Writer’s Block: Richard Van Camp

All Lit Up: Is there one stand-out moment or experience you had that helped you realize you wanted to become a writer?

Richard Van Camp: I distinctly remember saying out loud to myself when I was 19, “You know what? I want to write something I’d like to read.” And that was huge for me. I’ve always been a reader (comics, Savage Sword of Conan, Judy Blume, Stephen King, and just about everything 80s), but that was the moment I went from reader to writer. 

All Lit Up: Which writers have influenced you or had the most impact on your own writing?

Richard Van Camp: I can see Stephen King, SE Hinton, Ernest Cline, James Welch, Grant Morrison, Steve Niles, Frank Miller, and David Wellington influences in my upcoming books Beast (Douglas & McIntyre) and Wheetago War: ROTH (Renegade Arts Entertainment). 

All Lit Up: Do you have a book that you’ve gone back and read several times?

Richard Van Camp: IDW’s Cobra: The Last Laugh is a masterpiece. Antonio Fuso’s art is mindblowing. I was just rereading it last night. My God, the work that went into this. It is a treasure: the writing, the art, that ending… wow.

All Lit Up: Do you have any rituals that you abide by when you’re writing?

Richard Van Camp: “The story is the boss.” My job as a writer is to serve the story, be there and help it become what it wants and deserves to be. I worry about the marketing and labeling after. 

All Lit Up: What are you working on now?

Richard Van Camp: We’re in the final edits for Beast, and I’m adding more names to my acknowledgements. Beast is the biggest anything I’ve ever worked on in terms of cultural research and asking for help with cultural teachings. Thank goodness for my publisher Anna Comfort O’Keefe who championed this novel and invested so much time in edits and sending the novel to four different editors to get us where the novel deserves to be.

We’re also on the final edits for Wheetago War: ROTH. It’s book 1 of 2 for the first installment. Working with master artist Christopher Shy is a 15-year dream come true for me, because I’ve wanted to work with him for as long, ever since I saw his graphic novel, Pathfinder. To receive texts and updates from him is Christmas every single time it happens. I cannot wait for you to see what we’ve been working on for the past few years with both projects. Both are out this October. 🙂

All Lit Up: Describe your perfect writing day.

Richard Van Camp: Get up, enjoy two cups of coffee as I write, shut the computer down, make notes for what I’ll work on tomorrow morning, let go and enjoy the day as a human being and do my best to leave each person and each place better than I found them. 

All Lit Up: What books are go-to gifts for others?

Richard Van Camp: The four books I’m always on the hunt for so I can gift them away? The Girl With The Botticelli Face by WD Valgardson, Not Vanishing by Chrystos, Rid of Me by Kate Schatz, and Cobra: The Last Laugh by Costa, Gage, and Fuso.

All Lit Up: What books are you always thinking about?

Richard Van Camp: Indiscretion by Charles Dubow, The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, the ending of Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth (Grant Morrison and Dave McKean) with Two Face standing at the window and what he says to Batman. It just shatters me every time I think about it. Genius. Pure genius. 

All Lit Up: What have you learned, publishing 30 books in the past 30 years?

Richard Van Camp: It’s my publishers, editors and collaborators who help me take my stories to where they deserve to be. I am so grateful to every single one of them. You know who you are. 🙂 Mahsi cho. Thank you so very, very much. All of you RULE! 

* * *

Born in Fort Smith, NWT, bestselling author Richard Van Camp is a member of the Dogrib (Tłįchǫ) Dene Nation. A graduate of the En’owkin Centre’s writing program in Penticton, BC, he completed his BFA in writing at the University of Victoria and received an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. His work has won many awards and honours, among them the Blue Metropolis First Peoples Literary Prize and the title of Storyteller of the Year from the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers.