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Since I have some meager contacts in the writing industry, I thought it would be cool to occasionally interview working, published authors for this forum. Since there are thousands of published authors, I'm sure there will be some cases in which they will be authors you haven't heard of before but I look at this as an opportunity to find out about the lesser known writers. (Plus Stephen King won't return my emails)
After posting these interviews I'll open things up to your followup questions. In most cases I'll be able to convince these authors to visit this page, read the questions, and answer for themselves. So I will ask that we be a little more respectful than usual since these authors will be our guests and not the normal Nightly poster whom we are all free to cuff around as we please. (I'm talking you YOU, UK Legend Killa. )
John Zakour is a humor/sf/fantasy writer with a Master's degree in Human Behavior and slowly plugging away at his Ph.D. He has written zillions (well, thousands) of gags for syndicated comics and comedians (including: Rugrats, Grimmy, Marmaduke, Bound and Gagged, Dennis the Menace, The Tonight show and, Joan River's old TV show.) John also writes his own syndicated comic, Working Daze for United Media. Working Daze appears in papers all over the world (well the US, Scotland, Canada and Taiwan) and has a regular web following with over 40,000 regular readers. John has been the weekly cartoonist for Geek.com and has sold cartoons or gags to hundreds of journals, magazines and web sites. John also has been a regular contributor to Nickelodeon magazine writing Fairly Odd Parents and Jimmy Neutron comic books.
John’s humorous SF mystery book, The Plutonium Blonde (DAW 2001, co-written with Larry Ganem and started of as an interactive web story for the Sci Fi channel) was named one of the top 30 SF books of 2001 by The Chronicle of Science Fiction who called it, “the funniest SF book of 2001”. (The book is available in Russian, Japanese, and Chek.) His second novel, The Doomsday Brunette (DAW Feb 2004) has made the Locus best sellers list. The third book in the series, The RadioActive Redhead, was released December 6th, 2005. The fourth novel, The Frost Haired Vixen(the first written alone) will be release December 2006.
John’s humorous look at pregnancy: A Man's Guide To Pregnancy, is published by Metropolis Ink and sold 10,000 at Motherhood Maternity stores all over the country. The second book in the series, A Man’s Guide to Babies was released in July 2005. John has written 3 books on HTML (for Waite Press) and a number of Children’s books for a book packager. He’s also sold hundreds of greeting cards to pretty much every major greeting card company that buys material, including: Hallmark, Recycled Paper Products, Gibson and many others. Plus he has sold a bunch of short stories to different anthologies.
John has sold two screenplays: Saucer Girls to Plutonium Films (though he’s sure it won’t ever get made) and the short feature A Date with Death that is being produced in England. John has also written and helped develop an animated sf horror series, called Prime Squad for MUV Technologies in India. John has recently written and helped develop the first season of the animated series: Caramel Girls, for Mobtoons, production is under way now. Recently, John has written the dialog for Frogwares Software computer game Around the World in 80 days. Some people call the game hilarious (gameboomers), others call it mildly amusing (the NY Times) and others don’t like it, humor is a subjective thing. John is also currently writing on the independent SF TV show, “Realm of the Mind” and writing skits for the Harlem Rockets basketball team. John has a family martial arts movie, Kamp Karate currently under preproduction (to shoot in the summer of 06), with Foust Studios.
John lives in upstate NY with his wife Olga, a professor at Cornell University, and his son Jay. Back in the old days (the late 1990s) John worked as science writer / web guru / interactive software programmer for Cornell University. Back in ancient times (the 1980s) John was freelance computer game programmer while also serving as database programmer / technical support / help desk / anything else they could think of for Cornell. John has also been an EMT and a judo instructor. He’s flexible and fast. Just for fun, John is working on his Ph.D. in holistic nutrition. For more fun John enjoys: the martial arts (though he’s switched from karate and judo to tai chi) , softball (he once had 15 rbi’s in a game – now he’s happy to get that in a season) and just relaxing watching TV and working on his Spanish.
More info is available on: johnzakour.com
Question) So John, how did you break into writing gags for syndicated comics?
John Zakour I wanted to be a cartoonist since the first day I read a peanuts book.
The problem was a wasn't a good artist. So I dabbled in cartooning but never did much. And became a computer programmer for Cornell. Suddenly in 1987 my position was downsized as part of a state budget cut. I decided to take advantage of my time on unemployment and explore my options. One day while perusing the bookstore I came across Mort Gerber’s book on cartooning. There was a section in it on gag writing. Gag writing is the practice of writing jokes for cartoons - the script for the comic strip. Until that day I never knew cartoonists used gag writers. This could be my way around my limited art talent. I decided to try my hand at it. I wrote a bunch of gags, typed them onto 3 * 5 cards and sent them out to three leading magazine cartoonist. My thoughts were if the cartoonists didn’t like them I would give up gag writing and go get a Ph.D. in Neurobiology.
I waited a few weeks, one by one each batch came back with notes of praise. The cartoonists loved my writing. By the end of my first year as a gag writer I literally sold hundreds of gags through at least 20 different cartoonists. My gags appeared in every major magazine from American Home to the National Enquirer to the Saturday Evening Post to Yankee magazine.
This success with magazine cartoons lead me to try syndicated cartoonists. I was met with equal enthusiasm. At one point I was ghost writing for seven of the top fifteen syndicated comic strips.
Q) What about the Tonight Show and Joan Rivers' show?
JZ It just seemed to be a natural follow up to the cartoons. I would gags for their TV shows each day and fax them to their offices. Occasionally I would get a sale. The pay scale wasn't that great (after all they have regular writers and I didn't want to move to LA or NY) I just did it for the experience.
Q) Tell us about "Working Daze" and how that got started.
JZ It was an outlet for me to share my joys and frustrations of working in an office with the world. I write for a LOT of cartoonists all they all told me to be successful with a comic strip you have "write what you know". So I happen to know what it's like being a geek in an office. Unfortunately I think we'll always be "Dilbert's poorer cousin."
Q) Where did you get the idea for "The Plutonium Blonde"?
JZ Watching old Night Rider shows in Costa Rica. Then watching a show on HBO about a PI that lived in a world where magic was common place. I decided to run the two together. Make it about a futuristic PI with a talking computer side kick. I tossed out the magic and added SF.
Q) When you were writing it did you already have a series of these books planned?
JZ The second the publisher said, series sell better. It became a series.
Actually it already was a series since Plutonium Blonde was actually written after Doomsday Brunette, it's just TPB sold first to the Sci Fi channel so that opened up the door.
Q) Is "A Man's Guide To Pregnancy" a satire, a serious stab at helping men, or something in between?
JZ Yep all of the above. It's meant to show men that they aren't alone in their confusion when it comes to dealing with Pregnancy. It's a kind of "we're in this together" sort of thing. If I made it through so can you. It also encourages men to communicate with their wives.
Q) Tell us about "Caramel Girls" and how you got involved in that.
JZ Kind of the shot out of the blue. I wrote a few Rugrats and Fairly Odd Parents comic books which got my name around, this production group from Singapore found me and sent me a picture of these three girls they had they wanted them to sing and fight crime. They wanted to know if I could write a story to fit the description. I said sure. The rest is history. I made the girls super heroes because I think being rock stars and super heroes just goes well together. I say it's what you'd get if you put Jossie and ***** Cats and the X-men in a blender.
Q) You have two movie scripts that you are currently shopping around. Tell us about those.
JZ Kamp Karate is a fun, kids, martial arts (duh) movie that's kind of like the Bad News Bear meets Karate Kid. The concept was John Foutz's. He asked me to write the script and I said sure.
Mayor Minor is about a 14 year old who decides to run for Mayor in his home town. He initially does it for an "easy" project but ends up getting into the idea.
Q) You've written jokes for comedians, gags for magazines, a comic strip, several types of novels, movie scripts, and TV series. Which type of writing do you enjoy the most?
JZ Whatever happens to be paying me the most at any given time.
Seriously that's only half true. Novels are by far the hardest to write and least cost effective yet there is a certain satisfaction about completing a novel and seeing it in book stores and book shelves.
My greatest pleasure was taking a plan trip and noticing a person on the plane was reading The Plutonium Blonde. I didn't tell them it was my book because well if they didn't like it I'd be trapped on a plane with them.
Q) If you weren't writing, what do you think you'd be doing
JZ I'd be a neuro-scientist or a medical researcher. I'm still slowly getting my Ph.D in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Medicine, Communication and Cognitive studies. (I have a hard time picking a speciality.)
-------------------- Don't hate the PIE, hate the PIEmaker. Posts: 2385 | From: Greensboro, NC | Registered: Feb 2005
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Question: You compared "Working Daze" as being "Dilberts poorer cousin". So... To what other Sci-fi or humor book series would you similarly compare your Doomsday Brunette and Plutonium Blonde novels ?
-------------------- I'm not who you think I am Posts: 1186 | Registered: Dec 2005
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can you tell us about it? who are the main characters, like Ed? i get the idea people hate him.
This raises a question of mine. Q) Any chance you can throw us a Nightly Net mention in “Working Daze”? Maybe Ed can get busted at work for surfing the Lando System on Nightly Net. Just an idea.
-------------------- Don't hate the PIE, hate the PIEmaker. Posts: 2385 | From: Greensboro, NC | Registered: Feb 2005
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Question: You compared "Working Daze" as being "Dilberts poorer cousin". So... To what other Sci-fi or humor book series would you similarly compare your Doomsday Brunette and Plutonium Blonde novels ?
JZ: My books are a cross of Hitchhikers guide and Blade runner.
how much do you write per day?
JZ: at least four hours
do you have a specific routine for writing?
JZ: It changes, right now I work a lot with Singapore so I’m up early reading their comments and editing.
what advice do you have for someone who wants to break into the business?
JZ: have a spouse of significant other with a real job.
can you tell us about it? who are the main characters, like Ed? i get the idea people hate him
JZ: they are based on people I worked with (or me): Jay the cynical guy (me), Ed the lazy guy, Dana the over worked office manager, Rita the clueless boss, Roy the geek….
Posts: 4 | Registered: Mar 2006
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I took the liberty of copying over one of your Working Daze for my next question.
Is Arfis (love that name by the way!) a robotic dog?
Oh, and since you have done so much work with comic strips and now animated TV series, I can assume you're a fan of those genres yourself. If so, you should check out the "Comics and Animation" forum if you get the time. http://www.nightly.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/forum/53.html?
-------------------- Don't hate the PIE, hate the PIEmaker. Posts: 2385 | From: Greensboro, NC | Registered: Feb 2005
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Q: How does it feel to know that your work has permeated into a little bit of the public, through the extensive work you've done?
A: It feels good, though I wish I made more money.
Q: Is Arfis (love that name by the way!) a robotic dog?
A: Yes, Roy made him in his spare time so he could have a friend, which ARF (Artificial Roy Friend) thinks is pretty sad.
Posts: 4 | Registered: Mar 2006
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q] so how far in advance do you have to write Working Daze?
a) we like to be a month ahead. The syndicate likes us to be 6 weeks ahead.
q] is your editor strict? have you ever had to change or get rid of a comic because you went too far?
a) once we showed a gun, this was shot down (pardon the pun)
q] what novel writers and comic strips are you a fan of yourself?
a) Douglas Adams for writing Charles Schultz for comic strips
Question: do you work best alone or with a co-author/artist ?
a) a like having a co-author as this way I always have somebody else to blame.
Question: do you find your profession stressful ? What do you do to relax ?
a) there can be times it's stressful especially when you don't have a steady pay check coming in. Like I said, spouse with a real job is a big plus. To relax, martial arts and mindless TV.
Question: from all your work, what is the one thing you wish the future generations will remember you by ? The one defining accomplishment
a) I think I'm still looking to write that.
Posts: 4 | Registered: Mar 2006
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I'm gonna sticky this for two days just in case anyone has any more questions for Mr. Zakour and then we'll let him off the hook. He doesn't want to have to come back here for the next six years.
I appreciate you taking the time to do this John, and I appreciate the good questions we've had so far! I wasn't sure how this would go but it worked out pretty good. Future authors won't be scared to come here now.
-------------------- Don't hate the PIE, hate the PIEmaker. Posts: 2385 | From: Greensboro, NC | Registered: Feb 2005
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How did I miss this? This is a great idea! I do have a question, sorry for the length of it.
Question: How do you feel about the stale, lingering comics from the 50's taking up space on the comic page and keeping fresher, more relevant cartoonists and writers out? (For example: Beetle Baily, Hagar the Horrible, and Wizard of Id versus Pearls Before Swine, Frazz, Get Fuzzy)
I exempt Peanuts from this discussion, because that is holy.
-------------------- “Argh. Ye social commentary be hawt!” Posts: 27 | From: The High Seas | Registered: Mar 2006
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I'm not a big fan at all of the old comics hanging around after their creator dies. I think everybody should write their papers and request them to run Working Daze. Posts: 4 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Maybe Ed can get busted at work for surfing the Lando System on Nightly Net. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
