Jeremy Robinson
Author Photo © 2021 Kevin Ouellette
For many of us readers within the kaiju community, few names speak to us as loud as Jeremy Robinson does. Going a few decades and over seventy full-length novels, Robinson has continued to engage audiences with his books of thrills, adventure, humor, and action. But it was his kaiju book series, The Nemesis Saga, that really solidified Robinson as a mainstay writer of monster mashing. Readers collectively ate up Project Nemesis and its subsequent sequels and comic book adaptations, ranging from 2012 to 2016. Nemesis is so beloved within the monster pop culture zeitgeist that soon, a major televisions series overseen by John Wick director Chad Stahelski, will be released. These books, dubbed “Kaiju Thrillers” by Robinson and his audience, have garnered a huge fanbase, and have been influential in several of our community writers and site contributors’ paths to writing for Kaiju United. It’s safe to say that his presence has been around since my early adolescence, however, I personally began my journey of Jeremy’s books with his latest novel, a full alternative timeline retelling of the original Project Nemesis book. You can call it “Shin Nemesis” if you’d like, as the infamous kaiju thriller mascot is back and ready to terrify audiences with a brand new vision. I had to sit down with Mr. Robinson to discuss this book, his writing processes, and of course, our shared love for monsters.
Jeremy’s latest kaiju thriller, “Nemesis”, will release in print and e-book format on November 21, 2023. The audiobook version has been delayed to December 19.
Pre-Order “Nemesis” HERE
Special thanks to Kane Gilmour.
Interviewer – Jacob Lyngle (Bold)
Interviewee – Jeremy Robinson (Default)
Hello, Kaiju United readers, I’m here with Jeremy Robinson, author of over 70 novels, including the fan-favorite “Kaiju Thriller” novel series, known as “The Nemesis Saga”! Jeremy, did you want to go ahead and introduce yourself?
Sure! As you said, I’m the author of 70 plus books, several of which are number one audible bestsellers, and New York Times bestsellers I’ve been writing for about 30 years now, professional for about 15. Yeah, lots of books, lots of time spent in front of a computer screen. (laugh)
We’ll start with the Kaiju stuff. A little background — my first book of yours was this reboot Nemesis novel. So it was really interesting having that as a jumping off point.
That’s cool. Actually, I’d be interested to hear what you think, having jumped in on this one, instead of having read the other Nemesis books first, because that’s what I wanted with this one. I desired for it to be standalone, where you didn’t have to read all of the other books to get this one.
I had fun with it! What made you want to come back to Nemesis after all this time?
That’s a good question. I think it was because Nemesis weaseled her way into the back of my mind after writing the last one years ago, and it’s just kind of been like percolating ever since. And I’ve done a few kaiju books, Apocalypse Machine, Tether, and Unity, since finishing the Nemesis Saga, but Nemesis has always kind of been back there. And more recently, has been constantly on my mind because the Project Nemesis series is in development as a TV series. And so as things have been progressing, Nemesis has been more and more on my mind. I wanted to add more to that in case the show gets made and does well, and then there’s more material for people to have. I think that the new Nemesis book would make a great anime, for example. There’s more material for Hollywood to sink their teeth into.
Reading “Nemesis” gave me the feelings of a Hollywood-esque escapade. Were you going for that, or more of an anime like you just expressed?
Most of my books read like movies. I was a screenwriter long before I wrote novels. So I think it shows that overall, I’m a visual storyteller. And even before that, I was an artist before I was a screenwriter. And I am still an artist, too, so it all comes through in the writing.
How interesting! I was reading your reddit AMA, because I liked snooping on our guests, and saw that aside from your “baby”, Nemesis, your favorite kaiju was Gamera. What speaks to you about the giant turtle?
I think it’s the difference between Gamera, and let’s say Godzilla. I mean they’re like the big two. I really like Gamera’s design a bit more. There’s more going on. The flying aspect of spinning is really neat to see, so visually, I really like him. Gamera also has a little bit more going on as a character. Godzilla is a kind of one note character most of the time, which is destroy and vengeance, whereas Gamera has a little, a little bit more going on with the character, and I’ve always liked that about him. I remember watching the old Showa films when I was a kid, because I used to watch Creature Double Feature back in the 70’s, and that was my introduction to the movie monsters of that time. Gamera in particular got whacky and fun!
What was there any seeping influence from Gamera that emerged within your Nemesis novels?
Probably in the same way that Godzilla had influences. I was really trying to do something different than them both of them with the first book, but what I liked about the big turtle was that there was more to the character, and more involvement with the human characters in the story, instead of two separate plots and arcs, like a lot of classic Godzilla films. They were a little more connected. So I wanted to do that with Nemesis as well.
We’ve established that you have jumped between screenplays, comic books, and prose novels. Is there carryover skills or attributes that come over with you between mediums?
It’s tricky to carry things over. I mean, if you’re adapting a story from a novel to a screenplay, which I’ve done, and I’ve adapted a novel to a comic book as well, you have to lose stuff and cut stuff and change stuff just to be within the formatting of that specific genre or medium. The pacing is different too. I have tried to keep the essence of my writing in there no matter what. It’s usually heavy on the action and laced with humor. I tried to do that but it’s much harder to do humor in a comic book. For me, it is very easy to do humor in novel. And then in a screenplay, you’ve got an actor who would ideally be a funny person, but in a comic book humor is very challenging. This is because in a comic book, the whole page is in front of you. When I read a comic book, and I see the page mentally, I can kind of see the whole page, even if I’m looking at one panel. So if there’s a surprise coming, it’s already been spoiled by being at the bottom of the page; even if I’m trying to just look at the top. So, it’s hard to catch people off guard within a comic book.
I can’t unsee it now that you’ve pointed it out! The punchline isn’t quite there.
Do you enjoy comic books?
I have a massive collection; about six boxes from when I was a teenager. And when I was a poor, starving artist, I didn’t have money to buy comic books, so I kept a few that I really enjoyed. But now I’m buying graphic novels. That’s mostly what I’m producing too. We’ve got two in the works. So I’ve just been buying tons of graphic novels and have bookshelves of them in my bedroom.
You were a kid in the 1970’s. Do you still enjoy the Bronze Age of comics, or has becoming an adult evolved your tastes?
My taste has evolved to mostly horror comic books. Unfortunately, not so much the superhero stuff. I think because in part, we’re so inundated with superhero stuff all the time that it has lost its magic. These superhero comics are just everywhere all the time. Comics that I have been enjoying have a similar vibe to “The Thing” (1982). I’ve been really enjoying those Joe Hill comic books, stuff like that. Just really weird dark stories… I need really weird stuff to hold my attention.
I was reading your interview with Red Moon Chronicle, and you stated how much you enjoy fantasy media. Can you go into why you like it so much? Is it because the rules are much different, and there’s a freedom to it that science fiction doesn’t quite have?
Yeah, fantasy is fun because it doesn’t have to be grounded. And I would say most of what I write is science fiction, but you can make an argument that it’s fantasy as well because I don’t really obey the laws of physics all the time. I like being able to make stuff up. So if, if I can come up with something that sounds like science, then I’ll do whatever I want.
Even within the contents of your “Nemesis” novel, you stated in prose that Nemesis doesn’t obey the laws of physics.
(laugh) Yeah, basically, that’s there to say, don’t bug me about this. I know it’s not realistic. Don’t bring it up. We all know it’s physically impossible.
The design of Nemesis—was that of your brain with the description from the book, or more so the artists like Matt Frank who have done art of the creature?
Originally, I wrote the whole first novel, “Project Nemesis”, before there was any art. My next step was take the descriptions from the first novel, and then have Matt Frank, who does a lot of kaiju art, to come in and help with stuff. He illustrated designs for her. It’s evolved since then, even more so in the newest novel, which made her more slender, stealthier.
With “Nemesis” (2023), I wanted her to be a lot creepier than the previous version, and a little more mobile. I really liked the vision of her moving through a city without power at night, and all you can see are these orange glowing spots reflecting off the buildings. Through the darkness, you can see bits and pieces of her as she moves. That has always really appealed to me. And I don’t think we’ve seen her like that before now.
That was my favorite part of the new book. We don’t really see *fast* kaiju that are bipedal like that. Typically, they fly really fast. The closest thing I can think of is like the 98 Godzilla. So a creature of that size that moves rapidly, and not like a big lumbering giant, is terrifying.
For me, the inspiration for her body type has always been a Xenomorph, the creature from the “Alien” franchise. Godzilla, Clash of the Titans, and Aliens were my main influences growing up. Because of that, Nemesis is kind of like a combo of all those things. I really like the idea of a Kaiju sized Xenomorph darting in and out of buildings. So creepy!
“A Kaiju Thriller” is a subtitle you’ve dubbed a lot of these books, most importantly your Nemesis Sage. Where did that come from? Did you want to create your own kind of sub-genre so you weren’t bound by science fiction or fantasy?
It wasn’t my intention to create a sub-genre that that would become something larger than my books. But it was kind of cool afterwards that it became a thing with other books by different authors after the fact. For me, it was just that a lot of my books before that point were just thrillers; that’s just what it said on the cover. “A Thriller.” I thought it would be cool to just put kaiju in front of that, knowing that most people at that time had no idea what it meant. But the people who did know what it meant would get really excited about it and want to pick up that book.
A good majority of your books share what you have dubbed “The Infinite Timeline”, meaning they all share a collective universe/multiverse and cross over with each other like the old school comic books or MCU. What does that all entail? Can you break it down a bit?
Yeah! So, it’s kind of been building up for a long time… pretty much since my first book. The Infinite Timeline is a specific timeline within what my readers call the Robinsonverse, where there are three three timelines, consisting of three books each that then come together for three crossovers involving characters from the first three books in each line. And then those all come together for a big crossover. The larger Robinsonverse includes all of my books and multiple timelines, and there are characters who do move from like the Nemesis Saga timeline, to the infinite timeline.
“Nemesis”, the new Nemesis book coming out, is within the Robinsonverse, but does not reboot the original Nemesis; they are parallel to each other within this timeline of books. And I should say, this is gonna be a little confusing, and might be a spoiler for anyone who does read the Infinite Timeline. For the curious, Nemesis does make an appearance in the Infinite Timeline. There is an artificial intelligence in multiple novels who creates other realities. And one of those realities is based on the Nemesis book that is about to come out. Because her book took place in the future, she had access to all of my books, and then created realities based on my books, and her future. And one of those books was Nemesis, a book I hadn’t written yet. And now I’ve written it, so her take on Nemesis is based on this novel that’s about to come out but is different. She doesn’t make her own changes to it.
Where did you come up with doing this? I know that you compare it to like, comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in promotional material for the “Infinite Timeline”. What made you decide to do this with books?
Honestly? It’s not quite a conscious thing. As I’m writing, I think, oh, that would be cool. I think to myself, what if I just linked these two books and then then we’ve got a timeline at the end of it. I think it might be because I grew up reading comic books. The way I think is with giant crossovers, like Secret Wars, or Infinity Gauntlet, and things like that. So that might just be the way that I grew up, and how, you know, I see stories as massive, overlapping things. So it’s not always my intention to do it, but it seems to happen every decade or so.
You can go back and create the connected binds. But the connected lines really only exist in my head. I think with the first 3-6 books, I wasn’t even thinking about including them in a larger series. And then the next three, I was like, well, maybe I’ll put a little cookie or easter egg in here that links these books together. I did that continuously with every three books that kind of progressed. By the end of the first nine, they were all solidly linked together. Amusingly, there’s no flowchart, there’s no outline. It’s all just in my head.
Do you plan on ever making an outline chart? Or is it just all too confusing?
I feel like outlining for me could reduce creativity. It feels like if I had a solid outline, I wouldn’t really be thinking about all the possibilities as I wrote, I would just be following the first things I came up with. But when you’re just letting it flow, at the end of each chapter you think, okay, what am I going to write tomorrow? And then you can just imagine whatever you can come up with and the coolest scenario is what typically emerges.
Of those thirteen books in that “Infinite Timeline”, and all of those, I don’t know, millions and millions of words, I think I made one continuity issue. And we fixed it. I’ve heard about it a few times by readers as the novels progressed, but we fixed it by the end.
You frequently collaborate with your editor and manager — fellow writer Kane Gilmour. You release several books a year. How does that process unfold?
Kane probably can be credited for a lot of that. He reads the books again and again to make them perfect. I just write them once. And honestly, I almost never do rewrites. Kane gets my first draft, and like I said, he then goes through them multiple times. Surprisingly, we usually don’t have to change much. But he probably knows the stories better than I do because he’s read them so many times.
How many books do you write a year on average?
Three or four. It used to be significantly more. I used to write twice as fast as I do now. Project Nemesis, which has sold a ton, is getting a TV series in the works. That book took me 28 days to write. Which is insane, I know. I don’t do that anymore. But I could do it when I was younger.
What is your writing regiment? Are you like a Stephen King? Like, here I go, I’m gonna write 400 pages a day.
I write a chapter a day, which takes between two and three hours. And then I switch gears to writing screenplays or a comic book, or like doing art critique for the artists who are working on the comic book, things like that. Usually, the first half of the day is writing a chapter, and once I’ve got that done, then I switch gears to something else.
Have you written a screenplay that’s been picked up that I don’t know about?
Things have been optioned, but never made. I’ve done work with a lot of big name producers. But again, stuff that never gets made. I think once Project Nemesis: The Series hits the airwaves, then it’ll be easier. I’m working on a screenplay right now that’s super cool. The trick when you’re doing a screenplay, and you’re not super famous, is to do something super cool, but also cheap. I write novels, so I don’t have to worry about a budget or anything like that. It’s very difficult for me to rein myself in, every time I intend to write and go “this one’s gonna be a cheap movie to make”, by the end it’s ridiculous.
Man, I couldn’t imagine the budget for adapting the new “Nemesis” novel! It gets crazy towards the end!
I went a little bit more ridiculous with the new Nemesis novel, because I kind of do have that hope that it would be picked up as an animated movie or something. That is is why I also included some really weird aspects of the new book that aren’t part of the originals.
From my understanding, the “Golyats” from this new Nemesis novel are from a different novel of yours?
Yep! Their first appearance is in my novel “The Divide”, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic future after the Golyat have basically wiped out humanity. The last remnants and survivors are living on the other side of this massive gorge that we’ve created around New England that the Golyats can’t cross, so in the story, some people go across the divide to see what’s out there.
What sparked your decision to include the Golyats in this new take on Nemesis?
It was something really simple. In my Facebook group called “TRIBE”, which is where my readers and supporters gather, someone said in a post that it would be super cool if the Golyats would fight Nemesis one day. I thought that was cool, and was like, alright, I got to find a way to make this happen.
That’s really cool that you listen to fan feedback like that. That’s really neat.
Interestingly, there’s several examples of it, including the Infinite Timeline. There’s a small group of dedicated fans who routinely request that that I create a new overlapping story, and it’s like fine, I’ll do it. I got that response for Nemesis, and even my recent release, Hunger, that’s now collected in three nice hardcover volumes. I had written the first two prequel books to Hunger a long time ago, and they didn’t do super good. Well, the first one did, the second one didn’t. And then so I was kind of like delaying the third, and the vocal group of fans continued to ask me if I would just finish it. So after all these years, I finally just did it. And now it’s doing great. So I do listen to the fans frequently to hear their input.
I’m really interested in this new Nemesis book because it’s almost like a full circle moment for a lot of kaiju fans. There’s a bunch of individuals I know that are in their mid-to-late twenties that read Project Nemesis back when it came out, and they were adolescents. They loved the series, and they grew up and graduated high school when the series concluded. They’re all in college and working adults now, Nemesis is back, and I’ve heard that it’s this cool full circle moment for a lot of them. How do you feel about coming back to this kaiju world?
The first time it really struck me was when I got a fan letter that said, “I grew up reading the Nemesis books, like since I was four.” And I was like, what? It made me feel really old. I was like, that seems a little young for Project Nemesis in my opinion, but I’ve seen a lot of parents allow their children to read these books, even though I wouldn’t recommend doing that. So, yeah, that has been a weird adjustment for me, and I think it’s only gonna become more so with the release of this book and then with the TV series eventually. Yeah, it’s a weird adjustment. It is a little surreal to be told that I had an influence over someone’s childhood. It’s just strange.
Is it more of an uncomfortable feeling? Or just kind of a “woah”, kind of thing?
Part of it is like, that’s what you were reading in your prime years? And then I feel a little bad for some of the content. But yeah, once I get past that, and see that they’re like, you know, a normal person and not disturbed from the material, it feels pretty good.
Do you go book by book when you do your themes? Or, do you have regular themes that frequently emerge throughout your bibliography?
I would say it’s book by book, with each novel having a different theme. But there are reoccurring themes throughout, especially with religion in general. Many my books are allegorical to biblical stories like the Golyats represent Goliath. The main character of that book is Davina, who is a female version of David. I do that a lot. Then, there’s a lot of debate between science and faith and things like that. I personally don’t like to make the themes super obvious. Like, none of none of the books are trying to convince you of anything; of one side or the other. It’s just kind of like, commentary about it. And through different characters, I can look at it from many different points of view without putting in any kind of my personal thoughts on these things. I can adapt to each character’s point of view as I write.
That’s really fascinating. It’s an approach you don’t really see a lot a lot of the time. Typically, you see a large amount of direct insertions of how people feel personally, represented by a specific character.
Yes. I don’t like that. I do get a lot of emails saying things like, I can’t believe you said this. And I was like, I didn’t say this, the character did. Throughout my books, all the characters are very different, and some of them would probably hate each other.
Personally, this new Nemesis novel was really fun for me because I live in Utah. Obviously, a bit of a faith-based state for many folks that live here. I really liked the theme that I saw permeating within this Nemesis book. What do we believe? And how far do we go to like, believe in that concept? And I found that really fascinating.
I have tackled that a little bit in the other Nemesis books as well, but it’s definitely more so with this book involving the antagonistic cult, that’ll do anything to succeed in their mission. It was a bit difficult in Project 731, too. There is a scene in Utah where a certain Temple is umm… yeah. (laugh). I have gotten some angry letters from that, for sure. I think I’m safe with Nemesis because I’m not talking about any actual religion or anything. The cult of Nemesis, or as we call them in the book, Divine Retribution, does not actually exist.
Do you want to start Divine Retribution?
No. I want to start the Nemesisters biker gang. (laugh)
I was about to ask if you were a rocker or biker simply because of the inclusion of the Nemesisters in this book.
I am a nerd who stays indoors and plays video games.
That’s really surprising. But also not too surprising – in the reddit AMA, you stated that before each book, you heavily research the stuff you’re writing about. That way, it comes off like you know what you’re talking about in each subsequent book.
There have been times where people have assumed I was an expert in one thing or another. And once I’m done writing it, I don’t remember it, because I’m doing the next thing that I’m pretending to be an expert at for a little while. So I’m pretty good at pretending to be an expert in something by doing research. But that doesn’t mean I retain all that information.
Besides your writing and your comic books, Jeremy, what are you an expert in?
I am an expert at Call of Duty. I wouldn’t even say I’m an expert at any of the musical instruments in my living room. I would say mediocre at best, but I enjoy it. I’ve been an artist long enough that some people would call me an expert, but I don’t think I am either. I would say just video games and writing, the two things that occupy my time the most.
What is your favorite book of yours?
That’s really tough; there’s so many of them. The one that I default to for this question is “The Last Hunter”, which is similar to a lot of my other books in terms of prose. It’s five books. The scale of it is global and massive. It has giant monsters, subterranean beasts, and dinosaurs. And it’s like all over the place. But the main character is Solomon, who is actually based on my son, Solomon. When I wrote the book, he was two years old. In the novels, Solomon grows up into adulthood. And so I wrote these books when he was starting from two and then ending when he was five. Now he’s 17. And he looks just like the main character that I envisioned, which is nothing like what he looked like when he was two. Personality wise, and the way he looks, my son has grown up to become this character. In a way, that kind of makes “The Last Hunter” very personal.
That’s such an insightful and personal answer too. It’s not just oh, I had fun with this one, so it’s my favorite. I’m sure there’s one in your bibliography that evokes that kind of answer, though.
The book that was the most fun to write was Space Force. I wrote that book after I had just finished a really dark book, and I needed to lighten the mood a bit. It was like two days after President Trump announced the eventual creation of Space Force, and I was like, oh, my goodness. So I started writing two weeks later, and Space Force came out three or four months later. That book was the very first Space Force property or IP based on that new branch. It came out long before the TV show, long before any comic book. So yeah, that that hit at the right time. And it is a ridiculous novel based on a lot of my experiences in battle royale gaming. Basically, aliens come to earth and they put this force field around the Space Force base. It’s game on, and whoever wins within the base, takes the Earth for themselves. It’s pretty out there.
I think the biggest surprise to me in the new Nemesis novel was the whole sacrificing angle. Yeah, King Kong kind of had something like that, but nothing to the extreme of using a kaiju as capitol punishment. Where did that come from?
I don’t remember where that even came from. It may have come from the part in the Infinite Timeline. I think that was the AI’s contribution. Because she wanted to create this really messed up world. So I think that’s where that came from. I thought that was a cool idea. Just like, sacrificing horrible people to these kaiju to try and appease them. I just really like that dark, messed up world and I wanted this one to be darker.
You do have a publisher, but you’re still a bit independent. Is that the case?
I’ve been self-publishing since my first book. And then along the way, as I on my own, I had eight books that were released by a big publisher in New York. The problem is that they tend to price things pretty high. And I tend to get a very low percentage, whereas I can price things lower and get a very large percentage if I go independent. I was making more money on my own than I was from the big publisher. I decided about six years ago just to go back on my own 100%. I am working with a publisher for audiobooks now, which is cool, and they’re really good. Being indie lets me do insane things, for instance, there’s no way this new Nemesis book would ever get published by a traditional publisher. I think my books are really doing well because of that, because I can go places other authors cannot. I can write about subjects and come up with insane things; no one can tell me I can’t do it because it’s inappropriate, or people will not understand it.
For those KU readers that don’t know, Jeremy wrote the first issue of IDW Publishing’s Godzilla Rage Across Time, with Matt Frank supplying the art. Did that come about through your Nemesis collaborations?
Kind of. I came up with a pitch for IDW; I think it was going to be a five book series. Basically, it’s Godzilla in the historical past. Later on, we found out about “Rage Across Time”, and as a result of that, they were like, well, why don’t you just do the first issue? It was very tricky to compress that story to one issue instead of five, like we wanted. But I think we pulled it off.
What’s it like going from Jeremy’s world, where you make up all the rules and create everything, to a character with a legacy behind it, such as Godzilla?
I think having Godzilla show up in the past and us having our own defining iteration of Godzilla helped. It was definitely challenging, stepping into the shoes of such an established character, and of course it being my first time writing Godzilla. I think we did a decent job. To this day, I feel it is so weird that I have contributed in any way to Godzilla and its franchise. It was overwhelming, but super exciting at the same time. It was a lot of work for not a lot of pay, but I didn’t really care about that. Just because it was just, you know, thrilling to be a part of the big G’s legacy.
You also took Predator in the past with your story within the “Predator: If It Bleeds” anthology book.
Yeah, that’s true! Predator is definitely one of my favorite movies. Working on Predator was very similar to me as working on Godzilla. Both were major influences on me growing up and still continue to enthrall me to this day. It was interesting, trying to come up with what time period to take him to. I can’t remember why, but I decided to take him back to the Civil War, specifically Stonewall Jackson’s last stand on the night that he dies historically. I have no idea how I came to that point.
It seems like you still have influenced other projects since “Rage Across Time”, because they’re doing that Godzilla pirates comic now. They’re continuously keeping Godzilla in the past with their comics.
Yes. Some people say that I have influenced the Godzilla movies, too.
Please elaborate.
There’s that one Hollywood Godzilla film where he ends up in Boston for the final battle and supercharges into Burning G. I’m watching this, and I’m going, please don’t explode in Boston. Please don’t explode in Boston. And then, as we all know, he exploded in Boston. I got tons of emails from people that were like, that’s our town! Get out of Boston! Don’t blow up in it! That’s what we’re doing!
And before that I got a lot of messages from people about Shin Godzilla. Having stages, which is a very a huge part of the first Nemesis book. She has five stages of growth that start small and get bigger and bigger and bigger. So I got a lot of emails about that one, too. Who knows? Maybe. I know that people at some of the places that have made these films did in fact read Project Nemesis. So that’s cool. It’s possible. I don’t think any of that will stop the TV series from wrecking Boston again.
With what is possible to reveal– are they doing the original book or this new book for the television adaptation of Project Nemesis?
I think it’s public knowledge already, but it will be the entire original Nemesis Saga — books one through five, and also my novel “Island 731”. That one was a standalone book, for those that don’t know, and it takes place before all of the others, serving as a prequel. I think in season one, we’ll see the story from Island 731 and Project Nemesis combined, and maybe in the second season as well, as they kind of bring it all together. I don’t know exactly. As far as updates, all I can say is that there are things I can’t say, which is a good thing. If I could talk about anything 100% openly, that might not be a good thing.
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You’ve done comic books, screenplays, books. Is there anything that you haven’t jumped into yet that you would like to in the future?
I have been toying with the idea of doing either a Kaiju musical or a Kaiju opera. I talked to a theater director, and I kind of threw that idea at him. Sadly, I never heard back. So I think that’s what he thinks of it, but I think it would be super cool.
It’s been done. I think you can do it. I think one of our contributors was in this Godzilla musical, but the suits cracked down on it, so they called it like big lizard: the musical, or something like that. That’s an interesting transition to gravitate towards.
I mean, that’s the only way my family is gonna get me to go to go play our musical. (laugh)
Do you do enjoy the theater? Do you go to the opera?
No, no, I just think that would be cool.
I await seeing what becomes of that vision!
What does kaiju mean to you? How has it impacted your life?
I like to think of kaiju as the literal definition, which is strange beasts. I don’t necessarily reduce it to giant 400-foot Godzilla type monsters. For me, one of my favorite kinds of stories is the Korean film called “The Host” (2006). I don’t know if everyone would consider that a kaiju movie, but I definitely do. It captures what I really like to see in the genre, which is strong human characters interacting with a strong monster character. So for me, it’s just strange monsters. The stranger the better.
For me early on in my life, kaiju was a big part of it. We had Creature Double Feature on Saturday mornings, and that was it. You might randomly find a Godzilla toy somewhere, but Godzilla was not everywhere. You were lucky if you got to see it. So, throughout my childhood, I was watching Godzilla on Saturday morning, I was drawing Godzilla. I was pretending to be Godzilla when there was snow outside, and I destroyed my little snow cities. But there wasn’t this massive fandom that I could be a part of. Even during high school, college, and early adulthood, there wasn’t a lot of Godzilla around. And I remember going to see Godzilla 2000 in the movie theater, which was just a mind blowing experience for me back then. I had never seen Godzilla on the big screen before. That was a great experience for me, and the whole monster genre has been a part of me both personally and professionally all of my life.
Jeremy, the floor is yours. What’s coming up next? What’s going on Jeremyland?
Nemesis comes out on November 21. And that will be in print and eBook. Unfortunately, the audiobook format has been delayed to December 19. You can preorder it now, through my website, bewareofmonsters.com. And then after Nemesis next year, it’s going to be crazy with the book releases. The next novel is called Point Nemo, which was developed alongside some producers in Hollywood. So, this time, there actually is a screenplay for that one already. And then after that is a novel called Good Boys. I can’t talk about what that one’s about yet because I’m still writing some of it, and some comic books. We have two in development, one is called 1001 Saves the World, and the other one is a graphic novel called “Ptichka”, which is Russian for “little bird”. I’m doing that with artist Mario Santoro. Both of those will hopefully be out in 2024.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Jeremy! We look forward to your next endeavors!
Yeah, no problem! It was fun!
About Jeremy Robinson
“Jeremy Robinson is the New York Times and #1 Audible bestselling author of over sixty novels and novellas, including Infinite, The Others, and The Dark, as well as the Jack Sigler thriller series, and Project Nemesis, the highest selling, original (non-licensed) kaiju novel of all time. He’s known for mixing elements of science, history, and mythology, which has earned him the #1 spot in Science Fiction and Action-Adventure, and which has secured him as the top creature feature author. Many of his novels have been adapted into comic books, optioned for film and TV, and translated into fourteen languages. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.”
Visit him at www.bewareofmonsters.com.
Check out his fan group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/JR.Tribe
Pre-Order “Nemesis” HERE
