This may be a little inside baseball, but I believe you’ve done a good deal of “contract work” yourself—do you see yourself in the main character at all?
I mean, there’s contract work and then there’s CONTRACT WORK. I’ve done the former, but you know, none of the latter. I’ve always been fascinated with mercs, bounty hunters, and contract killers, though. I think it’s largely because those people, especially how they’re portrayed in popular media, don’t really exist. They’re a heroic (or antiheroic) archetype that is definitely more fantasy than reality. Of course, there are real mercenaries and hitmen out there, but the suave John Wick types are pure mythology. So, no, I don’t see myself in this character, but he’s definitely the kind of character a like to write about.
Two character moments really stood out to me… First, the protagonist’s relationship with their mother. As a momma’s boy, I’m curious how much of that relationship comes from your own?
I was and am close with my mother, though she’s perfectly healthy. My mom is part of the reason I started reading horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, and she definitely encouraged my writing from early on. So, yeah, there are probably some threads in this story that mirror my actual relationship with my own mother, and maybe about my own fears of growing older.
Second, and probably more importantly in the grand scheme of things given the world we live in, is the skewering of the health care industry, especially here: “I related that one T-Rex brain provides enough genetic material to treat a thousand Alzheimer’s patients, but RevChem offers the treatment to a fraction of that number to drive up the price.” I’m curious if this was the seed of the story or if it started somewhere else and this was a happy consequence?
The premise of the story was always harvesting the organs of prehistoric animals for miracle cures, though the first drafts didn’t skewer the health care industry the way the published story does. That part kind of developed after a got a few rejections on the piece and did some revisions. I realized the main character needed a deeper motivation than just money, so his mother’s ailment and the cure developed out of that. It improved the story, and I’m almost certain that’s what led to me finally selling it.
What is it about dinosaurs you find interesting?
Oh, I’m a HUGE dinosaur nerd, and I have been since I was a kid. Up until the age of like 14, when folks would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my immediate answer would be paleontologist. Yes, I came within an eyelash of becoming Ross Geller. Anyway, then I discovered that I could write a little, and that kind of took over. But I’ve been reading about and studying dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters for most of my life, and I think what I find so interesting about them is, for lack of a better word, they’re monsters that actually existed. I mean, think about the T-rex in this story. We’re talking about a 40-foot, 8-ton predator that ate an elephant’s worth of meat on the daily. If that doesn’t inspire you to write some sci-fi (or horror), I don’t know what will.
Why no vampires in this story?
I’ve been told that not EVERY story needs vampires. I’m not sure I believe it, but you can consider “Time Has No Memory” as an experimental vampire-free story from me. I guess it’s okay, but, come on; a vampire T-rex would be metal as hell, right?
Is there any chance this is actually a vampire origin story and the K-T asteroid turns our protagonist into the first vampire?
When I first read this, I laughed, then, of course, I started thinking about it. What would a 65-million-year-old vampire even look like? What kind of powers would he have? Godlike, right? So, if the KT extinction event turns my protagonist into the first vampire, then he’s wandering the Earth alone for eons, growing in power, drinking the blood of the prehistoric critters that come after the dinos, and, let’s face it, going completely nuts. Then, 64,750,000 years ago, our first furry ancestors pop up, and now our ur-vampire has new tasty treats and eventually people to worship him. So, what I’m saying is you get the first vampire AND pretty much every deity humans have concocted in this one poor son-of-a-bitch just trying to do right by his momma.
How many times has this story been rejected by other markets?
This story is my biggest loser. It was rejected twenty-five times before Abyss & Apex bought it, a record for a story I’ve actually sold. Now it has a new home in Foofaraw, and I couldn’t be more pleased.
What’s a great short story you’ve read recently?
Went back and reread Elmore Leonard’s “Fire in the Hole”, which is the story that introduces the character of Raylan Givens, he of Justified fame. Hell of a story. So efficient and compelling. Classic Leonard.
What book are you reading right now?
I’ve been rereading some of my favorites. Right now, since I’ve been writing and subbing a fair amount of crime and mystery stories, I went back an read Stephen King’s Billy Summers and Later, two of the best crime novels I’ve read since Elmore Leonard passed.