Here is Vanessa Lee's interview with
Marcus Damada, the author of Teeth.
Thank you for your great responses, Marcus!
Is Fairview based on one of the real towns in Virginia, and
if so, how accurate is the portrayal?
Fairview is probably the most "real" aspect of Teeth. None of the
characters are based on the living,dead, or undead in the real world,
you may be sure. But Nicholas's neighborhood, Rappohannock Heights, is
really Aquia Harbor. His school, Fairview High, is Woodbridge High
School as it existed in 1988 (including the Viking painting, artist
unknown). The strip mall of Hunter Mills is Tackett's Mill in Lake
Ridge, before all the overdevelopment (and the author photo was taken
in its back lot). The Outta Time Arcade, when it existed, was called
Time Out and held forth at Springfield Mall. Gas and Snacks is on
Minneville Road, but the name and the ownership has changed several
times, never bearing the actual name in the book. As for that dreadful
forest, that's real, too--and populated by all kinds of restless
spirits, as any kid who ever played flashlight tag in the woods can
attest.
What gave you the
idea for Nicholas's secret? Was there a
purpose to giving him the condition beyond alienating him from his
family and
peers?
That's a tough one to answer without
giving a huge story punchline away! Still, here goes nothing.
Teeth was originally inspired, in structure, by Quentin Tarantino's
Pulp Fiction, and was first written with a lot of flashbacks and
scrambled time sequences. Also, like most of Tarantino's stuff, there
are a lot of pop culture references buried in the story, some obvious,
some less so. That's where Nicholas emerged--a homage to the cult
fantasy figure Elric of Melnibone. Their ultimate kinship is fully laid
out in the story, and the secret is at the heart of it. That Nicholas
should be a loner and ostracized by virtually every "normal" person in
his life is, perhaps, due to the secret ... but it's also necessary to
the outcome of the terrible decision he has to make late in the book.
Character and plot demands--alas.
Side note: the flashbacks and sequence scrambling had to be ditched to
win publication. A good thing, it turned out later, as I like the
revised book much more.
Most fictional vampires tend to
move around simply to
prevent the "food supply" from dying out and to keep mortals from
noticing that they don't age, but the Damworths travel all the time,
rather
than just ever 10 years or so. Why did you choose to have them do this?
Was
your decision influenced by any nomadic cultures?
Wow! Here's a chance to sound literary and impressive--I love you guys!
Casper and his family are constantly on the move because the vampires
who live in the American "home base" of the Oregon coastline want very
little to do with them. They're rather badly behaved, you see, and are
right on the point of being targeted for termination. This is hinted at
in the book, but it doesn't become plot-critical until the sequel. I'd
really love to say that there was some allegorical translation of a
mysterious, nomadic culture involved to some degree, but, well ...
there wasn't.
Will we be seeing more of the
Damworths? Their subplot
wasn't entirely resolved.
Hopefully. I'm not ruling it out--I've got a sequel planned, in
rough sketchings, and I also have the full backstory of Casper's entire
family already typed up. I really do love my vampires. But I'm also
kicking around a few science fiction ideas, and I want to do something
that I can tell my sixth grade students about without getting fired.
For those who've read Teeth and enjoyed it, rest assured. There's a lot
more to tell.
A large chunk of Teeth takes place inside a juvenile
detention center and several characters are policeman. What kind of
research
did you do to accurately portray this setting and characters?
The idea of a juvenile detention center besieged by supernatural
villains occurred to me a long time ago, when I first read Nathan's Run
by John Gilstrap. There was also a childhood friend of mine who was
incarcerated for running away when we were both teenagers. I developed
the layout and policies of the J.C.C. in Teeth after an extensive
interview with a prison guard who happens to be related to a friend of
mine. After that, I invented freely--partly on advice that I received
from Gilstrap, years ago--and if the result is sometimes over-the-top,
well, so is the whole book. Gloriously so, I hope.
Do you think that
the negative way you portray some of the
police will anger some of your readers or have an effect on the way
people view
policemen in the real world?
I hope that people won't think badly
about the police because of my little vampire book. I've never actually
had a personally bad experience with any cop--I'm a good boy, in real
life--and I hope that readers will remember Frank Gillis more than
Jessie Jenkins. Remember, Nicholas is kind of a cursed character, and
just about everyone in the "normal" world that he encounters turns out
to be a real creep, not only cops--Again, that's except Deputy Frank
Gillis. If there's going to be a backlash against the book from cops
themselves, I'm at least happy to say that it has not happened yet.
I live in a turbulent neighborhood. Thank God for cops. Really.
Your author blurb says that you
are a middle-school English
teacher. Did you draw on your real-life school experiences to portray
the
school, teachers, and teenagers in Teeth?
I do teach middle school, and I do
coach wrestling--and I used my knowledge of both in my writing. But it
was all superficial detailing, not character work. What may be
considered "real" in this respect is my own witness to school bullying,
both as a kid and as an educator. When I was in the 8th grade, I took
karate just to protect me from it (which actually worked, by the way,
with no serious injury done to anybody).
Prior to Teeth, I used to interject myself and the people I know into
my writing all the time. I even did a semi-autobiographical novel once
(unpublished and languishing in obscurity). But when I started this
book, I was warned by more than one of my neighborhood audience that if
I did it again, they'd boycott me. As they were my only audience at the
time, I went forward without the conscious crutch of adaptation,
fearing desertion by the only readers who would tolerate me. So again,
there are no "real" people in the book. Deliberately. That having been
said, there's no telling what the subconscious will let forth ...
Also, the diner employees in the final chapter are named for teachers I
used to work with. What's in a name?
If you
could give your book to one person, who would it be and why?
Let's see ... Give the book? Honestly, I'd much prefer to sell it. But
I do want to play along, so ....
I lost one of my best friends when I was 24 years old. I wish Tripp
McDavid were here. I'd give it to him. There are also a few private
religious school teachers--highly unlikely to give up offering plate
money for a vampire book--that I would be willing to infect with this
story. And I'd pay to have Stephen King read it. Maybe I could get a
mention in one of his semi-monthly Entertainment Weekly articles. A new
writer can only dream. Got to hail the master, don't you know?
What is your advice for
aspiring authors?
Finish college, have a career, and for the love of God, KEEP TRYING.
Take criticism. Revise. And save money for postage. Finally, you can
write for yourself, but don't write to yourself. Know your audience. If
you're the only one in it, you won't go anywhere.
What is your writing procedure?
Well, first off, I spend about half an hour reading whatever I wrote
the night before--over and over again, just to get my voice back and
re-convince myself that I'm good at this. Then I break out my scene
cards--scribbled during the planning and organizational stage, never
computerized--and go to the next one. I write one page, even if it's
not going well. At least I'm working. But if it is going well, I keep
going until my mouth drools and eyes bleed.
The first draft of Teeth got done in four weeks by that formula.