VODKA O’CLOCK 2020-08:

ERICA SCHULTZ

VOC logo AMBER LOVE 10-DEC-2020 My work is supported by the generous backers at Patreon.com/amberunmasked who appreciate my reviews and my stories; and they also get first access to what’s happening with my books and podcast.

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ERICA SCHULTZ:

Naturally, when Erica and I get together there is plenty of talk about our cats. Simon lives a spoiled life of luxury and frequently blocks Erica’s heating vent in her home studio. He’s also featured prominently on her Instagram. Besides the joy and sometimes sleepless nights the cats bring, we covered a lot of ground regarding storytelling in both comics and novel form. Erica’s latest projects include: Forgotten Home, The Legacy of the Mandrake, and Insider Art. Backed by her earlier experience with DC and Marvel and even lettering some work of comics legend Alan Moore, Erica puts her heart and soul into her indie projects.

“You can’t keep everything a mystery, because by issue three your audience is going to be like, ‘ok, I haven’t really learned anything really — why do I keep coming back month after month?’ You have to give them breadcrumbs and you have to find a good way of working through that. And none of that is easy.”

The three sides slices of the storytelling pie: world building, characters, and plot. Those are the keys Erica talked about here as an overview to the kind of lessons she teaches at The Kubert School. Her guideline is that a comic issue should have two questions and answer one (for a continuing story not a one-shot obviously). In general, this applies to a mini series of 4 to 5 issues.

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Magic — what does it mean to you?

“I think that everybody has magic in them. I do. And whether that magic is a talent like writing or drawing or whatever, that’s your magic. I think that if you practice Wicca or other forms of trying to enhance your magic, I think that you have a more openness and a more — that you open yourself to more stimuli to create more, but I think that everybody needs to be (I’m not saying that everybody needs to join a coven) but I think that everybody needs to be open-minded about things and really open themselves up to natural stimuli and to see what else is out there.”

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Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.