Author Richard Thomas Shows He Will Be a Major Force in Fiction with "Transubstantiate"

Richard Thomas' novel Transubstantiate challenges you from the start. This is a not a typical novel filled with people who are good and people who are bad and with each side easily defined. No, this is a novel that challenges you from the first paragraph. The great news is that this is a not a bad thing. No, this is a novel that makes you pay attention and trusts that you have the intelligence to follow along.
The story is complicated and mixes elements of science fiction, adventure, fantasy and horror. It is set in a world in that famous place to set sci-fi novels "the not-too-distant-future." The tremendous fun of the novel is that all of the loose ends are not tied up neatly and perfectly at the end. The characters of the story tell the tale and that is also a challenge.

Each chapter is told in the first person. The chapter titles tell you who is narrating that particular part of the plot. At first, this can be challenging as you have to try and keep each narrator straight. Each one is already in the middle of their own adventure and, thus, there is not an easy exposition that sets up what has happened in the world. However, the things that they do reveal are so intriguing, you are compelled to turn the page.

The book imagines a world where a virus has wiped out most of humanity. Some have survived but have become mindless creatures who would just as soon eat you and look at you. The virus has also caused mutations in the animal life creating monstrous feral dogs and birds that resemble prehistoric animals more than anything alive today. The only true survivors seem to be a few people squirreled away on an island. They seem to be part of an experiment, but is it an experiment of good or evil? The true answers lie somewhere in the middle.

I had a chance to interview Richard Thomas about his work. He and I had the following conversation:

So, tell me a little bit about your history. How did you become a writer? Did you always want to be one? I've always been a big reader, as long as I can remember. Started with Dr. Seuss, and then in grade school, whatever I could get my hands on. I enjoyed writing in high school too, but didn't do much fiction. It wasn't until my undergraduate studies at Bradley University that I first started writing stories. That got me started. I spent time after I graduated typing up (yes, on a typewriter) stories and mailing them out. It was painful, and I sucked. I got into advertising after writing for some local underground magazines here in Chicago (all gone now) and became a graphic designer, an art director. Fifteen years later, I looked up and knew that I missed writing. I took some classes at The Cult with some authors I really loved and respected - Craig Clevenger, Monica Drake, and Max Barry, and was reborn. That was five years ago, and I've got a novel out now, over 30 stories online and in print, won a few contests and am almost done with my MFA. It's been a lot of fun.

What was your first story? My first published story of any real consequence was called "Animal Magnetism" and was published online at Opium. I was thrilled by that, and I thank Todd Zuniga every time I see him. It's a bizarre story about a guy who gets an elephant penis when his love life is failing, and his girlfriend likes it. They quickly descend into something strange. It's short, like 500 words, and funny, I think. I read it at my MFA the first time I went down there (it's a low-res program at Murray State University in Kentucky) and it went over well. Not my usual style.

Who are your biggest writing influences? I grew up reading Stephen King, so he's a huge influence. Clive Barker, Peter Straub, early Dean Koontz. Then I moved on to Chuck Palahniuk, and that changed a lot of things. Got me to Will Christopher Baer, Craig Clevenger, and Stephen Graham Jones. Lately, with my MFA it's been people like Mary Gaitskill, Denis Johnson, William Gay, Brian Evenson. And indie voices like Amelia Gray, Blake Butler, Tina May Hall, Lindsay Hunter, and Mary Miller.

Have you always wanted to be in the genre you are in? What other genres interest you? Well, I call my work "neo-noir" which is just French for "new-black". I think of it as contemporary dark fiction. It's not horror, although there are aspects of the horrific, as well as the fantastic. Usually my work is urban, set in the near future, or now, heavy on setting, fast paced like thrillers, but with layers of emotion, character, mood and tone, and a sprinkling of sex and violence. I've always read horror, but really, what I like is a good story, and often the speculative novels and short stories, do that for me. These days I also read a lot of "literature" but even then I'm drawn to the dark, strange stuff.

OK, because everyone will want me to ask: What was the inspiration for Transubstantiate ? Probably watching the TV show Lost. I took an intensive with Max Barry, knowing we were going to work on a novel, and he told us to write four openings to four novels that we always wanted to do. Mine were horror, noir, fantasy and science fiction. When I was done, I thought, hell, these could all be in the same world, the same book. So Transubstantiate ended up being seven first person POVs, which was crazy to write, always trying to remember where the characters were, geographically, as well as emotionally, who knew what, etc. I may not do that again. My next book, Disintegration is one person, one POV. Pretty straight forward, even if he doesn't have a name.

Do you think you'll make a sequel? What interested you about the characters? Well, I left the ending open for a sequel. I've thought about it now and then, what the characters are doing, how have things changed, what's going on now. I liked them all because they were broken, they had screwed up, but they weren't without some redeeming value still. And that's what I explored in the novel, the idea of second chances, when does a life have no value, and can people change. They surprised me, many of these characters, and at the end, I had no idea who would live or die.

What do you like to read? Lately it's been a lot of short stories. I do book reviews up at The Nervous Breakdown , so you can head over there to see the books that have blown me away in the last year. So all of those guys - Paul Tremblay, SGJ, Amelia, Lindsay, Ben Percy, Craig Davidson, etc. I always read King when he has a new book out. Mostly I've been focusing on smaller presses, places like ChiZine, Featherproof, Graywolf, FC2, etc. So I'll read an expansive novel like King's Under the Dome and then pick up a thin short story collection like Ethel Rohan or Tina May Hall. There is so much great writing going on these days.

Who inspires your writing the most? Will Christopher Baer is a voice I go back to often, his tone and style has probably influenced me as much as anybody. I wish Godspeed would come out. I wish he would write more. I read everything that SGJ writes too, he's really an inspiration, a great mentor and somebody that shows me what can be done. He can write genre or lit, or blend the two, like few people can.

Do you have an advice for up and coming writers? Read. Read all of the master in your genre. Read the Best American Short Stories collections that come out every year. See what the masters, old and new are doing, and have done. And get inspired. Go see cool movies, music, plays, go to art galleries, whatever it takes. That will help you to find your voice. Work on the short form for a long time before trying a novel. Experiment and have fun. Then send it out, don't be afraid, you can do it. I get probably a rejection a day. But I keep going. When you find a good fit, it's thrilling.

What projects are you working on? What's next for you? Finishing up Disintegration to get to an agent that asked for it, trying to make it by February 1st. Constantly writing short stories. Shopping around four right now that I wrote in a Jack Ketchum intensive. He was great. Working on my MFA, that's another seven stories that eventually I'll send out. January is a big month for me, with stories coming out in Shivers VI (Cemetery Dance) with Stephen King and Peter Straub, that's a dream come true. Have a story in Murky Depths this very cool graphic magazine in the UK, that's just out. And another story in Pear Noir! with Kim Chinquee and Kevin Moffett amongst others, very happy with that as well.

Transubstiantiate is now available at bookstores and online. It is also available as an eBook for just about any eReader you might have. It is fascinating storytelling from a powerful and exciting new voice in fiction.