Hello, this is Celeste and welcome to the Letters for Creatives newsletter. I have been writing poems since 2017 and fiction since 2022. This is the place where I share my thoughts on creativity and find resources for fellow writers and creatives.

Subscribe for tips, resources on writing, creativity and the interview series.

Previously on the interview series:

Alexis M. Romo on the process writing her next book

Joelle Bahdo on the way putting together her poetry book

What Jason Franks does as a data scientist has helped him to write his fiction and comics books and vice versa.

The Kickstarter for his latest sci-fi/comedy/graphic novel Gourmand Go is live. Check it out if you are into that.

Since horror comics is not the genre this newsletter usually covers, it is an insightful interview for anyone who is looking to create their first comics and writing in general.

What do you do in your day job and side hustle?

By day, I am a mild-mannered data scientist. I work in the records and data trust space, helping to make sure that organizations like banks, government agencies and utilities are able to manage and secure their records. 

By night I am an equally mild-mannered novelist and comics writer. I write mostly speculative fiction: horror, science fiction, fantasy, but I write comedy and literary fiction. Most of my work blends at least a couple of those genres. 

I have been a published writer almost as long as I have been a software professional—22 years. 

Where can people find you and your work?

The best place to find me is my Substack. You can also check out my website. I am on X/Twitter as @jasefranks and Bluesky as @jasonfranks.bsky.social if you want to be more social.

How did you start as a writer? How has your writing journey changed and evolved?

I wanted to be a writer, ever since I learned to read. Always. I took a year out from my studies in the sciences to concentrate on creative writing, and that was when I first started trying to seriously write fiction. It took me about three years to sell my first piece.

I thought success would come quickly after I was first published, but I soon learned that every milestone in a publishing career is a hard slog, unless you are one of the very few people who gets very lucky. But I have also learned that perseverance is the key to success. The longer you work at it, the luckier you get. 

That first story I sold was the first one I ever started submitting. When I got the acceptance letter, I wondered why my oldest, worst story was the first one to be published. And then I realized that it was because it was the story I’d sent out the most often.

The industry changes, the people in the industry change, you change. But you have to stick with it if you want to get anywhere.

Where do you usually find inspiration?

Everywhere! In the news. In magazines and articles and history books. At work. In other stories that I read. Sometimes I just hear a new word or phrase that triggers a story. 

I am a very analytical person. Some of my best ideas have come from looking at other people’s stories or character and figuring out how I handle them differently.

For 2023, there would be a creative or writing challenge every other week. The first 5 challenges are here. The remaining challenges are accessible for paid subscribers. Share this newsletter to get your 1-month paid subscription for free.

How do the work of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett make an impact on your creative journey?

I discovered Terry Pratchett in the library when I was a kid. The Colour of Magic, his first Discworld book. This was the first book I was able to recommend to my parents, instead of the other way around. At this point they have read more Pratchett than I have.

Good Omens was the first time I encountered Neil Gaiman. I was intrigued to see Pratchett do something horrory and didn’t know anything about his co-writer. A few years later when I became interested in comics, a friend gave me an issue of Gaiman’s The Sandman to read. I was hooked on the medium from then on. (I was a latecomer to comics, in comparison with most other people who work in the field.)

I don’t think my comedy style resembles Pratchett’s work very much, but when I am writing fantasy you can definitely see Gaiman’s influence, especially in my novel Faerie Apocalypse. 

You wrote that “[the] best horror challenges us. It challenges our assumptions about our stories, about our society, and about ourselves. It shows us how to understand, if not empathize with, the monsters and the villains.”

It is the first time that I realize horror can help us understand and even empathize with villains. Can you elaborate on why horror does this better than other genres?

What I really like about your classic villains is that they usually have a plan. They are not reacting to the actions of a do-gooder, they are people with an agenda and with initiative and with ambition who want to build or change something, which is something I 100% understand as a creative person and as a scientist. 

Of course, creativity is not the same as villainy. That happens when a character’s goals are harmful to others, or when they set about achieving it by immoral means. I think these are real world problems and they are easy to believe in. On the other hand, I am quick to mistrust a clean cut, self-righteous hero who sets themselves up to fight crime with vigilante justice. 

The horror genre is a good lens for these concerns because it doesn’t promise a happy ending. Horror gives you a license to look at evil and perhaps to understand it without softening it or papering it over. 

P.S. I categorically deny any rumours you may have heard that I am building a robot army.

Can you tell us your process of writing your drafts, editing and publishing Gourmand Go?...