An Interview with Wendy Webb

Throughout her career, Wendy Webb has authored short stories, novels, and stage plays, edited anthologies, written non-fiction articles, gift books, and audio plays. She is also a writing instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School.

When she is not traveling to distant corners of the world for disaster relief—or just plain fun—Wendy Webb spends most of her time at home. There she keeps busy with stage directing gigs at a theatre in North Carolina, attending professional chef classes in the North Georgia Mountains, and attending the many festivals and arts programs available in and around Atlanta.

Aberrant Dreams: You are a lady of many talents, having written plays, essays, children’s books, novels, and short stories. Of all the things you have done so far, for what piece of work would you like people to remember you?

Wendy Webb: Let me first preface this by saying that I’ve written children’s plays that have been produced, and I’ve still got one that has been circulating for young adult audiences. I call those plays edu-tainment, because even though they are supposed to be entertaining, they have to have educational aspects.

The first play that I had that was produced with an equity company was called The Dark Under the Bed, and it had just two characters because of the financial constraints that theaters have. The play was about this little girl who is afraid to leave her bed. She was supposed to go on a trip with her grandmother, but her cat disappeared under the bed, and she had to chase the cat. They end up in China and India, and they go all over the world and do wondrous things.

The fun thing was seeing the kids’ reactions. I sat on the back row and broke into a total body sweat right before the curtain came up because I saw these little kids coming in. To me a theme like this could be scary because of the big sounds and the wind blowing and the like, and I saw these little kids coming in who would sit on the seats with their legs straight out because they were too short to bend at the knee. I thought, “Oh no, they’re too young, and we’re going to have some trauma.”

But they loved it. They jumped up and were giving standing ovations to the cat being sucked up under the bed and the girl following. At every performance, the entire management and theatrical crew would come and watch the reactions of the kids in that first scene.

So, I would like to be remembered for children’s plays, and I’d like to think that I had influenced them with something like that. For example, there was one little girl who decided after she saw the play that she was going to adopt the name of the protagonist, and she refused to answer her parents unless they called her by that name.

As far as my books go, my Beluga Stein mysteries are humorous paranormal mysteries, and my fantasy is to walk through an airport and see someone reading one of these books and laughing. I would like people to remember me for funny stories that they had a good time reading for pure escapism. Not high literature, but pure escapism.

Aberrant Dreams: What to date has been the best reaction to your works, so far?

Wendy Webb: Well, certainly the little girl, and also, during another performance of that play, there was a little boy who stood up in the middle of a play and pointed at the man who played the cat and announced in a loud voice, “I love that man!” Of course the actor liked that too.

I got an email one time from somebody who had gone to my website and could not find my latest book, Mean Cuisine, which had not yet been released. He said he wanted to get a copy for his wife for a Christmas present. It’s little moments like that that I think, “Okay, I’ll do this. I’ll continue writing.”

Aberrant Dreams: Seabury Quinn’s Jules de Grandin was one of the most popular psychic detective characters regularly appearing in Weird Tales. Other characters of note are Sheil’s Cummings King Monk, Blackwood’s John Silence, and Hodgson’s Carnacki. What are your thoughts regarding these forerunners of psychic fiction, and do you think that Beluga and Planchette have much in common with any of them?

Wendy Webb: I have to admit that I was not familiar with all of these people, but I did look into them. I realized that there was the occult detective angle, the mysticism angle, the psychic doctor, so clearly, there is a rich history, even contemporarily, that affected all kinds of literature. I think, because of that, and without even knowing about some of these writers, that Beluga and Planchette are obviously the tip of the iceberg for paranormal literature.

Beluga, my protagonist, a large woman who wears muumuus, is a hit-or-miss psychic and is also a professor of biology who seems to be on perpetual sabbatical. I think that this feeds into what has been established in that she thinks she has some power, but she also has to have the conflict going on between the psychic phenomena and her background in science.

Planchette is her cat, and planchette, the way I write it, is more psychic than Beluga. I don’t know if other people have used animals; certainly, it’s historical that people have talked about paranormal phenomena with animals. In the story, Beluga works with the cat and recognizes his gift. Some people say that this is more of a witch and her familiar, but I’ve seen it more as a psychic and her best buddy.

Clearly, I think there are common themes, and something that is a result of thinking about this lately, I have found that there seems to be a relationship with the paranormal and magic and magicians. People seem to be interested in both of those things equally, and this is a new revelation to me. I’ll have to look into that a little more.

Aberrant Dreams: Do you have plans to continue using Beluga and Planchette in the future?

Wendy Webb: I’d like to. I’ve got them in three books right now, and I’ve started writing the fourth book. In fact, I have been in a lot of conversations with a man who is a producer in California who is interested in turning the Beluga stories into a television series. We’ve been meeting a lot lately to talk about these kinds of things. He is going back out to California next month, and he has already talked to several production companies about this. I think a lot of this is because there is a lot of paranormal interest right now, but what’s different is that this is humor. We’ll see what happens. It’s always a long shot with California.

Aberrant Dreams: I thought Stephen Jones editing and picks for The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women were superb. What do you think caught his eye with your story, “Sleeping Cities”?

Wendy Webb: “Sleeping Cities” takes place in China. I love to travel, and I’ve been to China, as well as other places. When I was in China, the one thing I did not personally get to see was the Terracotta Armies.

I thought what if there was a vampire story that dealt with these Terracotta Armies—there was a new one that had been unearthed when this was coming out. Each of the statues has a unique face, which is what is really interesting. Somehow, this person brought them to life. That was the idea behind it.

It is the one and only vampire story that I have ever written. I think this story was chosen because it was different, with a different location and the idea of bringing the Terracotta Armies alive. It also dealt with a person of science wrestling for control of the armies against an evil force. It all originated from my trip to China and experience there. I would still like to go back and see the Terracotta Armies first hand, but I studied a lot of it for this story. I’m not much of a vampire writer…or reader for that matter.

Aberrant Dreams: There is no denying that epic fantasy is a hot topic right now. What advice can you give to aspiring fantasy writers to point them in the right direction?

Wendy Webb: I can’t speak directly to high fantasy and epic fantasy—I’m more familiar with dark fantasy—but whatever it is, I think there are some old adages that still apply. One of them is to write what you want to write. A common mistake that beginners make is that they will see a trend and decide that they want to write towards that trend. As we know, by the time we do that, the trend is over.

Also, you can’t write…for instance, a Star Trek story or a show and send it in. These kinds of things are good if someone wants to write as an exercise to help get the creative juices flowing and as a learning tool.

You will also have to be able to turn on that inside editor, or as they call it in acting, the monitor. You’ll have to be able to recognize if you have all the elements of the story in there, all the elements of plot and character. Is the story interesting? Is the story believable? Is the plot predictable? And most importantly, did the character change at the end? Forgetting that is another common mistake. If the character doesn’t change at the end, then why do we care about the story?

People need to read nonfiction and have other experiences. Then, as Theodore Sturgeon always said, ask the next question. For instance, something I always think about is the single shoe in the middle of the road. I always think, “What happened to the other shoe…not to mention the person.” So, you start asking questions and go on from there. For another example, why is it that you can be in any other part of the country than your home, and the only radio station you can pick up is the one that you do not want to hear? Maybe by asking the next question, it’ll end up a humor story or science fiction or horror.

Once you understand the structure, let yourself go.

Aberrant Dreams: You mentioned that you are a character writer—that you prefer strong characters as opposed to plot driven stories. What advice do you have to help people improve their characters?

Wendy Webb: I think it goes to observation. Sometimes there is nothing more fun than to sit at a sidewalk café or on a bench at the mall and watch the people and pay attention to what is going on. I’ve been in the grocery store and seen somebody standing there, agonizing over which head of lettuce to take home. I’ll start thinking about what is going on with this person, and I’ll start making things up, which may or may not be true, but that may lead to what you’re going to do with the character.

You then take this character and put him/her, at least with fantasy, in extraordinary circumstances and see how he/she is going to react. You keep putting up obstacles, conflicts, and complication in front of the characters you create and see how they make it through…or maybe they don’t make it through. Then you put up the next complication. That is how plot starts moving along.

Aberrant Dreams: What stories would you consider as required reading for those interested in writing modern speculative fiction, primarily fantasy and horror?

Wendy Webb: I thought about some writers that represent different kinds of fantasy writing. Some that go back a few years that have influenced me have been Shirley Jackson and Daphne DuMaurier for different reasons, but a lot of it is the character. Of course, one of my all time favorite movies is The Haunting, which is based on The Haunting of Hill House, because it leaves so much to the imagination, which is far scarier than what they can show in splatter films.

Then there are other writers for people to consider, for instance, Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, who have large followings for their work. On another note, there are the writers of the magic realism stories: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende. That’s a whole different thing that is unique to their Latin origin.

I love Jasper Fforde. He’s written four books, and I think they are extremely intelligent and extremely funny, and it’s funny for people who have a bigger literary background and can catch all of the literary references.

Of course, there is my dear friend Charlie Grant—a wonderful writer. I think he is worth reading, as is Ray Bradbury, Jonathan Carol. Another one I have always liked since I was a kid is Madeline L’Engle (A Wrinkle in Time). These are all very different styles, I think.

Aberrant Dreams: The legendary fantasy writer E. R. Eddison has received extensive praise from the likes of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and, more recently, Ursula K. Le Guin. While his recreated Jacobean prose style may alienate today’s thrill a page audience, his work is often regarded as being the icon of what good fantasy should be. Would you agree with that and who else would you recommend?

Wendy Webb: His characters are larger than life, and the prose is difficult to read by modern standards—much like Shakespeare is difficult to read—but like Shakespeare, this kind of writing is also very musical. That I don’t think should necessarily be lost. I mean, some people tend to write long complicated sentences—I don’t. That’s not the way I write, but I think his writing could be a function of his life. I had to look this up, but apparently he lived from 1882 to 1945, so it might be a question of what he was reading.

I think that language is wonderful in something from which we can learn, but, from a practical standpoint, it could be difficult to market. On the other hand, if someone did write that today, some editor might say, “Oh, this is brand new,” and decide to go with it.

Nowadays though, the language we have to write has got to be very clear, and we always say that every word has to count and lead towards the ultimate conflict, which is sometimes a shame since we cannot always take the time with the prose.

Aberrant Dreams: It was only three years ago when you were awarded the Georgia Fandom Award. What was that like, and were you surprised?

Wendy Webb: I had no idea about it. I saw my friend, Brad Strickland, early on at a convention that year, and he said that he was going to be doing a memoriam for our friend Thomas Fuller. Brad and I were close to Tom, and Brad asked me if I would go with him and sit with him through the banquet. I said, “Sure, I would be glad to do it.”

I then began worrying how I could write something and present it to describe such a wonderful man in just a few words. I finally said to Brad, “You know, I don’t think I’m the right choice to go with you to this banquet.” And he said, “No, no, no, you have to go.” So I went.

We were sitting at a table there, and I told Brad that I wasn’t going to say anything because Brad was so eloquent. Brad then went up on stage and started talking about me. Of course I was hearing those words, and I was there with a friend of mine who said, “You know, that sounds very familiar. I think he’s talking about you.”

That was how he did it. Brad was very slick with that, and Tom would have gotten a big kick out of the whole thing. So, yes, I was very much surprised.

Aberrant Dreams: I understand you are teaching writing this summer at the John C. Campbell Folk School. What do your students have to look forward to, and will you include or make mention of Manly Wade Wellman (Silver John), since he epitomizes fantastic folk writing in this region? Who else?

Wendy Webb: Well, the folk school has been around for probably about a hundred years or so, and it has primarily been a place where they teach the old type crafts: blacksmithing, basket weaving, and those kinds of things. It was only a few years ago when they started teaching writing classes, and I was really surprised when they approached me about it.

As far as the writing goes, what I find is that most people who come want to know things like “how can I get an agent” and “how can I be a bestseller.” They don’t seem to be interested in the folk kinds of stuff.

So, I like to teach people the basic information to get them started as a professional—what they need to know for story and character. I spend three out of the five days teaching that. On the remaining two days, I teach them how to format a manuscript, and then how to look for markets.

Aberrant Dreams: When we spoke with Gerald Page a few months back he made mention that he was eager for the release of your new Beluga novel Mean Cuisine. What can you tell us about it, and how might our readers obtain a copy?

Wendy Webb: Mean Cuisine is the third book in the Beluga Stein series. The first one is called Last Resort, and it takes place at a spa and health resort. Beluga is a large woman and is really not a spa and health club kind of person, but she goes. Since it is a supernatural humor mystery, when she is forced to go into a mud bath, the first body surfaces. That is what that story is about.

The second one is called Bee Movie, and this takes place on a low budget horror film. Beluga gets called in to investigate some poltergeist activity and finds a dead body in the giant costume of a bee. She then has to investigate that.

In Mean Cuisine, she decides she wants to learn how to cook. Beluga decides she is going to go to a professional culinary program to learn the correct way to go about it. Instead, she finds the body of a well loved chef in the walk-in freezer.

That story just came out in April of this year through Marietta Publishing (small press). It can be ordered through book stores and is available through Amazon, the Marietta Publishing website, and I think there are some other online bookstores that are carrying it as well.

Aberrant Dreams: What can readers expect from Wendy Webb in the near future? What projects are you working on?

Wendy Webb: I would love to write more Beluga books. With the current market place for small press, it is really hard to know if that is going to happen. But I want to continue writing that, because I enjoy it, and I hope those reading it enjoy it as well.

There is also the potential for the television series on this, and that is the big one that is going on right now. I have been told that it might be on television differently than it appears in the book, so I have been preparing myself for that.

I also have a book that is kind of a missing person case that also deals a little bit with the paranormal that I have finished writing. I am currently shopping that around, and if I can ever get my thoughts together to work on it a little more, I started a two person murder mystery play. I’ve got about ten pages in it, and I realized that this is going to be tough.

That’s about it.

Aberrant Dreams: Wendy, thank you very much for allowing us to do this interview. It has been an absolute blast.

Wendy Webb: Thank You. It is so nice to meet you.

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