FAQ

ABOUT JAY SMITH

Is Jay a full-time writer?

No. Jay is barely a part-time writer since dealing with a major health crisis in 2022. Since beating cancer, he has been working on new projects and revisions to existing ones, but focusing more on having fun with friends, creating and leading tabletop role-playing sessions, and just enjoying the world with his family

What are his credentials?

Jay earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction Writing and has been a human resources professional for over fifteen years. You can guess which accomplishment pays more. Jay left college in the 1990s and made the reckless choice to go back and complete his degrees despite being debt-free and doing just fine without it. Doubling down with a goal to teach humanities, Jay went on for his graduate degree before learning just how competitive and underpaid adjunct college professors can be. While sometimes salty about the overall experience, Jay is proud of his graduate degree and hangs it alongside his prized gaming maps and a prop "Ghostbusters Incorporated" stock certificate. Also, Jay was a member of the Horror Writers Association based on sales of The Diary of Jill Woodbine but he stopped paying the dues and no one noticed. That amount has been reassigned to his annual toy budget.

What is Jay's primary interest in fiction? Novels? Short stories? Audio?

Jay grew up listening to radio shows from the Golden Age and his primary love is audio drama. Growing up in the age of Star Wars, Jay often listened to the great anthology shows like X-Minus-One and Escape and the work of Arch Oboler, Carlton Morse, and Orson Welles. Jay continues to follow the New Age of Audio Drama being led by amazing professional and amateur talents around the world.

Jay grew up reading speculative fiction based on his exposure to the work of Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Clifford Simak, Isaac Asimov, and others which led him to writers like Harlan Ellison, Douglas Adams, Somerset Maugham, and others. Jay also has a library of works by Robert Anton Wilson, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Stoppard, and many heavy tomes of collected world literary works.

Does Jay write under different names?

Yes. But he does not share. He thanks you for buying those stories, though, you weirdo.

Does anyone really read this?

No. You are not reading this now. Jay could reveal that you just won a new car and provide a link to the pick-up details and you wouldn't know it because you and 8 BILLION other people are not reading this right now.

Is Jay traditional, small-press, or self-published?

All of these. His stories have been published by others and he has privately published his work. Before you scoff, small press publishers have paid him in copies of the book while his self-published work has paid out enough in a year to cover at least three car payments.

What the hell is up with those Buck Rogers recaps on his blog?

Oh, you noticed those did you? Of course you didn't because you're not reading this. But yes, Jay was bored a few years ago and decided to drop acid while watching the Gil Gerard-led Buck Rogers in the 25th Century show. He got about halfway through Season 1 before his brain exploded. No spoilers, but we're pretty sure his recaps began to deviate from the actual plot as released in this universe.

Is Marvin the Paranoid Android the Webmaster for this site?

That is a surprisingly excellent question for such a tiny mind.

HG WORLD

Will HG World continue, or has it been canceled?

HG World is an independently produced show. It wasn’t “canceled” by anyone, but the production will not continue. Over the years we’ve made several attempts to revive the radio show, work the last season into a new novel (a sequel to “Jill Woodbine”) and, most recently, a podcast role-playing game set in that universe. Unfortunately, none of those efforts have worked out. It was a great ride, but life moves on.

Fun Fact: Producer Scott Pigg got drunk and broke the statue after he and Producer Bryan Lincoln accepted it.

Is the show based on conservative values? Asking for a friend.

No. The show was written in different mental states, according to Jay.

No one is EVER going to hear this. Let’s just have fun and figure this all out.
Oh. So there are people listening. And there are actors volunteering to play with us. Better up the stakes and make this work.
Wow. We're getting noticed and are pulling in a global audience. Let’s effing DO THIS!
Holy crap, there is so much going on across so many storylines right now. It’s going to take us months to catch up on the current season. I know! I’ll write a simple story (Googies) to produce in the hiatus!
Well, that escalated quickly. Um. Season One is now Season Zero. Season Googies is now Season 2 and Season 2 is now season three.
Why do I look at this script with such concentrated HATE? Must take some time off.

The show has no political slant, just people who are really good or awful at surviving. And being people.

So, if you’re not going to finish the show, can you tell us what happened or would have happened?

We know from “Googies” that the world survives and recovers into a sort of over-protective socialist society. From “Jill Woodbine” we know that the infection is really a collective of entities that have been struggling to understand the hosts they found themselves in and have spent generations learning about the human body and reproducing to new hosts to build on that knowledge. We also know that Ken Peters and Todd Rage are considered heroes of the “zombie war” in the distant future. McInnes and Grant are, too. Jay has said that Hawkins was always a villain because he wanted to write his friend Orenthal, one of the nicest people in the world, as a bad guy.

From Jay: “’The Final Season’ was going to return with a time jump. This was to account, in part, for actors who weren’t available or who just didn’t want to return. In that world, we would reunite with McInnes as a leader of a camp and now dealing with an advanced, degenerative illness referenced in Googies. Grant is nowhere to be found. Ronni is part of McI’s camp, but has become a dark, cruel version of herself since something very bad happened to Hicks and her baby. Ken Peters is trying to serve in the role Grant once held, but he and McI don’t get along. It isn’t clear what has driven our heroes to this dark place. The sudden appearance of Doreen and a few people last seen stuck inside HG World racks up the tension and it seems we’re about to see our heroes try to take each other out.”

HIDDEN HARBOR MYSTERIES

Will there be a sequel/new season to Hidden Harbor Mysteries?

No. It was fun to do, but there are no plans to continue the series. It was only planned for one season.

What about the end of the show with its cliffhanger?

From Jay: "The show was presented as an example of serialized radio drama from the Golden Age. As one story ended, another began and things were left intentionally in motion, like a soap opera, to keep people coming back. One of the things we tried to do with the show was create the illusion that it was a recovered and remastered show of a show thought lost in a fire decades ago. We never intended to go beyond the defeat of the Big Bad unless there was overwhelming interest from people who wanted to see that storyline played out."

Was there supposed to be a companion series to HHM?

The web site and a companion podcast were intended to reinforce the “reality” of the show through a historical discussion of the radio station where it was produced and those involved in the production. The web site exists (unless Jay forgot to pay to renew the domain again) but the production of the companion podcast never happened, NOT because Jay is a lazy procrastinator, but because the show could stand on its own without it. Fun Fact: The narrator was going to be John Drew, whose character was based on Greg Bell, host and resident historian of RadioClassics on SiriusXM. Drew’s voice is hauntingly similar to Bell’s.

GENERAL PODCASTS

Does Jay really hate Shelley Winters?

No. This refers to an episode of “The Batcave Podcast” Jay did with John S Drew covering two episodes of “Batman ‘66” featuring the villainess Ma Parker, played by Winters. Jay was unimpressed with Winters’ campy, scenery-chewing antics as indicative of the show’s movement toward casting celebrities rather than presenting engaging Batman villains. Jay provided a level of invectiveness and snark that is rarely expressed on such a wholesome show. But Jay has no personal ill feelings toward the Oscar-winning actress.