When I first encountered the ‘Sigma Force’ novels – long before I became friends with Jim Rollins – a bookseller told me that these stories were about ‘geeks with guns.’ While not entirely accurate, that’s pretty close to the mark, and that really speaks to me. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
When we look at the flowers, we suddenly forget so many important things. We forget that all flowers die. We forget that winter will come again. We forget that nothing really endures and that, like the flowers that die at the end of the growing season, we’ll join them in the cold ground. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
If you battle monsters, you don’t always become a monster. But you aren’t entirely human anymore, either. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
My favorite monster has always been the zombie. They are so much fun. They can be scary, pathetic, sad, funny, tragic, even heroic. They are the most elastic monster because, even with all of that, they don’t interfere with telling stories about the humans. They serve as threats and metaphors, but they allow the story to be about people. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
Making playlists can kill a whole afternoon for me. I like building very specific playlists for new writing projects. In a strange way, choosing certain songs is part of the process of plotting the book out. I pick songs that I think with resonate with characters, their personality quirks, relationship dynamics, action scenes, and so on. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
I wrote a novel, Ghost Road Rules, and as soon as it was done and polished, I began reaching out to agents. I ignored the frequent advice to ‘shoot low and try for a low-level agent because they’re the only ones that will take a flyer on a new author.’ That sounded like bad advice to me. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
My first book deal was actually for a textbook – ‘Judo and You’ – that I wrote while teaching at Temple University. A scout for Kendall-Hunt came looking for someone to write the book, and even though it wasn’t a course I was teaching there, I agreed to write it. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
When people ask me about what I learned from martial arts, I don’t talk about favorite punches or kicks, or about fights won or lost. I talk about learning self-discipline, about ethics and manners and benevolence and fairness. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
I write every day. Most weekdays, I write about ten hours a day. That doesn’t mean eight hours of surfing the Net or watching videos on YouTube. I park my butt in a chair and write… I learned that writer’s block is a myth created by people who don’t have, or understand, a writing process. Jonathan Maberry Read Quote
