Micro Interview #2: Jonathan Maberry

I was lucky to snag a bit of Jonathan Maberry's time, even as he is one of the busiest and most prolific writers in the buiz. He also happens to be one of the nicest and most generous as well.

As if you didn't already know, Maberry is a NY Times Bestseller and 5-time Bram Stoker Award winner. He is the author of the popular Rot & Ruin YA zombie series as well as the every popular Joe Ledger thrillers. He's written for Marvel comics, Dark Horse comics, and IDW Publishing.

Please join me in this latest installment of micro interviews.

Q1: How many books did it take until you felt like you came into your own as a writer? 
 
JONATHAN MABERRY: That’s actually a more complex question than you might think because I’ve written so many different kinds of books. When I was writing college textbooks back in the 1990s, I got found my groove with ESM: EFFECTIVE SURVIVAL METHODS, a women’s self-defense textbook that was used in dozens of colleges. In 2000 I wrote a big, sprawling nonfiction book about supernatural predators in folklore and world myth called, THE VAMPIRE SLAYERS’ FIELD GUIDE TO THE UNDEAD; but the mojo was slightly off because it was the only thing I’d ever written under a pen name (Shane MacDougall…long story). As for fiction, I think I really came into my own with my third novel, BAD MOON RISING, the final book in the Pine Deep Trilogy. I rocked that one.
 
Q2: Can you share with us one catchy phrase from a WIP or a recent release? 
 
JONATHAN MABERRY: This is a line from KILL SWITCH, my latest ‘Joe Ledger’ thriller: When giant violent albino penguins are the least extraordinary issue of the day, then your day has slipped a gear.  
 
Q3: What's a writing tip you'd give an aspiring writer that you had to learn on your own the hard way that nobody had told you about early on but you wish they would have?
 
JONATHAN MABERRY: Learn both the craft of writing and the business of publishing. Know each deeply, be good at both. That’s the way you’ll be able to turn a hobby or a passion into a lifestyle. I can look back at my career trajectory and see that the point in my life where I learned –really learned—how publishing works, was when my career went from neutral to pedal-to-the-metal fast lane. So, yeah…do that.
 
For more info regarding Jonathan Maberry and his work, please check out his official author website and blog at: www.jonathanmaberry.com 

If you'd like to subscribe to the free Maberry newsletter click on the link: http://www.jonathanmaberry.com/contact.cfm 

You can also find Jonathan Maberry on social media at: 

www.facebook.com/jonathanmaberry  

www.twitter.com/jonathanmaberry

http://www.imdb.me/jonathanmaberry

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Also by Jonathan Maberry

THE NIGHTSIDERS Bk 1: THE ORPHAN ARMY - Simon & Schuster 
ROT & RUIN series- Simon & Schuster
THE JOE LEDGER THRILLERS-  now in development by Lone Tree Entertainment and Vintage Picture Company!
BAD BLOOD -from Dark Horse Comics
X-FILES: a series of all-new anthologies  from IDW Publishing
V-WARS: IDW -anthology and comics; now in development for TV
GHOSTWALKERS -A Deadlands novel from TOR