I've known Joel Jenkins for a little over a year. Which is a little odd since he and I share many of the same friends in the writing community, but that's how it goes. When I decided to self-publish Fallen, I didn't know what I was doing. I knew the manuscript could be formatted via Microsoft Word, but there were too many limitations for the way I wanted to format. I knew Adobe InDesign could be used as a way to format and I had the program as part of the Creative Suite, but I had no idea how to use it. I asked Derrick Ferguson (who I owe for many things but that's a topic for another time) for help, as he had self-published his own novel Dillon and the Voice of Odin. Derrick directed me to Joel, who helped him out. I sent Joel an e-mail, explained the situation, and he was incredibly helpful, showing me everything I needed to know about InDesign in order to format my novel correctly. Since then, Joel and I have communicated a few times and I quickly realized this was a stand-up guy who had real passion for what he was doing. Joel's passion is so great for the pulps that he even formed his own studio/independent publisher, Pulpwork Press. When I heard that PWP was beginning this digital tour for Joel's first novel, Dire Planet, I jumped at the chance to host a "stop." Joel was kind enough to send me a copy of Dire Planet and I devoured it in a few days. Dire Planet is the story of Garvey Dire, a NASA astronaut who is chosen to be the first man on Mars. When he lands on the planet, however, he's accidentally sent back into time by 47,000 years, ending up in Mars' distant past when it was a populated planet with an environment not unlike Earth. Populated by Amazonian warriors and a host of fantastical creatures, Garvey ends up caught in an ongoing conflict. Through circumstances, he becomes thrust into the company of an Amazonian warrior named Ntashia and the two fight side-by-side against vicious creatures, enter forgotten cities, face cruel despots and encounter some extremely sophisticated technology.
As they pursue their quest, in the present-day, NASA has attempted another expedition to Mars and it leads to an intriguing conflict with China (as well as a really interesting choice for the American President on Joel's part, which brought a smile to my face).
Joel brings a lot of elements to the table--political intrigue, Biblical allegories, romance, and a hefty bit of action all mixed up with well-developed characters. Dire Planet serves as a fond tribute to the pulp stories Joel derives so much influence from, but rather than simply being an homage, Joel does some very interesting things and twists typical genre conventions on their heads. I sat down with Joel and asked him a few questions about himself, PWP and the saga of Garvey Dire. Here's what he had to say.
Tell us a little about Pulpwork Press—how it came about, what you guys are currently doing, and any plans for the future.
I think Pulpwork Press came about as a result of a triple-dog dare.
True to its name and charter, Pulpwork plans to retain its focus on pulp-style fiction. My understanding is that Pulpwork plans to concentrate on 'franchise' characters; in other words, characters that have the potential to make repeat appearances and the potential to build a returning readership. The key seems to be getting the word out, and that's what Pulpwork is trying to do through projects like this Virtual Book Tour for Dire Planet.
In the long term, Pulpwork has expressed the intention of pursuing secondary media options and even merchandising opportunities as an adjunct to its written properties.
Now let's move on to the saga of Garvey Dire. From what little I know of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his John Carter of Mars series, it's obvious that it served as an influence for the Dire Planet series. What other influences do you claim in the development of the book and the universe?
Although Edgar Rice Burroughs pretty much laid down the template for sword and science fiction stories, I think that my style of writing owes a lot to Robert E. Howard (author of the original Conan tales, Solomon Kane, Kull, etc). I've always admired his vivid way with words, and though my style of writing has developed into its own animal I hope that it captures some of that evocative language and phrasing at which he was a master. Also there was some biblical--primarily Old Testament--influence in the Dire Planet series, mainly in the exploration of polygamy and the difficulties it poses to a family and society.
In your blog on the first day of the virtual tour, you said that part of Dire Planet was inspired by a dream you had and the notes recounting that dream were set aside for years. In the time between this dream and Dire Planet's online premiere at Frontier Press, did you take down any other notes or plan out anything else for the mythology surrounding the Direverse?
Also in your blog, you said you wrote the first chapter and the characters and situations presented itself. While writing Dire Planet, were you working from an outline of some sort or just taking it a chapter at a time?* 
Though I'd been a strict adherent to the idea of working with an outline to save time and so I don't write myself into corners, I started winging it on the Dire Planet serial. I wrote about two-thirds of Dire Planet, which has divergent timelines, without an outline and then I realized I had no idea how the timelines were going to fit back together to wrap up the story. At this point I was getting a little nervous because installments of Dire Planet were being posted every two weeks on the Frontier Press and the pressure was on to make sure everything wrapped up in a way that made sense, so I sat down and mapped out the rest of the novel. I was pleased and relieved when all the pieces dropped into place.
On Exiles of the Dire Planet and Into the Dire Planet I worked from a rough outline and I continue to work from outlines on most of my longer pieces. Unlike some authors, who prefer very detailed outlines, my outlines are generally just a list of plot points and events. I like to leave plenty of room for the characters to tell their story, and they often surprise me. Incidental characters sometimes force their way onto the stage and become major players, and even minor characters develop their own agendas which sometimes throws a spin on the entire story.
One of the things that really struck me about the novel was the detail you went into in scenes dealing with space travel, launch procedure, as well as your knowledge of Mars itself and how the lower gravity gave Garvey almost superhuman strength.. How much research did you do while writing this book?
I did a fair amount of research and the sequence is a recounting of the actual launch of the Mars Climate Orbiter, which NASA claims was later burned up on entry into Mars' atmosphere due to a 'control calibration' error. Of course, readers of Dire Planet know the full story behind the failed mission.
Another thing I found interesting was the Muvari clan. When we first meet them, Lana uses very specific body language and I thought it was a really nice touch as body language just on Earth varies so much from culture to culture. Did you research the body languages of various cultures to form the basis of the Muvari body language or was it completely your own invention?
I was aware of body language differences in cultures and thought to incorporate some of this into the story. The greeting was of my own invention.
Garvey leaves Earth in 1998 and the events on Earth and present-day Mars span about ten years. Was there any specific reason you chose these dates rather than having the story begin further into the future or even the past?
As I mentioned, the Mars Climate Orbiter did indeed launch in 1998 from Cape Canaveral, and was reported lost in September of 1999.
An interesting aspect of the book is the reversal of gender roles. In many stories of a fantasy or science fiction nature, especially earlier in the twentieth century, a damsel in distress is often at the mercy of some fiendish enemy and a strong man is needed to save her. Although you have a strong man with Garvey, the character himself admits one of the reasons he's survived so long is because of the added strength he gets from the lower gravity of Mars and he says he is a pretty clumsy swordsman. In contrast, Ntashia is a very skilled warrior who ends up saving him from a fiendish villainess. Also in contrast to the traditional gender roles, the Muvari men are the ones who stay home and rear the children while the women fill the role of hunter/gatherer. In a lot of ways, as much as Dire Planet is an homage to the sci-fi/fantasy pulps, it's also something of a revisionist take on it. Was any of this intentional or was it completely unconscious on your part?
The role reversal of men and women was entirely intentional. I wanted to build on the tradition of the sword and science fiction pulps without rehashing the same old story. By inserting the elements of a predominantly female and matriarchal society I was able to forge into territory that was new to the genre, and explore the implications that had for families and their society as a whole--and in the meantime I still got to tell a slam-bang action story full of weird creatures and death-defying cliffhangers.
Garvey Dire's saga has continued through three novels so far—Dire Planet, Exiles of the Dire Planet, and Into the Dire Planet. Was Garvey's story always too large for just one book to contain or were you struck with the inspiration to build on the mythology after the first novel was completed?
Sometimes, after a story is complete (or I think it is) the characters keep whispering in my head because they still have adventures to relate. That was the case with Garvey Dire once I had completed Dire Planet. However, Exiles of the Dire Planet was just too much story to be contained reasonably in one book and so it was split into two volumes--the second part being Into the Dire Planet.
Now that we have the Dire Planet trilogy, are you finished with that world and the characters you've created or do you have more adventures planned for Garvey and Ntashia?
Garvey Dire still has some more story to tell, and I hope to start writing a fourth Dire Planet novel in 2009.
What's next for Joel Jenkins?
I try to keep people apprised of my latest writing projects at joeljenkins.com, and I've got a few things in the hopper including a thriller called The Nuclear Suitcase and a fantasy novel, Through the Groaning Earth, which is the sequel to the currently available Escape from Devil's Head which can be found at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and in various digital formats at Fictionwise.com.
Pulpwork Press is debuting a digital magazine the middle of next year, which will host various pulp style serial stories. One of the serial stories will be written by yours truly, and feature Sedrah, slayer of the wizard Kolthos and the Prince of Thieves, the flaxen-haired former courtesan and assassin known to the residents of Bathos as the Siren of Slaughter. Sedrah appears in both my City of Bathos novels Escape from Devil's Head and Through the Groaning Earth.
Thanks for your time, Joel.
For more on Joel's work, you can visit him directly on the web at his personal site. I also strongly encourage you all to stop by Pulpwork Press and pick up your own copy of Dire Planet. While you're there, also take a look at PWP's other writers, the enormously talented Derrick Ferguson and Josh Reynolds.
Check out the previous stops at the tour as well:
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