be some internal and external tensions. I like stories that test the stress points in their characters.
Geek Syndicate
GS: Your dialogue is very naturalistic in pattern, dialect and diction. I get the impression that you listen to people very carefully. How important for you is the voice of your characters when building your stories, and in what ways do you use them to add depth? CD: I do think it’s critical to get your characters talking in a way that tells you something about them. The best scripting, for me, is the stuff that sounds least scripted. There’s always a temptation to load your favourite characters up with clever lines that require someone else to set them up, but it makes for a painful reading experience when it becomes too apparent what you’re doing. So yeah, I guess I listen for people with interesting speech patterns and try to make sure that my characters are doing more in their dialogue than just shouting the plot at each other. GS: Vince Morley is a fantastic character as both protector and scourge of Cancertown. Looking at him - a rumpled hero, fearless of heart and mordant of wit - he has more than a touch of Noir about him (a vibe shared by Slaughterman’s Creed, though to a lesser degree.) Are you a particular fan of the dime-store pulps? Generally speaking, what do you most enjoy reading and watching? CD: Oh, absolutely. I’m a huge Walter Gibson fan (both as a magician and a writer), so the pulp classics are sort of in my blood. I also grew up on William Gibson’s early cyberpunk
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work and films like Blade Runner, all of which expanded the horizons of traditional pulp characters and storylines into new territories. This was really why I jumped straight in when Barry Nugent asked me to work on his Unseen Shadows projects. The pulp vibe is so strong in Barry’s work, but the world he’s created is open to endless exploration. GS: Whilst they are not classically ‘horror’ your stories do tend towards the darker ??????]???????????????????]????????????????????????????????????????????
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