Author Interview: John L. Monk

"Just ask yourself how many times in your life you've been forced to go to the emergency room. ... Even without the skills of our forebears, human life is delicate and nature is brutal."

—JOHN L. MONK

I came across John L. Monk's "Kick" while searching for something to read on a flight to Hawai'i in January 2015. John's intriguing story, sharp prose, and clever wit hooked me from the get-go and I've been a fan ever since.

Buy Hell's Children

His latest book, "Hell's Children," just hit the market. Though a departure from his usual genre it's a great read, and John's distinctive style isn't lost. The story revolves around a group of teenagers who find themselves the sole survivors of a sickness that has wiped out everyone over the age of sixteen. This story of survival pits society's "cabbages," teens who can only thrive in a coddling environment, against the "weeds," those tough-as-nails kids willing to do what it takes to survive.

To celebrate the release of his new book—and partly because I'm just plain nosy—I asked John for an interview, which he generously provided.

C.W. Ok, first of all, if the scenario in Hell’s Children actually happened, would John L. Monk be a cabbage or a weed?

J.L.M. Hah, I first conceived the whole "cabbages and weeds" view of the world by reading the autobiography of Ben Franklin and thinking, "Wow, he ran away at fourteen to start a business. Can you imagine the pampered, texting, video game-playing kids these days doing anything so gutsy, so ambitious?" I thought about the hard life Ben and the early Americans lived and how they could do so incredibly much: build a house from the raw materials at hand, feed themselves off the land, make their own clothing, birth a nation. Amazing stuff.

And to answer your question, I'd totally be a cabbage. I don't know how to do any of that stuff. Sure, I can fish, kill some poor deer or something and try to eat it. But to write the book, I spent a lot of time on Youtube figuring stuff out, reading articles online, that kind of thing. In a post-apoc situation, the Internet goes away. Danger lurks everywhere. Just ask yourself how many times in your life you've been forced to go to the emergency room. I can count six or seven times, all of them potentially life threatening. Even without the skills of our forebears, human life is delicate and nature is brutal.

The character Jack is unique. His survivalist parents taught him lots of stuff that’s lost on kids today. Is this how you were raised? If not, how did you devise Jack’s upbringing? Did you watch a lot of “Doomsday Preppers?”

Me raised like that? Heck no. I was raised by Jack Tripper and Andy Griffith and Whatchu-talkin'-bout-Willis. I watched a lot of TV. Ok, not entirely true—I went fishing a lot, ran out in the woods looking for snakes, shot guns while visiting my great grandparents in West Virginia, but that was about as grizzled as it got. My education was limited to whatever I could scrape from school and still get a passing grade. Mostly, I read fantasy and science fiction. That, at least, gave me some perspective on the level of my ignorance. To counteract that, I suppose that's why I got a degree in Anthropology. I learned a lot from that—how to think about people and understand why they do things. Empathy has been my biggest strength as a writer.

Oh, and about "Doomsday Preppers"—that show really bugs me. I love seeing all the preppers, what they do, all the ideas and stuff. But then along comes the stupid Nat Geo know-it-all at the end telling us (the audience) just how implausible the various doomsday scenarios are. And the arguments they use are pretty indefensible—provided there's no one around to defend against them, in which case they get to "win" or whatever. So I stopped watching it.

I couldn't agree more. The so-called "reality TV" is all about making fun of people. There's very little "real" about any of it.

If you want good survival stuff, go listen to podcasts like "The Survivalist Prepper Podcast" or "The Survival Podcast," or check out forums like "survivalistboards.com." The TV stuff is heavily-edited, exploitative, and unfair.

Your book explores some pretty dark aspects of humanity, and what teenagers of today might become in a world without electricity, supermarkets, and adult supervision. What sort of experiences have you had, or what research did you do, to capture all of that so vividly?

To be honest, I still remember what it was like in high school, on the playground, on the baseball team when the coach wasn't looking. Kids can be vicious, cruel, and shockingly stupid. And the ones that aren't are victims to the ones that are. Just look at some of the more famous "bullying" videos on YouTube and you'll see. But for a handy camera at the right time, those stories would never have seen the light of day. As for research, every day on Facebook turns up story after story of boys or girls beating up some old person for "disrespecting" them (if a reason is given at all). The research is all around us, it's abhorrent, and it's just getting worse.

Post-apocalyptic fiction isn’t a genre you’ve explored before. What made you decide to tackle this subject?

I've always loved the genre. I've read about twenty "Death Lands" novels by James Axler, "One Second After," "Lucifer's Hammer," "Alas Babylon," "The Stand," "Z For Zachariah," and a bunch more I can't recall. I love The Walking Dead. It's interesting to me. And there's an audience for it. I'm a writer. I sit in a chair for hours at a time sweating over commas and stuff—it's a lot of work. And when I'm done writing something, I want it to be read. Writing in a popular genre that I personally enjoy is a great payoff for all that work.

But despite the personal benefit (money, ego-stroking), I also wanted to talk about "kids these days." The story is sort of a wake-up call. Go read Angela's Ashes. Frank McCourt used to watch the men of Limerick ride the coal wagon to the mines every day. He describes all the kids standing along the road watching them, dreaming of the day they could do the same. Can you imagine "kids these days" wanting to work in a coal mine? Any kid caught wanting such a thing would be seen as an aberration—a "chump" for wanting to do hard work like a grownup. Smart kids in school are called nerds, at best, and beaten up at worst. Not that there's a lot of kids getting smart in schools these days, but that's another discussion.

Post-apocalyptic novels are the rage these days. How were you influenced by other books in this genre, and how did you design “Hell’s Children” to stand apart?

Those books I mentioned were heavy influences. I would read them and think, "What would I do in this situation?" With my limited survival knowledge, I rarely had a good answer. So that's another great reason I chose children to survive the apocalypse, and it goes back to the whole "cabbages and weeds" thing: I'm simply not that smart. I think I have a lot of empathy, so I know how kids would behave—how humans would behave. But knowing how to survive on my own without the benefits of civilization requires research. And research is time consuming. If I write about kids undergoing a terrible calamity (like all the adults dying), suddenly I don't have so much research.

Smart move. And it makes your story feel all the more plausible.

Exactly. Like me, the kids don't know very much. Shoot an animal, cut off a piece and eat it? Makes perfect sense to the cabbages in the story. For Jack's character, I had to research how to field dress an animal, and what parts you'd consume if you wanted to survive (hint: the organs—that's where all the vitamins and minerals are). So writing about kids was a great way to focus on story and less on data. Motivations and cause and effect. That's what people read books for. Not data.

I’ve always admired your prose. It’s concise, it’s clever, and very direct. Tell us about your writing process. What does it look like? How do you best like to work? Do you have any weird quirks? Do you write naked?

Haha. No, I've never written while naked. Too many dangly bits to deal with.

And thank you for the compliment on my typing practice—I try my best. Well actually, that's not entirely true. I make a serious effort to write something good, I read it a bunch of times, changing as I go along, get it edited, read it again two to three more times, changing as I go (putting in new typos and stuff), then I publish it. Then very nice readers tell me quietly about the remaining typos, which freaks me out (I get embarrassed about that kind of thing) and I go put the fixes in and hope nobody notices.

You do that too? No way!

And I write direct prose because when I try to write flowery stuff it comes out contrived. Sometimes I turn a pretty little phrase here and there, and that's always great. I try to get maybe one good turn of phrase in per chapter. Something memorable, if possible. Usually it's something funny. But I don't dress up every page in purple prose. And I don't have any weird quirks that I know of. I suppose you could say I pants all my novels, but a lot of people do that. I macro-outline the general story I wanna write, whether that happens or not. I jot a few sentences at the top of each chapter saying where I would like it to go (again, whether that happens or not).

What does John L. Monk like to do when he's not writing?

Read, eat, take naps, go to the movies, go out to eat (the dining experience), drink whiskey and hang out with my wife, or hang out with friends. I like fishing, but only if it's convenient, and right now it isn't. Really, I get a lot of enjoyment from the indie writing community. I love corresponding with other authors, seeing what they're up to, hearing them on various podcasts. Great fun.

What sorts of things have you learned about yourself while writing?

I guess the biggest thing I've learned is that I can start a difficult project, finish it, and not screw it up too badly. Finishing a novel is a major thing. Lots of people have tried, but only a small percentage of the ones who tried ever managed it. I've finished five so far, and that's a real confidence builder.

What books are you reading right now? Any new indie authors we should check out?

At the moment, I'm reading "Mutation" by Nerys Wheatley. It's a cool book with a different take on zombies. I'm also re-reading "Turning Pro" by Steven Pressfield. If you're a writer, read it. Also read it if you're anything else—the stuff in that book applies to just about everyone.

Have we seen the end of Jack and the “Hell’s Children”?

I sure hope not. I'm hammering away naked right now trying to write the next one! I hope to get it out before September, because of Amazon's horrible 90-day cliff where they drop you off the radar. But I won't compromise quality for speed. Once the book is ready, I'll think up a series name (ugh), slap that on both covers, and get it out there. Hopefully sales stay strong throughout. There's nothing more motivating than steady sales of book one when you're trying to write book two.

I think Jack is a fascinating character with a lot of potential. I look forward to where you take the story from here.

Read more about John's work at john-l-monk.com. "Hell's Children" is available now on Amazon, and don't forget to check out John's other books, including "Kick," "Fool's Ride," "Hopper House," and "Thief's Odyssey."