What inspired the pen name J.L. Benet?
My mother is Quebecois
(French-Canadien), and Jean-X is common in that side of the family
(Jean-Francois, Jean-Maurice, Jean-Phillipe, etc.). Loup is French for wolf, so
it seemed fitting. I started using just the initials as Jean-Loup, when
pronounced correctly, sounds too close to Jean-Luc (as in Jean-Luc Picard).
When mispronounced, it sounds like Gene Loop.
I chose to use a pseudonym early in
my career partly because I am a teacher and I wanted a separation between my
school life and my writing life. My writing has caused some issues when I
taught for a conservative school. They had a problem with what I wrote, despite
their using the fact that I’m a published author as a selling point when
recruiting students.
What is it about werewolves that
turned you on enough to write an entire novel about one?
I love the duality of man aspect.
I’ve never been that interested in the classic Horror that was focused on the
person or people fighting against some monster. I wanted to be in the monster’s
head. The psychological aspect of Horror is what really attracts me to the
genre, and the concept of having a protagonist and antagonist in one person is
a compelling concept for me.
Native American themes are quite
prevalent in Wolf Hunter. In what way did you tap into your own Native American
roots to make it true to life?
The bearwalker mythos that I drew
heavily upon for Jack and his grandfather is drawn directly from the Ojibwa/Chippewa
tradition. I based the initial idea on the stories my grandmother told me, but
I also did a good deal of research to make sure I got it as faithful as
possible, while still respecting the traditions of my elders. I found the
elders were rather reticent to talk about the subject, and talk around the
topic, only really coming around to telling anything in a rather circuitous
fashion, and then tending towards vaguery. I think that holding back made the
topic that much more interesting to me.
This novel has been had been in the
works for a while, right? What kind of journey did the manuscript take from the
first time you sat down to write it to the final product?
It was actually accepted a few
times. I won’t name names, but I can speak about the process. I did the normal
route for the first rounds, hitting the big mass market paperback houses like
Leisure Books and Pinnacle. Not too long after it was finished, I got accepted
by a small press that was just starting. After they expressed interest in the
book, but before they actually sent me a contract, they decided that Horror
wasn’t a financially feasible genre, so they dropped their Horror line. An
editor for another small press heard about my reading at World Horror Con (I
think it was the one in San Francisco) and asked if I had any full-length
novels that might be looking for a home. I sent Wolf Hunter off and it was
accepted. Not too long after the acceptance (no work had been done on the book
yet), there was a shake-up at the publishing house. My editor left and the
Horror line fell to the head of the house. I was told this person wasn’t a huge
fan of Horror and was going to pretty much dump the Horror books already
contracted into the market with as little work possible. With the suggestion of
a few of my friends who know the industry and who had some inside scoop on the
situation, I pulled my book.
What other werewolf works did you
keep in mind while writing Wolf Hunter? Did you consciously make a nod to any
classic works or did you try and steer as far away from them as possible?
As Wolf Hunter served as my Master’s
thesis, it did require a good deal of research. I did read a bunch of books
that featured Nazi werewolves, but none really did what I wanted to do. There
are bits and pieces from actual stories and from non-fiction books about
medieval rites and such. I did keep in mind the bearwalker stories, because I
wanted to make sure that aspect was faithful, without actually revealing those
aspects that are considered sacred. Due to the nature of these stories, there
are very few stories in print that feature bearwalkers. It is said that to
write about it will bring evil upon the writer. I was told by one of the
Chippewa elders that this is the reason why none of the books featuring the
bearwalker have been financially successful. I’m not so sure about that, but I
didn’t want to tempt fate by revealing things that others in the tribe would
have felt sacrilegious.
What’s next on the agenda for you?
It was a secret, but I was outed last
World Horror Con. I am currently writing paranormal romance under a different
pseudonym. I am still filling the pages with were-creatures, but the pages
aren’t dripping with gore (I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t any gore).
Lastly, should werewolves ever
sparkle?
