GW Thomas:  C. J. Henderson is Robert Morgan? Why the pseudonym?

C. J. Henderson: When I first sold the London series, I was also doing the Jack Hagee PI hardboiled series for the same company. They actually believed the fans were so stupid they wouldn't be able to tell one series from the other, and insisted on the pseudonym. The only feedback I've ever gotten from the fans was that if they had known about the other series, they would have bought it as well. But, that wasn't the only stupidity I got out of that publisher.

GWT: What drew you to the occult detective tradition for the PI Teddy London novels? Which classic ghostbreakers inspired you? You also write straight Mystery fiction in books like WHAT YOU PAY FOR and SLAMM! Does a ghostbreaker writer need to be a Mystery writer?

CJH: I wrote my first supernatural detective story as a reaction to Lovecraft. Even though he has Henry Armitage kick monster ass in "The Dunwich Horror", most of the time it was all his heroes could do to swoon in horror. I couldn't understand why they didn't fight back. Call a cop. Alert the army. Something. That's really how it all got started.

There's probably inspiration in there from Fu Manchu, The Shadow, Doc Savage and Robert E. Howard as well as Lovecraft. I devoured the Pulps in their paperback reprint form. No used book store was safe from me. I wasn't reading them for inspiration. I just liked them (we're talking fourteen to twenty).

As I said before, I started out writing regular mysteries. There are three novels in the Jack Hagee series, as well as the What You Pay For collection. I think some understanding of mystery writing would help a writer of occult investigators, but then, there are as many different types of mystery writing as their are supernatural mystery writing.

GWT: Horror purists, like M. R. James, disparaged the ghostbreakers. Some critics have even said they are not "real" horror stories. What do you see as the main appeal of occult detectives? Are they Mysteries or Horror or neither?

CJH: I don't know Mr. James, and he and the other purists are probably all fine fellows, but let's be real. Whenever anyone starts talking about what's "real" or "pure" in a genre, they usually are talking about what they like. This is fan-boy nonsense. Hitler, the brown haired, brown eyed runt made a lot of hay talking about the blond, blue eyed superman and that was just as silly.

The main appeal of occult investigators to me is that they kick the tired, stupified, cliche riddled horror genre in the backside and gives the reader a chance to identify with someone besides the stock characters most writers (especially screenwriters) trot out to terrorize. They can know fear, they can be frightened, but they're not victims. They're there to do something about the problem. They choose to stand and fight. I think a lot of people find it refreshing.

GWT: The villains in the London stories tend to be traditional monsters: vampires, werewolves, the Devil. How do you make these well-known villains fresh and exciting for London to defeat?

CJH: Whenever I write with anything people have seen before, I try to get down to the core of the entity, what makes it tick? What makes it different? I try to bring my characters and all they deal with into the real world. I think I just have a different outlook from a lot of people that makes me seem more unique than I really am. A farm boy who moves to the big city gets to do a lot of comparing. Also, I reviewed genre fiction for a little over ten years for a number of venues. It forced me to read two to five books a week (while working a day job). There's not that many good books out there, so it gave me a real education in how easy it is for cliches to take over. Trying to write fiction while doing all that reading, and going to work, I had to make what I was writing fun for me, or I couldn't stand to bother. I know that's kind of convoluted, but I think there's an answer in there somewhere.

GWT: You had a story featured in THE NIGHTSTALKER CHRONICLES. How difficult was it to write about Karl Kolchak? If allowed, would you write more, perhaps a novel about him (ala QUANTUM LEAP)?

CJH: Thanks to Darren McGavin, Kolchak is a snap to write. Jeff Rice (Kolchak's creator) paid me a wonderful compliment by saying I had captured the character better than anyone else (this was before the anthology, so maybe I've been dethroned by now). I think really, though, he was referring to me getting McGavin's distinctive tone down. Even Jeff admits McGavin made the character his.

As for writing more, I've written two graphic novels, Pain Most Human, and Pain Without Tears for Moonstone, which were well received, a short story for a black and white anthology for them, and also another graphic novel to be released some time later this year (after all the art's done). It's called Kolchak Widescreen, and it's actually a 96 page illustrated novel. I'm looking forward to seeing that finished because the artist is really swell.

Also, I've already been asked to do a Kolchak graphic novel, and I've already finished it and turned it in. It's called Crime of the Century, and I can't wait to see that as well, but I have no idea when it will be released. Tell everyone to turn the heat up on Moonstone so we can all read it soon.

GWT: You were selected to complete a Robert E. Howard story "Dagon Manor" (Different Worlds, 1986) that featured Howard's quasi-occult detectives Conrad and Kirowan. How did that come about? How much of the story is yours? (Gol-goroth appears in that story. In "The Gods of Bal-Sagoth" Gol-goroth appears like a shiny black humanoid. In
"Dagon Manor" he is a tentacular squidgy. Who designed the monster for "Dagon Manor"?)

CJH: Legendary mythos editor Robert M. Price arranged for me to do that. Probably 95% of the story is mine. Howard stops when they go through the front door of the house.

Trying to tie all of Conrad and Kirowan together, I said that the thing which had been stalking them through all their stories appeared to different folks in different ways. I designed the creature to be so alien that people couldn't actually see it, they could only put together a picture of it as they understood it--kind of a cake and eat it too way of getting out of explaining the monsters Howard had created.

GWT: Your book The Tales of Inspector LeGrasse continues/adds to the character created by H. P. Lovecraft. LeGrasse would seem to be a natural to bring into the occult detective fold. How did you go about doing this? Are there any other characters you would like to write about in this way? What do you think of pastiches like the Kolchak book or Rick Kennett's Carnacki tales?

CJH: Legrasse was another opportunity brought my way by the Great R.M. Price. After he asked me to do a sequel to The Tale of Inspector Legrasse from "The Call of Cthulhu", I decided to start doing more on my own. With the estate's approval, I assembled the book that Mythos Books put out.

I'll use about any character that comes my way. I had marvelous fun with Lin Carter's Anton Zarnak, and have used him again even after the stories I did for Lin Carter's Anton Zarnak Supernatural Sleuth. I don't know Mr. Kennett's stories, although I hear people mention Carnacki all the time quite favorably (you just can't read everything). Being a typical writer, I liked some of the stories in the Kolchak anthology quite a lot, and didn't like some of the others, but I'm loath to mention which are which. Not only does it leave folks with hurt feelings, but it all boils down to OMO (one man's opinion). I've talked to a lot of people about that anthology, and while there are several stories everyone seems to like, you can find scores of people who like all of the other stories, and scores who hate the rest. And, I think you need that kind of range in a collection. Neil Gaiman, Clifford D. Simak, Stan Lee, Stephen King, Robert E. Howard, on and on, nobody is great to everyone.

GWT: What's coming up for C. J. Henderson?

 For those who care, a good sampler of my supernatural detectives is The Occult Detectives of CJ Henderson. It has a Legrasse and two Zarnaks, a London solo story as well as some London Agency tales, and then other things like my investigative reporters and college professors who look into the supernatural, it has me playing in Ramsey Campbell and Brian Lumley's worlds, and it even has that first mythos PI tale I mentioned earlier ... it's just a good intro to the wonderful world of me. haha

Also, I'd want to plug the fact that Elder Signs Press is releasing the London novels again, starting this month. They will come out with my name on them, and with their original titles (the first publisher liked the title The Things That Are Not There so much they changed all the rest of them to have the word "things" in them. Which, of course, lead to fan confusion because they titles all sounded so similiar to them they couldn't remember if they had them or not). The fun of this release is that I've already done two new novels, one that goes in between the old #2 and #3 and another that goes between the old #3 and #4. The first three of these should make it out this year.

GWT: Thanks for talking with us. I'll be sure to let fans know where to find these books.

Visit C. J.'s website.

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