An interview with Big Island author John G. Rees, whose self-published horror novels recently won a silver "Ippy" award from the Independent Publishers association.

Star-Advertiser: You have consistent pacing, plotting and writing. Have you written fiction before, or other types of writing? Are you free-form in your first drafts, or do you set up a strict outline?

Rees: Everything is fiction. Take a look at the average resume. Job apps, doctor forms, taxes, underwater survey reports. You could say I’ve had a lot of practice. To be honest, I never graduated from high school, but I could create a pretty good academic record if I had to. As you can see, I go free-form pretty much from the get-go. Start with an idea and run with it.

The writing itself came to me as a release that I badly needed. I really hadn’t written anything before like this. I just sat down and started writing and haven’t stopped since.

Q: Do you know the end of the story before you write the first chapter? Do you ever surprise yourself with the way a chapter goes?

A: In a word, no. But I think the story does. It’s my job to get there. To persevere, grind it out and never give up. I’m just the writer. I am always shocked the way a chapter ends. Mostly because I didn’t know what it was going to be when I started it. And lots of times because, well, they are "shocking."

Q: Do you think your subconscious guides your writing?

A: Yeah, I suppose — but it’s your subconscious, so you never really know!

Q: The characters of Jake and Johnny are pretty indelible. Are they based on actual people?

A: You could say that. Johnny and I had been friends forever it seemed. When I became a commercial diver, I was employed by a small company in Honolulu and given my choice of tenders, the guy who holds your air line and life in his hands and I picked Johnny. For years we traveled the Pacific, working our asses off and having one hell of a good time.

Q: How about your diving experiences, or experiences with outfits like "Megacorp?"

A: When I left the small company, I went to work for one of the big players in the diving industry — that was when I ran into the Megacorp mentality. The impact was heavy; I didn’t last long. The workdays were as brutal and cutthroat as anything I have written about. What I learned there, concerning the Megacorp mindset remains a deep resource for much of the work.

Q: Is the new book a continuation of the previous two? It’s already become a pretty epic tale. What about side trips in the world you’ve created?

A: The new book is a prequel. It’s about Jake’s world before he becomes a Reusable. He gets acquainted with Johnny and his fate. Evil and greed are ever the antagonists. We meet its many faces.

The fourth book, which is being written, is what you would call a side trip. A character you meet in "Halocline" has her story to tell and as I just said, evil has many faces.

Q: Where does this world come from? Are you extrapolating from a combination of current events and classic horror tales?

A: The funny part about the world I’ve created is, it isn’t that much of a stretch. When you think about it, I guess it’s not that funny, things are falling apart pretty fast now. Reality has always been scarier than fiction to me.

The classic horror tale thing? I think I am trying to create my own. The word "vampire" appears once in the first book and not at all in the second. And my villain has never been called the D-word. The villain, if there is one, is the dark side of each of us, ya think?

Q: Who and what do you read to influence you and your style?

A: From Twain to Cussler and everything in between. The ABCs of sci-fi. Reading Mark Twain as an adult is a mindblower. As a kid, you get the story; as an adult you finally hear what he is saying (hopefully). National Geo, Smithsonian, Utne and the .

Q: Do you constantly tweak your stuff or leave that up to an independent editor?

A: I’m always messing with the work until it’s done. My wife and editor do damage control. Teddi Stransky, my editor, once complimented me by saying I have "impossible grammar." At least that’s the way I took it. Nobody’s perfect.

Q: Your world in these two books already is pretty damn grim and brutal, and yet the characters are "saved" by simple friendship and loyalty and bravery. I’m reminded of Holocaust novels. Does it ever get too grim for you, or not grim enough?

A: It’s not easy taking grim to the limit and beyond. Some of the passages are most difficult to get on paper as you can well imagine. The horrors I create are nothing compared to reality, but I get close. It is the depraved mind that I really try to delve into, the grim reality, a way to get there. There is a lot of purple prose horror out there. I don’t do that. On the flipside, there is enough black humor to act as a relief valve and the light — within the veil I have thrown over my reality — is human integrity.

Q: Is writing stuff like this a kind of cheap, self-administered psychotherapy?

A: Self-administered perhaps. Cheap no. When Johnny died a few years ago, I had to do something; I was at a loss. Close to a year later, after another friend lay dying in my arms, the words first started pouring out of me. The first book is a kind of eulogy for Johnny.

He deserved more than he got in life, so I gave it to him, saving myself in the process.

Q: Are you paying attention to pacing? Or could it be previously conditioned by media you’ve been absorbing all your life?

A: Pacing? It’s more like a hundred-yard dash that doesn’t end.

There is no doubt about the preconditioning thing. But, in my mind, the work has to move. If I find myself nodding at the keyboard, so will the reader. So I kick it up a notch or three. Why do you think there is so much coffee being consumed in these novels? I should have stock in some coffee company by now! Do you have any idea how much coffee it takes to write a book? A lot!

Q: What kind of research have you done? Actually been to Romania?

A: I study up on the time periods, read the histories and bios. My books need to be attached, somehow, to reality. It’s important to get the correct dates, places and some actual events in there somewhere, when dealing with history. As Mark Twain put it, "Don’t let too many facts ruin a good story!" So I don’t. Although I have traveled the world over, I have yet to get to Romania. It is very high on our to-do list. And then I guess my life itself has been experientially part of the process, as well.

Q: Your characters do anti-social things like drugs and drinking and dangerous risk-taking. Is that a function of character? How much of your own experiences as a diver contribute to your understanding of that lifestyle? The underwater passages of the novels seem quite real, and simultaneously vast and claustrophobic.

A: "Function of character" — I love that phrase. The characters are actually pretty normal. Of course "normal" is a relative term. It’s their circumstance and probity that set them apart. I think each character is a facet of my own personality, with the exception of Johnny. As Jimi Hendrix once asked, "Are you experienced?" Yes I am. The new book, as yet untitled, will have many of my own diving experiences in it. Not that the other two don’t, but you get more of what it’s like to be a commercial diver, day in and day out.

I’m glad the underwater scenes gave you that feeling. It’s a difficult concept to grasp unless it is expressed well … or experienced.