Wolf Majick Reviews is happy to have author Lane Heymont stop by and answer some questions for us.
I’d like to thank Wolf Majick for letting me
come and asking such great, thought-provoking questions!
What gave you the idea for this novel?
I was enrolled in an African-American
literature class during in undergrad and fell in love with the genre. I
snowballed a short story I had written as an assignment into the beginning
chapters.
About the same time I was reading Hitler and the Occult by Ken Anderson. Hitler
was notorious for his obsession with anything supernatural, such as the Spear
of Longinus, the Holy Grail,
time travel, super soldiers, Atlantis, runes, and anything else you could
imagine.
Being Jewish, World War II literature is
always in my pile of current reads. So, I thought what if I combined the Civil
War era with World War II—two different types of holocausts.
Is there anything you hope readers will learn from your work?
I hope it serves as an eye-opener, a reminder
of how horrible and irresponsible our past is—we have left some of the old
ignorance and hate behind us. It’s still present in our lives today, but we’ve
come a long way, and there’s still a long way to go.
There’s this idea now that people claim to be
“color blind”, but that’s to deny the cultural differences. We come from
different experiences, and that’s to be respected, understood, and embraced. As
a Jewish person I don’t want that part of me ignored, because it’s who I am.
It’s about understanding and unity. A crime
against a people is a crime against all people.
Edmund Burke said it best, “When good men do
nothing, evil triumphs.”
How long did the novel take you to write?
I hate to say that it took me around four
years to write The Freedman and the
Pharaoh’s Staff. I sum it up as letting life happen and not having the
self-discipline to just sit down and write. Thankfully, I have that now, and
finished my second book in about 7 months.
Are any of your characters based on real people?
A lot of them are. One of the main characters
Jeb is based on Frederick Douglass. His brother-in-law Crispus is very loosely
based on the first National President of the NAACP Moorfield Storey. I based
Verdiss on an article I read about a African-American who passed as white and
joined the Ku Klux Klan in order to hide his ancestry.
Any ideas what your next novel will be about?
I have several in the works from literary to
fantasy to screenplays. My current prose work-in-progress is called Souls and Secrets. I can only describe
it as a medieval urban fantasy, a critique on issues pertaining to drugs,
socioeconomic equality, and inner city life.
As a reader what do you look for in a story?
In fiction, I look for originality. Something I
haven’t seen before or may be an odd concept that’s based in reality. I want
characters that face real-world problems, and have real-world issues, even in
the most fantastic world. Emotional complications, not just some need to do
something for the sake of the story.
As for non-fiction, I like biographies of people I
respect—politicians, activists, authors, etc. Classic and new philosophy,
poetry, and good ole literature is always on my shelves. Also, I’m always up any
new scientific theories or discoveries.
Author bio: Lane Heymont is the author of
The Freedman and the Pharaoh’s Staff, a time travel adventure set in post Civil War Louisiana. Born in
Pennsylvania, he earned a BA in Liberal Arts with a focus on literature and history. He also holds a double minor in psychology and business. Currently pursing a Masters in Creative Writing at Harvard University, he has had several short stories published, one of which was recommended for a 2012 Bram Stoker Award. For more info, visit:
www.laneheymont.com.
Follow Lane on Twitter: @laneheymont
The Freedman and the Pharaoh's Staff by Lane Heymont
