

Meet A. J. Menden, author of superhero novel Phenomenal Girl 5 (Dorchester SHOMI: 28th October 2008). Let’s learn…
Phenomenal Girl 5
Lainey Livingston has just been made a member of the Elite Hands of Justice, the world’s premiere cadre of superheroes. Her work with the Red Knights and the Power Squad was impressive; her apprehension stats are above normal, and her great strength and ability to fly are equally remarkable. But no one gets a free pass to active duty, and Lainey’s next test is going to be her hardest. She’s to train with the Reincarnist. Robert Elliot, the Reincarnist. A magician who has lived multiple lifetimes, he’s the smartest man in the world – and Lainey’s last obstacle. He was personally responsible for seeing Pushstar wash out. But his eyes are the softest, kindest that Lainey has ever seen, and he’s just the sort to knock her for a loop. Lesson #1: Romantic entanglements among crime fighters are super exploitable, and falling in love with a man who “can’t die” is like waving a red flag at a bull. Especially not when the most fiendish plot ever is about to break over Megalopolis like a wave of fire.
Tez Miller: So…what happened to the first four Phenomenal Girls? ๐
A. J. Menden: They were either all killed in the line of duty or retired. Lainey ended up with their name because her powers were similiar.
Workplace relations: yay or nay?
As long as you stay together, it’s okay. But the minute you break up, it’s just going to be awkward for you and everyone you work with. There’s a bit of the answer to this question in Tekgrrl (the second Elite Hands of Justice novel).
Let’s face it: superheroes seem to be wish fulfilment for their writers ๐ But do your characters have any special powers that you wouldn’t want?
Actually, I wouldn’t want the Reincarnist’s powers. The magic part is cool, but the living forever part, no thanks.
I know; think of all the tax you’d have to pay over your immortal lifetime! If you were a superhero, what would your costume be? (Notice how I was nice and didn’t ask for your secret identity ๐ )
Something like Lainey’s, black pants and shirt with a cool black coat over it. I gave Lainey the powers and costume I’d want. See? Wish fulfillment! ๐
There are so many superhero films nowadays. What are your all-time favourites?
Probably the X-Men franchise because I’ve always had a thing for Wolverine.
You have kids, and the younger generation tend to be rather imaginative. Have you thought about plagiarising their ideas? After all, the kids spawned from you, so you could say they’re really your ideas… ๐
Mine tend to like to pretend they’re princesses, fashion models, teachers or moms. They’re not as sci-fi oriented as me yet.
Give ’em time; they’re only young… ๐ You and your family love comic books and graphic novels. What do you all recommend?
Probably my favorite series out there now is Fables. It’s about all of our fairy tale characters living in New York City. It probably has completely messed up my daughter, because if you’d ask her, Snow White does not marry the handsome prince, LOL. I’m also a big fan of the Runaways, which is about the children of a group of supervillains trying to make it on their own. Weirdly enough for those who know me well, I actually like The Walking Dead, which is a survival against zombies book.
Supervillains! Zombies! What’s not to like? ๐ You married a fellow creative type, one who works with film. What has he taught you about his medium that you can incorporate into yours, and vice versa?
He tends to think more visual, so I always run the fight scenes past him. He’s also great for bouncing ideas off of.
I’ve seen three of Gordon Ramsay’s shows (Kitchen Nightmares UK, Kitchen Nightmares USA and Hell’s Kitchen), and Hell’s Kitchen is my favourite for its fast pacing and it doesn’t sacrifice plot for…er, character development (though that’s probably not the right term for reality TV). What’s your favourite of his shows, and why?
My favorite is Kitchen Nightmares UK. If you come into Hell’s Kitchen cold, you think, “Wow, is he mean!” In Kitchen Nightmares UK, you get to see all that goes into running a restaurant successfully and how badly those people are messing it up, and then it’s like, “Yeah, you should do what he says and stop arguing with him!” LOL. Then it makes sense as to why he’s screaming at those cooks in Hell’s Kitchen. Especially Matty and Jen from last season. Why he kept them around so long, I’ll never know.
Kitchen Nightmares USA doesn’t have enough Ramsay in it. And he seems nicer to them for some reason. I’m not watching to see him be nice ๐
Since you work on a newspaper, deadlines are the norm. Are you finding it relatively easy to meet your book deadlines, too?
There’s no not meeting a deadline in the newspaper, so that’s kind of how my mindset is.
You share a group blog with fellow OWG member Sharon Ashwood. And now Morgan Ashbury’s doing a weekly column, and Ian O’Neill did something…are you just using it as a forum to pimp OWG members who aren’t I? ๐
No, we do other things on there too! LOL. Sharon’s had a few other writers she knows guest blog, and I host the Friday Writers’ Coffee Break on there each week, where published and unpublished writers and readers stop by to discuss the craft. We also have our random talk days.
You have a Phenomenal Girl 5 soundtrack, but do you need to write in silence?
I’m used to noise (newspaper, remember?) so I usually write to the music. Some of the songs on the soundtrack go to specific scenes, there’s something about the lyrics or the music that evokes the mood for the chapter, and I’ll listen to that specific song on repeat. But there are times when I write in silence too.
Are you an outliner or seat-of-the-pants writer?
I guess I’m somewhere in the middle. I’ve learned to work more with outlines so I know where I’m going and don’t get stalled out trying to figure out what comes next, but my outlines are probably not as detailed as they should be. There’s still parts that should say, “Something happens here.”
I love that! ๐ What published works of yours can we look forward to in the future (near and/or far)?
Tekgrrl is the next Elite Hands of Justice adventure! And parts of it even took me by surprise!
In which foreign countries/languages would you most like to be published?
Well, I think it’s already going to Canada, Britain and Australia. I think it would be funny for it to be published in Italian, since the Reincarnist’s spells are in Italian. Would they still be in Italian or would they be translated over to English, so he wouldn’t accidentally be doing spells during his day-to-day activities?
Oz? Must be imports, as Dorchester doesn’t seem to have an Aussie branch, though they list HarperCollins as their Oz distributor… Now for a favourite hypothetical question: for which urban fantasy/futuristic author(s) would you turn gay/straight? (If you say Morgan Ashbury, Sharon Ashwood or Naomi Bellis, I’ll declare you a cop-out ๐ )
I’d say Gail Simone, who wrote the Deadpool comics a while back. She has a strange sense of humour, so we’d probably get along. And I think I read she used to be a hairdresser, so I could change up my ‘do as often as I wanted!
I so need a haircut right now. Can I have her when you’re done? ๐ Thanks for dropping by, and have a lovely day! ๐
Relevant Links
http://ajmenden.com/
http://ajmenden.com/blog/
http://ajmenden.livejournal.com/
http://www.myspace.com/ajmenden
http://community.livejournal.com/capes_coffins
You can purchase Phenomenal Girl 5 online from: Amazon, Amazon CA & Amazon UK.