Matt Staggs, who calls The Apes of Wrath “fantastic,” interviews me for Suvudu about the origin of the book and my longtime fascination with apes.

Okay, why apes? I know you like them, but why, and why create an anthology about them?

The interest started when I was a child with King Kong (the original not the blasphemous 1976 remake) and The Planet of the Apes.Here were humanlike creatures—far more powerful than me who appeared in control but ultimately not. In my youth I identified with that loss of control. My parents divorced when I was very young. My father for all intensive purposes abandoned me. The apes and those lessons made me realize that no matter how grownup (or to my youthful mind “powerful”) and in charge I felt, things could change in a moment’s notice. Much like Kong in chains, I often lashed out to no avail.

Did you limit yourself to a particular kind of ape? Did some monkeys sneak in? What about ape-like creatures?

My favorites are gorillas, probably coming from my initial love of King Kong. Ape-like creatures can be fun as sometimes monkeys. In this book I chose stories with apes playing a prominent or important role. Much like the presence of an airship doesn’t make it steampunk nor a computer cyberpunk, a tale needs more than just mention of an ape to be an ape story.

What are some of your favorite fictional apes from any medium?

Obviously King Kong. Others include the Flash villain Gorilla Grodd, Mojo Jojo from The Powerpuff Girls, Zira from The Planet of the Apes, Joe Young from Mighty Joe Young, Sam Simeon from Angel and the Ape, and Tarzan’s mother Kala.

Check out the rest of it at Suvudu.

And in other Apes news this came across the interwebs via Tumblr from AlkthashicArchive:

The Apes of Wrath… Okay pack it up speculative fiction anthologies, go home. We’ve found the best anthology ever.

I’m a humbled by all the positive feedback to the book.