Please introduce yourself and tell us about your background as a writer.
I’m Paul R. McNamee. My writing had been sporadic most of my adult life. Around 2014, I finally got steady about it. Slower than I like, but I tend to have (at least) two short stories appearing per year on average. In 2021, my debut novel, Hour of the Robot, came out. I’ve appeared in anthologies and ‘zines, including Weirdbook, Wicked Weird, Blood on the Blade, and Storyhack, among others.

What are the most prominent influences on your writing? How do you incorporate those influences without being derivative?
I really cop out on the first part. I honestly don’t know. I can’t see the trees for the forest. Which is weird, because when I was writing rock songs (I’m a guitarist, too,) I could tell you where every riff came from. Glen Cook and Robert E. Howard are my favorite writers. If anything, Howard’s narrative drive, I hope comes through, at least when I’m writing action.

Again, with a music analogy, you know the cycles bands go through. Play a bunch of covers, play a few originals. Eventually you’re playing an entirely original set list, with a cover song for the final encore. I think writing is the same. Maybe you start with fan fiction. Or maybe you start with a pastiche that adheres close to the source. Over time you drift from the source, and your pastiche becomes its own thing. It’s been an organic evolution for me.

With self-publishing easier than ever, there are tons of books being released every day. What makes your work stand out from the crowd? What can readers get out of your work that they can’t from anyone else?
Standing out is certainly a challenge. You know they say all the stories are already written, but you haven’t written them, and you are what makes your stories different. So, I guess they get me.

Write like you (as Charles R. Rutledge will remind you.) I think it’s really the best advice.

Many authors say marketing is one of their biggest challenges. What tactics have you found to be most effective for getting your name out there?
When I find some, I’ll let you know. Ha! I guess at this point, word-of-mouth is still best. I don’t hit the marketing hard, and I need to work on that. Personally, I don’t think promotion via social media is the cat’s meow the social media sites would like you to believe. I know some people hustle and do all right, but I also see a lot of people hustle with little result in that area. I think some of the weakness of social media is getting stuck in a circle. You need to have multiple circles, especially if you work in different genres.

How much do your audience’s expectations factor in to what you write? Does this ever cause you to hold back from experimenting?
I never feel like I am experimenting aside from genre-blending. As for reading audience, I don’t factor that. I write what the story needs. I have sometimes thought about the editor/market and tried to incorporate an element maybe they haven’t seen, or perhaps an element to skew against everything else sitting in a slush pile. I hope the readers appreciate the change of pace, too. I feel like that worked for me a few times, but I don’t do it every time.

Have you had any new stories published recently? Are you currently working on any?
I was shutout in 2022. I do have stories in the publishing queue. Two are definitely scheduled to appear this year. A historical military horror tale, and a folk horror tale. Two others I hope come out of limbo this year. I just put the finishing touches on an alternate history military horror short story, aimed at an open call.

I’ll probably tackle a creature-feature novella next. I’m trying to take this year in chunks. So, after the current batch of short stories in my line-of-sight for spring, I’d really like to write my next novel in the second half of the year.

Name one newer and one older book you have read and enjoyed recently. (“Newer” meaning from the past year or so, and “older” meaning written before 1980.)
I read a lot of great books last year. But to narrow it down; definitely Hiero’s Journey by Sterling E. Lanier for an older book. I’m terrible at reading books when they come out, but I did manage to read a few 2022 books in 2022. I’ll go with The Blood Ogre by Craig McDonald for newer.

Any final words?
Just thanks for the opportunity. I had a quiet year last year on many fronts. Trying to get back out there and this certainly helped! (And I think you’re doing fantastic work with DMR Books!)