Today we are absolutely delighted to feature a brand-new interview with one of the giants of the genre Mr Graham Masterson. Although Graham has been writing horror since the 1970s this interview focusses entirely upon his new novel GHOST VIRUS which we also highly recommend. This terrific page-turner concerns two detectives investigating a grisly series of murders in south London which we soon realise has supernatural origins. To read more about GHOST VIRUS make sure you check out our full review by clicking here 
 
GNoH: There are some exceptionally graphic kill scenes in GHOST VIRUS, many of which could teach the younger generation of ‘Extreme’ horror writers a thing or two about nailing a kill scene hard onto the page. An eye-wateringly nasty example that springs to mind would be the guy who gets his arms and legs ripped off on Streatham Common. In comparison to some of your other novels how does GHOST VIRUS rank when it comes to sheer bloody violence? You surely can’t have written many bloodier than this? Aren’t you mellowing with age?!?
 
GM: Rather than mellowing, I am seeing more and more clearly the vulnerability of the human body and the utter callousness of those who destroy it for sadistic pleasure, for political gain, for religious fanaticism or simply out of carelessness. Human life seems to have little or no value these days, in spite of the sickly outpourings of sentimentality when somebody famous (or notorious) passes away. I wanted to show clearly in GHOST VIRUS how little regard we have for the lives of others but how desperately we cling to our own.
 
GNoH: On one level the supernatural element of the plot is completely outlandish (but wicked fun), however, the police procedural element of the book is very believable. How much of your crime writing skills from that aspect of your work have you integrated into those parts of the book?
 
GM: My new series of crime novels about Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire are all set in Cork, in the Republic of Ireland, and the procedure and structure (and problems) of An Garda Síochána are somewhat different from the British police. However, there are some similarities in the culture, especially in their attitudes towards female officers, and I know several Met officers of varying ranks. But the story is a story, and although I think it is essential to make the police investigation believable, it isn’t necessary to make it too authentic, otherwise it would be unbearably tedious, as most police procedure is in real life.
 
GNoH: I am a Scotsman in exile, who has lived in Streatham and South London for nearly twenty years, your geography of Tooting and the local area was remarkably accurate. Do you live in the area or was this all done through Google Maps, if it’s the latter it’s an amazingly convincing job…
 
GM: I know Tooting well, because I met a very pretty (British) girl when I was visiting my father who was an Army officer in Singapore, and after a few months she came back to the UK to study at what was then the teacher training college in Welham Road, Tooting. We dated for a while, and we were even talking about marriage, even though we were only 19. Not having a car in those days, we went for a lot of walks around Tooting and its parks and so I got to know the area intimately. I paid it a few visits before writing GHOST VIRUS just to see how much it had changed over the years. But I still have sentimental feelings about it. (She married an RAF officer eventually, much to the relief of her parents!)
 
GNoH: Without giving too many spoilers, the escalation in the final 20% of the novel is totally mental and Tooting takes a real shellacking, when you were writing GHOST VIRUS did you ever consider taking the plot on a rampage beyond Tooting into the wider areas of London?
 
GM: I considered making the geographic scope of the novel wider, but in the end, I thought it would over-complicate the plot and mean that the two main protagonists would not have the same control over the ghastly goings-on.
 
GNoH: One of the things I liked most about the book was the fine line you created between the characters absolutely refusing (who can blame them?) to believe the supernatural events going on, to the awful dawning that no matter how outlandish it sounded, it was real. When you were writing this did it cross your mind that it might all be a bit too ridiculous? There were some REALLY horrible scenes, little nine-year-old Mindy puking up her dog, poor little Sprout, was only one of many, but it all gelled together nicely…
 
GM: All supernatural novels are ridiculous, but the test is whether you can make the ridiculous feel believable, at least for as long as the reader is reading the book. My very first horror novel THE MANITOU was about a Native American shaman being reborn after three hundred years in a white woman’s neck, and I don’t think you can get much more ridiculous than that. ‘A foetus? In her neck?’ says Tony Curtis, in the movie. Bizarre events are happening in the world every day, so I think that readers are prepared to have their disbelief stretched quite a long way. From time to time I have deliberately written stories that take disgustingness to the very limit, because I am testing my own writing skill. Anything really revolting must be very well written. The most notorious example was my story ERIC THE PIE about a cannibalistic young boy, which led to the banning by WH Smith of the fledgling horror magazine Frighteners. Then there was SEPSIS, and most recently CHEESEBOY, about a disgruntled Traveller boy who traps a woman in an abandoned fridge.
 
GNoH: The plot eludes the supernatural goings on may be based on stories from Lithuania or perhaps folk tales from Pakistan? Was this the case, or did you just dream it all up? Possessed clothing is not something you come across everyday even in horror fiction… 
 
GM: The spark for GHOST VIRUS came when two ideas collided. One was Nikolai Gogol’s short story THE OVERCOAT, about an overcoat which comes to life to take revenge on the downtrodden clerk from whom it was stolen, and who eventually died. The other was the charity shop which is managed by my friend Dawn Harris (who is also the author of the creepy novel DIVINER). I looked at all the second-hand clothes in her shop and wondered if the souls of their deceased owners might still be haunting them. I brought in Lithuania because the details of the second-hand clothes being stolen and sent back to Lithuania for remodelling is completely true and accurate, and all the folk tales from Pakistan are authentic.
 
GNoH: An army of possessed hoodies marching down Tooting High Road, massacres people all over the place was a sight to behold. When you were in the development stages of this book was this always in your end game and did it at any stage sound too daft? I thought it was totally brilliant when the poor saps were drafted in from Sutton police just to be killed off also…
 
GM: I didn’t have that final apocalyptic scene in mind when I first started writing it, but gradually I came to realise that there would have to be a full-scale confrontation between the protagonists and the evil force that caused clothes to come to life.
 
GNoH: Although it’s bone-crunchingly violent GHOST VIRUS also has its fair shares of good old-fashioned chills and white-knuckle moments, I’m thinking of when the clothes start moving on their own for chills, or the terrifying scene when the car DC Pardoe’s car (with his daughter inside) is under siege for white knuckle moments. Could you give us any insight on how you paced this novel when you were writing it? I started it on Friday and finished it on Saturday, so I think you got it spot on.
 
GM: All novels (and especially horror novels) must have variety and pace in the way they are put together.  Excessively violent scenes have no real impact unless the background and the characters are believable, and it is important to have creepy moments when there is an inexplicable threat rather than a full-frontal massacre. All the same, it is essential to keep up the momentum, so that the reader is always agog to know what is going to happen next.
 
GNoH: DC Jerry Pardoe and DS Jamila Patel made a very good team; do you have any plan to bring them back for any further supernatural assaults in London?
 
GM: Yes, I do, because there are so many interesting social issues that they could deal with – Jerry being white and Jamila being Pakistani – apart from a plethora of mythological threats from both British and Pakistani cultures.
 
GNoH: You’ve written a lot of crime in recent years, is GHOST VIRUS a sign that we can expect to see more horror from you in the next few years?
 
GM: I started writing the Katie Maguire novels (a) because we were living in Ireland at the time and I wanted to write stories with an Irish background; and (b) because horror had taken something of a nosedive in the late 1990s and publishers weren’t so keen on it. Now of course a new generation of readers has grown up and they are huge horror enthusiasts, so I will definitely be writing more horror. Mind you, I don’t hold back on the horror when I’m writing the crime novels, because a non-supernatural killing is just as grisly as a supernatural one.
 
GNoH: Graham Masterton it is always a pleasure to feature you on the Ginger Nuts of Horror and we wish you all the best with GHOST VIRUS. Thank you for answering our questions so thoroughly. If you read this book folks, you will never wear your favourite cardigan again!
 
Tony Jones
 

To celebrate the launch of his new collection of short stories author C.M. Saunders makes two stops at Ginger Nuts of Horror, here with his Five Minutes with interview and with an excellent entry in our Childhood Fears column. 

​C.M. Saunders is a freelance writer and editor from Wales. His fiction and non-fiction has appeared in over 70 magazines, ezines and anthologies worldwide, including Loaded, Maxim, Record Collector, Fortean Times, Fantastic Horror, Trigger Warning, Liquid imagination, Crimson Streets and the Literary Hatchet. His books have been both traditionally and independently published, the most recent being Human Waste and X3, his third collection of short fiction, both of which are available now on Deviant Dolls Publications. 


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I started writing fiction back in the small press boom of the late nineties. I had a few short stories published early-on, but drifted out of it for a few years because it’s very time-consuming and non-fiction generally pays better. I’m not all about the money, but I had a shit job in a factory then and needed every penny I could get. Eight or nine years ago, when I was working as an English teacher in China, I had some time on my hands and gradually got back into it. If you saw Chinese TV, you’d want to do something else as well. Since then, I’ve knocked out half a dozen novels and novellas and had over thirty short stories published in various places.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I play snooker, very badly, and sit in pubs drinking craft beer and reading The Times newspaper. I’m also a big sports fan. I particularly appreciate MMA, rugby, basketball and football. I’m a Cardiff City supporter, in case you were wondering. 

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?

Travel. I’ve been in perpetual motion for years. There’s a quote attributed to St Augustus that goes, “The world is a book, and if you don’t travel you only read one page.”

It’s true. For the first twenty-odd years of my life I was stuck in a little corner of south Wales. It was like living in a bubble. The isolation gets to you. Wales is a beautiful country, but since the mines and steelworks closed it’s very economically depressed. There’s a lot of poverty and crime. I’ve moved 14 or 15 times in as many years, lived in three countries and visited over a dozen more. Every new place I go is like a new world. I’ve only ever been robbed twice. Once was outside a little café in the arse end of Rotterdam, and the other time was three miles from my home in Wales, which just about says it all. 

The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations.  What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?

To me, ‘horror’ is a very loose term, and a very personal one. It means different things to different people. Personally, I prefer the term ‘dark fiction,’ to describe my own writing because although some of my work would struggle to be called ‘horror,’ it’s usually dark.  

A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?

Great question. We seem to have been stuck in the dystopian/post-apocalyptic quagmire for some time now, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Why would it? There is a growing concern that every day brings us one step closer to it. I only hope that when it finally comes we get proper aliens or zombies, and don’t all just blow each other up. 

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

I’ve been re-visiting some classic horror films on my blog, and watching them again through a contemporary lens, so to speak, is an interesting exercise. An American Werewolf in London was fucking terrifying any way you slice it, no wonder it damaged me so much when I was ten. Ditto the Evil Dead. When I was a kid I wanted to be Carl Kolchak so I could combine my two passions – writing and the paranormal. Book-wise, I would love to emulate Richard Laymon’s Body Rides. It’s genius. Also, anything by Stephen King, but I know everyone says that. I love how he makes his characters come to life, and how he can make the most mundane things interesting. About 80% of Dolan’s Cadillac is about a dude digging a hole in the desert.     

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off? 

I do a lot of reviewing for various people, so I am lucky enough to be exposed to a lot of new authors. Off the top of my head, Renee Miller has done well recently and Amy Cross is just getting better and better. The only problem with her is she writes books faster than I can read them. It’s insane. I guess you are already aware of Josh Malerman, J Daniel Stone, Rich Hawkins, Duncan Ralston and Jason Arnopp. There are some talented British writers just breaking through; Mark Nye, Matt Hickman, Mark McGahan, and Simon Farrant, to name just a few. 

How would you describe your writing style?

A reviewer once pointed out that ‘a thread of sardonic humour’ runs through most of my fiction, and I agree with that. I’d never even noticed it until it was pointed out. I worked on newsstand magazines for five years, and that taught me to keep it tight and be very economical with my words. They are a luxury, not a right, and should be used sparingly. 

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

My favourite review ever was one for ‘Out of Time’ that said: “Christian Saunders writes with a mirthful charisma and unveils a brutally astute understanding of humanity's dark side that places him firmly in the footsteps of the modern horror greats.”

I ignore the negative ones. 

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

Would it be a cop-out to say the ‘selling books’ part? However good you are, it’s not enough for indie writers to just be writers. You also have to be your own publicist, accountant, and personal assistant. It’s very time-consuming. Other than that, being original is pretty difficult. I’m one of those cynics who believes that even though you can put your own individual mark on things, everything has been done before.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
I don’t believe in being controversial just for the sake of it. Yes, writing is art and art should challenge convention sometimes, but a lot of writers seem to go out of their way to offend people. Maybe they think they are being edgy. I don’t know, in most cases it just comes across as contrived. For the sake of decency, I don’t write about things like animal abuse and paedophilia. Nobody wants to read about that.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

A bit of both. I often name characters after people I know or admire, more as a kind of inside joke than anything else. There are a lot of pop punk musicians and ex- Cardiff City footballers floating around in my books.

Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?

I’ve been writing professionally for five or six years now, and in that time especially I think I’ve improved a lot. You can’t do something for eight or ten hours a day for six years and NOT get better at it. Certainly the technical aspects like grammar and punctuation has improved. I think these days I get to the point faster. Waffling on too much in the mistaken belief that readers are digging what you are waffling on about is a rookie error. Why spend ten sentences saying something you can just as easily say in one?     

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?

A decent computer or Mac fitted with a good word processing program (Word or OpenOffice), a well-stocked library, a willingness to learn, an open mind and a refusal to quit. Anything else is superfluous.         

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

I don’t know if this constitutes advice, but an editor I worked on a magazine with once told me to give him diamonds, not turds. Because you can’t polish turds. You can try, but it’ll still be a turd. I took that to mean don’t be sloppy. Check facts and don’t make any silly mistakes in your writing that someone else then has to pick up.

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?

It’s no secret that we all operate in a crowded market. These days, anyone can be a writer. There are good and bad aspects to that. The biggest minus is that there’s no quality control on Amazon. I’ve seen writers do all kinds of things to try to stand out from the crowd. I can see how some of it might work, while some is just cringeworthy. Me, I’m old school. I think connecting with readers on a personal level is very important. I reply to every message I get. Even the Filipino women who want to marry me and the Nigerian princes who want to give me $18 billion in exchange for my bank details. 

I’m part of a small collective of writers called the Deviant Dolls who share and cross-promote each other’s work. In theory, it’s a sure-fire success, but obviously it doesn’t work quite so well in practice. There are always passengers who want to get out more than they are prepared to put in. 

To many writers, the characters they write become like children, who is your favourite child, and who is your least  favourite to write for and why?

I think my favourite would either be Dale in Sker House, because he’s me at twenty years of age, Jerry from Apartment 14F, because he’s me at thirty, or the survivalist Dan Pallister from Human Waste. Just because he’s crazy as fuck and I hope he isn’t me at fifty. 

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?

My 2016 novel Sker House. It’s partly a historical novel based on fact, but incorporates a lot of Welsh legends and folklore. It’s probably my most meaningful and substantial piece of work.

And are there any that you would like to forget about?

No. I’ve written my share of rubbish, but in my mind even my worst story serves a purpose, if only to bridge a gap between A and B. Writing is a constant learning curve, and to exclude certain parts of the journey would be akin to denying some harsh truths about yourself.  

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?

I try to balance that sardonic humour with a general unease which sometimes crosses over into out-and-out horror. I think I achieved that with Human Waste and shorts like The Devil & Jim Rosenthal (to be found in the anthology DOA and my first collection, X) and ‘Til Death do us Part (Morpheus Tales and my third collection, X3).

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?

Certainly. This is from apartment 14F: An Oriental Ghost Story:

Then she did a most unexpected thing. She raised Jerry's palm to her mouth, and licked at it hungrily, greedily. He could feel the hot, moist roughness of her tongue probing at every contour of his hand, over his outstretched palm and between his fingers. 
The old woman moaned. It was either a moan of confirmation, or a moan of pleasure. It was impossible to tell for sure, but the moan seemed to have almost sexual overtones. Even from a distance of a couple of feet, Jerry could smell the sickly, stench of her breath. It smelled like sour milk.
He wanted to scream, pull his hand out of this crazy hag's reach and run away. Somewhere where she would never find him. The wetness of her tongue against his skin felt so unnatural, so intrinsically wrong, that it made his skin crawl until goose pimples peppered his flesh, despite the clammy humidity of the late autumn afternoon. Occasionally, his palm would brush against one of the few remaining teeth standing sentinel in her gums like tombstones in a forgotten graveyard. Each time it did so, it gave him a start like a mild electric shock. 

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

My latest book is a collection of short fiction called X3. As the title suggests, it’s the third volume and mainly covers the period between 2011-2014. Most of the stories have been published before in various places, but I always include one or two surprises. Next up, I’m re-releasing one of my novellas, Dead of Night. The publishing rights have finally reverted back to me, so I put it out the way I always intended. I’m aiming for an autumn release. 

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

I think technology has revolutionized everything, including the way we view horror. Stranded on a remote stretch of road or lost in the woods? Use your GPS. Don’t know how to banish a demon or exorcise someone? Google it. Being chased through the back country by a band of hungry cannibals or stalked by a deranged serial killer? Call the police. Therefore, the horror cliché I would like to erase would be not being able to get a signal. 

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?

The last great book I read was either The Ritual by Adam Nevill, or Friend from the Internet by Amy Cross. Both are great. The biggest disappointment was a non-fiction book called Last Man Off. It was marketed as one of the great survival-at-sea stories. The first half of the book is about fishing, then the boat sinks, the survivors are in a raft for a few hours, then they get rescued. It was all a bit anti-climactic.  

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?

Great question. This has nothing to do with writing but I wish people would ask me about sport more. In particular footy and MMA. Cardiff City were my tip for promotion from the Championship at the beginning of the season when they were 18-1. Don’t you wish you’d listened to me now? What’s that? Who will be the next big thing in MMA? That’s easy. Despite being in a stacked division, Darren Till has the world at his feet. Also, I’m backing Brett Johns to do well. And I’m not just saying that because he’s Welsh. Thirty-odd fights and not a single loss between them. They both have incredible desire, and they always find a way to win.   

​George Billions is a writer whose work litters the Internet under various pseudonyms. He's written everything from fake product reviews to unqualified fitness advice, steamy romance novels to straight-up keyword spam. These days he's trying to put out the kind of stuff he enjoys reading and writing. His most recent is a crime noir / weird horror novel called Buying Illegal Bugs with Bitcoin. It's about a small-time drug dealer who buys a mysterious insect off the darknet, and all the terrible things that happen as a result.


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?


When I was a little kid, I tapped out stories on an Apple IIe. I fell in and out of writing as I got older and had older people stuff to worry about. A few years ago I became a writer-for-hire, mostly doing boring web copy. Somebody hired me to ghostwrite a sci-fi novella and I started thinking, hey, I should be writing my own stories. Once I fell down the rabbit hole of indie fiction people were putting out on Amazon, I knew the world was ready for George Billions. I'm pretty sure we're entering a new golden age of pulp fiction. I want to be a part of it.


What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I'm really into pro-wrestling. It's got drama, over-the-top characters, and the spectacle of simulated violence. I like the kayfabe - the idea that it's all real and we're going to act like it. These are all things I love about the books I read, plus acrobatics and feats of strength. And I get to yell the whole time. As with books, my tastes lean increasingly toward the indies. Black Label Pro is the local promotion where I live, and I get pumped about every show.


Other than the  horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?


Crime stories are a lot of fun. I like thrillers when they can still surprise me, and I'm crazy about pulpy noir stuff. Characters with serious flaws, living on the margins of society, violating laws and social norms, are my favorite kind to read about. They're my favorite kind to write, too.
 
A friend once told me I collect weirdos. I know some genuine characters who naturally generate story ideas whenever they're around. They've definitely been a major influence on my work.
 
 
The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations.  What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?


I think horror, in a broad sense, is all about the thrill of discomfort. Good horror will make us feel some combination of fear, disgust, and excitement. The best examples produce both mental and physical responses.
 
As far as moving past assumptions, I'm not sure we need to. People who don't like horror will assume it's all vampires, werewolves, and serial killers. People who do like it already know there's a wide spectrum of horrific things to read about.


A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?

One of the most terrifying books I've ever read, Prelude to the Massacre by Stan Miller, is not even strictly a horror novel. It's a dark noir story about some extreme right-wing racists who get radicalized to the point of wanting to commit mass murder. Miller nails the mindset. I went to school with a lot of people with tamer but similar perspectives, and have seen the same ideas reverberating through echo chambers around the Internet. Extreme ideologies and mass killings are a match made in hell. They're also a fact of life at this point and prime fodder for the horror mill.
 

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

One of my fourth-grade teachers introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft, corrupting my young mind forever. I'll forever have a love of unspeakable cosmic horror, secret death cults, and inbred, backwoods weirdos. He's always been an inspiration in terms of the horrors I create.
 
His writing style, though, is something I've always found tedious. It's hard enough to get through as a grown man. I have no idea how I read it as a child. I prefer easy-flowing, conversational writing, like Bukowski, Vonnegut, or Palahniuk. They tell stories on paper like they'd tell them in real life. I try to do the same thing.
 
Rosemary's Baby, the book and the movie, is my go-to masterclass in the art of slow-burning dread. Something is terribly wrong. We're not sure what it is, but it's going to get a lot worse before it's over. I'll always strive to pull that feeling off half as well as Levin did.
 

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?

Nathan Ballingrud and William Pauley III are a couple of my favorites. I like the realness of their characters combined with the weird, otherworldly terror they experience.
 

How would you describe your writing style?


Concise. I'm less interested in masturbating to my collection of ten-dollar words than I am in telling an engaging story. I'm also a natural smart-ass with a dark sense of humor, which comes across in my work. I don't set out intending to be funny. It just comes out that way. On the other hand, I've had readers who didn't think my work was humorous at all, but liked it anyway.


Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

Several people compared Buying Illegal Bugs with Bitcoin to David Cronenberg movies. I thought that was cool as hell. It wasn't intentional on my part, but I definitely take it as a compliment. The Fly freaked me out as a kid.
 

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

Deciding what idea I'm going to flesh out into a whole book is tough. There are so many seeds floating through my head, waiting to be germinated. I also have a lot of trouble balancing paid writing with the stuff I want to write.
 

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?


I had a gig for a couple years churning out pornstar biographies for one of the big video sites. If you've looked at naked people on the Internet, you've probably seen it. One of the actresses on my list didn't have much info in any of the databases I had access to, so I turned to Google. I found a long article about her. It turned out she was a drug addict and prostitute with an abusive pimp who basically forced her into porn. He later murdered her. Of course, this isn't what people want to read when they've got the lotion and tissues out, so I just rambled for a couple paragraphs about her unstoppable libido and impressive breast size.

I can't think of anything I could write in a story that would make me feel as gross and dirty as that still makes me feel.
 

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
I don't think too hard about character names. It's usually the first thing that pops into my head. Last names are harder and generally not even necessary, so I tend to skip them. I gave the lead in my newest book the last name Samsa, a reference to Gregor Samsa in Kafka's Metamorphosis. Both stories are about bugs.



Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? 


Writing web content has taught me to write tight paragraphs made of short sentences. It's easy to read when your attention span is addled by information overload, as mine is. My editor for the porn bios was more of a grammar hard-ass than you'd expect on such a gig, and helped me fix a lot of my writing weaknesses.


What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?         


Writing is pretty self-contained. Perseverance will get you so much further than any particular writing implement or outlining app.
 

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?


Read a lot of books.


Getting your work noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?

So far, I've just gone the free route. I ask for reviews around the Internet and sometimes do free ebook download days. Making friends with people who have similar tastes on Goodreads is probably the most effective thing I've done. It's also a lot of fun and helps me find new books to read.
 

To many writers, the characters they write become like children, who is your favourite child, and who is your least  favourite to write for and why?

The unreliable narrator of Fidget Spinners Destroyed My Family is a mean, unreasonable, narcissistic drunk and generally all-around terrible person. Maybe it says something about me that she was so much fun to write.
 
The main antagonist in Buying Illegal Bugs with Bitcoin is also a nasty person, but less fun to write. His dialogue is amalgamated from all the racist shit I heard growing up as a mysteriously ethnic dude in a rural White ghetto. I wanted readers to feel the same discomfort I did while writing him.
 

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?


Buying Illegal Bugs with Bitcoin represents decades of evolution as a writer, and emcompasses some of my favorite elements in fiction: weird horror, bugs, criminal situations that spiral rapidly out of control, eccentric characters, and a smart-ass slacker as the narrator. I couldn't be happier with how it all came together.
 

And are there any that you would like to forget about?


I must have forgotten them already.


For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your  books do you think best represents your work and why?

Again, it's got to be Illegal Bugs. It's the purest distillation of the voice I've been developing and the themes I've been touching on for years.
 

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
I have so many darlings. Here's a snippet from Illegal Bugs. Our bug-loving hero has just escaped a close encounter with a couple maniacs, and is riding the bus home. A young punk rocker next to him pulls out a switchblade to carve something into the seat.
 
Teddy nudged me before he got off. “Later, man,” he said, throwing up devil horns with both fists. Then he switched hand gestures, giving the bus driver dual middle fingers as he went down the stairs.
 
I looked over at the fresco the budding Michelangelo had donated to the city.
 
“Holy shit.”
 
Gouged deep into the plastic and crawling around the anarchy sign was some kind of centipede thing. It had a skull for a head and a huge penis ejaculating toward the top of the seat, just like in nature. A human head was squeezed in its fanged jaws, the previous owner spurting blood from a jagged neck hole. His hands were up as if trying to feel for his missing cranium.

The illustration was crude and the details minimal, but I couldn’t help noticing the victim was wearing a zip-up hoodie. It reminded me of the one I had on.


Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?


Before Illegal Bugs, I wrote Fidget Spinners Destroyed My Family. The book's genre is still a nebulous thing. It's been called a horror novella, a psycho-drama, a dark comedy, and a memoir. I maintain that it's a real-life cautionary tale about a trend that peaked around the same time I published it.
 
I have a few ideas I'm kicking around for my next one. It will probably involve petty criminals unwittingly meddling with diabolical forces beyond their comprehension.
 
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

People can write whatever they want, but I'm not going to read a book with the words "abandoned psychiatric hospital" in the synopsis.


What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?


Oh, that's tough. I read so many great ones. Die Empty, by Kirk Jones, was one of my favorite horror novels to come out in the last year. It's a dark and hilarious meditation on consumerism, middle age, and death, written in a transparent second-person POV that I've never seen before.
 
I give up on books I'm not enjoying, so I'm not disappointed often. Maybe Disappearance at Devil's Rock. It's a good book, but Tremblay set the bar really fucking high for himself with A Head Full of Ghosts.
 

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?


Is this a true story? Yes.

I write short stories, comics and screenplays in all spec genres as well as historical fiction. A few of my short stories have been published including one about a Kumiho. I regularly blog about writing, the horror genre and reviews at https://www.facebook.com/davidjenkinswriter  and several of my posts have been featured on numerous sites including Bloodshed and Comic Book News UK. I’m launching a Kickstarter for the first two issues of my horror comedy comic series ‘Vampires Of Hungary: The Holy Roman Empire’ at the end of March.


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Interview With The Vampire is my favourite film, Vampire Lestat is my favourite book and Spider-Man is my favourite comic book character. I like adaptions of works and comparing how they measure up to the original and unlike many people who say the book is better I think it depends on what you experienced first as you see that as the original.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I enjoy a variety of sports including badminton, roller skating and trampolining regularly.  Reading and watching films as well otherwise I wouldn’t be interested in writing or have any inspiration.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?


My local writing group (Skelmersdale) as when I first joined them I was writing only screenplays and not even very well. Now I write across most mediums and have picked up a few things to do with writing.
 
The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations.  What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?

When you say horror to me I assume monsters, killers and battling evil. But I feel a good section of people feel these things are childish and unrealistic. To combat this we need some more everyday horrors where it’s based on reality or where there’s a strong message so that people can see past their negative assumptions about horror like Get Out.

A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?


In a recession, zombies tend to prosper and even though the trend has abated a bit now I still see it continuing for a while.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

I remember watching Hammer films, Munsters, Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of The Dark as a kid and many of my stories are about creatures because of this.  Anno Dracula and The Vampire Chronicles are the biggest influence on my current project ‘Vampires Of Hungary: HRO’ as they showed how politics and history can be combined with horror and the human side of vampires.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?

Heide Goody and Ian Grant’s Clovenhoof series is one the best horror/fantasy/comedy series I have ever read and definitely worth a look for anyone who liked Little Nicky or Bedazzled. Edge Lit in Derby is a brilliant place to discover new authors as well.

How would you describe your writing style?


Simple but visual, I don’t rely on heavy description as the point of comics and screenplays is to just give a blueprint for the picture and dialogue.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?


Not any specifically, I did receive a positive review that was almost as long as the article they were reviewing and I was touched the amount of time they’d put into the review.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

Re-editing as once I’ve been though one lot of editing I’m reluctant to change my work even more due to the time I’ve already spent creating the story.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?

I don’t see me ever writing anything literary or about any of the nice subjects for Take A Break or Woman’s Weekly.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
I choose a few names based on meaning the rest are just random, although I like the name Alexei and have used it in several stories kinda like a Easter egg I suppose.


Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? 

I’ve branched into different genres and mediums, learnt a lot more about formatting and even my use of grammar as improved so much since I started writing.

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?         

For short stories and novels I’d recommend Grammarly and Pro Writing Aid to pick up any grammar issues, adverbs etc.  For scriptwriting Celtx in order to get the format right.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

To put more comedy into ‘Vampires Of Hungary’ before that I had a few comedy moments which diluted the horror but as I enjoyed writing those moments I didn’t want to lose them. Then my writing group suggested building upon them and that’s what I did.

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?


Facebook groups, twitter, forums, asking existing writers, following different websites and blogs to hear about any opportunities.  I’ve wrote blogs across several different websites and now include a tag describing what else I do.

To many writers, the characters they write become like children, who is your favourite child, and who is your least favourite to write for and why?

I like Barbara De Cilli from my ‘Vampires Of Hungary’ work because even though she’s an evil vampire, she’s got so many problems and interacts with so many different people I feel I can explore more of her personality.  Least favourite would probably be from one of my unpublished short stories as he’s so negative about life because of his wife’s death that it was really depressing writing him particularly because the situation he found himself in was realistic.

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
‘Vampires of Hungary’ as I have adapted it from my screenplay as I believe it can work across multiple mediums. I spent more time on the story and characters than any other work, I must have over 50 pages of notes and some plans on what direction the sequels can go.

And are there any that you would like to forget about?

Not really because they helped me grow as a writer.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?

‘Vampires Of Hungary’ the first two issues of which I’m going to launch as a Kickstarter in late March probably represents my work best as it spans most of my interest- horror, comedy, history and politics whereas most of my other work only spans two or three interest at most. For work already published I would have to say my ‘Retirement Town’ short story in our local writers group anthology ‘Endings’ as it shows how I can tie a spec genre (in this case sci-fi) with politics and write from a bad guy’s point of view but make us care about him slightly.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
Not one that stands out above others.

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?


Last published work would be my stories in ‘Endings’ the first was a sci-fi story on the attempt to transform Skelmersdale (where I live) into a town solely for old people complete with a hospital but there’s a backlash and a secret group trying to keep Skelmersdale independent. The second story was a monologue about Anthony Eden (British Prime Minster from 1955-1957) and his attempts to get back into power after his health problems and the public disgrace over the Suez Crisis
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

So many to choose from, I’ll go for tripping over nothing when there’s a killer right behind you. It ruins any realism.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
Last great book’ Queen Of the Tearling’ by Erika Johansen. Last disappointing book would be God Squad (book 3 in Clovenhoof series) by Heide Goody and Ian Grant but that’s mainly because it didn’t have Clovenhoof in it.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?

How would we survive a vampire apocalypse. Everybody focuses on a zombie apocalypse but if vampires where spreading they would be a lot harder to combat due to all their powers. My answer on how to stop the undead menace would sadly be trial and error as we’d need to deduce what the vampire’s weakness are first before we can fight back, hopefully it will be the sun I don’t think I could stand sparkly vampires.