TODD CARD
WEBSITE: http://www.hellcometh.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/hellcometh?ref=ts&sk=app_215451685152603
BOOK SIGNING - https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=271308509549952
AMAZON- http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Cometh-Todd-Card/dp/0983655847/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314021326&sr=1-1
JG - This is John here at Days of the Dead with Todd Card, the author of Hell Cometh. So tell me, how did you come to wanting to be an author and wanting to write horror fiction?
TC- I have been writing now for over 15 years , it was a situation that came about that for me to work through personal tragedy ,my father beat my mother to death 6 days after my 26th birthday and out of a way to deal with that , I started to put my feelings and emotions into writing form ,and then I started getting these dreams so I started working with these dreams and my emotions and venting with writing and combining everything to form these stories , I took a personal tragedy and worked that into a daily , a daily exercise for therapy since then .
JG- So kinda like some people would write in a journal or a diary to work through a crisis or things they were going through , you used as your avenue to get that out and also found a way to entertain people who like to read different darker stories or horror stories.
TC-well originally this was never meant to be seen in public, it was hidden a way in a trunk in my house, and one of the founding members of 8Publishing came in and discovered Hell Cometh and take it home with him and read it and came back 3 days latter and said we have to make this book, it has to be available for mass market, we have to have it - so-originally my stories were never to be seen by the general public.
JG- Wow! That’s awesome! Now- my next big question is then, if someone would read this book and come to you and say- “I would love to make this a film” - would you, would this be something that you would say “heck yeah” or “no this is to personal, I wanna keep it like this”, or is this something you would be willing to do?
TC- No, no I would, actually I envisioned this being a film, I wrote it from a film lovers perspective, I didn’t want the people to have to read and decipher things and produce their own visualization of the book, so I wrote that into the book, so basically as you read the book you are watching a movie, that is ultimately what I wanted people to do was to watch a movie as they read. So it is my intention someday that Hell Cometh become a motion picture, I’m 100% open to that.
JG- So in a way this is something that you hope that through this story that someone else may actually learn from the experience, through the story find some way to get over their own personal tragedy or crisis and find an upside to it in some way, in order to deal with something that was a very tragic situation in their life.
TC- The thing I have found is that there are many ways for people to have therapy in their life one of the reasons why, and I had to leave home at a very early age, because of abuse, 13-14 years old, I have been on my own ever since, so I have had a lot of agony that has been internalized. People have to learn how to deal with that internalization of whatever pain and suffering that they have. Some turn to drugs , some turn to alcohol , some continue that cycle of abuse some seek counseling to help guide them inside themselves to help them work through that tragedy they are harboring and to help understand it and release it . For me-I realized at one point if I didn’t find a way to give the internal manifestation a physical manifestation which is out side of me as a person, I was gonna explode. I just felt writing for me was the best venue , so I plugged my self into the tools I needed and went forward and it gushed , literally all my stories have gushed. They come to me in my dreams and I know the story from end to end , the plot , all I have to do is basically is work with the timing and the characters and things of that nature and the stories are done , and I plan on giving the world a lifetime of horror. This is only the beginning, so!
JG- That is one thing that I have noticed when I speak with people here at the conventions, is that there is this one common thing, this something in their past, that they have had this choice to either basically deal with it, you learn to go through that situation or to dwindle away to a very dark place in life. It seems like those who have gone through that and have found a way to deal with it has found it what some folks would be surprised to hear , through doing horror dong the acting , the writing , directing that there is actually a high reverence of life ,a zeal for living their metaphor , their symbolic way of an issue or instance that they were able to move or make into a parable or myth ,folktale for us learn about the goodness of life ,this sounds like kinda what you have been able to achieve with this.
TC- Right! Well, death is the mirror image of life, a natural irony, if you live and go through life, you will see there is an irony on a day to day basis. You can’t have negative without positive, you can’t have positive without negative. The horror genre for me is an exploration of the darkness of humanity but at the same time-anyone who reads this novel in particular will realize it glorifies the better nature of humanity in many aspects, but you have to go very very deep and very very dark and you have to become very disturbed before you can realize the purity of life. Some people capitalize on that because there is a market for that, what I write and how I write is deeply personal to me, like I said it was never meant to be out the way it is now- but are demanding it, they are coming to me telling me they have to have it, so I am sharing it with them. Some are telling me “it touched me, this has made me wanna become a writer” , I am a fledgling author ,so this is , I am at the contention of my future ,I am quite flattered with the reception I have gotten ,a lot of people are treating me quite well .
JG- That definitely has got to make you feel like you’re on the right path, doing the right thing for yourself and for others out there
TC- Yeah, it does, it’s a cleansing too. I am a “lighter” person now then I was before I wrote this book.
JG- As they always say- it’s always darkest before dawn. One has to go through the darkest part first in order to see the light at the end of the tunnel ,to realize there is something that is gonna pull you through all this!
TC- That is true. There is definitely way more darkness to come with me, way more.
JG- You aware of the situation, there’s a lot of people who are not aware ,and you set back and go “what the hell is wrong with you”- its there, we have to be comfortable in knowing that we all have that. Then you can actually start instead of letting life get in the way of living you start living your life , you start finding some goodness within that and within your circumstances ,and I turn might inspire others to fight their own demons, and get through their own tragedy !
TC- Its therapy folks! I hope so, if you’re human, you will have demons, if you exist as a human you will have tragedy, that’s why we are here, and to experience that so what do you do with it? How do you allow it to manifest in your life, as far as I am concerned I give those demons that tragedy the fiction that they need to thrive and send them out into the world in that manifestation, rather then harbor them.
JG- okay- now on a lighter part -are you going to be doing anymore conventions for this year?
TC- I actually had a request a few minutes ago for Fear Fest, I have been, Fear Fest has requested three times, at this convention, you know- I have trouble with a neck and back issue, so the traveling is a little bit of an issue- so I will have to weigh that out to see if its something I can do or not. This maybe the last convention this year until I get this back and neck issue in order , but next year I am looking to get out more , its kinda a difficult year for me this year , anything local here I am trying to get involved with .
JG - It’s so cool to hear that people are begging you to come to their event. Its gotta make you feel good to know there is a demand for you to appear.
TC- If they want me, I will try to find a way to get there! I have had a lot of folks come by and asking about Days of the Dead for next year- and I am already signed up for that, I was asked and I gave a wholehearted yes. I will be doing Horrorhound next year- by then I should have a reprint of Hell Cometh ,Cheating the Dead which is a working title of anther title to be released this year, and Hideous , so there should be three on the table to choose from !
JG- so sounds like another interview or two in store for next year with the new books coming out!
TC - I am open for somebody if they wanna convert it to a screenplay, so if anyone is looking for that I am open for anything and everything. A lot of folks are giving feedback that it’s just a matter or time before it becomes a movie, which to me, it blows me away! One person on Facebook found the town which I based this story on, and went through the town and took photos of the book with street signs and stuff like that, the church, the little house that’s in the story everything, I will be posting that to Facebook, people are really getting hooked on it, I am very happy with that!
JG- That is awesome - I will have to look at those photos! I know it has my curiosity stirred up so, you’ll be getting a few bucks in the pocket out of my wallet and I will be doing myself some good reading!
JG- Well thank you for the interview- we shall be talking again.
TC- Thank you for the time to interview me!
