Cat & Cthulhu – Interview with the creator and author William Ellwood

Today we’re honored to have the writer of C&C, William Ellwood, join us for an interview.

William: Evening. Not sure who the third party is though.

The audience of course

William: It is always to my constant surprise and amusement that I have one of those.

Why’s that? Have you never thought much of your work?

William: Not really. I mean obviously I place some value on my work. Enough value to show people some of it. I’ve never received much in the way of criticism either positive or negative. Which one I suppose can take as a generally good thing. But in one major sense I don’t know how to value my work. It is just my work and writings against what? Hemmingway, Vonnegut, Thompson or those shitty tie-in novel authors? Or is it more plausibly somewhere in the middle or worse?

Have you always wanted to write? And publish yourself?

William: I’ve always wanted to write yeah I suppose. More tell stories then anything. Or entertain.

Well maybe not entertain. Provoke thought.

William: Publishing myself is an annoying thing. I’d be happier if I didn’t have to do that by myself. I’d be able to concentrate on writing purely then. But I also to some small degree enjoy the control I have over presentation. Even if I am really bad at it.It’s DIY I keep telling myself.

Are you quite a controversial person then?

William:Controversial…probably in a rather meek timid way.

I tend to only have three states of mind about something, love, like or loath.

I guess you could throw ignore in there as well. But that doesn’t begin with l.

It could be a lower case L masquerading as a capital I…

William: It could be.

You’ve had more than one website in the past…were you the really geeky one at school with all the flash gizmos?

William: No. I still don’t have many flash gadgets.

William: No iPod, a fairly powerful PC for running Ubuntu Linux on. So not for gaming. Most glamorous gadget I have is a 22″ flatscreen monitor.

But you’re into computers right?

William: I’ve a love hate relationship with them. I should mention that I study computer science at this point.

That sounds pretty geeky to me

William: I love computation and solving problems in abstract space. I’m less interested computers as physical things. Which probably means I should do a Philosophy degree.

William: I’m not denying I’m a geek. I’m horrifically pedantic. I can recite too much canon from Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and lots of other things. I’m not proud of that sometimes.

William: I don’t even watch Stargate! I got bored with it when it jumped the Goa’uld. But with Heroes and Lost I don’t think being able to recite canon in explicit detail makes you a geek anymore.

What prompted you to start writing Cat and Cthulhu?

I started writing Cat & Cthulhu well in two phases really.

First as a one off issue of Insert Name which was a weekly flash fiction website I did. That ran for two years and I got bored with it and in actual fact out grew the idea.

Second as an idea that I quite enjoyed working on. And while I was in Switzerland I was looking for a project to keep my writing skills honed while doing various computer type stuffs for a company who shall remain nameless.

My computer skills actually decreased in that year. Oh well. So I started a flash fiction blog (http://quicktale.blogspot.com) and it turned out I was writing a lot of these Cat & Cthulhu stories so I put them onto their own website.

I don’t know what prompted me to put them on the Internet though.

Or talk about them to anyone else. I think that would be my natural childish. Well maybe not childish, because adults do this as well and there is nothing inherently wrong with this emotional impulse. With my impulse to show off.

But then all art and most advances in pure sciences come from the desirer to show of. Even if it is just to prove something to ones self.

Where do you draw you inspirations from? Especially when it comes to your characters and the events in the series.

William: You’ve just asked the question everyone dreads. I can give you one answer and you’ll get another one next week.

William: In terms of characters Well they are all stuffed toys (or in the case of Marvin an action figure) that I keep next to my computer monitor to decorate it. I’ll start with Cthulhu. Since he is probably the one that requires the least explanation.

Cthulhu is a fictional monsters from the writings of H.P. Lovecraft a science fiction author from the early part of the last century. He led a very odd life and was by all accounts a very strange individual. He envisioned or at least tried to describe a rational persons horror. That is horror without the supernatural of Gods and magic.

Which do have a place in his stories. But as beings of unknowable and warped realities and in the case of magic the true physics of the universe. Cthulhu is in his scheme of things a Great Old One. Not a God. But still a being of unimaginable and remote horror. Cthulhu lives in the sea where it has been imprisoned for millions of years. For reasons I fail to remember at this moment in time.

One day Cthulhu will awaken and the world as we know it will end. Or more precisely because H.P. Lovecraft deals in timescales on the holy fuck I can’t possibly think about this. Cthulhu will awake in millions if not billions of years. Meaning it really isn’t our problem. However there is always the chance that the sleeping horror could awaken early. Which does make it our problem.

Marvin the Paranoid Android also I doubt needs much explaining. He is a fairly important character in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books, radio play, TV series and film. In the case of Cat & Cthulhu he is based on the film version. Because on my shelf above my monitor presently (this will change when I move next week) sits an action figure from the 2005 film.

Which means I’ve had the figure for two years because I bought it on my nineteenth birthday

Cat, is from the Emily the Strange franchise. I believe the character is actually called Milo. But I didn’t know this at the time I acquired Cat.

I should mention I have a small Cthulhu sitting on my desk as well. That was a present from a good friend of mine.

Why would I use these as characters in stories? Well on one level I see the fact I have a Marvin figure, a symbolic representation of a Cat and whatever Cthulhu represents, as being fairly interesting because they are kind of totems to various facets of how I see my self. That is also complete bollocks! Well kind of…there is something in that silly statement of representation but I wouldn’t run too far with it.

And the events that transpire in the story?

William: Inspirations onto the stories. Often my life. Cat & Cthulhu does at times from my point of view very often take on the characteristics of a personal journal written in rather far distant not very disguised way. For example issue twenty, ‘Pirates of Neo-Tokyo’ was written on the same weekend I went to see ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 3′. The next issue to be podcasted, ‘Master’ comes from the fact I spent a large amount of time sitting in one place for a rather annoying reason, involving trying to borrow ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 2′ from a cute lass. The story, ‘Next door to the Mountain of Madness’ is a light retelling of the H.P. Lovecraft story ‘At The Mountains of Madness.’

‘The Secret’ is me ripping into this self help concept being sold in the back of newspapers with celebrity endorsements.

The two issues after that are well based directly on imagery found in the Gamecube game Eternal Darkness. A Metropolis character from the Fritz Lang film appears next to Marvin as a love interest in that as well. Throughout the whole thing there are numerous references to a book by Hal Duncan called ‘Vellum: The Book of All Hours’.

William: The issue ‘Aquaphobia’ is based on the fact I’m terrified of rapid water. And too stupid to realize this and thus went and had another go at kayaking in rapids on a short trip into France just over the boarder into from where I used to live. Ideas come from all over. None of them are original. Picasso made that point once.

Ok, you’re up to issue 54 so far… is there a planned limit or finale?

William: Really fifty four issues? Shit! I meant to throw a party at issue fifty. No. But I think the question is in error. I’ll stop writing Cat & Cthulhu when it stops being fun and or relevant. Which at the moment it does feel a bit not fun to do. But everything has bumps. When I can see no point in continuing Cat & Cthulhu and can find a better project I’ll stop. But that isn’t planned. Just an exit condition. If that does happen though I’ve no idea how I’d end it. Maybe a planned storyline to wrap things up. But since one of the core rules of Cat & Cthulhu is have no backstory, each issue should stand on its own. I’d have reservations about doing that.

Also looking at the fact I’ve done supposedly about fifty issues in half a year that will put me at one hundred in another half year. And things will look different to how they do now because half a year will have passed not another fifty issues.

Sorry… just checked. 52

William: I’ve stopped counting I think. It doesn’t serve any purpose, the counting numbers game for me anymore. Except word counts. I’m a bit obsessed with them.

Were you surprised when the idea of a podcast came up?

William: Yes. Very.

What was your initial reaction?

William: Delighted. But surprised because Cat & Cthulhu is already such a small format thing. In terms of crunch media it takes thirty seconds to read the effort I put into each issue. And a podcast takes longer I suspect then a few hundred words of prose to produce.

William: But it doesn’t take anything away from what I do. Which means long may it continue.

I mean take away from my enjoyment by the by.

It adds to it infact.

Really? How?

William: It’s ego boosting. In a good way. Someone is putting effort into remixing and playing with stuff I’ve done. This in my mind means they obviously like what I do quite a large amount. Since A, they wouldn’t be doing something so labor intensive and B, they could just as easily be playing with their own toys. I like sharing.

Also it puts a different interpretation on Cat & Cthulhu. It might not be mine, but in terms of ‘art’ there is no wrong answer. Many eyes show many things.

And the world needs more perspective. I wish I had the benefit of knowing different interpretations of what goes on in my life. So to have it for something so trivial as Cat & Cthulhu is nice.

What would you do if the guardian or radio 4 or even yog-sothoth approached you regarding C&C or your other fiction? To (re)produce that is.

William: Shit my self with joy. Laugh for a few hours. Promptly say yes and tell them I’ll be in the pub with my friends. Also walk around with The Jokers grin for a week.

William: Then sit down with a horrible hangover and think about it. Which means a few hours later the whole experience will have been excreted into words that you’ll end up reading.

Seriously?

William: Well semi-seriously. I do digest events and occurrences by writing about them. It’s possibly the most incriminating coping method ever. I’ve enough control of my sphincter to only shit my self if offered marriage or shot, or on the bog. I’d giggle a bit certainly. I did with the Podcast. I grinned for a few hours as well for that. I’d probably be heading to the pub with my friends anyway. But I doubt that such a thing will happen. So I’ve grown content not thinking about it.

Would you take part in the podcast itself? Guest read episode 30 or something?

William: I’m tempted.

For episode 30 (The Book of All Names) I’d request a very attractive other guest voice to counter my depressive plastic but iPod like shell. Yeah I’ll say I’m ugly but well designed, eat that double meanings.

Maybe you could voice Marvin? He’s well designed

William: I assumed I’d be Marvin. I’d have to do the second half of the story as well. It is my favorite pair of stories so far.

Final question: Would the cast ever listen to a podcast like say… C&C? Oh, and do you think there’ll ever be a mass genocide perpetrated by a ancient alien monster of doom?

William: No on the podcast. That would be far to self-referential. And just breaks several gut feels I have.

Mostly irrational and unexplainable.

I mean if they were ‘real’ -would they be into that kind of thing?

William: I could make a cheap shot about politicians for that second question. I won’t. But it probably wouldn’t be genocide. There is a difference between genocide and mass-murder. Ancient alien monsters of doom probably wouldn’t target specific groups.

Oh now I have to think my my tippy toes. Marvin would ignore it. Cat would probably loath it and Cthulhu would probably love it. Boo might like it.

Marvin being smart and depressive. Cat being a pretentious and lazy. Cthulhu being silly because of his alien perspective and goofy because just look at his face. Boo is a hamster. Hamsters like stuff.

Thank you for joining us.