Dragon Soul Press had the chance to interview Jacob Seinemeier, an author featured in DSP”s Fire & Ash, Elite, and Splash anthologies.
- Introduce yourself.
Hello, my name is Jacob Seinemeier. I’m an English teacher and speculative fiction author from Perth, Western Australia- which also happens to be where the majority of my stories are set. If you don’t know anything about Perth, don’t worry– I’m hoping to change that.
I write short stories and flash fiction in a variety of genres– running the gauntlet across pulp crime, urban fantasy, westerns ( both the weird and slightly-less-weird varieties ) horror and science fiction. My stories have appeared in the Escape Pod Podcast, Dragon Soul Press, Critical Blast Publishing, and Camden Park Press, with a few more on the horizon from Wonderbird Press and Three Ravens Publishing.
When I’m not writing, I can usually be found red-penning student work; loving my wife and kids; and trying not to fall asleep on the keyboard. - Where do you draw inspiration from?
The majority of my stories are set in the shadowy hard-boiled world I call the Hellerverse– an alternate version of Perth where monsters and cryptids live and work and hide and hunt among us. Usually most of my stories either begin with my stumbling across a new monster in my research– some nightmarish beast from folklore to create a problem for my urban fantasy detective Sam Heller to get stuck into– or they start with a classic detective trope, like the femme fatale strolling into the gumshoe’s office. Something I can infuse with supernatural shenanigans.
I find anthology calls are a fantastic way to step outside my comfort zone. The DSP anthology ‘Splash’ for instance, called for stories about merpeople and seamonsters. I had no idea how I was going to drop a two-fisted landlubbing shoofly into a story like that, but by the time I was done, I had written one of my favourite tales, Lament– and invented a brand-new original creature! - Do you have a favorite story or poem you’ve written? What’s it about?
My favorite story is my first– and ironically, it’ll be one of the last to get published. It’s the novella Grave Matter, coming soon in the 100th and last issue of Andromeda Spaceways Magazine. I love it because it was the first thing I wrote and finished after almost twenty years away from the keyboard. It was a struggle. Some days I barely managed two hundred words. Some days all I could do was stare at the screen and grind my teeth. However after months of work in which I began to think that maybe Sisyphus had gotten off easy, it turned out I had rediscovered what drew me to storytelling in the first place, and I’d laid the cornerstone of my shared world of stories. Grave Matter is a murder mystery involving a cute blonde cannibal schoolteacher, a hungover private detective on retainer for a supernatural agency, a horny horse-spirit, and a bizarre poisoning that may or may not have been the work of a rogue witch with a grudge. - How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
Currently, I’m working on putting together my first collection of short stories featuring my detective character Sam Heller, tentatively titled ‘Weird Hours.’ I’m also about to begin my first novel– just as soon as I figure out how it ends 🙂 - What is your writing process like?
I’ll usually start by writing a few plot points or conflicts in my notebook– I’m a fiend for notebooks, I have them all over the house, in the car, on my desk, sticking out of my back pocket. Maybe I’ll scribble down a few key lines of dialogue. Then I’ll sit on it for a day or so until I’ve thought of the first line and the last. That lets me know it’s time to start. Once I begin writing though, that’s it…I’m pretty much useless for anything else until it’s done. When I’m not actually writing the thing, I’m composing the next section line-by-line in my head, usually when I’m supposed to be doing something else– like eating or sleeping. Still, from a practical standpoint, next time I sit down to write, I usually have at least the next few pages already worked out, so it’s just a matter of transcribing what I already “wrote.” - Who is your favorite author / what is your favorite book?
Favorite author– Stephen King.
Favorite book– Oh, you’re killing me here. Fine, Robert B. Parker’s A Catskill Eagle. As a teenager, it was my gateway drug into hard-boiled detective stories and led me to Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and John. D MacDonald, which segued me into Jim Butcher– and so it goes. - What is one goal you have for your writing future?
To have enough people who’ve read my stories that they can fill an auditorium. Even if they’re just there to huck rotten fruit, that’d still be an achievement. - What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
I hope they enjoy the snappy dialogue; the remixes of familiar and unfamiliar mythology and folklore, and the fact that it’s an urban fantasy story that isn’t set in New York, London or Los Angeles. Not that those aren’t interesting places, but Australia can be dark and gritty too– just give us a chance, readers! - Where can readers learn more about you?
The best place to learn what I’ve been up to is over on Substack, where you can get regular updates on my upcoming publications by subscribing to my newsletter. I also have a lot of free content available if you just feel like browsing.
Substack: https://jacobseinemeier.substack.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacobseinemeierauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583931316425
