An Interview with Jim D’Andrea

Jim D’Andrea was born and raised in New England, the last of five kids. After graduating from Fairfield University, he spent a year in San Francisco running a clinic for the homeless population as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.

After a stint in New Orleans where he made his living as a repo man, Jim landed a gig on a film crew, working as a production assistant on movies such as Kingpin, The Ringer, and Fever Pitch.

He taught himself to write screenplays by reading them as often as possible, focusing on comedy and developing multiple projects with various producers. He earned representation from WME and Paradigm on separate low-brow romps.

His passion for horror—specifically in the form of prose—took hold, compelling him to write his premiere novel, The Haunting of Ashley Hall School, an adult/YA gothic horror story.

Jim’s favorite show as a kid was Tales from the Crypt. He was also heavily influenced by movies, books, and TV shows like The Twilight Zone, Creepshow, The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby, Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Burnt Offerings, Silence of the Lambs and The Lost Boys.

His favorite writers include: Mario Puzo, Hunter S. Thompson, Franz Kafka, Charles Bukowski, and Elmore Leonard. Favorite books: Frankenstein, Fight Club, The Trial, Animal Farm, The Godfather.

He prefers Jason Vorhees over Michael Myers and can never turn down the opportunity to watch House of 1000 Corpses.

He currently resides in Charleston, South Carolina, in a three-hundred-year-old home that is gently haunted. He has two cats for protection. He never works on Halloween, and rarely on other days.

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Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I knew at a young age that I wanted to write. I wish I had found a mentor early on, but I did not. I had an English teacher in junior high school named Edna Dufresne who was the first one to really recognize my creative writing skills. We had to write a short story for her class, and I wrote a comedy ‘episode’ about a bumbling private detective. I loved that kind of stuff. I was a huge fan of Peter Sellers and I would watch The Pink Panther movies over and over. Anyway, she held me after class and told me my storytelling was exceptional. I won an award from her at one point, and it made me start to want to pursue it. Years later, as an adult, I met a very successful movie producer named Daniel M. Rosenberg, who had read a feature-length comedy script I wrote. He and I teamed up for several years on multiple film projects. Daniel really taught me how to craft a story. I wrote, and he would read it and call me with notes – change this, change that, etc. We got a couple of screenplays pretty far up the line, but the timing just didn’t go our way. There are some things you can’t control, but the one thing you CAN control is whether or not you give up. I didn’t, and I won’t. This is the first novel I’ve ever written, and I switched from comedy to my other love, which is horror. I queried a lot of agents and publishers and finally found a home for it with Crystal Lake Publishing. As far as writers who influenced me, I can’t really say there is one in particular. I was more of a movie guy growing up. I loved horror and comedy. Anything slapstick was gold to me. Peter Sellers, Leslie Nielsen, Mike Myers, stuff like that. But I used to devour horror films. My mother liked horror movies to a degree, not like I did, but she and I would watch some together. Comedy and horror, those were my jam, and they still are.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

Oh man, I have done so many crazy jobs. I was a social worker in the Tenderloin District in San Francisco out of college. It was a domestic volunteer program similar to the Peace Corps. It was called the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. I ran a clinic for homeless people. I was also a repo man in New Orleans, working for a rent-to-own store. I worked in a mailroom printing passports. It’s all very Bukowski-eque. But I did end up working on a film crew for a few movies. That was unique. Very challenging and chaotic. Terrible pay. Brutally long hours. But I was working with some big stars, so that was cool. Bill Murray, Woody Harrelson, Matt Damon, Johnny Knoxville. It was cool to be around it because I wanted to see my own stories come to fruition, and now I am seeing that. I believe my background in film will help me get my novels optioned for the big screen, so all those hard years will be worth it.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

The Haunting of Ashley Hall School is the title. Ashley Hall School is an all-girls school here in Charleston, SC, where I live. I can throw a tennis ball and hit the campus from my apartment. I knew I wanted to write a story about a boarding school. I wanted it to have a coming-of-age feel, but also be scary. I had the idea of a couple of high school girls staying in a condemned dorm room on a dare and discovering a VHS tape hidden in a heating vent and watching the tape. On it, they witness the night the campus became haunted by students forty years earlier. The school in the novel is basically fictitious, but I named it after Ashley Hall School, and I hope the school will embrace that. I have spoken to the librarian about putting some copies in the school library and she was all for it.

What part of publishing your book made it feel real for the first time?

Well, when I got the email from the publisher, I was prepared for rejection only because I have been rejected hundreds and hundreds of times on screenplays and novels by agents and publishers and producers and managers. It’s par for the course for any writer: Get used to being rejected. If you can’t handle that, you’re in the wrong business. Some of the greatest books ever written were rejected hundreds of times. Some of the best films, too. Forrest Gump sat on a shelf for a decade before it was made. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was rejected over one hundred and twenty times, and it went on to be one of the most successful books ever written. Can you imagine the readers and agents who turned that down? They’re just people, like everyone else. They don’t know any more than we do, and often less. These gatekeepers who decide what they are looking for based on an agenda other than simply looking for the best storytellers. Anyway, you live with that rejection, and you use it for rocket fuel. Get pissed off about it and make that your reason for dusting yourself off and keep going. Keep trying. Keep pushing. Even if it’s just to prove them wrong, that’s great motivation. But when I opened the email from my publisher and saw the words, “We really think this story is awesome and would love to publish it…” I felt this warm tingle of endorphins run through me. There’s been a ton of work that I have had to do since that time, but the publication date has arrived and I feel great about that. I refused to quit on myself, and that made all the difference in the world.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

Oh, I love this question! First off, Bad Moon Rising by CCR for sure. Also, Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider – that song gives me chills, and I know the exact part I would play it during the story. Put Your Lights On by Santana and Everlast is a song that would fit perfectly. Also, a very underrated song. I hate to say In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins because it’s been used so many times, but it really does have the creepy buildup that lends itself to a payoff scene. I’m sure I’m missing some others; you’ll just have to wait until the movie comes out to hear the rest.

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

I hope more than anything that the readers are entertained! If I can accomplish that, I will be the happiest guy in the world. Really, I am not looking for a bunch of snobs swirling brandy snifters sitting in leather chairs at a smoking lounge pontificating about how elegant my prose is. That will never happen. I like direct writers like Charles Bukowski. I’m a storyteller first and foremost. I think bad writing is a distraction to the reader. So, if you’re a good writer, that means you can relay your story to the reader without distracting them from it with poor writing. I spend a lot of time on the ‘story,’ and then the writing and editing is the really labor-intensive part of it. It’s the vehicle that delivers your story to the reader. I want people to read my story and to say, “I liked it. That was good.” If they’re entertained by it, I will be proud.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

Well, certainly, going through the process was awesome. Lots of work, but I was also learning a lot along the way. But honestly, I am overwhelmed by how many people have been so supportive of me on this. I posted some information about it being available for pre-sales recently, and prior to that, I posted the ‘author signing’ announcement from the publisher, and so many friends from the past and present said such encouraging things. It’s really hard to put something out there that you wrote. It’s so personal to think that you’re maybe good enough to make a run at this, and when you do, you feel very vulnerable. Even writing movies is easier because you have someone to hide behind. You can blame the actors or the director or the studio people. ‘I wrote a great screenplay but they screwed up the film,’ that kind of thing. But as a novelist, this is all you. If it sucks, it’s because you wrote a sucky story. And there isn’t a single book or movie ever made that everyone likes. There WILL be people who don’t like what you’ve written, or don’t like your style. And that’s fine. But to have my friends and people I have worked with show me as much encouragement and support as they have has made me feel really fantastic. I can’t even tell you how much I appreciate it. People really are good; we sometimes forget that in all the chaos of life and social media.

What creative projects are you currently working on?

My second novel is finishing up. It’s called Dreamhouse. It’s a psychological horror story about a young couple that moves into a stigmatized house. A woman murdered her husband in the house prior to them living there, so they get it for a great price. When they move in, the wife finds a diary hidden in a bricked-off fireplace and realizes it belongs to the previous owner – the woman who killed her husband. She begins to read the entries and comes to believe the woman is speaking to her, and she starts to write back to her. Things get scarier from there. I love the way it turned out. It has so many layers to it, so many metaphors. Anyway, I hope to find a home for that, and I think I will. I also have a wonderful short story with the best hook of anything I have ever written. I won’t even tell you about it because I don’t want to reveal it until it’s published. And I am also writing a screenplay called Windchime Witches, which has me giddy with excitement. I think it will sell, but it’s just going to take some persistence. So yeah, I always have a lot of projects in development. My kitchen counter is just filled with notebooks, pens, and pieces of paper strewn about with notes to myself about quotes and characters and ideas. It’s crazy. I love it, though. This is who I am, and I will never stop.

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