Unforgettable: Harrowing Futures, Horrors, & (Dark) Humor
by Paul McComas
May 2011 Book Pick

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Paul McComas, author of Unforgettable

There were a few stories that I really enjoyed in this collection. My favorite was "Treatment: Murder, She Wrote Series Finale." Which one was your favorite in this collection?

First of all, thanks; I'm glad you enjoyed my somewhat unorthodox take on Murder, She Wrote. In case you couldn't tell, I had a blast writing that piece. Jessica Fletcher's retort to Eve near the end of Act IV still makes me laugh. Of course, CBS would never touch this piece--though maybe I should send it to Angela Lansbury...?

But, to your question: It would be well nigh impossible for me to pick just one story out of fifty; however, I'll name a few. And I'll steer clear of the collaborative pieces, much as I love them, lest I hurt the feelings of co-authors whose stories I don't name.

The first story, "Icediver," is the strongest SF piece; it functions as both otherworldly adventure and allegorical warning. The title story, which closes the collection, is the strongest horror piece, rooted as it is in a place of primal childhood fear. Others in which I take particular pride are the Kafka-esque pro-choice parable "Roomie," the character-driven tall tale "The One that Got Away," the gallows-humor voodoo playlet "Be Mine," and the post-apocalyptic survival/romance story "Levitation." Of the short-shorts (or "horror-d'oeuvres"), "Harry & Sally vs. New York" is an apt and pithy introduction to the bizarre sensibility that informs the entire book--and "The Most Terrifying Three-Word Dystopian/Dark-Fantasy/Horror Story Ever Written" delivers maximum punch with minimum verbiage.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Paul McComas, author of Unforgettable

I always wonder when I see a story written with a co-author what the technique is like. Can you explain your methods for writing with another person? Do you find this easy to do, or is it very difficult?

It was surprisingly easy.

The book's lengthy "Two Heads Are Better" section comprises sixteen of my collaborations with fourteen different writers (two each with William F. Nolan and Ben Neumann; one each with the other twelve). There wasn't a single collab that ended up "on the cutting-room floor" -- they're quite different from each other, yet I believe they all work. Our methods varied from piece to piece: sometimes, I began a story, and my co-author continued it; other times, this process was reversed--or my writing partner delivered a short "full draft" into my hands for fleshing out. In each case, there was a fair amount of back-and-forth: in essence, fiction writing as conversational process.

I doubt I could have co-written these stories a dozen years ago; I'd have lacked the confidence, the ego strength, to comfortably let go and share control with a bunch of other writers. But because I was coming at these pieces in my fourth book rather than in my first, I had no qualms and leapt at the chance to "play" with a series of friends and colleagues in an open-ended way, and see where the process would take us.

It took us to some pretty amazing places!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Paul McComas, author of Unforgettable

The cover art of Unforgettable really stands out. I know that you mention the artist a few times and include a story that you co-authored with him. Can you tell us the meaning behind the art piece?

Thanks again. On one level, the cover--beautifully executed by Nick Endres--is an homage to the gaudy, sexy covers of the gaudy, sexy pulp-SF/adventure novels and comic books I devoured as a boy. On a second level, it's an attempt to incorporate all three elements of the book's subtitle--"Harrowing Futures, Horrors, and (Dark) Humor"--within a single image. On a third level, the illustration is cautionary, warning the viewer that our culture's worship of technology may well lead to regress rather than progress. On a fourth, final, and incredibly reductive level, I wanted a pulp cover that--unlike most such images--isn't breast-obsessed, but opts instead for the dorsal view.

But back to that third level, because it's the one that matters. I'm not very interested in gadgets, gizmos, and other "tech," and you won't find much of that in my work. The sciences that interest me in science fiction aren't the hard sciences, but the so-called soft or "pseudo" sciences: sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, theology, gender studies, and so forth. My speculative fiction tends to be dystopian and Earth-based, and it's informed less by "adventures in the stars" than by the feminism and eco-activism of Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale; The Year of the Flood) and the bioethical musings of Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go). It's less Star Wars than Soylent Green: genre fiction not as escapism, but as the opposite--an allegorical reflection of where we are and where we may be headed.

It's no coincidence that I asked genre-film scholar Eric Greene ("Planet of the Apes" As American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture) to pen the Foreword. For him, as for me, a genre story is seldom "just a story."

So, within this seemingly superficial pulp cover lies a kind of "stealth message": turn tech into our god, and we forfeit our freedom. Maybe even our humanity.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Paul McComas, author of Unforgettable

You mention that you teach a course for writing. Do you enjoy that? Do you learn anything from your students that make you see things in a different perspective?

Actually, I teach not one but several writing, literature, film-studies, and current-events courses, working with students who range in age from their late teens to their nineties. I've done so since 1998, the year my first book was published. And, yes, I enjoy it greatly. I do learn from my students, particularly the hand-picked members of the private Advanced Fiction Writing workshop I've led--meeting right in my home--for the past decade. But much of what one learns from teaching comes less from the students per se than from the act of engaging in the teaching process. When a writer begins to teach, he or she suddenly has to contemplate the craft in a conscious way, rather than "just doing it." Instruction necessitates reflection, and I take that reflection--as well as whatever insights it has yielded--back to my own work.

Beyond that, a half-dozen of my "Two Heads Are Better" co-authors are my current or former students. Certainly, I as a writer have benefited greatly from their "different perspectives"; the proof is right there on the pages.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Paul McComas, author of Unforgettable

You include some writing from when you were a child in Unforgettable. I have to say that I was impressed. What made you want to write and act as a child?

Uh. . .impressed by my juvenile efforts--or impressed that I had the guts to include those efforts?

BCQ: I was impressed with your writing skills as a child. I attempted to write stories when I was younger and I find your story-telling techniques brilliant!

Paul: Gotcha. Yes, I've included a "Flashbacks" section that comprises one piece each written at ages 10, 13, and 16. The first two are mercifully short; the third, "Simon Says," holds up reasonably well, I think. As Unforgettable grew from "a genre collection" into "my comprehensive genre collection," it seemed fitting to provide a few glimpses into the road this particular author took to get to where he is today--especially since this whole project was, in a sense, a return to my "first loves" (for it was SF/horror literature and cinema that got me into literature and cinema in the first place).

What made me want to write, and act, and make movies as a boy? I'm not entirely sure. Like most writers, I guess I'm a natural-born storyteller who's been doing it for as long as I can remember. Plus, all of these activities were undeniably fun; that was a big part of it. And perhaps artistic creation gave me a sense of control over my environment that eluded me elsewhere--particularly at school, where I did well academically was something of a social outcast. But then, don't misfits always make the best artists? Seriously--who wants to read a novel by the high-school quarterback or the captain of the cheerleading squad? I don't even want to read about them.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Paul McComas, author of Unforgettable

Can you tell us what you are working on next?

Multi-genre master William F. Nolan and I are putting the finishing touches on Logan's Journey, the fourth novel in his Logan series and the first since 1980; we'll time its publication to coincide with the release of Warners Bros.' upcoming big-budget 3-D remake of the original Logan's Run. (Two excerpts from Journey debut in Unforgettable's "Two Heads Are Better" section.)

I'm editing a third anthology of fiction by others. This one, a collection of "place-based" stories called Proving Grounds, is slated for 2012 publication.

My own next solo book will be another novel, though I don't yet know what it will be about.

My 2008 novel Planet of the Dates is in development as a Hollywood feature; its predecessor, 2002's Unplugged, is itself getting a second look right now in the film industry. Each has been adapted into a fine screenplay: in the first case by the producers, and in the second case by yours truly. Either would make for a hell of a movie--truly "unforgettable."

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Paul McComas, author of Unforgettable

Thank you!

No; thank you--and God bless Ye Book Club Queens, one and all!