Tina Jens

The Hellnotes Interview
With Michael McCarty
January 2003

THE BLUES AIN'T NOTHIN': An Interview With Tina L. Jens
by Michael McCarty
Writer, producer, editor and performer, Tina Jens is a multi-talented lady.
This Chicago writer has been twice nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, and is author of more than 50 short stories and editor of 14 anthologies. She has produced Twilight Tales: The Reading Series for 10 years (http://www.TwilightTales.com). Her novel The Blues Ain't Nothin' was published by Design Image Group and is a great ghost story set in a Chicago bar. Born in Iowa, she now lives in Chicago with her husband Barry.

HELLNOTES: The Blues Ain't Nothin' was composed from several short stories written over several years. Was it difficult to connect all these stories together and keep the continuity tight in one episodic novel?
TINA JENS: By the time I was halfway through writing the first story, back in 1992, I already knew I wanted to do a lot more with these characters. The back-story and world building was already slipping into place. So, from the time I wrote the first piece, I started building a timeline and chronology, detailing not only the major life events of the characters, but also cultural references used in the stories. Everything from births and deaths to when Buddy Guy celebrated his 50th birthday, the season "South Park" first aired, and the year Valerie Wellington recorded her first album.
When I went to put the book together, I did some minor rewriting to help the sections flow together and I noticed there was one major gap in the story arc. The book is ultimately the coming-of-age story of Mustang Sally. She's a precocious 10-year-old when we first meet her, but by the time the book ends, she's a seasoned and jaded club owner. I'd told some of the stories along the way but never the one where the transfer of power happens from mother to daughter. I'd laid the groundwork for it eight years ago, when I'd written a one-liner about how Miss Sarah had run off with a traveling vacuum cleaner salesman. I wrote the episode "Miss Sarah Leaves the Blues Behind" especially for the book. It turned into a 36,000-word chapter and became the major turning point for every character in the book.

HN: There's a place in Chicago called the Red Lion Pub. It has the reputation of being haunted. Was the Lonesome Blues Pub based on this famous ghostly bar?
TJ: The Red Lion is the home of Twilight Tales: The Reading Series, which we'll be talking about later, and I've written a ghost story or two set there. But it wasn't the inspiration for the Lonesome Blues Pub. That distinction goes to B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted, one of the oldest Blues clubs in Chicago. About the only thing I changed was the name. A lot of the staffers and musicians who work there appear in the book, and the layout of the two clubs, as well as the location, is exactly the same. B.L.U.E.S. was never reputed to be haunted, but there are a lot of great ghost stories in Blues music, and since the book came out, I've heard Rob Hecko, the owner, spinning a few ghostly tales of his own.
HN: You wrote about several real-life blues musicians in the book. Have any of them given you feedback yet?
TJ: Most of the musicians I wrote about have already passed away, so regrettably I'll never know what they thought. But many of the local musicians and club regulars have thanked me for capturing their world. Fame is fleeting; some of the best Blues musicians in the world work in Chicago, but many never build a name outside the city. A lot of the local musicians have thanked me for preserving the memories of some of the local, but little-known legends. I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of musicians who helped make The Blues Ain't Nothin' a better book. Liz Mandville Greeson, Chicago's only red-headed Blues diva and a damned fine singer, spent a lot of time talking candidly with me about what it's like to be a white woman in the Blues, what it takes to be a bandleader, and her personal memories of some of the performers included in the book. Mark Skyer and I have been talking for the last ten years about the Chicago Blues scene, Blues history, and the realities of the road. He's a marvelous guitar player, but I've only seen him perform once. He and his band have decided not to play Chicago, because the pay is so low for Blues musicians in the city. The Blues genre is an even smaller market than Horror. When you have so many talented performers in the same place, it drives the pay scale down.
Mark and his band tour a lot. When he's not traveling, he works the door at B.L.U.E.S. When business is slow, he shares his amazing stories with me. He also read through the book manuscript and offered invaluable comments on equipment, technology, the biz and Blues community attitudes. His comments and generosity made the manuscript much more authentic.

HN: Is there a sequel in the works or are you planning to write a different novel?
TJ: I've already started thinking about a sequel, and I've written a thousand works on a prequel story, the origins of Ratman, a mysterious old Bluesman, one of the lead characters in the book. But neither will be my next project. I'm currently finishing up the editing on a supernatural spy thriller -- sort of a Nostradamus meets James Bond kind of thing. And I've got a New Orleans voodoo novel that's simmering on the back burner. There will definitely be a sequel to The Blues Ain't Nothin', but it's a couple years down the road.
HN: Peter Straub wrote a blurb for The Blues Ain't Nothin' and the book is currently receiving several nominations from the HWA for First Novel. Did you expect such recognition for your first published book?
TJ: Peter Straub was very generous to me, as was Tananrive Due, Gahan Wilson, Paula Guran and several other writers and reviewers. You always hope for recognition -- we all crave a little fame -- but you can't expect it. My publisher, Design Image Group, has been tremendously supportive. Without all their work the book wouldn't have gotten half the attention it's received.
HN: You edited the anthology Freaks, Geeks and Sideshow Floozies. As an editor and writer, do you feel guidelines are too restrictive? Or they help the writer focus more?
TJ: Freaks is the fourteenth anthology I've edited for Twilight Tales and one of the best. As a writer and editor, I really like theme anthologies; they're much easier to work on. As a writer, I don't find them limiting at all. I love theme assignments because they kick-start me in a general direction, then I can go wild from there. As an editor, it's much easier to structure the flow of a book when there's a common theme. But as a reader, I'm not always happy with theme anthologies, because there can be too much sameness in tone and content. Where I'll enjoy reading a couple of stories about scary witches, I'm not going to want to read fifteen stories about scary hags. As an editor, I try to take that into account while I'm putting a book together. In Freaks, for example, we have a lot of humor, a couple of gritty noir mysteries, plenty of creepy stuff -- from circuses to carnivals to roadside museums -- a romance or two, and a couple of gee-whiz county fair celebrations in the vein of the old Judy Garland movies. Most of our book themes are fairly broad, and I search very hard to find stories from as many different genres as possible. I don't know if that alleviates the problem completely, but I hope it helps.
HN: Besides writing and editing, you started Twilight Tales, an open mic program in Chicago. How did that start?
TJ: I started Twilight Tales ten years ago, mostly because I love live readings, but also because my husband is a news-writer for the local ABC station and I hated being alone on the long Monday nights he had to work during football season. (Of course, now I'm hooked on the Packers, so we frequently roll a tape on Monday nights.) Twilight Tales is a weekly show, with an open mic the first Monday of each month and featured performers or special events the other weeks. We're a multi-genre show, celebrating fiction of all types, though we tend to skew heavily toward Horror and Fantasy. We also consider ourselves something of a training ground, bringing new authors together with seasoned professionals to talk shop during the intermission and after the show. We do a lot of author development seminars for writers at every stage of their career. And of course, we do a lot to promote new books by our established authors. This year, we're planning a lot of special events -- we'll be celebrating our tenth anniversary all year long.
HN: What is the Chicago horror scene like right now?
TJ: All the fiction communities in Chicago are thriving. Twilight Tales brings folks together from the Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, True Crime, Romance, Western, humor, mainstream and literary communities -- so we get a wonderful overview of what's going on in all the fiction circles. We get to mix and mingle with all sorts of writers. That's a tremendous gift that lets us share ideas across genres about craft, technique, publicity and marketing. We'll have a wonderful Mystery novelist as featured performer, and a couple months later at the open mic we'll have a new crop of mysteries from writers who traditionally work in Horror or SF.
The local interplay among the genres encourages everyone to think outside the traditional boundaries. It's led to some amazing growth and development among the writers and resulted in some really incredible stories. Chicago has had a strong Horror community dating back decades, with folks like Robert Weinberg, Mort Castle, Lois Tilton, Yvonne Navarro, Wayne Allen Sallee, Jay Bonansinga and many more. And there's a new generation of Horror and Dark Fantasy writers coming into their own, like Viki Rollins, Martin Mundt, Bill Breedlove, Andrea Dubnick, John Weagly and Eric Cherry. One of the neatest things about producing Twilight Tales is discovering young talent and watching it grow.

HN: Last words?
TJ: Blues music and Horror fiction have an unholy alliance. They're both filled with ghosts and demons and voodoo. They're both filled with tragedy, tears and fear. The characters are mythic figures who died gruesome, lonesome deaths, who are willing to try anything, even going so far as buying the gypsy woman's mojo hand to recapture lost love. Horror story or Blues song? It's both. A lot of Blues songs are just Horror stories set to music. That's why The Blues Ain't Nothin' was so easy to write, and why, I think, it's enjoying so much success with the fans of both Horror and the Blues.

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All text on this page copyrighted by Tina Jens. No use in any form whatsoever without prior written permission of the appropriate party. Be nice-- ask first.

HELLNOTES:	The Blues Ain't Nothin' was composed from several short stories written over several years. Was it difficult to connect all these stories together and keep the continuity tight in one episodic novel?
TINA JENS:	By the time I was halfway through writing the first story, back in 1992, I already knew I wanted to do a lot more with these characters. The back-story and world building was already slipping into place. So, from the time I wrote the first piece, I started building a timeline and chronology, detailing not only the major life events of the characters, but also cultural references used in the stories. Everything from births and deaths to when Buddy Guy celebrated his 50th birthday, the season "South Park" first aired, and the year Valerie Wellington recorded her first album. When I went to put the book together, I did some minor rewriting to help the sections flow together and I noticed there was one major gap in the story arc. The book is ultimately the coming-of-age story of Mustang Sally. She's a precocious 10-year-old when we first meet her, but by the time the book ends, she's a seasoned and jaded club owner. I'd told some of the stories along the way but never the one where the transfer of power happens from mother to daughter. I'd laid the groundwork for it eight years ago, when I'd written a one-liner about how Miss Sarah had run off with a traveling vacuum cleaner salesman. I wrote the episode "Miss Sarah Leaves the Blues Behind" especially for the book. It turned into a 36,000-word chapter and became the major turning point for every character in the book.
HN:	There's a place in Chicago called the Red Lion Pub. It has the reputation of being haunted. Was the Lonesome Blues Pub based on this famous ghostly bar?
TJ:	The Red Lion is the home of Twilight Tales: The Reading Series, which we'll be talking about later, and I've written a ghost story or two set there. But it wasn't the inspiration for the Lonesome Blues Pub. That distinction goes to B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted, one of the oldest Blues clubs in Chicago. About the only thing I changed was the name. A lot of the staffers and musicians who work there appear in the book, and the layout of the two clubs, as well as the location, is exactly the same. B.L.U.E.S. was never reputed to be haunted, but there are a lot of great ghost stories in Blues music, and since the book came out, I've heard Rob Hecko, the owner, spinning a few ghostly tales of his own.
HN:	You wrote about several real-life blues musicians in the book. Have any of them given you feedback yet?
TJ:	Most of the musicians I wrote about have already passed away, so regrettably I'll never know what they thought. But many of the local musicians and club regulars have thanked me for capturing their world. Fame is fleeting; some of the best Blues musicians in the world work in Chicago, but many never build a name outside the city. A lot of the local musicians have thanked me for preserving the memories of some of the local, but little-known legends. I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of musicians who helped make The Blues Ain't Nothin' a better book. Liz Mandville Greeson, Chicago's only red-headed Blues diva and a damned fine singer, spent a lot of time talking candidly with me about what it's like to be a white woman in the Blues, what it takes to be a bandleader, and her personal memories of some of the performers included in the book. Mark Skyer and I have been talking for the last ten years about the Chicago Blues scene, Blues history, and the realities of the road. He's a marvelous guitar player, but I've only seen him perform once. He and his band have decided not to play Chicago, because the pay is so low for Blues musicians in the city. The Blues genre is an even smaller market than Horror. When you have so many talented performers in the same place, it drives the pay scale down. Mark and his band tour a lot. When he's not traveling, he works the door at B.L.U.E.S. When business is slow, he shares his amazing stories with me. He also read through the book manuscript and offered invaluable comments on equipment, technology, the biz and Blues community attitudes. His comments and generosity made the manuscript much more authentic.
HN:	Is there a sequel in the works or are you planning to write a different novel?
TJ:	I've already started thinking about a sequel, and I've written a thousand works on a prequel story, the origins of Ratman, a mysterious old Bluesman, one of the lead characters in the book. But neither will be my next project. I'm currently finishing up the editing on a supernatural spy thriller -- sort of a Nostradamus meets James Bond kind of thing. And I've got a New Orleans voodoo novel that's simmering on the back burner. There will definitely be a sequel to The Blues Ain't Nothin', but it's a couple years down the road.
HN:	Peter Straub wrote a blurb for The Blues Ain't Nothin' and the book is currently receiving several nominations from the HWA for First Novel. Did you expect such recognition for your first published book?
TJ:	Peter Straub was very generous to me, as was Tananrive Due, Gahan Wilson, Paula Guran and several other writers and reviewers. You always hope for recognition -- we all crave a little fame -- but you can't expect it. My publisher, Design Image Group, has been tremendously supportive. Without all their work the book wouldn't have gotten half the attention it's received.
HN:	You edited the anthology Freaks, Geeks and Sideshow Floozies. As an editor and writer, do you feel guidelines are too restrictive? Or they help the writer focus more?
TJ:	Freaks is the fourteenth anthology I've edited for Twilight Tales and one of the best. As a writer and editor, I really like theme anthologies; they're much easier to work on. As a writer, I don't find them limiting at all. I love theme assignments because they kick-start me in a general direction, then I can go wild from there. As an editor, it's much easier to structure the flow of a book when there's a common theme. But as a reader, I'm not always happy with theme anthologies, because there can be too much sameness in tone and content. Where I'll enjoy reading a couple of stories about scary witches, I'm not going to want to read fifteen stories about scary hags. As an editor, I try to take that into account while I'm putting a book together. In Freaks, for example, we have a lot of humor, a couple of gritty noir mysteries, plenty of creepy stuff -- from circuses to carnivals to roadside museums -- a romance or two, and a couple of gee-whiz county fair celebrations in the vein of the old Judy Garland movies. Most of our book themes are fairly broad, and I search very hard to find stories from as many different genres as possible. I don't know if that alleviates the problem completely, but I hope it helps.
HN:	Besides writing and editing, you started Twilight Tales, an open mic program in Chicago. How did that start?
TJ:	I started Twilight Tales ten years ago, mostly because I love live readings, but also because my husband is a news-writer for the local ABC station and I hated being alone on the long Monday nights he had to work during football season. (Of course, now I'm hooked on the Packers, so we frequently roll a tape on Monday nights.) Twilight Tales is a weekly show, with an open mic the first Monday of each month and featured performers or special events the other weeks. We're a multi-genre show, celebrating fiction of all types, though we tend to skew heavily toward Horror and Fantasy. We also consider ourselves something of a training ground, bringing new authors together with seasoned professionals to talk shop during the intermission and after the show. We do a lot of author development seminars for writers at every stage of their career. And of course, we do a lot to promote new books by our established authors. This year, we're planning a lot of special events -- we'll be celebrating our tenth anniversary all year long.
HN:	What is the Chicago horror scene like right now?
TJ:	All the fiction communities in Chicago are thriving. Twilight Tales brings folks together from the Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, True Crime, Romance, Western, humor, mainstream and literary communities -- so we get a wonderful overview of what's going on in all the fiction circles. We get to mix and mingle with all sorts of writers. That's a tremendous gift that lets us share ideas across genres about craft, technique, publicity and marketing. We'll have a wonderful Mystery novelist as featured performer, and a couple months later at the open mic we'll have a new crop of mysteries from writers who traditionally work in Horror or SF. The local interplay among the genres encourages everyone to think outside the traditional boundaries. It's led to some amazing growth and development among the writers and resulted in some really incredible stories. Chicago has had a strong Horror community dating back decades, with folks like Robert Weinberg, Mort Castle, Lois Tilton, Yvonne Navarro, Wayne Allen Sallee, Jay Bonansinga and many more. And there's a new generation of Horror and Dark Fantasy writers coming into their own, like Viki Rollins, Martin Mundt, Bill Breedlove, Andrea Dubnick, John Weagly and Eric Cherry. One of the neatest things about producing Twilight Tales is discovering young talent and watching it grow.
HN:	Last words?
TJ:	Blues music and Horror fiction have an unholy alliance. They're both filled with ghosts and demons and voodoo. They're both filled with tragedy, tears and fear. The characters are mythic figures who died gruesome, lonesome deaths, who are willing to try anything, even going so far as buying the gypsy woman's mojo hand to recapture lost love. Horror story or Blues song? It's both. A lot of Blues songs are just Horror stories set to music. That's why The Blues Ain't Nothin' was so easy to write, and why, I think, it's enjoying so much success with the fans of both Horror and the Blues.