Human Trial

Posted By timothy on August 7, 2010

Response to 10 Interview Questions

Timothy N. Stelly Sr

1. Why did you choose to write in your particular field or genre?  If you write more than one, how do you balance them?

TS: Actually, it chose me. My usual genre is social and political satire, and crime or family dramas. However, HUMAN TRIAL was inspired by a dream: An optical one and my desire to write a book about good v. evil and the group dynamics involved. The next two parts of the trilogy were inspired by T.C. Matthews who informed me that today’s better-known sci-fi works are trilogies. Also most of the people who read the initial draft were not sci-fi readers, but critiqued the manuscript anyway. Since then, I have banged out another sci-fi tome (A Junkie’s Paradise) and an anthology of Stephen King-esque stories (Strange Pictures.)

2. What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?

TS: I wanted to present two enemies: The earth’s assailants (and I kept them unseen as long as possible), and then the proverbial “enemy within,” portrayed as mankind’s tribal instinct and personal prejudices. I tried to juxtapose the two to let the reader determine in his mind what is the biggest threat to man’s survival. I also wanted to have an impact on how the reader looks at the things around him or her: and I get e-mails all the time from readers who state that every time it gets hot for any length of time, they think of HUMAN TRIAL.

Second, many of the people who read HT are reading the sequel, HUMAN TRIAL II: ADAM’S WAR, and have told me that the sequel is even better than its predecessor.

3. What do you think most characterizes your writing?

TS: Brutal honesty interwoven with humor. My work allows the reader to think, because it raises the question, “What would I (the reader) do in this situation?”

4.  What is the most important thing that people DON’T know about your subject/genre, that they need to know?

TS: That science fiction doesn’t have to place the emphasis on “science,” but rather, ever-so-slight exaggeration of reality or what is possible. From there you add human beings to the mix, which creates all sorts of variable in how a dilemma is settled. Luke Rhinehart’s Long Voyage Home is an excellent example of this.

5. Who are some of your favorite authors that you feel were influential in your work?  What impact have they had on your writing?

TS: My literary influences are an eclectic lot: Rene Guy De Maupassant, Richard Wright, Donald Goines and Stephen King. The latter is big oin character development, which I think drives a story; Goines was not afraid to “tell it like it is,” nor was Wright, who wrote about many intriguing but flawed characters; and Maupassant’s short stories (The piece of String; the Cake; Old Toine, et al) showed us the “complex simplicity” of life,

6. Are you a full-time or part-time writer?  How does that affect your writing?

TS: I write 26 hours a day, eight days a week 400 days a year. When I’m not answering e-mails or doing editing work for others, I’m writing. I don’t read as much as I’d like (I use to be a book every other day kinda guy), and am limited to maybe 10 books a year, because so much of my time is spent writing, rewriting and transforming novels to screenplays, short stories to teleplays and vice versa. I edit the work of others in the various writing groups I belong to, and even dabble in poetry, which has helped sharpen my narrative skills.

7.  How do you feel about ebooks vs. print books and alternative vs. conventional publishing? What do you think is the future of reading/writing?

TS: The printed book might not be dead yet, but it is comatose and has undergone an amputation. I like the print model because it is something tangible, while e-books seem kinda abstract to me. A printed book is something you can keep on the shelf at home and literally pass down; whereas printed has the impersonal quality of being downloaded. However, ebooks are the future, and the first hint of that truth was when the hyphen between e and book was eliminated.

As for self-publishing, I don’t really think that’s for me. I was elated to be published the “traditional” way—success after more than 20 rejection slips from agents and publishing houses (Not all for the same book, mind you.) I thought of self-publishing a book of poetry, then decided against it, as I just can’t see seeking out my limited funds for what amounts to vanity. Woes arise when the author can’t get shelf space in a book store unless its local (and you grew up washing the owner’s car, or dating his daughter), nor can he generate the sort of publicity a traditional publication receives.

8.  What makes your book stand out from the crowd?

TS: I don’t intend to sound boastful, but simply put, there is no other book like it. HUMAN TRIAL pits people from diverse social strata and presents the many facets of their in their thinking as to how they will survive. It examines their fears and values. The story dares to ask the question, “Is the biggest threat to mankind… man?”

9. What do your plans for future projects include?

TS: I have my two “babies”: A semi-autobiographical coming of age novel, People Darker Than Blue, which interweaves the stories of two cliques—one black and one white—at a desegregated high school in the 1970’s. The second is a crime-drama titled Under Color Of Authority, about a desperate small-town police chief who hires soldiers of fortune to clean up the streets, where two competing gangs have not only endangered the citizenry, but have bought off some of the towns law enforcement officers.

As for sci-fi, I am getting ready to shop A Junkie’s Paradise, the story of a viral pandemic that wipes out half the earth’s population until it is discovered that those with immunity are the dregs of society. Also I have my sci-fi anthology, a compilation of 18 stories that address everything from a man who wakens to find himself as the lone remaining human being to a septuagenarian serial killer to drunken women who conduct a lynching. I just recently finished a “zombies in the hood” tale titled, The Undead.

I have a number of screenplays, and have developed two ideas for television shows: Of the latter, one a comedy centered around movie critics and the other, a family comedy that I call a cross between “What’s Happening!” and “Married…With Children.”

10. What question do you wish that someone would ask about your book, but nobody has? Write it out here, then answer it.

Q: “When will we see your work on the big screen?” The answer is simple: When the public no longer accepts Hollywood’s regurgitation—sequels and passing off TV shows from the past as “new blockbusters.” Today there is a dearth of creativity in Hollywood. The scripts are formulaic and pigeon-holed and too damn expensive to make. For example, Judd Apatow is doing is what Adam Sandler was doing ten years ago, and Sandler is doing what John Hughes and John Waters did–although with more crudity.

Black cinema is deemed “unsaleable” unless it starts a rapper, or brothers posing as ne’er-do-wells who live by the gun. (The exception being Tyler Perry., but his work is geared toward black women, a demographic all its own.)  Occasionally we’ll see a reworking of the blaxploitation genre, but few real meat and potatoes dramas; another Shaft rather than Once Upon A Time When We Were Colored.

I’d match my story, The Undead against Twilight or Zombieland and let moviegoers decided which is the fresher tale. I’d pit Human Trial I or II against Independence Day any day; or either of my TV shows against the schlock that today passes as “comedy.” The art of joke writing has been replaced by crudity and men being portrayed as buffoons. Okay, let me jump off my soap box….I have some rewriting to do.

Mr. Stelly can be reached by e-mail at stellbread@yahoo.com, or you can check out his blog: www.stellyhumantrial.com or you can go to amazon.com, click on BOOKS and type in “stelly human trial” and read the reviews.My essays can be found at www.ezinearticles.com.

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