Sonar4 Science Fiction and Horror Ezine July 2009

Conversation with Michael Hanson Author

Where did the idea of Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse come from?

It was born of a few different ideas and events. Gee, where to start? I suppose one of the earliest catalysts for The Sha'Daa came from a two-hour conversation six other people and I had with famed horror/thriller author F. Paul Wilson in a hotel room while sipping Mike's Hard Lemonade and Mike's Hard Ice Tea (which Paul had just purchased on a beer run). We basically just sat there (we fans of Paul who had come to know each other on his old Repairman Jack Website Forum) and asked Paul all kinds of questions about writing, and his “Adversary Cycle” of books, and “The Secret History of The World.”

This was an unusual weekend, in that six of us fans from the website decided, unilaterally, to get together one weekend in Baltimore, MD. We then invited F. Paul Wilson to join us for supper....and he did! And afterwards we hung out in one of our hotel rooms for a couple of hours to shoot the bull. Talk about a horror fan's fantasy come true, eh??!

We called it the GU-1, or Grand Unification-1. There were a few more in the intervening years (4 or 5 so far I think), though I only attended the GU-1, and then the GU-3 which we had while Paul was a guest of honor at the Murder By Death convention just outside of Chicago (in 2003, I think). We were this 10-person entourage that followed Paul around, from room to room, and event to event, like his own personal cheering squad. It really freaked out the other author guests of honor. LOL.

Well, anyways, my big question for Paul, while sipping a Hard Iced Tea, sitting in that Hotel room at the GU-1, in 2001, in Baltimore, MD, was: “When you first wrote ‘The Tomb,’ ‘The Keep,’ and ‘The Touch,’ did you know that they were all going to be linked by the over-arcing storyline of the Adversary Cycle that ends in “Night World?” And Paul’s answer was “no.”

He had written those three books as stand-alone novels, and then, afterwards, he had figured out a way to connect them all in the same reality, and even have characters from each all appear together in the apocalyptic “Night World.”

This got my mind to working, and I started contemplating ways I could take all the short horror stories I had written to date, and make them part of some kind of larger whole....and by 2003 I had come up with the basic outline of “Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse.”

To be honest I don't know exactly how I came up with the 10,000-year cycle. It may have come from things I had read about the long climactic changes in Earth's long history, ice ages that lasted thousands of years, and killed off thousands of species of animals. Ultimately, I wanted the last Sha'Daa to have occurred when Humans were on the Earth, and probably had language, but had left behind no clear records of their experiences (or memories of The Sha'Daa)...and 10,000 seemed like a nice round number.

And then came the cosmic back-story of Akasa, and Prana, and the still developing back-story of Johnny The Salesman, things that grew, and are still growing, in the telling, as it were. Looking back on it, I actually now consider some of my earliest work, like my 1986 senior thesis film in college, “Day Goblin,” to be part of The Sha'Daa universe I’ve been developing over the years.

For the uninitiated, the basic concept of Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse is that once every 10,000 years, the barriers that separate the Earth from the hundreds of Hell Dimensions in existence, weaken for a period of 48 hours. This is the time of The Sha'Daa. During this two-day stretch, demons, monsters, and alien armies are given an opportunity to try to break through and wreak havoc, madness, slaughter, and all out annihilation upon us. Almost 10,000 years have passed since the last Sha'Daa occurred, and the next one is coming soon, in the not too distant future.

Could you tell readers a bit more about this collection?

I suppose one way to look at this first of two books (“Sha’Daa: Last Call” is a sister book which will be published in 2010) is to imagine one of those several disaster movies released in the 1970’s (The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, etc.). They had large casts of movie stars, and contained numerous character arcs and storylines that were all taking place simultaneously. You could say that “Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse” is the ultimate disaster movie (though one which would cost a couple of billion dollars to produce).

A bit more info on the background of the book: I had written the initial outline of Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse roughly six years ago, and had every intention of completing the book all by myself, solo authorship. Shortly afterwards, however, I got writer’s block and found myself sitting on it for about a year. I just couldn't gather up the enthusiasm to write it. Then inspiration hit. Why don’t I open a portion of my Sha'Daa Universe (which currently contains previously written and published short stories, and screenplays, etc.) to other writers whom I respect and who are in sync with my vision? [Note that I had recently read a few of the books in the shared-world anthology series “Wild Cards” and was very impressed with how a large group of writers could join together to write within a singular vision.]

And that was when I came up against a big brick wall of reality. How do I find good authors and convince them to be a part of a shared-world novel under the helm of a relatively unknown writer like me? And how do I get them to do this with no actual Publication Deal in place, or even a solid promise that one would be made in the near future? That was the trick. And the answer to this dilemma was, it took a lot of effort. First off I realized that I needed to find a large pool of talent. I then came to the conclusion that what I really had to do was find hungry authors, talented up and coming writers who were willing to take chances and hopefully gamble on a project that was in no way a sure thing.

And where can you go to find such a bastion of future Isaac Asimovs, Ray Bradburys, Roger Zelaznys, and F. Paul Wilsons? I went to The Internet. I must have spent three full months reading every single short horror, sci-fi, and fantasy story I could find on the world wide web, most in Online Magazines. Unfortunately, I was forced to read a great deal of mediocre and downright terrible fiction, however, in the end, I was able to wade through the refuse and find a decent number of very talented authors who had not yet broken into the bigger writing markets. I eventually compiled a list of 33 names.

The next step was tedious, but necessary. I typed up a detailed introductory e-mail that explained who I was (a fellow writer developing a shared-world anthology about the apocalypse). I displayed my background (my then bibliography of 30+ short genre stories I had published at several webzines), included several Sha'Daa short stories I had written to date, and then broke down the full proposal of the project. I ended it stating that when completed Sha’Daa would be pitched to various publishers until we hopefully found a home for it. Looking back on the past five years, I’m embarrassed to admit it was a rather simplistic and naive plan, but there you go. In the end, 18 writers hopped on board. We produced 250,000 words altogether, and quickly came to the conclusion that we had enough material to create two books. Thus was born “Sha’Daa: Last Call,” the sister book to “Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse.”

I also want to take this moment to not only sing the praises of all of my fellow Sha’Daa writers, but to also single out my co-author Ed McKeown, who eventually became the official “Editor” of both Sha’Daa novels, and whose unceasing drive and talent have been a huge boon to this project. This book would not be in people’s hands now if it weren’t for Ed.

With collections such as this one and several other books coming out that are about the Apocalypse, what makes Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse stand out from the rest?

It’s unique take on the nature of the apocalypse. That what we consider the “end of days” is actually a constantly recurring event (once every ten thousand years) that encompasses all mythologies, all religions, and all beliefs. Also, Sha’Daa is what is known as a shared-world anthology. Each chapter is written by a completely different author and works as a standalone story. Each chapter takes place over the same 48-hour period of time in a different locale upon the Earth. At the same time, each chapter shares a single common character, that of the mysterious supernatural being known as The Salesman. Ultimately, Sha’Daa creates its own distinct cosmology, a cosmic background reality that encompasses not only everything that happens on the Earth during the apocalypse, but its importance to the Universe itself.

. When writing about the Apocalypse, genre doesn’t seem to matter, is this the case in Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse?

Absolutely. When I conceived of this project, and started outlining each of the chapters, I came to realize what an incredible opportunity I was being afforded. I knew I could create an assortment of tales that would run the gamut from action-adventure, to horror, to sci-fi, to outright comedy. And what makes this salad-bowl approach toward a story collection work is the common universe, and time period, and Johnny The Salesman, that binds them all together in one epic adventure. Both Sha’Daa books contain stories that embrace several of the sub-genres of dark fantasy. It is quite an amazing mix.

What do you hope are readers’ reactions to Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse?

I hope they are vastly entertained and thrilled to death! Make no mistake. This book is, at its heart, one great big pulp adventure. Johnney Perkins’ cover art does a wonderful job of capturing just one of the many outrageous and stunning scenarios that occur throughout this rampaging epic. Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse is a thrill ride from one tasty heart shock to the next.

Would you do a project like this again in the future?

Absolutely. In fact, I’ve already started work on a book to be titled “Sha’Daa: Catechism.” It takes place across the one hundred years that precedes the events of “Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse.”

Catechism will be a loosely connected series of chapters, each one being some kind of record of an event or occurrence (personal letter, journal entry, diary entry, newspaper story, recording, filmed documentary, court transcript, etc.). The basic concept is nothing new, and brazenly lifted from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” I’ve already written the first chapter that sets up the entire book (an object of great power is brought into our reality in the early 20th century and manages to have a surprising and terrifying affect on both people and events over the past 100 or so years). I’ve also written three chapters which take place near the back of the book. Right now I’m trying to decide whether or not to write the entire book from scratch, or to open it up to other writers, like I did with “Tales” and “Last Call.”

Any upcoming works you would like to tell readers about?

Well, there is “Sha’Daa: Last Call” (the sister book to “Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse) which publishes sometime in 2010. My second book of poetry, “Jubilant Whispers,” was just picked up by Diminuendo Press for publication in 2010.

My short story “Johnny” has been published in the current general fiction section of Abandoned Towers E-zine, and my short story “Locked Room Mystery” was recently published in the Whortleberry Press Anthology “Strange Mysteries.” Point of interest, both of these short stories star Johnny The Salesman, that mysterious character who appears throughout The Sha’Daa.

For current updates on all of my writing, you can go to my website: http://www.shadaa.com/

Where can readers buy a copy of Sha'Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse?

You can purchase it online at CyberWizardProductions.com, Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and Borders.com. Also, it can be ordered directly from any and all bookstores.

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