PRO-File: Greg Cox

Ed here: Greg Cox has done it all in publishing. A long-time editor at Tor-Forge, an excellent writer of horror and science fiction on his own, and an in-demand author media tie-in novels, Greg has survived nicely in the hand-to-hand combat that publishing has become for many of us.


Tell us about your current novel?

"52" is a novelization of an ongoing DC comic books series. The biggest challenge is boiling a fifty-two (!) issue storyline down to a regular-sized novel!


Can you give us a sense of what you're working on now?

As I speed towards the end of "52," I'm already trying to line up some more media tie-in work. This involves brainstorming book ideas with various editors that I know. Nothing definite yet, but there are prospects.

What is the greatest pleasure of a writing career?

I get to indulge my inner fanboy by writing for some of my favorite characters and series: STAR TREK, BATMAN, BUFFY, etc.

The greatest DIS-pleasure?

A dental plan would be nice.


If you have one piece of advice for the publishing world, what is it?

Hire me to write more of your cover copy!


Are there two or three forgotten mystery writers you'd like to see in print again?

I'm more of a scifi/horror guy, so my suggestions are along those lines:
Charles Beaumont.
John Wyndham.
Peter Haining (anthologist)
Not sure if any of those are exactly "forgotten," but you'd probably have trouble finding some of their older books at your neighborhood Barnes & Noble.


Tell us about selling your first novel. Most writers never forget that moment.

I actually remember placing my first short story even more vividly, possibly because I was dressed as an orangatuan at the time. Seriously. I was volunteering for a Halloween haunted house in Bellingham, Washington when I got the letter informing me that my story had been accepted! By a necrophilia zine, no less.

My memories of the first novel are a little fuzzier, mainly because it was kind of a complicated arrangement. I ended up getting hired to collaborate with another writer on a young-adult novel set in the universe of a third, more famous author. (ROBERT SILVERBERG'S TIME TOURS: THE PIRATE PARADOX by Greg Cox and Nick Baron, now sadly out of print.) This took awhile to get sorted out so it's probably no wonder that I don't recall one specific "Eureka!" moment.