Inside the Spec Chic Studio: An Interview with Craig Schaefer

Howdy, dear Chicers! Well, it’s February, which means groundhogs, candy hearts, and, if you’re like my friend Tom, one birthday every four years. February is also a wonderful time for a discussion about the perks and perils of writing.

Imagine it, if you will: Two people, a man and a woman, sitting across from one another in matching leather armchairs. The study, with its floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a stuffed yahg head staring down all who enter, is lit only by the crackling flames in the fireplace. Flickering light illuminates the sheen of their silken smoking jackets and ascots, winkles off the brandy in their snifters. A glare turns the monocle perched on the woman’s right eye opaque as she peers down at the list of questions in her lap…

Okay, okay. So, this interview was conducted online. Regardless, I had a blast catching up with Craig Schaefer, the crazy-talented author of Ghosts of Gotham, The Loot, and the myriad titles in his First Story series of series. (Here’s an official reading order from Schaefer’s site, in case you’re as fanatical as I am about that sort of thing.) His characters are layered and complex, his plots captivating, and his world-building chops off the charts. But, that’s enough from me. Let’s let Mr. Schaefer speak for himself.

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When or how did you decide to become a writer? Did you have an “ah-ha” moment, or did it develop more gradually?

I think I knew, all along, that it was the only life I wanted. I had my heart set on becoming a writer when I was young, then life got in the way, and a career and a marriage and a divorce and more career and more life, until I found myself staring down the barrel of my 40^th birthday and my own mortality. At which point I knew I could either chase my dreams with everything I had, or die unfulfilled. Dying unfulfilled didn’t appeal to me, so here we are.

Your First Story series of series is truly epic in scope. Did you go into it knowing how huge it was going to be, or did it grow into a beautiful, monstrous beast all on its own?

I saw the armature of the piece from the beginning; all the important parts, the skeleton, the shape of it, were there. It grew over time, though, taking on weight and sometimes-surprising form; sometimes it sticks to the plan, and sometimes the plan changes on me, showing me a path I hadn’t yet explored.

What book are you most proud of having written?

Ghosts of Gotham. I wrote it in honor of someone very special to me, and it marks a year of strange changes in my life and a lot of personal discovery.

 

What, if any, thing(s) or conditions do you need in order to write?

Many writers fall into the trap of needing a fetish or a talisman to write: their lucky pen, their special ball cap. I warn new writers against that. If you need a magic wand to perform a trick, what happens when your wand breaks?

I work best in silence and solitude, though I’ve gotten work done in train stations and airports, wherever I happen to be. Generally I start the morning by brewing coffee, offering a prayer of gratitude to the Muses, and getting to work while the sun comes up. Every day starts best with gratitude and coffee.

Do you prefer drafting or editing? Why?

Editing, like life, is pain. Writing is challenging sometimes (a lot of times), but I love the adventure of it. When you’re writing the first draft, you’re weaving, flowing, painting a picture where once was only blank canvas. Editing, on the other hand, is when someone stands at your shoulder and says, “It’s all a little awful, though, isn’t it?” And you have to walk through every mistake, every misfire and bad idea, every dumb line and error you made over months of work.

Of course, that’s why it’s so incredibly important. Every good book is a collaboration, and I wouldn’t be half the writer I am without a great team of editors forcing me to get in shape.

What are your hobbies outside of writing?

I dabble in anything that might be useful to my writing; for instance, I recently started to learn how to craft and blend perfumes. Don’t go looking for my signature scent anytime soon, I need a lot of practice. I tend to decompress most nights with a little gaming; I play a healer in Final Fantasy 14…which is admittedly a strange way to relax, because as anyone who plays online games knows, no one is more filled with salt and rage than a healer. I am a small bundle of feline fury and if you stand in the boss monster’s radius of attack one more time, so help me I will let this entire party die.

I’ve also gotten hooked on Cities: Skylines, a simulator where you’re supposed to horribly mismanage a growing city, create inhumanly awful traffic jams, and go bankrupt. At least, that’s what I think you’re supposed to do. That’s how my games always turn out so I assume I’m doing it right.

Is there another author you would totally freak out and fanboy all over if you met him or her?

This has already happened. The author was Lawrence Block (one of my biggest influences), and he was incredibly gracious as I fanned all over him. He’s a great writer and super-classy. And patient. So patient.

As a fellow native Illinoisian, I have to ask: Cubs, White Sox, or — God forbid — Cardinals? 

I’d definitely call myself a Cubbie, having celebrated the seventh-inning stretch with Harry Caray back in the day more than once. (While watching the Cubs lose, every single time, as expected. No Cubbie expects the team to win.)

Also, I’m a theater buff, and the first play I ever saw was a production of Bleacher Bums (a comedy about a long afternoon at Wrigley Field), so it was pretty much decided for me.

(Apologies to any Cards fans reading this. I’m a Cubbie, too, so I’m sure you understand.)

Finally, in the grand tradition of Marcel Proust, Bernard Pivot, and James Lipton, I’ve made my own list of short yet probing questions to ask my interviewees.

What is your favorite smell?

It’s a toss-up between fresh-baked bread or the forest after a good, strong thunderstorm.

What smell that most people enjoy do you detest?

I don’t know that I have one; smells are wonderful, and even if I don’t care for one, it’s all sensory data, something to experience and remember, something to work into a story later down the line. It all goes into a book sooner or later.

What is your favorite swear word?

It’s got to be “fuck,” right? It’s versatile, it can express delight or dismay, it rolls right off the tongue. (And if you’ve ever watched The Wire, you know the classic scene which proves you can hold an entire, meaningful conversation with those simple four letters alone. Art.)

What is your favorite non-swear word or phrase?

It may be a cliché, but Tolkien was right: “cellar door” really is a beautiful pair of words.

What is your oddest fear or pet peeve?

My oddest pet peeve? Okay. You know how credit-card readers have a long, curved channel to perfectly nestle the plastic signing pen? My peeve is when people ignore that and jam the pen straight into the hole in the middle, so it’s jutting out from the reader instead of making a nice even line.

I find it unaesthetic.

If you could have dinner with one fictional character and one real person (alive or dead), who would they be?

This is the hardest of questions. Impossible to narrow down, and whatever answer I give today might be completely different tomorrow. Let’s try this: for the real person, either Anaïs Nin, Sappho, Marcus Aurelius, or John Carpenter. For the fictional character, either James Bond, Sylvanas Windrunner, or Professor Moriarty (the original-canon version or the Elementary TV series version, preferably the latter). I suppose I should say Sherlock Holmes, but let’s be honest, Moriarty would be a more interesting dinner date.

Agreed! What is your favorite simple pleasure?

A walk in the woods. There’s a stretch of forest trail that runs right behind my apartment complex, and I can be found amid the trees around sunset most days. It’s a great way to process, to brainstorm, to get out of my office and get in touch with something bigger than me. And sometimes, there are deer.

If you had to go back to any age and live your life over again, what age would you pick? (You would retain all of the memories and knowledge accrued on your first go-around.)

Thirteen. Just old enough to have some agency, young enough to make the most of the opportunity. Only five years to adulthood, which seemed like forever when I was that age — but now I know and appreciate just how fast a year flies by.

When someone approaches you and says they want to follow in your footsteps (i.e., pursue the same profession), what is your foremost bit of advice?

Don’t just decide to be a writer. Decide why you want to be a writer, and what your core goals are. Is self-expression and art your first passion? Are you aiming to make it a career, or would you be okay with keeping the day job? If you had to choose between one path that leads to a big publisher, your name in lights and the convention circuit, and another that offers relative obscurity but a reasonably steady income (not stable, this life is never stable), which would you pick?

There are no wrong answers, but the more honest you are with yourself, the more you know what you really, truly want, the better equipped you are to build a working plan and make it happen. And of course, no matter how hard you work, there are no guarantees. Writing is a gambler’s game. But then again, so is life.

 Last but not least, if you were reincarnated into any animal, vegetable, or mineral, other than human, as what would you most like to return?

As the last of my kind, a lonely and majestic creature who dies tragically on the open veldt, whose extinction draws the attention and tears of the entire world. Because I am, every now and then, a massive diva.

Many thanks to Craig Schaefer for his patience, his always thoughtful answers to my sometimes silly questions, and his stories. Seriously, if you haven’t already, go read his books. Now, dear Chicers! What are you waiting for?

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Author Bio

Craig Schaefer’s books have taken readers across a modern America mired in occult mysteries, from the seamy criminal underworld of the Daniel Faust series; to the supernatural espionage and intrigue of the Harmony Black series; to the apocalyptic parallel worlds of the Wisdom’s Grave trilogy. He currently lives in North Carolina, where he can be found haunting museums, libraries, abandoned crossroads, and other places where dark fantasy authors tend to congregate.