Christopher Moore (22.02.2009)

 

Literatopia: Hi Chris! Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. Your latest book "Fool" came out February 10, 2009. What’s in store for the reader?

Christopher Moore: Fool is the story of Shakespeare's King Lear as told by the Fool, although this time it's decidedly more funny and the Fool is the star of the show. I think you can expect lots of sex and no little treason and murder, so a good time shall be had by all. I don’t know when it’ll be published in Germany. Honestly. Contact my foreign rights agent.

Literatopia: In “Lamb – The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal” you fill in the years of Jesus’ youth missing in the Bible in your own, not quite serious way. How were peoples’ reactions to this? Largely positive or did they think the book disrespectful? Did church leaders react to it somehow?

Christopher Moore: The reaction has been almost universally positive, even among the faithful. It’s now being taught in several seminaries, as well as many colleges. The only people who seemed bothered by the book are those who didn’t actually read it.

Literatopia: Where did the idea come from to provide the time missing from the Bible via “Lamb – The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal”? Do you yourself believe in some sort of Supreme Being (like God)?

Christopher Moore: I thought it would be a great challenge, to try to make this universally known story into a comedy. I’m a Buddhist, we don’t really believe in a supreme being.

Literatopia: Disney bought the film rights to “Practical Demonkeeping”. Do you have hopes of the book being turned into a movie? Would you generally like to see one of your books turned into a movie? Do you maybe have certain actors in mind already?

Christopher Moore: They’ve all been bought by various studios over the years. I’d love to see them made into movies, but it doesn’t appear that it will happen. I don’t know why.

Literatopia: One more question concerning movies: You’ve already written a screenplay. That must have been very different to writing a novel – how did you like it? Would you like to give it a shot again?

Christopher Moore: I didn’t mind writing a “spec” script, and I might do that again, but I don’t like writing scripts for hire. In Hollywood there are too many people who want to put their hands on your work.

Literatopia: What was your first book to be translated into a foreign language? Do you know how many languages your books have been translated into already? Are you personally in contact with the translators or is this something that happens without your involvement? How important do you think the translators’ work is for the success of your books?

Christopher Moore: Practical Demonkeeping was translated into sixteen languages. I think my books are in at least 20 languages, maybe more. I’ve only had a relationship with my French translator, who contacted me outside of normal channels. I do have people native to the language read the translations and tell me if they think the translators are doing a good job. I think my work must translate better into to some languages or at least the translators are able to convey it better. For instance, my books seem to do much better in Poland and Germany than they do in say, England. Whoever is translating me in England most not be doing a very good job.

Literatopia: How do you like the covers to your books? Do your publishers let you have a say or do they, as with most authors, come up with a cover and you simply have to live with it?

Christopher Moore: I get more say than I used to, but not in each country. Usually I’m consulted in the U.S., but not in other countries. I love some of the designs people come up with. My book Lamb just came out in Brazil with an amazing Rasta Jesus on the cover. I would have never thought to do that, but I like it.

Literatopia: The pictures of you on your homepage – and your books, of course– point towards a person with a lot of humor. How important is humor in your opinion? Do you think your humor changed over the years?

Christopher Moore: To me, humor is the basis of my career. If my books weren’t funny, I don’t think I’d have a career. As for humor changing over the years, yes, in some ways it has. (Although I can only really speak to the U.S. and England. But in my lifetime humor has become much less restricted sexually, in other words, you can talk about almost anything sexually. But it’s become much more politically correct, which probably isn’t a bad thing. )

Literatopia: When did you start writing? Were your first texts serious ones? What does your family think about your books?

Christopher Moore: I started writing with thoughts of publication when I was 16. My first stories were horror stories, without much humor, but it turns out that I write sentences that are funny, so people would laugh at my horror stories, so I shifted to that, since it seemed to be my strong point. My family likes my books, although when my mother was alive, I think she wondered how I could think of such things. She was much more provincial and proper in her thinking and my outrageous stories would never occur to her. My father died before any of my work was published.

Literatopia: While you were studying photography, you also took some writing classes. What did you learn there? Do you still use the things you learned there or were these classes pretty useless?

Christopher Moore: I learned about spending most of my time working on the characters, and that has served me very well on every book. I always lead with characters. The rest will come.

Literatopia: Do you need a special atmosphere to be able to write? For example, do you prefer to write at night, or do you need absolute silence? What inspires you?

Christopher Moore: I’d rather it be quiet, but I can write with jazz or other instrumental music playing. I like having a room to myself and no appointments coming up. If I know I have to leave later to go to the dentist, for example, I find it hard to concentrate. I like to drink coffee while I write, too. I used to smoke, but it turned out not to be a good long term strategy.

Literatopia: In order to pay for your driver’s license, you took on a lot of different jobs. Do you use some of the experiences gained back then in your books?

Christopher Moore: Most all of the jobs I did have appeared in my books, from grocery clerk to insurance salesman. By my fourth book I had used up all of my job experience so I had to start learning new things. The first was to fly helicopters.

Literatopia: Which one of your books was most fun to write? Which one was most difficult? Do you have difficulties with some aspects of writing books in general or is writing something that comes almost naturally?

Christopher Moore: My book Bloodsucking Fiends (or Lange Zähne in German) was the most fun to write because it was a vampire tale, and therefore not a vehicle for big themes. I just had two funny characters and a city I like (San Francisco) and I let them go. Lamb was the hardest, because it was a subject that so many people feel so strongly about and I had to get it right, but still take some risks for the sake of comedy. Writing may come to me more naturally than it does to some people, just like some people are naturally better skiers, but it’s never easy. Sometimes it’s more difficult, or more crafted, but it always requires all of my concentration.

Literatopia: Are some of your characters modelled on real people you know; do you sometimes incorporate character traits etc. of family and friends? Which one of your characters resembles you the most?

Christopher Moore: I often incorporate traits of people I know, but they are “Frankensteined” together, with many traits from many people making up a character. The character who is closest to me is Tommy, from the vampire books, although when I was his age, 19, not now that I’m older.

Literatopia: What do you think is the most rewarding thing for an author? What was it like to be successful for the first time with one of your books? Can you live off writing alone?

Christopher Moore: The most rewarding thing is to know that your books are entertaining people and making them laugh. I was overwhelmed the first time I sold a book. It was a dream come true. I’ve lived off my writing exclusively since I sold that first one in 1990.

Literatopia: Can you already tell us something about your next projects?

Christopher Moore: I’m doing a third vampire story, called Bite Me in the US, and then I’m going to be writing about 19th Century French painters. I like art. I want to write about it.

Literatopia: Do you like to read yourself? If so, what kind of books do you like?

Christopher Moore: I like funny books, of course, but I read a fair amount of crime fiction as well. I like the pace of crime fiction.

Literatopia: And finally, a question from one of our readers: Why do you think authors known for their none-too-serious books choose death as their topic? Terry Pratchett likes to do so, for example, and he’s not the only one. Do you think it is a personal coming to terms with death or is it to show that death can be funny, in a way, too?

Christopher Moore: I think it’s both. And it’s a universal theme. It’s something we will all face, maybe many times. And it can’t help but affect you. If the way to react to the world is with humor, which Terry and I certainly do, that will be how you portray death.

Literatopia: Thank you, Chris!

Christopher Moore: You’re welcome.