Interview with Steve Vernon

An Interview with Steve Vernon About Himself and His Recent Novella Sudden Death Overtime

By Derek Newman-Stille

It is always a great opportunity to be able to do an interview of an author about a specific work and I want to thank Mr. Vernon for allowing me to interview him and for giving the readers some insights into himself and into his recent novella Sudden Death Overtime. Steve Vernon is a Nova Scotia author/ mythographer who writes everything from the supernatural, young adult fiction, to myths of Canada’s East Coast. His sense of humour carries through even into the interview process and he was a delight to chat with.

Spec Can: First, can you give us a quick description of yourself?

Steve Vernon: Well – if there are any wrestling fans out there I look a little like Mick Foley – also known as Mankind, Brother Love and Cactus Jack. I also look a little like Jeff Bridges – particularly in his CRAZY HEART role.

Spec Can: What are some of the biggest influences on your writing?

Steve Vernon: Mostly, bills. The sad truth is I write for money. The sad part of that is that there often isn’t a lot of money to be made from writing – but I was born with an obsession to string words together on paper. It would have been a lot easier if I was born with an obsession to pick at people’s teeth – in which case I could have become a dentist and made a lot more money.

Spec Can: Where does your inspiration come from?

Steve Vernon: Would you laugh at me if I said more bills?

All kidding aside – I learned how to tell stories early in life. I learned partly from my grandparents who constantly told stories. I mean – when you get right down to it this is pretty well what most people do with their lives. We eat and we breathe and we tell stories. It’s just that I seemed to take to the whole storytelling practice a little more readily than some of the more normal kids.

But who in the hell wants to be normal?

I think I tell stories out of a desire to find order and meaning in life. I know that I tell stories in order to make my words better heard upon the planet. I tell stories to share my experience and to share my imagination and sense of creativity.

So what inspires me?

Life, mostly, and a deep-rooted desire to find the heroic element that hides within us all.

Spec Can: How much does your Canadian identity influence your writing?

Steve Vernon:  We Canadians are champion diehard storytellers. I mean take a look at our winters. Take a look at our television network. Take a look at our mosquitoes. What else have we got to do but to tell stories to each other?

In some ways my Canadian identity limits me – in that it is harder to find my place in the international market. But my Canadian identity helps make me the writer that I am today. Remember – I have a half dozen regional books out at this moment from Nimbus Publishing – Nova Scotia’s largest publishing network. I am also close to signing a contract with another new Canadian publisher for a series of YA horror novels. My regional books have sold in the thousands – which makes me a bestselling author in Canada.

So – like any fact of life – the fact that I am Canadian of birth is both a gift and a hinderance.

Spec Can: What do you think is distinctly Nova Scotian about your writing?

Steve Vernon: Nova Scotians are the true storytellers of Canada.

We have an even worse selection in television, bigger mosquitos, and less opportunity for honest work. Again I ask you what else can we do but sit around and spin out yarns?

Spec Can: Can you tell us a bit about your new ebook novelette Sudden Death Overtime?

Steve Vernon: Sudden Death Overtime is a fast and fun read. It asks the question – what would a bunch of over-the-hill hockey playing old farts from Northern Labrador do against a tour bus full of vampires.  It is a book that takes two of my favorite movies – Slapshot and 30 Days of Night – and combines them into one powerful yarn.

This isn’t high literature, you understand. This little novella is a pint of good cold beer and a cheeseburger.

Spec Can: Where did you get the idea to write Sudden Death Overtime?

Steve Vernon: I wanted to sit down and write a B movie – but I’m too lazy to learn proper screenplay format – so I decided to just sit down and write something that would entertain both my reading public and myself – just as much as a good solid B monster movie – such as Tremors or The Lost Boys or Fright Night or 30 Days of Night does.

Spec Can: What got you interested in intersecting hockey and vampires?

Steve Vernon: I’ve long been fascinated with seeing how ordinary people deal with the face of evil. That’s who my favorite characters are – just regular downhome kind of people. I like to imagine them brave and wild and romantic and full of life – because we all have that potential buried deep inside ourselves. So – when I sat down to write Sudden Death Overtime I just took the toughest people I had ever dreamed of and threw them up against the forces of darkness.

Spec Can: Why hockey?

Steve Vernon: Why not? What is more Canadian than a pack of old-timers strapping on skates for a set-to on the open ice?

Spec Can: What vampire mythologies or ideas about the vampire are you drawing on in Sudden Death Overtime?

Steve Vernon: These vampires are nasty. They don’t glitter and they don’t spout purple poetry. I don’t go a great deal into their origins or motivation. To me, evil is a force that must be dealt with. Asking where the evil came from is about as useful as trying to decide who farted in the crowded clubroom.

Spec Can: You have written about monsters before. What got you interested in looking at monsters?

Steve Vernon: I’m a kid at heart. Never plan to grow up. And deep down all of us kids think monsters are freaking cool. One of the first books my grandmother ever handed me was a copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I read it, cover to cover. I also loved to stay up once a month on Friday nights and watch FRIGHT NIGHT – which was our local station’s all-night monster movie bonanza.

Basically, I have a deep-seated respect and love for old-school booga-booga.

Spec Can: What can horror and comedy contribute to each other? What is the virtue of a book that intertwines them?

Steve Vernon: There isn’t a whole lot of difference between an eek and a giggle. The muscles that control the two of them are connected to the exact same neurological synapses.  Whether we are shrieking in terror or having an orgasm of passionate pleasure or laughing out loud at the world’s gnarliest knock-knock joke it all springs from the same part of our existence – the need to blurt out. We all are born with this need. When we’re babies we’ve got no problem expressing ourselves this way but as we get older we get a little hidebound. We learn manners and dignity and control. We start following the rules.

A good giggle or a good scare helps us break out of the constraints that society and our desire to fit in imposes upon us.

Spec Can: People are often critical of the novelette, can you tell us a bit about why you chose this format?

Steve Vernon: My pants keep getting tighter. I have to watch what I eat. I have to start chewing on more vegetables and less cheeseburgers.

A novelette is a perfect little snack. You can read it in a single gulp without suffering from the over-bloat of too many high-caloric syllables.

Bruce Lee used to talk about the power of a three inch punch. You want to think about a hand grenade and how it doesn’t have to be all that big to make a fine satisfying explosion.

I like the novella format. Some of the best reads I’ve ever enjoyed were stories that I could chew up in a single sitting. I think there are a lot of books out there that could do with some pruning and fine-tuning. Mind you, I have written several longer works as well. My novel TATTERDEMON – which deals in the wildest kind of scary reanimated scarecrows you have ever encountered is nearly 100,000 words in length.

In the end – there are no rules in storytelling – beyond the simple and basic truth – ABOVE ALL ELSE DO NOT BORE!!!

Spec Can: Can you tell us a bit about why you chose to write Sudden Death Overtime as an e-book?

Steve Vernon: I feel that e-books are going to play a very large part in our reading future and – as a writer with a keen interest in paying my bills – I want to get involved in digital books just as whole-heartedly as possible.

E-books aren’t necessarily going to replace traditionally published books too quickly. But they are here and they are an undeniable reality and there is a seething horde of technologically oriented readers out there who are already becoming addicted to the e-reading experience.

I maintain that a writer who refuses to acknowledge, accept and embrace this new technological phenomena is a damn fool.

I didn’t always feel this way. Not too many years ago I believed that e-books were a freak creation that wouldn’t last. Now I see differently.

Any writer who has found any form of success has doubtless learned to revise their work. Likewise, we – as writers – must revise our thinking periodically and be prepared to ride this wave where ever it takes us.

Hopefully, towards more readers.

Spec Can: What can writing about monsters like the vampire teach your audience? What ideas can it get them thinking about?

Steve Vernon: Hell, do you mean I’m supposed to be teaching people? I guess, if you wanted me to stick my proper pinky finger out I could tell you that monster stories help instill the belief that the human spirit can will out and triumph over the power of evil.

However, at the end of the day what I’m writing here is nothing more than stories. They are meant to be enjoyed. They’re fun, nothing deeper and nothing more significant. All joking about bills and money aside all I really ever want to hear about is somebody grinning so hard that they’re afraid they might break their teeth and saying those wonderful words – “Damn, that was one fine old story!”

I want to once again thank  Steve Vernon for this incredible opportunity and for sharing his great sense of humour with me and with the Speculating Canada audience. To find out more about Steve’s current projects, check out his site at http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/.

I will be posting a review of Sudden Death Overtime this Wednesday August 8^th for you to explore. You can buy Sudden Death Overtime on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Sudden-Death-Overtime-ebook/dp/B0077ZR2TS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343952025&sr=8-1&keywords=sudden+death+overtime