J. F. Lewis - FAQ
Advice
Q: I want to be a writer, too. What should I do?
A: Write.
Q: How did you get an agent?
A: I joined the Writer's Market online, did a search for agents who might represent me, checked out their websites and sent them query letters. I know there are services out there that provide this kind of information for free, but I found the Writers Market search functions to be well worth the $4/month. I'd also suggest visiting Miss Snark's blogs to keep yourself from looking overtly stupid in your initial queries. Neil Gaiman has a much better answer to this than I do, though, so check out his site, too.
Q: How long have you been writing?
A: For as long as I can remember.
Q: Where do you get your ideas?
A: I don't get ideas. Ideas get me. They track me down and hold me hostage until I put them on paper.
T-shirts
Q: On your home page, it looks like you're wearing a shirt that says WELCOME TO THE VOID. Is that a real shirt or did someone do that with photo editing software?
A: It's a real shirt. In STAKED, which was originally titled WELCOME TO THE VOID, the protagonist, Eric, has a favorite T-shirt that says "Welcome to the Void". According to the plotline, these shirts were produced for the Void City Music Festival, but one year there was a glitch and the shirts came out with "Welcome to the Void" on the front and "City Music Festival" on the back. Citizens of Void City liked the mistake so much (and the shirts became so popular) that the music festival committee had the shirts intentially produced this way in every subsequent year. For the 2006 winter holidays, we had an extremely limited run of replicas screen-printed for our close family and friends, agent, editor, and members of the WTF writers' group. CustomInk did a great job with the printing (and didn't ask too many questions, lol). For 2008, we've added two REAL bands to the list on the backs of the shirts- The Hunter Lawley Band- which performed at the publication party at the Historic Rucker Place on March 11, 2008- and Cemetery Surfers, which performed at OmegaCon in Birmingham, Alabama. All the other band names are fictitious. Want one? Get it here. More T-shirts are coming soon, probably on Cafe Press.
Novels
Q: What's your first book about?
A: Well, according to the contract, it's about "a strip-club owning vampire with short term memory loss". There's more to it than that, naturally- a whole unfolding mystery revolving around the main character (Eric), his newly-turned girlfriend Tabitha, her formerly dead tantric witch little sister Rachel, and a whole host of well-developed characters. Actually, some of the best synopses out there are in the reader reviews on Amazon.com.
Q: What's the sequel about?
A: At the end of Staked, the protagonist, Eric, has lost everything... ReVamped picks up two seconds later and chronicles his attempt to salvage his unlife, save his true love, and survive demons, lovers, and Vampire High Society.
Q: I read somewhere that the vampires in your books have had all of their bodily fluids replaced by blood. Do you really mean ALL of their bodily fluids?
A: Yep.
Q: Will there be a third book?
A: Hopefully. The manuscript for the third book is undergoing final edits before being sent to J's agent and then to the publisher. If you want to see it published, please buy the first two! J is still brainstorming possible titles. To suggest a one-word past-participle title, contact J.
Cookies
Q: I was at a panel at a convention with J.F. Lewis, and there were cookies provided by his writers' group. Where can I get those recipes?
A: You can get them here.