Mark Leslie Lefebvre: Does his one hand really scream?

By Angelique Fawns

 

Mark Leslie Lefebvre is only one of my most favorite people in the writing universe. A relentless champion of others, the creator of the Canadian Werewolf series, and the author of more than thirty titles, he is one of the most accomplished professionals I know. 

Mark’s short stories are gripping, and intriguing, with just the right dash of dark. When I found out he was publishing an illustrated anthology compiling 20 years of his work, I couldn’t sign up for his Kickstarter fast enough!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/markleslie/one-hand-screaming-20-haunting-years

One Hand Screaming is a collection of chilling stories and disturbing poetry for the reader who loves Twilight Zone and Black Mirror stories with a darker edge. 

Jonathan Maberry calls it, “A wonderfully weird gallop through nightmare country.”

I sat down with my fellow Canadian to learn more:

AF: First off, please tell me how you came up with such a unique title?

ML: A number of factors to the title. The first is that writing is such a solo endeavor, and since I started writing using pen and paper, it felt natural that so many of the tales I wrote would seem to be horror stories and poems that were channeled through my right hand. My right hand was, in a sense, silently screaming out those words. 

The other was I remember seeing a version of the “screaming hand” art that Jim Phillips created for Santa Cruz skateboards. At the time, I didn’t know where it was from so I’d assumed it was some Lovecraft-inspired piece of art.

Third, I was reflecting on the Buddhist koan: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

The title was also a riff on a poem I’d written specifically for this collection that I titled “The Sound of One Man Screaming.” I like that for the poem title, but it just didn’t feel right for the title of the entire book. The title of One Hand Screaming plus the concept of the silent screams that bounce around inside my head until they’re let out into words made this title something I felt suited me and this horror collection perfectly.

 

AF: Tell us about the ghoulish and arresting cover art you’ve chosen?

ML: Thanks. This new edition is based upon the original cover art that was designed by my best friend Steve Gaydos, which featured a close up of my eye with a skull from a piece of art that was hanging in my writing den superimposed onto it. Steve designed the cover as well as the logo for the Stark Publishing company I registered and launched that year and still operate today.

For the newly revised and updated edition, I reached out to Juan Padron, a cover artist I’ve worked with for several years now. He has done the covers and the series branding for my Canadian Werewolf series. I showed him Steve’s original cover, sent a new version of my eye and asked him if he could come up with something for it. He also (as a fun Easter Egg for my fans), incorporated the same “maple leaf” pattern he uses in my Canadian Werewolf covers into the text of “One Hand” and “20 Haunting Years.”

 

AF: What inspired you to launch a special anniversary edition?

ML: In 2004 it was pretty cutting edge to be self-publishing. I mean, this was almost ten years before all the cool kids started self-publishing. And it was three years before the Kindle and Kindle Direct Publishing brought eBooks (and self-publishing eBooks) to the foreground. I was, as I often liked to do in both my writing career and my career within the bookselling industry, pushing the envelope and forging new ground.

I thought, as the 20th anniversary of the book’s release approached, why not continue to engage in pioneering publishing activities? Though this book is self-published, it’s also being placed into a Canadian warehouse for traditional publishing distribution. This is a costly act, but something I want to test and play with as I push and blur those boundaries between traditional and indie/self-publishing. I’m also running a Kickstarter for it not just to help pay for some of the significant costs involved in this project, such as the large print run I need to get the books into a warehouse, but also because creating special unique and deluxe Kickstarter editions is another way that the book and publishing industry has been evolving. If I’m already leveraging the best of traditional publishing and the best of indie publishing, why not leverage this fantastic new tool in direct sales and further building my author/creator brand?

 

AF: Do you have a favorite story in the anthology? Why?

ML: Oh that’s a tough one. I mean, I left about 40 stories on the cutting room floor because I wanted this to contain the best of the best. But I did try to also include many different types and styles of horror in this collection.

Let me offer two of my favorites from the newer stories that did not appear in the original edition (since the new edition contains 26 additional stories and poems, 14 of which have never before been published).

“The Exquisite Taste of a Book-Aged Skull” is a fun one, because it was prompted by Dean Wesley Smith via a horror-writing course he was teaching. He’d asked if I ever wrote a story about skulls since I loved them so much. I realized I hadn’t. And so I incorporated skulls, my love of books and reading, and my passion for craft beer into a tale that I think is disturbing and macabre.

“Being Needed” is a tale at a completely different end of the horror spectrum. It’s a quiet and atmospheric piece that—similar to “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs—relies on the reader to imagine the unseen terror that the narrator only hears but doesn’t see.

 

AF: Your Kickstarter funded in less than six hours. Do you have any suggestions for other authors wishing to run a successful kickstarter?

ML: I think the most important thing is to have created some sort of reading audience first; even if it’s a small group of people. Folks who are genuinely interested in what you write. Second, it’s critical to lean in to your brand and the genre you’re writing, and be explicit in what special editions, features, or unique-to-Kickstarter rewards are going to be available.

I strongly advise that authors be familiar by supporting Kickstarters so they can see what others are doing, but also check out resources that are available to help, such as Anthea Sharp’s book Kickstarter for Authors.

And be realistic. Not everyone is going to have a 42-Million Dollar Brandon Sanderson success story. Nor is the average author going to hit the nearly $80,000 Kickstarter Kevin J. Anderson ran earlier this year. But even earning $500 on a book project could be well more than the average author is going to earn in a year, or perhaps in a lifetime of a book that they’ve published.

 

AF: Can you talk about your writing process? How many hours a day, where do you write, any secrets to productivity?

ML: I don’t write nearly enough as I should. Isn’t that always the case. I’m a procrastinator who needs a tight deadline. But when I am under the gun, I get up at 5:30 AM and usually write (after the animals are fed and the coffee is ready) from about 6 AM until 8 AM. Sometimes I’ll get another hour in before my work day as a consultant in the business of writing and publishing begins.

Most of my writing is done in my home office and on my laptop. But because of travel I’ve often had to write in hotel rooms, in coffee shops, at airport lounges and on airplanes. The writing is done without any music or other background noise (with the exception of the obvious background activities that happen when I’m writing while traveling).

 

AF: As an industry pioneer in both traditional and self-publishing. Which avenue should a new writer try first and why?

ML: I think it should be based on a writer’s fundamental personal goals rather than what I think. But I do believe that testing both sides of the industry is important for a writer’s ultimate growth. Otherwise, how would they ever know if they didn’t at least try?  I do attempt not to tell writers any SHOULDS and SHOULD NOTS as everyone has their own unique way of doing things and needs to experiment to discover the paths that are right for them. What I do my best to express is that there’s no one way to do things and no one right path. So, trying different things, and being open to the numerous possibilities that exist are two of your best mindsets to adapt. You’ll try things and some will work for you and others won’t. The most important thing is that you’re writing, that you’re experimenting, and ultimately, that you never give up, regardless of which paths you try.

 

AF: If you could do something differently in your career path, what would it be?

ML: I think I’d try to write more. By, of course, gaining back the numerous lost hours wasting time on the dopamine hits that come from scrolling aimlessly on social media, or even staring at my sales dashboards (and even my Kickstarter dashboard) waiting for the numbers to miraculously flip.

If I want those numbers to flip/update/grow, the BEST way I can achieve that is by WRITING MORE. So that’s the one thing I’d change.

 

AF: What’s next up for Mark Leslie Lefebvre?

ML: Do you have a few hours? LOL, just kidding. One ONE HAND SCREAMING: 20 Haunting Years launches in October I’ll be hitting the road, doing a cross-Ontario book tour to promote it. I need to, after all, get this traditionally distributed book sold in as many bookstores as possible. But on the heals of that will be two non-fiction books for writers. A BOOK IN HAND which is a look at the importance of physical books which indie authors often ignore. Then AN AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO BRANDING SUCCESS, and another non-fiction movie trivia book about National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation which will be called Merry Christmas! The Sh!tter was Full! And all these books will be coming before the end of the year.