Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to J.R. Curtis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

J.R. , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I think I’ve always known that but didn’t want to admit it to myself initially. It’s fun to think about but another thing entirely to really dive in and just go, “Yeah, this is what I do now. For better or worse, this is my job. There’s a very good chance I’ll be a starving artist forever and that’s alright.” But yeah, I tried the other routes, normal job, school, traditional path and I was just miserable the entire time. I guess I’d rather be poor and happy than financially stable and depressed haha.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a horror fiction writer. Currently I have four books in print with another one on the way and hopefully released before fall. The two most popular are called Bloodletting (A horror western) and They Take Your Skin (A sci-fi, body horror.) I started diving into writing books when my friend suggested I write a book version of a film we were trying to get funded called Satanico. That book didn’t end up doing much haha but I enjoyed the process so much I began to do it to another screenplay (Bloodletting) and the reception on that was truly humbling. I’m super grateful people really seem to enjoy my stories and continue to support me by reading them.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Hard work does not equal success by itself. You can sit all day pounding on a brick wall and while yeah, that work is hard, it’s not going to lead to anything other than a sore fist. Hard work is part of it, but strategy and luck are also huge pieces. If you’ve been punching away at the brick wall and nothing’s happening, try taking a step back and looking for cracks. There’s almost always some new strategy to try that you haven’t yet.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Check them out, whatever it is that they’re doing. There’s a massive amount of talent out there that is overlooked every day, in music, movies, art. Join indie and underground artist groups on social media, there are always tons of people promoting their stuff, whether it’s their band’s new song, their photography, their painting, their writing. Give something new a chance that you’ve never heard of before and I bet you’ll find a lot of new stuff that you like.