erin_broadley

Scott Sigler has been building an army right under your nose. It's been getting bigger for years, and it might finally be too big to ignore. Thousands of fans have listened to podcasts of his books, and now he's taking over bookstores everywhere with Infected, his unsettling tale of something... unusual... under your skin.

Scott pioneered the practice of podcasting novels, and his are some of the most suspenseful around. His loyal fans call themselves Junkies, and it's not hard to see why: they're always waiting for the next fix, a couple more chapters. Now that Scott's star is rising, though, they're going to get even more than that. The print version of Infected will be followed by the rest of the trilogy -- Contagious and Pandemic -- and an Infected movie is also in the works. Scott talked to SuicideGirls about what makes good horror, what makes podcasting so cool, and why he failed in his previous career as... a pimp? For more information about Scott, and to listen to free podcasts of all of his novels, visit www.scottsigler.com. Jay Hathaway: Hey, how's it going? Scott Sigler: Leftover mac and cheese heated up, ready to rock. JH: Nice. So, Infected has been out for two weeks now. Is this anything like you expected? SS: Yeah, I kind of knew what to expect because of Ancestor back on April 1, 2007. Sales are pretty strong for first week, which we expected because of the podcasting fan base. Now waiting to see if Infected rolls on its own. JH: Do you think people are sort of looking at this as a test of podcast novels in general? SS: Yeah, I think the industry is watching. We've been really lucky with coverage: Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Fangoria. And that's got us on the radar. So people will be watching. JH: Being filed in the horror section kind of helps, too. Because you have the immediate fanbase with the Junkies and podcast watchers in general, and then now that you're in print, you have another really strong fanbase around the genre. What's the response from that community been like? SS: It hasn't hit the horror community yet, I don't think. The Fangoria review was great. We're in the front of most stores. So in a couple of weeks we'll be in the horror section, that should help. I think Infected is a really solid, new entry in horror, so hopefully people will pick it up as a change-of-pace from the vampire/werewolf/zombie titles that fill up the horror section at the moment. b]JH: Yeah, that's something that immediately grabbed me about the book. I heard "Infected" and I thought zombies, but what you've actually got is something so much scarier than that. SS: Infected is based on parasitism and parasites' ability to control the behavior of victims, even to the point of making the host commit suicide if it benefits the parasite's life cycle. And this happens on a daily basis in our world, millions of times a day, all around us, so I wondered what kind of power it would take to hijack a human body and mind, drive a human host to murder and suicide. Infected is the story that came out of that search. JH: Is Infected about your own personal phobias? What are you actually scared of? SS: I'm afraid of the Amish, that's about it. JH: How did you get into writing horror initially? Why not some other genre? SS: I just kind of wound up there. I'm not trying to write a specific genre; it's just that bad things always seem to happen to my characters. My books are thrillers, but with a hard science foundation, and horror happens as a result if you can make a reader really care for a character, then put that character in a desperate life-and-death situation, you can jack the reader's pulse rate up and really suck them in. When writers like Stephen King do that to me, I'm on the edge of my seat. I enjoy doing the same for my fans. JH: Let's say you were going to get into the business of ghostwriting completely absurd autobiographies... whose would you want to do? SS: Troma would be a good autobiography, and I'm sure Jenna Jameson has some great stories to tell. JH: Have you read her book? I've heard mixed reviews. You could probably do better. SS: Haven't read it yet. She does what she does, and I write, so probably. I'd like to write fictitious bios of characters, fill in the back-story of, say, Hudson from Aliens. JH: Well, you've got this great back-story for Perry, who's a bit of a celebrity in the universe of Infected. I could totally see you doing something like that. SS: That would be a blast. That's the kind of thing you can do with podcasting: write something that fans would like, but probably wouldn't sell enough copies to merit a publisher like Crown putting the book in stores everywhere. But with podcasting and print-on-demand technology, you can do a lot with backstore, side stories, character breakouts, etc. JH: Absolutely. Does knowing you're going to be reading the story as a podcast change the way you write? There were some lines, especially some dialogue, where I was thinking, "Sigler just thought that would be fun as hell to say." SS: Yes and no. A lot of those lines that are fun to say are also fun for people to read. Nocturnal is my strongest book yet for dialogue, and I think it will read as well as it sounds in podcast. JH: Any plans for your earlier books to come out in print now? SS: Yes, Crown has bought the rights to Ancestor and Earthcore, loosely planned for a 2010 release. But depends on how well Infected sells, and also the sales of the sequel, Contagious. JH: And you're going to keep podcasting all of your new stuff along the way, right? SS: Right, that's part of the deal I made with Crown. I get to podcast whatever I want, whenever I want, for free, including the books under contract with them. I try to work with their marketing department to make sure the podcast is in synch with book launches, but still, all my content is given away as a free podcast and it will stay that way. JH: You'd basically have an army of angry fans on your hands if it didn't. SS: Well I think they'd understand, but my dad has a saying, "You dance with the one that brought ya." I wouldn't have these opportunities if it wasn't for podcasting and for the Junkies. We could see shooting begin for the Infected movie in early 2009, for crying out loud. Hardcover, big promo, coverage, movie deal... all because of podcasting. JH: Any thoughts on casting for the movie? SS: I'd love to see The Rock as Perry. JH: That would really be a meeting of the eyebrows. SS: [Laughs] True! Josh Hartnett could pull it off very well. JH: Hartnett would have to bulk up big time. SS: Well, he's 6'3" and you can always change the position from Linebacker to Strong Safety, but yeah, he'd have to put on some pounds. Ryan Reynolds could tear it up. He bulked up quite a bit for the Blade movie, and I'm a big fan of his. The trouble is finding a solid actor, big, and 30 or under to fit the role perfectly. JH: There are some juicy action sequences for any of these guys to sink their teeth into, as well. SS: It's an Academy Award role. You go from quiet, calm, keeping it all inside, gradual progression to slobbering psychotic. It will be a huge vehicle for the main actor. I'm very excited. JH: Are you personally an angry guy? Were you drawing on some experience there? SS: No, not really. I'm very aggressive and intense, and in athletic situations, extremely angry, that's just how I play. But Perry's arc is more a tip of the hat to people that try to break the cycle of violence. It's a hard thing to do. JH: So, for readers who are about to go check out your site, I'm sure they're going to wonder about this... failed pimp? SS: I tried my best, but couldn't make the biz work. I can't say much due to a pending federal investigation, and a case being filed against Soupbone The Wonder Pimp. I'm a witness for the prosecution JH: So you found that it wasn't easy? SS: Correct. My problem is that when the girls tell me what to do, I listen. You can't have that as a pimp. JH: And that's actually kind of an issue for the female protagonist in Infected, too, in a non-prostitution-related context. As a guy, is writing female characters particularly challenging? SS: A little. Women are dang hard to figure out. There's a different set of mechanics going on in there. Most women characters, I'm channeling someone I dated. After you've dated someone for 3-4 months, you start to get a peek under the hood, see what makes them tick. But still, most of my female characters are driven, intense and successful, and that's a set of characteristics that spans either sex. I'd have a hard time writing a weak woman. JH: Since you're getting more well-known all the time, and still really interacting with listeners a lot through your site and your podcasting stuff, do you find you get hit on a lot? SS: Not much. Don't know if that will change in the future, but one can always hope. JH: How about the strangest thing the and coolest thing you've gotten involved in with the Junkies so far? SS: Hmmm. The strangest thing would be some of the propositions I've got over email. The coolest thing... for the book tour, one dude flew from Minnesota to Houston, 2,500 miles round-trip, just to attend and get his book signed. That's pretty freaking impressive. JH: Yeah, jeez, That's amazing dedication. So if someone's thinking this Infected stuff is pretty cool, and they want to start listening to some more podcasts, what are a few you would suggest? SS: Start with these: 7th Son by J.C. Hutchins, Crescent by Phil Rossi, Failed Cities Monologues by Matt Wallace -- a Variant Frequencies podcast -- and it's a bit of a stretch genre-wise, but Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood. There's a ton of great 'casts out there, but for suspense and horror those are the ones. JH: Speaking of J.C. Hutchins, you two have a notorious rivalry of sorts, and you've worked on crossovers and other projects together. What are the latest developments with that? SS: I have assassins targeting him now. We're scoping out the routes he will take on his 2009 book tour, if he dares to step outside of his apartment, that is. I'm trying to lull him into a false sense of security. Then, boom! Car bomb outside of Des Moines, and no more Mr. Nice Guy. b]JH: But meanwhile, he's been pimping a story you just wrote for him as your best work ever. True?
SS: Part of the strategy. Why would I give him such a good story if I wanted him dead, right? You are a fool, J.C. Hutchins... A FOOL! JH: [Laughs] And I was going to ask how the Junkies measure up to his loyal Clone Army, but you've already explained the extent of their dedication. SS: Unfortunately, there is a lot of overlap. That will take care of itself when he's gone. JH: It seems obvious you would win if it ever came down to a one-on-one fistfight. What's the worst actual fight you've ever been in, though? SS: Sheesh, I can usually talk my way out of anything. Would have to go back to the band days, when we got in a fight with a Satan-worship band. Somehow we got put on a bill with three Satan acts. We were pretty heavy music, but not that genre. Our smart-asses got some shit going.
JH: How many satanic rock bands does it take to screw in a light bulb? SS: How many? JH: Uhhh... I don't know, at least two? Maybe, like, one to prepare the altar, one to chew up the old bulb ... SS: [Laughs] JH: I didn't actually have a joke there. SS: Anyway, the worst beatings I've taken haven't been in a fight. There was this one girl, proclivity for leather and cat-o-nine-tails... we won't go into it. JH: Maybe some Suicide Girls will want to go into it with you later. SS: I'd have no choice but to confess.
JH: Actually, going back to the band, you've worked plenty of musical references and song lyrics into your writing. What would you put on the soundtrack for the Infected movie, apart from the songs you mention in the book? SS: Right now, it would be Bullet for my Valentine, Trivium, Killswitch Engage, some throwback Toadies, Frank Sinatra, As I Lay Dying. Those seem to capture the right mood. JH: Definitely. Makes that Paul McCartney reference seem kind of odd, though. Lyrically, it made a lot of sense, but I was surprised to see it there. SS: That's true. But there is mood music overall, then when you want to communicate to the reader you need something with broader appeal. Most people have heard "Under my Skin" and the McCartney song. Few have heard "As Daylight Dies." I avoid specific musical references when 95% of the audience wouldn't know what it was. JH: You got the Rage in there a couple of times, though, which was satisfying. SS: Yep, they're in the soundtrack too. Love them. That song, however, fit the mood and the story. "Burn, burn, yes ya gonna burn" becomes foreshadowing; you know what's going to happen, but making you wait for it to happen adds tension. JH: What can you say about Contagious without giving away too much? SS: The whole three-book arc follows the classic "invasion" storyline, but from three perspectives. The traditional "governments unite against worldwide dilemma," that's in the final book, Pandemic. Infected starts it out, the perspective of one individual, who has no idea what's happening; Nothing on the news, no prior knowledge, no meteor in the sky. For Contagious, we're looking at the middle ground: some people know what's going on, it moves from individual to group, and, as the title indicates, the disease changes. For anyone reading Infected, just the name Contagious creates visions of yechiness. JH: I should have shaved before I read it. SS: Ha. JH: I'd be reading, kind of find myself scratching at my face and then feeling uneasy. I would definitely tell anyone who hasn't read it yet to take a shower and get comfortable first. SS: That's the fun of the book. If I do it right, sooner or later you itch, and the tiniest part of your brain just isn't really sure... JH: Did that happen to you while you were writing? SS: No, but everyone, including me, gets some skin rash or blemish or something and wonders, "Is this normal?" So I've had my fair share of that. JH: You also write a completely different blog called "Does it Sell Stuff?" So, does podcasting sell stuff? And do you think that the books and movies coming out of it will drive podcast audiences up in a big way? SS: I think podcast audiences are already on the way up, as a whole. Podcasting does sell stuff for me. We sold over 3,000 copies of Infected in the first week. We're right on the edge of the New York Times Bestseller list, in hardcover. So hell yeah it sells stuff!

www.scottsigler.com