SUNDAY SPECIAL: Naomi Kramer’s DEAD(ish)
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Naomi Kramer twists dark tales with a wicked sense of humor. We talked about the inspiration behind and the creation of her e-book, DEAD (ish).
LT: Tell us about your book DEAD (ish), and your two main characters.
NK: DEAD(ish) is all about death, vengeance, and truth - or lack thereof. Linda dies under suspicious circumstances. She finds herself still on earth, in ghost form, and oddly obsessed about her corpse. Her killer, Mike, should know where it is, right? So she asks him politely for help, and he tells her to go away and get over it. Linda’s not the type to take this sort of crap, so she decides to torment him until he tells her. To cover all her bases, though, she also hires a private investigator.
Linda’s a chick with arty tendencies and a huge blind spot - Mike. Until she dies, of course, then she works out some home truths about the guy. Mike’s a self-obsessed arse who even lies to himself. He honestly doesn’t understand why Linda’s so bent out of shape over the whole dead thing.
LT: What inspired you to write it?
NK: DEAD(ish) started out as a short scenario that came to me one night as I was trying to get to sleep - it’s the initial scene still. Linda is begging Mike for help, and he’s telling her to get lost and get used to the whole ‘dead’ thing. And then months later, I heard Mike in the back of my head, talking about his dead psycho ex who was driving him batty.
LT: Did you set out to write a humorous story, or did it evolve that way over time?
NK: It definitely evolved. Not that I’m any good at writing dead-serious stuff anyway - I have a sense of the ridiculous which insists on coming through. Practically everything I’ve ever written has a laugh hidden in it somewhere. Even high-school essays, which surprisingly enough didn’t endear me to my teachers. Weird, huh?
But the humour only really came to the fore in DEAD(ish) when Linda stole the show. It was all Mike and Trent for a while, and she was supposed to be the wronged-antagonist figure. But she started talking away in my head, and she had a WICKED sense of humour. And she loved making Mike miserable with it. And I loved indulging her, because sometimes I’ve longed to wreak a little creative ‘moral assistance’ of my own. You know, encouraging folks back on the straight and narrow and out of my hair?
LT: What other books/stories have you written?
NK: You know how there are two basic types of people - starters and finishers? Finishers are the folk that start a project with great care, plan it all out, then do it. Starters… they start fifteen different projects a week. Well, I’m a starter at heart. If my focus isn’t spread across three or four different plotlines, I lose it altogether. That’s a long way of saying, I haven’t finished anything else yet. Nothing publish-worthy, anyhow. But everything I have written so far - finished or unfinished - is posted at Nomesque Fiction. A few short-short stories, a re-interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood, and a set of fables - some a little sweet for my tastes.
LT: When it comes to paranormal creatures, which are your favorite to write about, and why?
NK: I’ll have to say ghosts. Linda was SUCH a blast to write about, partly because she had so few traditional limitations. It’s taken for granted that ghosts may be able to both walk through walls AND pick things up, for example. That said, I’d love to write about vampires, because they fascinate me - the whole living on others’ life force thing - but damn, have they been done to death lately in popular fiction!
LT: What scares you?
NK: Spiders. I live in a country FULL of the sods. And I’m not talking piddly little inch-wide things, I’m talking things that can swallow a small BIRD. I have a lot of trouble sharing a room with any spider wider than my foot. I try not to be such a wussbag, and think of huntsman spiders, for example, as puppies with twice the number of legs… but no go. They still give me the heebies. *shudder*
LT: What makes you laugh?
NK: Just about everything. There’s ridiculousness everywhere, in the best and worst situations. Although it gets just a little silly when I’m laughing at my own joke and everyone else is shaking their heads… and I realise just how ridiculous I look and laugh even harder…
Spiders don’t make me laugh, though.
LT: Have you read something recently that left a big impression, either good or bad?
NK: Honestly? No. Not a thing. I’ve read some good books, and some bad books, and some mediocre, but I’m going through a bit of a ‘meh’ stage. Nothing’s making me jump up and down and yell, “OMG that’s AMAZING!” or “I want to KILL this author!!”
LT: Do you have any projects in the works you’d like to tell us about?
NK: My favourite project at the moment - shaping up to be novel-sized! - is about two Christian teens in country Australia. Sounds incredibly yawn-worthy, doesn’t it? But they’re questioning christianity, what they’re learning in church, and most of all, sex. Maisy is working out that she likes it, and Mark is wondering if he’s gay. There isn’t a specific moral I’m aiming at, just a bit of honesty in what’s really happening and how people are dealing. Want an excerpt?
When Mark first saw me, I made the kind of impression that good little Christian gals like me dream of. Quiet, modest, caring and helpful.
“No you can’t have my fucking bag, you arsehole!” I yelled as I kicked a surprised bagsnatcher-wannabe in the shin, then followed it up with an elbow in his face.
“FUCK!” I screamed, as his cheekbone made direct contact with my funny bone and sent a wave of agony up my arm.
See what I mean? 
I can see me being popular in church if it ever hits the bigtime.
LT: What is the one thing that keps you inspired to write?
NK: Knowing that someone is getting a laugh out of what I write. I never managed to write much when I just stuck it in a notebook or a word processor file and tried to build up a story. As soon as I started posting my work _straight_ to the internet, though, my inspiration skyrocketed. It became a lot more FUN. And if it ever stops being fun, I’ll probably stop writing fiction. If I’m going to be bored out of my mind while writing, I might as well just keep writing manuals (my paid job).
LT: What do you read in your spare time?
NK: Sci fi and fantasy, mostly. My job’s far too brain-strainy for my liking, so after work I like to relax with something easy. I’m a huge fan of Piers Anthony’s Xanth series - it’s pulpy and punny and kinda lame in places, therefore great for someone who doesn’t want to think.
LT: Is there anything you’d like to add?
NK: Ummmm… oh hell, that’s an open-ended question! I guess the one thing I’d like to say is that everything I write is probably going to be a complete disappointment if you expect the same as the previous ebook. Consistency is NOT a strong point, with me. But I hope it’ll always make you laugh, and maybe make you think. But mostly laugh.
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©2010 Lori Titus
