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The Vampire with a Soul goes Hollywood
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Hollywood Noir is one on the list of Jeff's Angel novels that combines mystery, mayhem and the supernatural in true film noir fashion. Here's how Jeff brings Angel's maturity and darkness in the novels. "To me, Angel is almost a cross between, and I think the show is this way too, Angel's almost a cross between horror and hard-boiled detective show or story in the case of the novel. I really played up that aspect in Hollywood Noir -- it's very much a detective book. I think that's the kind of difference between Buffy and Angel. Like in the world of comic books Buffy is Superman and Angel is Batman, the dark night detective." Jeff's comic background is a big influence here. "As I'm plotting and as I'm writing this, that's always kind of in my head. The books that I write take place largely at night versus the daytime. If you go back and you look at what happens in the books everything happens at night; that's interesting. The daytime stuff is kind of glossed over so you get passed it because that's not when the good stuff is going to happen with Angel. But with Buffy, she can and does go out in the daytime. There's just more of a sense of light and fun and Southern California life." Buffy personifies the Southern California girl with highlights in her hair and a nice tan, despite her slayerage duties and nightly treks. Jeff comments, 'She almost kinda represents sunlight casting into the shadows whereas Angel is one with the shadows."
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“That's part of why he's kind of a quiet, brooding guy, cause like well, there's nothing really new under the sun."
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In contrast, Angel walks a fine line, as we've seen this past season, between good and evil. Angel has proven that he can step out of the shadows, but Jeff counters, "Once in awhile he can but it usually turns out to be trouble." We both laugh at this too well known fact about our vampire with a soul. While I was reading Hollywood Noir, one of the things that struck me is that Jeff delves into Angel's thoughts right off the bat and it's one of those things that you can't typically get from the television episodes. Jeff speaks about Angel's thoughts during the vamp's brooding moments. "What strikes me about him is that he has lived so long that he's pretty much done everything at least once up to and including going to hell and coming back. So it would be really hard to surprise him, really hard to show him something new and different and exciting. I would think that that's part of why he's kind of a quiet, brooding guy, cause like well, 'There's nothing really new under the sun.'" He talks further about Angel and his crew, "Angel has really gone through a lot of changes on the show. It's been really interesting to see how they develop his character. In some ways it seems like Cordelia's a little more static and she's really funny. She's gone through some stuff, but she's still kinda of Cordelia. But Wesley, when Wesley came on he was a goof ball, black leather rogue vampire hunter out fit, tripping over everything. Now, he's really a big help and he's capable and confident -- gotta girlfriend." And Jeff adds that, "Gunn is really cool."
With the success of Jeff's current Angel novels, will there be more? "I certainly hope so," he replies. "Right now, Pocket Books is thinking over where they want to be in terms of serious continuity. Do they want to stick with the Doyle era or do they want to move into the Wesley era. Obviously with this trilogy we are in the Wesley era. So, it might be good to just stay there and keep moving into the future. So even if they do that, then do they want the novels to be set in the Dark Angel period that we're in right now or the beginning season of two or the end of season one? They really have to take these kinds of questions into consideration when they assign a novel." Jeff admits that they are going through that process and until they make these decisions they were not assigning any new Angel novels at the time of this interview. "But they anticipate making their decisions very soon and then they'll be asking for pitches. I have some stories that I intend to pitch them and I hope they fly and I hope I to do more Angel novels next year because they're a lot of fun."
Latest and Future Works in Motion
Jeff is currently working on his own new Angel Novel entitled, Angel: The House. Here is a brief summary. "In this one, Cordelia finds a new route to the fame and fortune that has eluded her thus far -- as a contestant on a "reality TV show" that puts a group of people into a haunted house for five days. They vote one another out of the house, unless the house itself scares enough of them away. Cordy figures she's a shoe-in -- hey, Phantom Dennis, right? But the house turns out to be worse than anyone anticipated, and when Cordy has a vision, with no good way to communicate the details to Angel Investigations, things turn from difficult to deadly in a hurry." Although a release date has yet to be set, look for this exciting Cordy centered novel to appear in late 2001 or early 2002.
As far as other goings-on, "I think of myself as a novelist," Jeff muses. "I would like to be at the point where I could just be a novelist." With the combination of interests and career choices, what other plans does Jeff have on the horizon? "At this point, I think I'm doing pretty much everything that I want to do. I have worked for a long time to get into the position where I can write novels and now I'm doing that. I can write comics once in a while and I'm doing that. Like I said I would like some more free time," he admits. "I like to get out into the dessert and hike and stuff and I haven't had a lot of time to pursue that kind of stuff. The things that don't bring in a paycheck are the things that I'm having a hard time finding time for. So, I would like to find more time to do those rather than different jobs. I certainly have no intention of stopping writing. I have always loved that and I always will." Another one of Jeff's interests is film and he has already written a couple of scripts but he clarifies, "Nothing that was ever produced or sold but that's something that I probably would try again if I was in a position to work on it. Between books I would certainly like to do that because I love film. I love movies and it's a different sort of exercise that uses different writing muscles so it'd be fun to keep playing with that." Jeff please take a break! Take a trek in the desert! Stop working so hard! And with this I end my first feature. I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for me.
An Exclusive for City of Angel!
Fellow peeps, in the middle of this interview I needed to know something, not just for myself, but for every Angel fan out there. I finally asked if there was going to a Watcher's Guide version for the Angel series and Jeff was glad to announce, "The Angel Series Companion Book, which I can't yet reveal the name of, is being written by the same team that did the Watcher's Guide, Vol. 2 -- Nancy Holder, Maryelizabeth Hart, and me. It's organized in a different way, with each episode self-contained as a kind of file from the Angel Investigations filing cabinet." Jeff continues to give us the skinny, "Most information about the show will be contained within the episode description, so for instance, rather than having a separate interview with somebody like Production Designer, Stuart Blatt, his comments will be worked into each episode where we see a significant Production Design element. Cordy's apartment, the new offices, the world of Pylea, etc. Reading through the episodes in this way will give a pretty comprehensive insight into the show so far, both on screen and behind the scenes. There will also be a separate section for character and actor profiles." Fans can look forward to the book covering both Seasons One and Two. The same open-door policy was granted to the writers which they received while working on the Buffy WG II. "I, sadly, didn't make it to the Angel set," confessed Jeff, "but Mary Elizabeth and Nancy were there for a while, and there were lots of follow-up interviews by phone. We didn't spend as much time on set as for The Watcher's Guide, because the whole behind-the-scenes focus of that book required lots more time observing than this one does." As of this time, there's no firm release date yet, but Peeps! There you have it! I better hear the pitter patter of your feet running to place that order!
This CoA Behind The Scenes feature was written by CoA Staff Writer Rachel Barrera.
CityofAngel.com would like to thank Jeff Mariotte for taking the time to do this interview and for being very nice as it was Raciella's first interview for CoA.
If you have any comments for CityofAngel.com regarding this 'Behind the Scenes' feature, we would love to hear from you. Just email us at: comments@CityofAngel.com
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