My Interview with the Klingon

Jeffrey Hollar

I met new fellow writer Jeffrey Hollar on Twitter, tweeting that I’m a Tribble and that he’s a Klingon.  While I’ve tweeted him as “Intestine-head,” he’s tweeted me that we Tribbles can be squeezed into Tribble paste like peanut butter. Hey, it’s all in good fun.  For those that have seen my Tribble tweets, it began with my TweetDeck, my husband said the sound was obnoxious and sounded like a Tribble, so I took it from there.

Jeffrey’s been clear with his unusual pedigree many times.  He’s a Ferengi (see below) and his stepmom is a Klingon.  Well, sympathy there, none of us can pick our relatives. 

As a follow up my article to toast author Anne Rice, Jeffrey has been kind enough to grant me an interview:

Jeffrey, we see that you're a writer.  Have you written any books?  Tell us about them.

To date, I have not written any books, per se.  In December, 2011, I participated in a blog hop called Twelve Days of Creepfest . It was suggested that participants offer giveaways as part of the hop. To that end, my wife, Lisa, tossed together a collection of my dark fiction for me to give out that COULD be called a book in the loosest sense of the word. A true book is on my list of goals for this year and we shall see how that works out.

What inspires you for your blog posts?

The bulk of my blog posts tend to be short or flash fiction pieces based on prompts provided by those who sponsor various daily challenges.  I do write a fair amount of stuff that comes from somewhere within the deep recesses of my somewhat disturbed mind. From whence those ideas come, I try not to think.

I saw on your blog, no favorite book "too many to mention." I agree with that.  What's your favorite genre?

 If I had to pick a favorite genre, I suppose that would have to be fantasy. The Hobbit was the first book I borrowed when I got my “adult” library card. I must admit to a deep and abiding love of the hack-and-slash barbarian stuff of Robert Howard and other such writers.

So in cyberspace, you have unusual parents.  Tell us about them.  You're a Ferengi and your stepmom is a Klingon?  You have my sympathy.  How did that get started?

The popular version of events is that Dad won Mom in a high-stakes game of dabo and she spent the rest of her life making him regret his lucky streak that night. My parents really DID fit those roles long before I ever even heard of Klingons and Ferengis. Please indulge me as I provide you REAL  examples from my childhood:

Dad the Ferengi:  When I was about nine, my older brother and I complained we didn’t have bicycles like the other neighborhood kids. My dad’s solution was to buy one bicycle for the two of us to share. He was of the belief, and fairly rightly so, that neither of us was in good enough physical shape to ride the bike long enough to significantly inconvenience the other. 

Mom the Klingon: We lived right across the street from our grade school and, since it was so close, got to go home for lunch. I came in one day, throwing coat, mittens, etc everywhere and could NOT find them when it was time to go back to school after lunch. I said something smart to Mom and she replied by taking a swat at my butt. I tried, most unsuccessfully, to avoid that and somehow got a big red hand print square in the middle of my face. She got me bundled up and headed back to school in no time. When I asked her what I should tell my teacher regarding the hand print, she told me to let her know it was none of her business but that if she chose to make it so, then Mom had plenty of that waiting at home for her too. Case closed. 

Are you an old Trekkie fan, a new Trekkie fan (Next Generation), a DS-9 Trekkie fan, or the totally new Trekkie fan (recent film)?

That question is a tough one to answer. I will always be a fan of old Trek simply because it was so influential in making fictional science into real-life stuff. Next Gen was the return of Star Trek after a very long spell away and so gets my admiration. DS-9 for the ongoing displays of Ferenginocity and a host of other really great characters, of course has my love. Regarding the recent film, I will try to tone down my opinion and say only that it rightly qualifies as one of the greatest abominations ever conceived in the medium of film.

Any other notable sci-fi that you're a fan of?  (Dr. Who, etc).  Any new sic-fi we should be looking for?

Dr. Who back in the day was a favorite. I was a RABID fan of all things Stargate and I greatly miss some iteration of it. As regards new sci-fi , there seems to be little on the small screen to choose. A quick note to say I mourn the death of Terra Nova. I liked that series but knew it was doomed when the producers turned it in to Dawson’s Creek with dinos. Bastards!

Are you working on a book now?

As alluded to earlier, yes and no. The end of April will mark the first anniversary of my blog. I think I have come a long way towards refining my skills in that year and may be ready to graduate from the kids’ table, so to speak. I would say you can definitely expect to see, at least, one novella from me in the not-so-distant future

Any book recommendations?

Sadly, nothing that is exactly new-release stuff. Circumstances haven’t really favored me getting much reading done lately. If you like paranormal suspense thrillers (I am credited with creating that particular sub-genre title), I would recommend Mark Stone’s books. For epic fantasy, I would have to give nods to Michelle Franklin and her Hantaa books….great stuff.  

Do you do all of your work on a smart phone?  That's impressive. 

Until very recently, my only means to post to my blog was a 3G Sanyo not-so-smart smartphone. No knocks on the phone because it was never intended for the type of usage I subjected it to. It was quite brutal at times. Holding one particular key too long while trying to backspace tended to erase the entire entry. I lost several thousands of words that way, but I simply refused to abandon my writing and persevered. Now, we’ve got the Internet back up at home and our own individual laptops, so the phone posts are mostly a thing of the past. That being said, I’ll have to finish up a 200-word blog challenge post from my phone later today thanks to work. It’s a Blackberry, so light years better. Bottom line is, I WILL use whatever tech I have available to get the voices out of my head…Bwuahahaha.

I want to thank Jeffrey for taking the time to share with us, and I highly recommend his site:
http://www.jeffreyhollar.com/