interview by Joe Vaz

From Issue 14 (Oct 2011)

WARNING: SPOILERS ABOUND

Where is home?
Home is somewhere where I can read and write.

Do you write full-time?
I try to write every day. Usually in the morning I do my ‘real’ writing, and then allow my job to take me hostage, with the dream of the freedom of coming back the next morning.

What inspired this story? And how did you develop the details?
Stories arrive and arise from many sources. This one had an interesting metamorphosis. It started with a chance remark made by a friend of mine many years ago along the lines of, “imagine two people had to meet up for dinner every few years otherwise the world will end.” I mean, who wouldn’t want to find out more about these two people? So I started to think about who they’d be. As usual I’d started out writing blind, to see where the story would take me, and somewhere along the way it occurred to me that this could be God and the Devil. And a little while later I realized they were actually on a date. A He and a She, if you will. And then I thought, what if the explanation for the universe and the way things are is if God and the Devil were once lovers? And like some of the most tumultuous and intense relationships we have all experienced, they just can’t let each other go and the great split wasn’t a fall from heaven, but a break up (obviously a horrible break up). Instead of Terry Pratchet’s Big Bang Theory, it was the Big Split that started it all.

The rest turned into history…

Details were not an issue for this story, as it stood out very vividly in my mind. I found the devil in the details, and that was fine too, hahaha…

How many drafts did this piece have?
It went through many drafts. I’d have to say maybe six or seven drafts.

Do you believe in angels?
Yes I do. I believe they are powerful ethereal beings that are beyond our grasp, and yet I feel they envy and don’t understand us, and we’re beyond their grasp.

How much research was involved in the writing process?
I didn’t research, as I just plumbed the depths of my own upbringing, and also borrowed from other sources I’d read or heard along the way, and threw in my own theological ideas. It was fun explaining to myself why the universe ticks along the way it does.

Are you working on anything right now?
I am working on a lot of things. I never seem capable of just focusing on one story at a time. But I believe that is because you’re drawing magic from one story to feed off the magic of another story. It’s like being head of a large family with a lot of siblings all vying for your attention. There’s a lot of demand, but a lot of love in the household. Know what I mean?

Where can we read more of your work?
Always in Something Wicked. Any other publications of the same ilk, and hopefully sooner rather than later, in the bestsellers lists.

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Joe Vaz

Joe Vaz is the founder and editor of Something Wicked, which occasionally affords him the honour and good fortune to hang out with really cool people.
In his other life he is a film and television actor who gets small parts in big movies, most recently in Dredd 3D, due to be released in September 2012.

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