Interview - Dan Wells

At the World Horror Convention I met Dan Wells, author of the utterly awesome "I am not a serial killer" and "Mr Monster" the first two books of the superb John Cleaver trilogy. I was delighted that Dan agreed to an interview (in the lounge so excuse the occasional background noise, as always, one of these days I will get a portable sound proof booth).

We started off talking about serial killers and John Cleaver's psychology including the less glamorous aspects like bed wetting.

We explore how the second book gets darker and the third will be different again. We talked about the early decisions for the John Cleaver books, Dan takes "serial killer behaviour" and tries "to find a supernatural explanation for it" and John's age had to be raised from the first drafts to allow for a YA release.

In the second book Dan let Mr Monster take the fore much more and it sounds like that was a lot of fun to do and we also talked about John's family dynamic which is very female dominated. There are a number of people who could provide male role models for John but his father is absent. This leads to a bit of a game of dodge the spoiler as we discuss the role of a certain character in the father figure role (we also break for hoovering, weird).

Dan apologises again for the cat in book two, read it, you'll understand, and discusses the morality of horror, his interest in the choices people make to do right or wrong and the related tension.

Excitingly there are plans for a movie of I am not a serial killer, I really hope that comes off, it would be great!

We also talk a little about some disturbing moments between John and his mother. The scene under discussion is not one you can miss in the book, its brilliant.

We reviewed "I am not a serial killer" and "Mr Monster" and absolutely loved them. I just can't believe we are having to wait nearly a year for the next one *grumbles*.

Many thanks again to Dan for taking time out to talk with me.
Enjoy the interview.