The Sharkpunk Interview - Steven Savile

Steven Savile is the best-selling writer you've never heard of (unless you've heard of him). He has written for countless well-known IPs, from Primeval to Doctor Who, as well as numerous original projects including the #2 eBook-charting thriller SILVER.


Sharkpunk: What, do you think, is the reason for people's enduring fascination with sharks? 
Steven Savile: The easy answer, for my generation, I think, is JAWS. I can still remember my older cousin handing me a copy of Peter Benchley's novel when I was maybe 8 or 9 and saying it's the scariest thing he'd ever read. I sat in his bedroom listening to Spandau Ballet or Duran Duran or well, you get the picture, and read the opening shark attack and the description of the severed leg and the blood. Straight into nightmare territory and it's never gone away. You see National Geographic films in beautifully shot HD of this killer cutting through the deep blue and all you see, really, is muscle mass and razor sharp teeth. There's no reasoning with that kind of threat. It's almost elemental in its nature. A few years ago I did a Top Trumps book for Penguin, and the Great White was by far my favourite card. I loved scouring the research for fun facts about that particular beastie. Oh my word. So, yeah...

SP: What was the inspiration behind your story Swimming with the Fishes? 
SS: Is this where I own up that I pitched Jon a completely different story to Swimming with the Fishes and right up to the point of stretching the deadline incredibly thin (remember that famous Douglas Adams quote about loving the sound of deadlines whooshing by?) finally sat down to write what I thought was going to be a very serious JAWS-like homage... and then... this voice took over and the first line hit the page, this unexpected noir-esque Godfather kind of thing, and I wrote to Jon saying 'Mate, I'm REALLY sorry...' and probably said a dozen times that I'd understand if he didn't want it, because I'd gone so far off the reservation I was pretty sure he'd never read anything like it and may not again... in terms of inspiration, several years ago I sold a story I'd co-written with a mate to Sony Entertainment of development as a possible TV series, and while it had got close, I've got the pilot scripts etc, it just never made it out the gate... well, that had the same kind of irreverent vibe and mash-up for classic horror tropes and, well, that was more like NYPD BLUE with Monsters... where Fishes became The Godfather with Monsters... and a very wicked sense of humour...

SP: What challenges, or surprises, did you encounter in writing your story? 
SS: See Above. Nothing went as planned. Jon was expecting an entirely different story about a neolithic shark that had survived all these millennia and was attacking an oil rig... so the biggest surprise was when he said 'I love it!'

SP: If you had to pick a favourite shark, which would it be? 
SS: I always had a soft spot for the Hammerhead... it's kinda like the Thing of the shark world... I imagine it turning around to its Great White and Basking Shark super-buddies and saying 'It's clobberin' time!'

SP: Do you have a favourite fictional shark (in books, comics, films, or video games)? 
SS: It's got to be Jaws, it just has to be... that music, the unforgettable image of the fin cutting through the water...then the blood. Perfect.

Thanks, Steven.

Steven Savile has written for Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval, Stargate, Warhammer, Slaine, Fireborn, Pathfinder, Arkham Horror, Risen, and other popular game and comic worlds. His novels have been published in eight languages to date, including the Italian bestseller L'eridita. He won the International Media Association of Tie-In Writers award for his Primeval novel, Shadow of the Jaguar, published by Titan, in 2010, and the inaugural Lifeboat to the Stars award for Tau Ceti (co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson). Silver, his debut thriller reached #2 in the Amazon UK e-charts in the summer of 2011. It was among the UK's top 30 bestselling novels of 2011 according to The Bookseller.  The series continues in Solomon's Seal, WarGod, and Lucifer's Machine, and is available in a variety of languages. His latest books include HNIC (along with the legendary Hip Hop artist Prodigy, of Mobb Deep) which was Library Journal's Pick of the Month, the Lovecraftian horror The Sign of Glaaki, co-written with Steve Lockley, and has recently started writing the popular Rogue Angel novels as Alex Archer, the first of which, Grendel's Curse, is out in May. He has lived in Sweden for the last 17 years. His online presence can be found at www.stevensavile.com.

The Sharkpunk Interview - Robert Spalding

Rob Spalding is a short fiction writer with an eye for the pulp homage. In fact, his story is the one in SHARKPUNK that probably celebrates the original Sharkpunk movie JAWS most directly. Here's what he had to say about the experience of writing the piece...

Sharkpunk: What, do you think, is the reason for people's enduring fascination with sharks?

Robert Spalding: I think it's the silence of them that continually terrifies people. If you think about all the other monsters and fearsome creatures we are scared of, they roar and hiss and yowl. Sharks don't do any of that.  They just appear and start eating you without a kindly forewarning sound. Couple that with the fact that they patrol an area that is physically off limits to humans, in that we cannot survive where they live without specialist equipment, and you've got a creature that it would take an awful lot of effort to encounter in the wild. They are mysterious and I think that's what keeps them alive in our minds.

SP: What was the inspiration behind your story Rise of the Übershark?

RS: To anyone who reads it, the most obvious inspiration for this story will be anime.  Specifically Mecha anime.  I've always enjoyed seeing big robots smash the hell out of each other and all of their fancy weaponry. What I first pitched to Jon when he told me about the anthology my suggestions (Sharks in Spaaaaaace!) were met with “Someone's already doing that.” So I thought about the type of stories I wanted to tell.  Post-Apocalyptic Waste World is my favourite phrase in the English language.  I love the sound of it (the phrase, not the reality). So it had to be a post-apocalyptic shark story. 

Where do I go from there? Well, very quickly I had my world and the weaponry and the big idea behind it all. The one thing I didn't actually have was a story to tell. I actually started this story four times in different ways with different characters because I couldn't find an “in” that was going to be just a short story. Finally I landed on the “last survivor of an elite squad discovers a terrible revelation.” And then I had it. The hero of the story in all its variations was always a woman because I hadn't tried to write a story with one before.

SP: What challenges, or surprises, did you encounter in writing your story?

RS: Finding a story that I could tell in the word limit. I completely fell for the world I created for this story.  Then I created a character that I thought would be unique or at least less obvious than the norm for the type of Mecha-Monster-Military mash up I was planning. But then I realised they needed a novel length story to fit in everything I wanted to say about them. As such I had to set them aside and start again, new protagonist, new conflict for the story.  New everything except the world.

I have to say I have never had more trouble getting something started that I was excited about than I have with this story. I was constantly having to revise my central ideas until I ground it down enough to fill just the one story. Even then I opened up a whole new level to the world with the ending. I think I might have found a place I want to spend my writing time in future – which isn't something I ever expected when I started to think about a submission to this anthology.

SP: If you had to pick a favourite shark, which would it be?

RS: I think I'd have to say Hammerhead. I know the Great Whites are the Daddy of shark fiction, but just look at a Hammerhead.  The description of them is right in the name! They have such a distinctive look.

SP: Do you have a favourite fictional shark (in books, comics, films, or video games)?

RS: I've got a soft spot for the smart sharks in Deep Blue Sea, especially for their sense of dramatic timing in saying Samuel L Jackson's part has served its purpose. But my favourite shark in all of fiction is Sharky, from Sharky and George. He was one half of a crime-busting aquatic duo and they had the best theme tune. I'll be honest and say I haven't watched an episode in years because I'm worried it will taint my memory of the show.  But yeah, Sharky.

SP: Apart from SHARKPUNK, what's coming next from Robert Spalding?

RS: I am currently writing a quirky novel called Lost on the Traveller's Road. Its based on several ideas I've had over the years all being amalgamated into one crazy road trip story. I've only just started it but I like where its heading so far. Then I plan to try my hand at some serial fiction. I've got a few worlds to work in and one of them will be the world Rise of the Ubershark is set in. I'm planning them out like an anime series (the influence strikes again!) and hope to be releasing them for free on the web with collected editions sold as ebooks with added extras when they are done. At the moment this will probably end up being a self-published idea, but if I can find a publisher then I'm going to go for it.

Thanks, Rob!

Robert Spalding lives in Sussex, quite near the seaside but he never goes for a paddle. He had stories published by Whispers of Wickedness near the turn of the Millennium but then went radio silent for a few years due to what he describes as “Purely mundane reasons.” His recently had Men with False Faces published in Terror Tales of the Seaside. Rise of the Übershark marks the beginning of what he hopes will be a series all set in the same world. He occasionally blogs and posts short fiction at robspalding.wordpress.com and Tweets at @robspalding.