I’d like to welcome Jo Szewczyk to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday.

Things you always put in your books: I always tend to put words in my books. I’ve tried not putting them in once, and the publisher didn’t like it. They said nobody can read this! And, upon further examination, they were correct. So, now, I make sure to put words in them. I also put real things in. I take them from the news. That’s the gutting part about Scarlet Shadows—it actually does happen. I just tell it from a certain point of view.

Things you never put in your books: I never put leaves in my books. I let others far more trained than me do this sort of thing. Maybe it’s like words, but I haven’t the touch for it.

Things to say to an author: If you want to get on an author’s good side, or any human’s good side, try compliments. Something like, ‘Hey, I really liked how you wrote that puppy’ or ‘You know, this part made me laugh/cry/InsertEmotionHere’. You can even ask for some advice on ‘How did you get started?’ or ‘If I buy you a tea, what tea do you drink?’. I find one often leads to the other.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I used to have people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, you’re a writer? Great! I have this idea for a book. So, if I give you the book idea, you can write it for me and I’ll take all the credit and all the money since it’s the idea that is the hard part!’ This is why I stopped ghostwriting. Plus, I could never see the ink. That and the ‘Hey, I just wrote my first draft of 392,023 words… please edit it!’ No, just no.

Favorite books (or genre): I love books in general. They were my friends growing up. Quite frankly, they are my friends now, too. I tend to listen to them on audio as my eyes start to go. I think if you ask for my favorite series, it has to be the Dragonlance series as written by Weis and Hickman.

Books you wouldn’t buy: I won’t buy books on LaserDisc. I don’t think my car can play those anymore.

Besides writing, what’s the most creative thing you’ve done: The most creative thing I’ve ever done consistently is comedy. I love being on stage and will grab every chance to do so, which caused quite a ruckus at that ballroom competition. I mean, how was I supposed to know?

A project that didn’t quite turn out the way you planned it: I got zero, and I mean zero, laughs at my first open mic in Quebec. To make matters worse, the grandmother playing the fiddle killed it. I always knew I should have learned to be a grandmother.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: The nicest is when someone told me that my book helped them get through dark days. When you can touch someone on that level, it really gives me pause and I’m thankful that some silly little thing I wrote helped a stranger on their bad day.

The craziest thing a reader said to you: I’ve once had a person trash my narrator saying they were completely irredeemable and a horrible person. I had to, politely, point out that the book in their hands was my memoir.

Favorite places you’ve been: Places are just places—it’s the people that I enjoy. So any memory I have of a place is really to a person. I will always think of Seattle fondly because of this. I will think of Scotland, England, and Ireland fondly because of this (one day, Wales and Northern Ireland will be added!). Places in Italy and Greece that made me feel welcome. Moments of time in Montreal or Vegas or Prague are locked in. New York, LA, and Chicago—love it. A special weekend in Orange Beach? Fins up!

Places you never want to go to again: There’s this one ‘old’ brothel in Long Beach…

Some real-life story that made it to one of your books: I literally wrote a memoir. So…that entire book of Surviving Gen X happened. Although, I did make a friend into a little person and gave him a French accent (sorry, not sorry, Gene). But I put people from life in all my stories. Even my fictional ones get that. Bean and Michelle in Scarlet Shadows are real people. In fact, I ripped them directly from my memoir. There was something about them I wasn’t done with yet, and fiction let me keep going.

Something in your story that readers think is about you, but it’s not: I literally wrote a memoir. So… that entire book of Surviving Gen X was nothing but lies! Lies, I tells ya! Except that part where I definitely took 8 inches from Gene’s height and gave him a French accent. That part is, of course, true.

The first 8-track, record, cassette, or CD you ever bought: I am old enough to answer this! But my memory is old enough not to remember most of this. I think my first 8-track was Steve Martin, my first record was The Muppets, my first cassette was AC/DC, and my first CD was (this one I know for sure) Madonna.

A type of music that’s not your cup of tea: Elevator music. I can never tell if it’s up or down in that thing.

My favorite book as a child: Book? Not sure. Series? Well, that’s Stephen King, Peanuts, Garfield, and Dragonlance. Also, one on the thermodynamics of black holes, but that was more of a teenage thing.

A book I’ve read more than once: I’d re-read Garfield and Snoopy all day long if I could. I have read Winnie-the-Pooh to people and started reading the Dragonlance books to someone, but not sure if that counts as re-reading or just passing it on.

Your favorite movie as a child: My friend Mike and I wore out the VHS tape of Star Wars. I don’t think anything else came close.

A TV show or movie that kept you awake at night as a kid (or as an adult): Alien. The original. I would sleep with my hand covering my face to avoid ‘face huggers’ at night. Then, after years of doing this, one of the guys on the movie Source Code pointed out my ‘protection’ from those ‘face huggers’ was the same feeling of having my face hugged. Leave it up to an FX guy to point out the logic.

About Jo:

Jo Szewczyk once wrote for a Las Vegas fashion magazine under a woman’s name and was never once caught. He has cohosted the Bazowie Awards, hosts the interview show What’s Kraken?, works as a voice actor, and edits charity anthologies that have raised over $40,000. Each summer, he helps out at a David Bowie charity event in London, where an organizer dubbed him “tall for your age” -- a title he has stopped trying to shake.

Let’s Be Social:

Books: https://www.czykmate.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/czykmate

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/emptyhell.online

Website: http://emptyhell.online