Douglas Allen Rhodes

Author Pen Name: Douglas Allen Rhodes

CA: What genre(s) do you write? Why do you write the stories that you write?

DAR: My novel, “Sex and Murder,” definitely fits in the Splatterpunk or Extreme Horror category. But I’ve written pieces in a variety of genres, everything from fantasy to western; hell, I even do poetry on occasion. Regardless of the genre I write in, though, all the pieces share a common darkness.
That’s the place my fiction heads when I start to write—whether I intend it or not. The world’s a dark place, and I’ve experienced more than my share of it. My writing reflects what I’ve lived and seen.

CA: When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

DAR: I was about eight years old. My school district had a program called “The Young Authors’ Contest,” which encouraged elementary school kids to write, illustrate, and bind their own books. Mine won first place and I found what I wanted to do with my life.

CA: Who or what was your inspiration for writing?

DAR: I love the work of Robert Heinlein. He saw the best of what humanity was and what it could be—the total opposite of how I write. Still, his work is brilliant and it made me want, more than anything, to write a piece that would have the impact on another person that his books had on me.

CA: What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

DAR: I try to write at least two or three hours at a time when I’m working on a short story. With my novel I put in six to eight hours a day for about six months, then spent a year rewriting it, followed by a year and a half of getting it into its final form (of course once it went to my editor, the amazing M. E Ellis, I ended up rewriting it three more times).

CA: Your book is about to be sent into the reader world, what is one word that describes how you feel?

DAR: Drunk

CA: What was your biggest challenge in writing your book(s)?

DAR: Actually, that’s kind of funny. I wrote “Sex and Murder” in prison, so aside from not getting the stack of pages it was scribbled on confiscated by a guard, it was probably just dealing with the daily inhumanity of where I was.

CA: What do you like to do when you're not writing?
DAR: I read constantly, whether its books, short fiction, or comic books (which will always be my first love). I’m a heavy drinker, so there’s always that. Golfing takes up a nice bit of my time, though I’m still not that good.

CA: LOL a heavy drinker and golfer, if you’re mixing the two maybe that’s why you’re not that good : ) just kidding!!!

CA: How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

DAR: “Sex and Murder” is my first novel. I’m working on a couple others right now, as well as some short stories and a comic book script.

CA: Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?

DAR: I do a mixture. Some of them are lifted entirely from people I’ve known; Erik the Red, for example, is based on Walt Fazenbacher, a crazy-ass, son of a bitch I did time with. But others are entirely home grown.

CA: You wrote this book while you were in prison? How long did it
take you to write it?

DAR: It took me six months to write my first draft. I started it about two days in, as a way to get my mind off of where I was. After the first draft was completed I mailed it out a few pages at a time (to keep suspicion low) and had my family photocopy the pages and mail the originals back to me, again a few pages at a time.

This might seem paranoid--it's only fiction after all--but if you've read "Sex and Murder" you know that its graphic nature would be more than enough to get me flagged by the good folks of the Ohio prison system.

CA: Did any of the inmates influence you in any way while writing?

DAR: A good bit of what I experienced in prison, as well as the folks I was forced to live with went into the book.

As I said in an earlier question, Erik the Red is based pretty strongly on a guy named Walt Fazenbacher. He was a crazy german guy doing 10 years for manslaughter who actually worshiped the old Tutonic (similar to Norse) gods. It's an actual religion, they call themselves Odinists, and he was pretty freaky into it.

He's probably the only literal inspiration I used, but the stories I heard and the guys I met definately had their effect on my writing.

Just as an example, I new a guy who went by the name of Silk (short for Silky Smooth--seriously). He was in his mid-40s, a veteran of the air force, and a long standing pillar of his community. His sister had been murdered by drug dealers who were trying to make an inroad into the city he lived in, pretty brutally too from what I could gather. So, one day Silk is out an about and who does he run into but the guy who supposedly killed his baby sister. Well, he did what a lot of us would want to and he attacked the guy, stabbing him repeatedly in the neck and throat. The dealer tried to get away from him and the two of them ended up crashing through the window and into the living room of a nearby house. That's where Silk finished killing the miserable bastard, right in front of the family whose house they'd tumbled into.

Neither the judge nor the prosecuter wanted to do anything to Silk, his whole life had been one of giving to the community, but something had to be done. They decided to charge him with manslaughter and breaking and entering, they let him plead to both charges but promised to give him parole the second he was eligible. True to their word they brought him out after two years.

CA: Do you have any advice for the aspiring writers out there?

DAR: Write and submit constantly, in a variety of formats. Maybe the best advice I can give is to go to Duotrope.com and open a free account. They list thousands of markets and give details on who to contact and what sorts of fiction they want. It’s an invaluable tool for any beginning writer.

CA: How can a reader contact you or purchase your books?

DAR: “Sex and Murder” can be purchased at WildChildPublishing.com, and will soon be up on Fictionwise.com and Amazon.com. I can be reached via MySpace, under Douglas A Rhodes, or by email at DRhodes32@DouglasAllenRhodes.com, there’s also my websites DouglasAllenRhodes.com and SexandMurder.com. I always answer all serious email.

CA: Is there anything you would like to add?

DAR: Just to invite everyone to check out “Sex and Murder,” it’ll knock you on your ass.

CA: That last sentence is enough to make me want to read it alone! Thanks for a great interview!