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ter at my craft. As I’ve written new fiction and
gone back to revise Rabid Heart, that’s how it
became a better book, by editing and revising
some things. Between my dialog and trimming
the fat, [that] has helped me get razor sharp and
[become] a better novelist in that respect. Things
I take with me are these quotes from authors I
really admire. For example Elmore Leonard, a
legendary crime writer. Someone asked him,
“How do you write such page-turning novels?”
and he said, “I cut out all the boring parts.” So I
always have that in front of my mind now.
When I’m revising, if a part’s not working, that
gets cut right out.
Another thing is Stephen King and others
say, “Write what you know.” And I always try to
come at it in a character’s point of view, [with]
at least some experience from my life that’s
woven into the story. It’s like being a guitar
player, which I am. When I started playing gui-
tar, I just did it every day non-stop. Practice
makes perfect; same with writing. If you write a
million words of fiction, at one point you’re
going to start getting better.
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46 illinoisentertainer.com november 2018
Mosh: Explain the contrast between writing
gory lyrics for Broken Hope compared to writ-
ing fiction novels.
JW: If you look at my lyric writing and my
novel writing there’s a common [theme] which
is it's all horror fiction. I always look at my lyrics
in Broken Hope that I’ve always done as micro-
fiction stories. They’re very super condensed,
and they have to work within a framework of
the length of music. A Broken Hope song is
three minutes long; I offer lyrics that will fit in
the three minutes of music. The difference also
is, you got 15 little short stories in a Broken
Hope album, you got a full-length novel, which
is much longer, much more dramatic. You have
a story arc; you have a beginning, you have a
story arc ending and a lot of complicated char-
acters. With Broken Hope lyrics, I go straight for
the jugular; it’s an adrenaline shot at the heart.
Because with those little micro-horror stories,
I’ve got to get to the point really fast with the
story I’m telling. Sometimes it’s super sick, and
sometimes it’s tasteless and really offensive.
And I’m not doing that to create controversy,
that’s not what I’m trying to do. With a novel, I
really like to tell the story and get into the minds
of the characters. That’s not to say I don’t use
those tools when I write a novel. I use gore as a
tool, blood as a tool, and horror and terror ele-
ments.
Mosh: What are Broken Hope's plans?
Jeremy Wagner: We did a tour in Europe in
August, and we played a bunch of really awe-
some festivals, and we did dates in between the
festivals. We didn’t make a big deal out of it but
still incorporated this in the promotion, which is
basically celebrating 30 years of Broken Hope.
We came home and everyone just scattered into
the four winds. All the other band members
have other obligations and other things they’re
doing. Damian (Leski) has Gorgasm, his other
death metal band and they’re on tour in Europe.
Diego (Soria), our bass player, is still in Cattle
Decapitation and he just went on tour in Japan.
Mike (Miczek) our drummer, he’s in a Chicago
band called The Atlas Moth, and they’re on tour
with Paradise Lost. And Matt (Sziachta) our
other guitar player, is a full-time guitar teacher.
Right now, there’s nothing going on. We con-
stantly get offered to do stuff. But I think maybe
in 2019 we’ll see where we are writing-wise.
That will be the priority, to try and write anoth-
er album. I’ve got some riffs I’ve been hammer-
ing out. But it’s going to take everybody coming
off everything else they’re doing.
Continued on page 44