before Dark and The Priest of Blood and The Queen of Wolves.

What’s your favorite book by anyone else?

Too many. But my favorite writers are Guy de Maupassant, Isak Dinesen, Herman Hesse, Ford Madox Ford and Ira Levin. Among many, many others.

Do you listen to music while you’re writing? If so, what kinds? Do you use playlists or soundtracks?

I don’t listen to music much. Sometimes when I write, I listen to Loreena McKennitt or some movie soundtracks or even Francoise Hardy.

Do you have a dedicated office space or do you prefer to roam while you’re writing?

I have all of the above. My office and library are fantastic — a room-long table for a desk with two computers (one for internet stuff, one for writing) and tons of books — about 20 bookcases in all.

I have to add, my husband Raul is half the “Douglas Clegg” business — he is the first proofer, brainstormer, research-checker, “business-stuff” person and more. We have an LLC together. We’ve been together for my entire 20 year career.

Please tell me a bit about your newest release, ISIS. It looks absolutely gorgeous – and for me, personally, part of the joy in reading a book is often the presentation. Is ISIS your first illustrated novel, and how did the decision come about to illustrate it? How closely (if at all) did you work with the illustrator?

The illustrator is my friend Glenn Chadbourne. He’s a genius. We were fortunate to get him for Isis. My publisher at Vanguard, Roger Cooper, and the team there, really felt that Isis needed illustrations. I brought Glenn in, and he wowed all of us with his stunning illustrations.

Glenn has recently collaborated on a Stephen King project, the illustrated Secretary of Dreams.

In my opinion, Glenn should become famous and in-demand once people see this book. From the cover alone, you can see his genius. He is a genuine artist — he has done this since he was a little kid. Pen-and-ink, those drawings. Beautiful. He just goes at it.

We spoke on the phone every day and went back and forth on the drawings for the book. I wanted to bring him the love of the story and I think he translated this beautifully into his drawings. They’re breathtaking.

But a lot of credit goes to Roger Cooper at Vanguard, as well as Georgina Levitt and Amanda Ferber. They saw the potential with this little book and the art that Glenn produced.

ISIS is part of your Harrow saga. Did you know you were going to write this story, which occurs before the others, all along or did the idea come to you later?

Isis is only slightly part of it. Harrow, as a series, is not a series. It’s the idea that a house was once built for the potential of infinite hauntings. Then I just began world-building around it. Isis herself, in the book, never sets foot in Harrow. We never really know her in the other Harrow books other than as a psychic who wrote a book about Harrow later on.

But in ISIS, she is a girl growing up in Cornwall, and her adventure has to do with her family and the beginnings of her psychic ability. It’s a tale of “Be careful what you wish for,” and also a story about the potentially destructive nature of family.

Authors get asked all the time, “where do you get your ideas” – can you describe to me the process of “getting an idea” and how you decide if that three-second snippet of dialogue or that jumbled scene is worth turning into a novel?

All of my ideas come from life. I’ve either directly or indirectly experienced something, and then I take it to the nth degree, I wrap it in fiction, I clothe it with another point of view. A lot of my writing is to get at the truth of something that I have found mysterious in life. I think life itself is difficult and even hostile at times, and yet at other times, it’s wondrous and surprisingly gentle. I bring my ideas of this in, then from the filter of my imagination, I recreate and reinvent it through story and my sense of story.

I just love storytelling. I did it before I could write. Before I could read, I used to sit down with the funny pages and make up each line of dialogue in the comic strip for my dad and mom. I think storytelling is innate in all of us, but those of us who become writers maintain equilibrium by getting it down on paper and recreating experience into something more permanent and structured than reality can ever be.

Rapid fire portion!

Up or down?
Up!
Plotter or pantser?
Both.
Right or left?
Left
In or Out?
In AND out.
East or West?
South
Front or back?
If I answer this, it will lead to a bad joke.
Chocolate or vanilla?
Ginger.
Sam or Dean?
Sam.
Kirk or Spock?
Neither. That Romulan Nero.
Kirk or Picard?
Picard.
Trek or Wars?
Wars.
Facebook or Myspace?
Facebook.
Beach or lake?
Beach.
Roller coasters or merry go rounds?
Hate them both. I choose the House of Horrors.
Fangs or claws?
Claws.
Ghosts or ghouls?
Ghosts.
Onions or carrots?
Onions!

Learn more about Doug including information about his new release, ISIS, at his website, Twitter and Facebook.