Seth Grahame-Smith's life could be described as something of a mash-up. He's the author of the best-seller Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the new follow-up, The Last American Vampire.
Grahame-Smith is also busy with a number of other projects, including his directorial debut on the film Something Wicked This Way Comes, writing and co-producing the sequel to Beetlejuice, writing two Lego movies, writing a television pilot for CBS and working on the writing team for this year's Academy Awards. The 39-year-old talked about his new book, juggling projects and teaching history through entertainment.
Should you get credit for creating the mash-up?
Grahame-Smith: I don't think that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter created the mash-up, I just think that they popularised it. I think that there were mash-ups before, and I think that there were certainly people blending genres and writers way better than me and far longer ago who were playing with the idea of mixing fantasy and horror or mixing science-fiction with romance. I think that I just happen to do it in a very loud and obnoxious way and was lucky enough to do it a time when people were receptive to it.
You write about fictitious vampires and zombies, but you do a lot of research for your books. There are historical facts in these stories.
I give you some medicine with your sugar. I give you a little bit of real history, just enough so that you know something about that time period so that you can discuss it at a dinner party, and as long as you don’t go further than that and add the part where vampires start cutting each other’s heads off and everything.
How do you keep track of your projects?
A typical day now might be: I work on some Lego movie stuff, I work on some Beetlejuice stuff and then I jump over here and work on the Oscars, and then I jump back and I work on who knows what else, but it's great. I love being busy. I love the challenge of it, I love the engagement of it ... At some point all of this goes away and you know you get bounced out of the writing business or bounced out of Hollywood one way or another eventually. Almost everybody does. So, I'm just trying to enjoy it while it lasts.
