On August 2, 2003 I was delighted to conduct a interview with Halloween 4 novel writer Nicholas Grabowsky. Mr. Grabowski is a gracious individual who producers are looking to to pen the Halloween sega into print.
Interview questions:
1. Can a copy of h4 be reserved??
No, unfortunately it can't. At least not yet, I haven't been able to set up anything that accept pre-orders, but I'm looking into it.
2. Tell the fans about yourself??
I've been writing stories ever since I learned how to write, shoving them into people's faces until they got noticed. Most of them had to be shoved into people's faces, because that's what you do with the kind of stuff I write. I kept doing it because I loved to, and because when the stories got noticed people actually loved them. Then they really got noticed in the mid-eighties when my first novel "Pray Serpent's Prey" was published, and I've been able to publish just about anything ever since to an increasing amount of fans.
3. How did u sign on to write Halloween IV?
I tried to pursue acting for a little while, was one of Skeletor's troopers in the Masters of the Universe movie and stuff like that, and I enrolled into an acting class taught by Walter Keonig (Chekov--Star Trek). He was publishing a book at the time, and his publisher's sister was in the class, so she gave me the opportunity to send a copy of "Pray Serpent's Prey" to her brother in New York. He loved it and published it, and it did well. A couple of months later I got a phone call from him, and he asked me if I would like to do a book version of "Halloween IV". I said, "They're making another Halloween movie?" I was surprised, and doubly surprised to find that Michael Myers was going to live again (I'd heard that "Halloween III was supposed to kick off a series of Halloween films with nothing to do with Michael, but that movie flopped, so they brought HIM back!)
So of course it was an honor to be hand-picked to do the book and to receive the script in the mail several months before the film was to be released, and it wouldn't have happened if the success of "Pray Serpent's Prey" hadn't brought the attention my way.
4. Did u ever see the movie Halloween IV and if you
did what were your impressions???
Dwight H. Little did a really wonderful job directing it! I saw it in the theaters, all proud that I wrote the book and all (it hit the stores at the same time as the movie), and I noticed it was different in a lot of ways from what I'd perceived of the script, and a few brief scenes were added here and there. Michael's thumb through that guy's forehead....that wasn't in the script they gave me. And Dannielle Harris displayed a phenomenal performance for a girl her age.
5. Do have a website that fans can visit?
Yes! "Nicholas Grabowsky's Diverse Compendium". It's at www.downwarden.com.
6. What was the hardest thing about writing Halloween
IV? The time I had to write it in----less than a month, there was pressure in that, and dealing with the hope that it would be good enough but fearing it wouldn't be. I'd never done a novelization before.
7. Are u a fan of the Halloween films?
Yes! Although there are bigger fans than I. I've never gotten into it as far as understanding the Thorne Curse and all that. I just simply dig the series.
8. What are your current/future projects?
Well, "The Everborn", a novel I'd been obsessing over for twelve years, has been released this year. It's the best work I've ever done so far, and I think it's a real credit to the horror/fantasy genre. I've been busily promoting that. Then there's the "Halloween IV, Special Limited Edition" being released this September. I also plan on a reprint of "Pray Serpent's Prey", at long last, then my other earlier works, one after another. Sooner or later, I plan on more movie tie-ins, "The Downwardens", and an "Everborn" sequel. I'm hoping to work further with Trancas Films, and I'm tinkering with something for New Line Cinema.
9. Writers usually have a place where they wrote a
novel, in what location did u write Halloween IV? And
can u give any details about how long it took u, etc??
Well, like I said, it took less than a month to write the book. I was living in my friend's parent's house at the time, in a back room originally intended to be a preschool. It was crazy. Every time I had to use the bathroom I'd have to tread through their livingroom. I wrote on a cheap electric typewriter at a desk with a cut out of the cardboard stand-up advertisement of the movie "Not Of This Earth" with Traci Lords popping out of the wall over my head.
10. What Halloween stars have you met in your career
and can u give any details about the situations where
u met them, etc????
I haven't met very many, only Danielle Harris just this last Spring when I was promoting "The Everborn" at the Fangoria convention in Los Angeles. She's really great. I think I'm going to meet all there is to meet at the big convention this October in Pasadena.
11. Do u think that you could write a novel for
Halloween 9?????
I'm negotiating with Trancas Films about doing that. I hope they give me the opportunity.
Thank you very much for your time sir. I would really
like a copy of that novel. Hope all is well