Ian Fortey Q&A: WereCage
Legend says that whoever is bitten by Nic Cage and lives becomes a Nic Cage themselves...
Author Ian Forney has a new book, WereCage—which takes a bit of an oversized approach to the influences of famed movie actor Nicolas Cage.
Stanley Miller got bit by Nic Cage in the park. Things got worse from there. If his roommate Cameron and Wilford Brimley are to be believed, the world is now on a fast track to the apocalypse. Unless Stanley can save it. When the moon rises, Stanley feels the change overcome him and Nicolas Cage takes over.
With the first Cage still out there, turning more and more people into raving, angry, Hollywood action stars, can Stanley use his tenuous grasp on his own sense of self to track the source of the infection and stop it once and for all? Or are we all destined to fall victim to the curse?
Buy WereCage from Amazon. (Monster Complex uses affiliate links with Amazon.)
Ian Fortey writes horror stories and comedy articles. He also wrote Clown in the Dark and The Blood Bargain, and was included in anthologies Tavern of Terror Vol. 1: Short Horror Stories Anthology; Terror in the Shadows: Horror Short Stories Collection with Scary Ghosts, Paranormal & Supernatural Monsters; and the Cracked collection You Might Be a Zombie and Other Bad News: Shocking but Utterly True Facts.
Scroll down for an interview with the author…
Interview with Ian Fortney
1. What inspired such a bizarre idea for your book?
Back in 2014-ish I wrote a screenplay called Nic Cage vs Zombies that I submitted to a few festivals. It won a few second or third place awards and was overall a fun experience. I’ve always been a Nic Cage fan though, the reason so many people disliked him for years was one of the reasons I loved his work—he’s just so over the top.
Anyway, fast forward a few years and I wrote “guy gets bit by a person, becomes a wereperson” as an extremely basic idea for a book in my list of random ideas. Person became Nic Cage and then the book wrote itself.
2. Where does this fall on the scale between a biting satire and a broad comedy?
There was definitely some satirical intent in there. The whole idea of heroes in the modern world, in particular hero-worship and movie stars, is ripe for critique.
A lot of it was just having fun with the idea of the werewolf trope. There is a small amount of therianthropy fiction in the world, more so in books than film, but it’s rare you see a were-something out there that isn’t a wolf.
It’s always struck me as funny that the trigger is being bitten because, as is the main plot point that trigger’s the story, obviously a person can bite you as well. Why not were-person? And why not Nic Cage?
I started my writing career doing comedy but have been a horror fan all my life. I think the reason horror comedy works so well is because both cause these almost instinctive reactions in an audience.
No one plans to jump when they’re scared or burst out laughing when they experience something funny. Both take you by surprise. So I wanted to have some horror there, and the book does get a little gruesome at times, but the entire thing is absurd from start to finish.
3. Why did it consider to you that Nic Cage was an ideal topic for your book?
I have always loved Cage’s work. His early career was really marked with dramatic roles and the man won an Oscar, and then he started branching into totally weird performances like Face/Off and the remake of the Wicker Man and Ghost Rider.
Now he’s in a career renaissance which I think is awesome. People are realizing why they loved him all over again and, let’s be honest, he really does make good movies.
You may not like all of them but I think Mandy and Color Out of Space were both phenomenal films and Pig was actually an incredible performance that I don’t think anyone was expecting with the subject matter.
4. What authors or books do you consider good examples of “If you like these, you’ll like me, too”?
Huh. I’m not one to compare myself to a lot of people. I’d hate to be presumptuous enough to say I’m in the same ballpark as any of my favorite writers.
That said, though they’re next level, I’m a big fan of Neil Gaiman’s, especially his quirkier works like Good Omens or my former editor Jason Pargin who writes the John Dies at the End series of books.
5. What are the best ways to keep track of you or follow you online?
I spend entirely too much time on Twitter these days at twitter.com/IanFortey and of course you can find all my books on my Amazon author page - https://www.amazon.com/Ian-Fortey/e/B093ZF85M8/
