Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I’m a lifelong daydreamer - I used to get into trouble in primary school for drifting off into worlds of my own imagining rather than paying attention in class. I would write stories about enormous insects or living statues for school projects, and scribbled pictures of skeleton ships and patchwork mutants in my exercise books. I’ve always been fascinated by things that are monstrous or frightening.

I specialise in writing what I call ‘incidentally queer’ fiction - stories with characters who happen to be LGBTQIA and where the plots don’t necessarily revolve around their sexualities.

Why horror?  What is appeal of the genre to you as both a fan and as a writer?

Horror is one of the oldest and most visceral kinds of fiction – we were telling stories around the fire to warn of the dark long before written literature or constructed novels. I find it very cathartic as a reader, and a writer, to tap into that.

Horror's also one of the broadest genres in literature, with some of the fewest restrictions – it can be supernatural or realistic, set against historical or fantastical or futuristic backgrounds, and doesn't require any specific plots or characters in order to work. There's so much depth and variety in published horror fiction at present, and I never get bored of exploring it.

As LBGTQ+ fan and writer of horror, how did you when you first became immersed in the genre and found that representation that you could identify was few and far between?

This one's a little difficult for me, because I was already immersed in horror long before I started coming to terms with my own identity or sexuality, and so I used to take a lot of what I was reading for granted.  By the  time I started to look for more diverse authors and characters, the genre was already becoming much broader – authors like Clive Barker, Caitlin Kiernan and Poppy Z Brite broke a significant number of barriers while I was still growing up.

How did you discover authors that wrote about characters that you could relate to?

I still find this quite difficult – although gay and lesbian characters are now much more common in horror fiction, finding bisexual protagonists is much harder, and non-binary or gender-queer fiction is almost nonexistent. I've had more luck with fantasy and science fiction than horror – Laura Lam, Kameron Hurley, Catherynne Valente, Rivers Solomon and Anna-Marie McLemore are all favourites of mine.

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

Fantasy was my first and fondest home in books - I grew up on The Hobbit and A Wizard of Earthsea, and became familiar with all kinds of supernatural and bizarre creatures before I ever turned to finding them in darker fiction. I think the line between fantasy and horror isn’t always easily defined - both depend on an element of the unexplainable or hint at events beyond our comprehension or control.

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 people often tend to associate horror with a set of genre trappings  - serial killers, zombies and so on – when I'd focus on the underlying philosophy of any given story. For me, a work of horror sets out to disturb the audience on a fundamental level - not simply to make them afraid of the individual monster but to make the world as a whole feel less safe and well-defined. If you give the audience what they expect, such as in a formula slasher plot, I’d actually argue it stops being horror because you’re comforting your readers and viewers instead of challenging them.
There’s a lot of great, diverse horror being written that doesn’t fit the genre formulas or stereotypes - I think we could work harder to highlight it.

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?

Environmental horror is the obvious one - I think we’ll see more modern equivalents of the nuclear threat and giant insect craze of 1950s B-Movies, as well as the social breakdown narratives that first sprung up after the Vietnam war.

To counterbalance that, we’re already seeing a revival of traditional gothic stories in both books and film - I think these have a more escapist appeal for people, and will continue to be successful given the state of the world outside.

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

I used to be far too scared of horror books and films as a child to read or watch them, but in my teens I stumbled into ghost stories in a big way - Shirley Jackson and M R James in literature, and the original Japanese versions of Ring, Dark Water and The Grudge in film led me into looking into their own influences and getting properly into the genre as a whole. I also started watching David Lynch around the same time, and his work made a particularly powerful impression on me - I don’t think I ever saw the world the same way again after Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive.

In recent years there has been a slow but gradual diversification within the genre, which new LBGTQ+ writers do you think we should be paying attention to? 

Amber Dawn is a long-running writer who recently moved into horror with her extraordinary novel Sodom Road Exit, which I can't recommend enough.
Daisy Johnson has had more attention in mainstream literary circles after her Booker prize nomination, but her short stories in Fen tapped into some very dark places, and I’m hoping she isn’t done with the genre yet.

Helen Oyeyemi's White is for Witching is one of the best gothic novels of this century – a relentlessly effective book part-narrated by the haunted house itself.

How would you describe your writing style?

Experimental - I’m always trying to find new ways of telling a story or trying to communicate a particular state of mind. My first novel, Lamplight, had a fragmentary back-and-forth style inspired by the way people hold conversations over social media, and my second, The Stickman’s Legacy, uses stylistic interludes and self-aware narrative to explore the heroine’s journey across different overlapping worlds.

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

Bringing everything together. Starting a new story is all very fresh and exciting - my ideas can practically fly off the page - but wrapping it up and editing it into a complete, coherent book can turn into a grind sometimes. I’ve got far too many half-started books compared to finished ones - as have many writers!

Are there any subjects that you would never write about?

Animal cruelty. I don’t like to think of myself as squeamish - and I certainly don’t judge other people for writing it - but something in me finds it much harder to contemplate than horrible things happening to people.

Sexual violence is also a difficult one - I wouldn’t say never, but I’d need to have a story that justified it first.

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

I had a tendency to overwrite everything when I started out, using a dozen words where one would do just as well. I wouldn’t say I’ve completely got rid of the habit, but I like to think I do it a great deal less.

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

Accept that your first book will be terrible, and that writing a bad book is a necessary step to producing a good one. It’s very easy to get hung up on trying to make your first book some kind of literary masterpiece, and realising that I instead needed to see it as a learning experience really helped me move on and improve my craft.

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you attempted to break through the barriers that are so often in place against LBGTQ+ writers?

I've tried to get my work noticed any number of different ways - social media across various channels, giveaways, review copies, open mic events and poetry readings, even contacting traditional media. It can be tremendously frustrating - I’ve had as many rejections when looking for reviews as I had trying to get my work published in the first place – but it's also impossible to know how many of those rejections have been because the book is LGBTQ+ and whether any of the reviewers or outlets would have looked at it otherwise. I think any barriers are all the more difficult for writers to deal with because their effect is often impossible to measure.

Many CIS white male authors use LGBTQ+ characters in their works, what’s the mistake that they make when trying to portray these characters?

Although I wouldn't say it's universal – some CIS writers can portray queer characters extremely well – the most common mistake is using the historically taboo aspects of being LGBTQ+ to write books that only give it negative connotations – having it be the cause of mental illness, a source of moral temptation, or exclusively associated with the villains of the book. Horror fiction thrives on social taboo, so there's obviously been a lot of older work written along these lines, but there's no excuse for doing it in the present day.

Moving on to getting your work read by unwashed masses, what do you think is the biggest misconception about LGBTQ+ fiction?
 
I think too many people expect a book with LGBTQ+ characters to be an 'issue book' - one that's about the queer experience itself, where coming out or self-discovery or learning to live with prejudice are central to the plot – when that's only a very narrow band of LGBTQ+ books. Most genre fiction with queer characters isn't and doesn't have to be about their sexuality.

There are as number of presses dedicated to LGBTQ+ fiction, do you view these as a good thing, or do you think they help to perpetuate the ongoing exclusion from mainstream presses?

I think it's a good thing – although it would obviously be better if all mainstream presses embraced queer fiction, having those specialist outlets available for LGBTQ+ writers and readers at least means the books are discoverable and gaining more visibility. I think that without them we'd simply have less LGBTQ+ fiction available altogether.

And here is the million dollar question do you agree with movements like this and things such as Women in Horror Month?  If so how would you like to see sites such as Ginger Nuts of Horror tackle diversity? 

I think spotlight months like this one are really helpful, especially coming from a site like Ginger Nuts of Horror that normally focuses on the genre as a whole. I'd like to see other promotional months for groups like writers of colour.

The most common phrase you hear when people object to active movements to encourage all forms of diversity is “I don’t care about the sexuality, gender, color etc etc of the writer I only care about good stories” what would you like to say to these people?

I'd say they're being disingenuous – if they genuinely only care about good stories then they should welcome movements that encourage a wider range of authors to write them.

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

My favourite and least favourite both are always whoever I’m writing at the time - they become fulfilling and frustrating all at once, and I’m sorely in need of a break from them by the time the book is finished!
Out of my published books, Mary in The Stickman’s Legacy was my favourite to write for, and Terry in Lamplight, who’s an antagonist of sorts, was easily my least favourite.

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

 It seems a little obvious, but it’s my most recent book, The Stickman’s Legacy. I spent years planning and creating the world and characters, then two years working on the first draft and another year re-writing it from scratch. It sometimes feels like half my life went into it.

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

The Stickman’s Legacy - out of my two books I think it best captures the kind of world and atmosphere I’m trying to create.
 
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

The Stickman’s Legacy is my newest book, and it’s a dark fairytale about a young woman investigating the death of her missing father, and discovering that his enemies are still very much alive. It features the old-fashioned type of fairies - child-stealers and blood-drinkers rather than granting wishes - and I based a lot of it on 19th-century folklore gathered from around the world.

I’m working on several different projects at present, but the next one I finish will probably be a dissociative supernatural murder mystery from the point of view of a girl with a chronic illness.

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

I’ve read several great books this year, but the most recent would be Seth Dickinson’s The Monster Baru Cormorant - a sophisticated, surreal and deeply disturbing novel from the point of view of an economic savant and budding tyrant as she jockeys for power in a brutal imperial society.

I was a little disappointed by Night Film -  not necessarily a bad book, but I was lead to expect a sinister and unsettling thriller and didn’t find it the least bit frightening; and it built mysteries a great deal more effectively than it answered them.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
​
I actually wish someone would ask me the much-hated question of ‘Where do your ideas come from?’
I dream many of mine. The trick is editing out the parts of the dream that are just everyday anxieties and leaving the peculiar core intact. Those I don’t dream come from asking myself questions - what could this thing do or be if it were allowed to happen? And what would follow after?
Social Media:

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
​
I like black coffee, white wine, and dirty martinis; I still smoke cigarettes; I prefer large sunglasses and mostly wear dresses; I’m a bag girl not a shoe girl; I love to clean my house while listening to film commentaries. My favorite flavor of ice cream is Butter Crunch.

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

I consider reading part of writing, so I bird watch in my yard, engage in audio, video, and scrapbook projects, volunteer at a local aquarium, and co-host the Dark Discussions podcast.

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

The places I visit, urban legends and National Geographic articles. I fall in love with anywhere that’s abandoned, cities and towns, or amusement parks and attractions. A story often starts when I set foot somewhere new and connect it with an urban legend or a tidbit I read in National Geographic.
 
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?

Horror is subjective; what’s scary to one person isn’t necessarily scary to another, and this is because we each have different life experiences. There is plenty of real horror in the world, and the monsters we encounter in movies and books are exaggerated stand-ins for the world’s real ones: grief, loss, death, disease, famine, abandonment, abuse, corruption…it’s a long list.  When people think of horror, they don’t think about the work as metaphor. If we were to reframe horror as commentary on the world’s afflictions, we might get there. But this also places a responsibility on the creators of horror to want to make it something deeper as well.

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?

I’ve already seen a strong trend in themes dealing with identity (probably due to the rise in social media) and grief (probably due to our wider exposure to tragedy). I think, as social media and the focus on the self and individualism continues to rise, we’re going to see more psychological thrillers embracing these themes. I also think, as we, through social media, begin to accept vulnerabilities—such as depression and social anxiety—in ourselves and others, we’re going to see more characters reflecting those vulnerabilities.

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

My work is heavily influenced by Poe, Koji Suzuki, creative memoir, and classic short stories like “Leiningen vs the Ants,” “The Monkey’s Paw,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper.” As far as what started me on all this back when I was a kid, my earliest film influences were back in the 1970s on Saturday afternoon television: Trilogy of Terror, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, The Haunting, The Fall of the House of Usher, The UFO Incident, Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Jaws, Grey Lady Down, The Towering Inferno, Telefon, and Raise the Titanic. As far as books, I was always reading about volcanic eruptions, shipwrecks, sharks and the Bermuda Triangle. I read National Geographic cover to cover and 1970s thrillers. I remember I really loved Ghost Boat and Irving Wallace’s The Word.
 
What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice of?

There are some fantastic short story writers I’ve recently discovered. Douglas Bruton wrote an incredibly emotional piece called “Thirteen Wedding Dresses” that recently appeared in an issue of The Fiction Desk. He’s won some awards for his work, but he’s over in Scotland and I’m hoping he gets a more international following. Kris Ashton is an Australian writer, and his short work—mostly speculative—is wonderful, too. His short “Highway Memorials” is both sad and thought-provoking. Again, I’d like to see him get more attention over here.

How would you describe your writing style?

It really depends on what I’m writing, because I look at each story as a captured moment in my life rendered in fiction, so sometimes, they have very different feels depending on what mood I’m in when it was created. I’ve been told many of my stories are sad, and that’s probably because grief is a theme I don’t seem to be done writing about yet. A hefty chunk of my stories features the unreliable narrator, because it’s the most like reality: we are all unreliable narrators in our own lives (that’s also my love of Poe bleeding onto the page). My other hallmarks are vibrant settings, at least one “out-there” or “larger than life” character, drastically varying speech patterns in dialogue, and single effect—rarely is “red” just the color red—everything usually means something else.

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

Yes. A Shock Totem reviewer of my novel, Bad Apple, gushed about how wonderful it was, going so far as to note it was such “a powerful and enlightening tale…completely feminine in the best of ways”…and also noted that I’d been painted into a corner at the end and used a technique that he wasn’t thrilled with. But he was absolutely right about the ending, and I felt it was a fair review. I have never forgotten that, and since then, I’ve been careful to make certain it doesn’t happen again. It was a powerful lesson for which I’m thankful.

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

I find it takes more time and focus to create the raw material than it does to polish; to me, the exciting part is the revision process. That’s where the art and craft come in.

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

I don’t consider anything taboo—whatever shows up, shows up—but I’ve found I naturally don’t write graphic violence and/or sex. I like a good slasher or something sexually explicit, but I don’t enjoy writing it.

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

Names are crucial, but they’re usually finalized at the end of the process. When I’m in the throes of writing, I slap down the first names that come to my head, but in the end, I like to contribute to the single effect, so I’ll choose them based on meaning. Unless, of course, it just feels right. Sometimes the original name turns out to be the best fit.


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

Everyone says to be a good writer, you must read, read, read. That’s true. The other thing that makes one a good writer is training and studying, and having the humility to accept that you’re never an expert. I’ve developed because I’ve read, and I’ve studied, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing that, because it’s the only way to improve. I’ve also found that taking breaks from writing and working on something else creatively—and I’m talking about long breaks, a few months—is refreshing; my work is often tighter when I return to it following a hiatus.

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

A coffee cup, a candle, a pen and paper, and a playlist.

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

There are a few that come to mind, but the two I tend to live by: My dad was a teacher, and he always used to say about his job, “if I reach one person, I’ve done my job.” I adapted that to my writing, meaning that if a piece I wrote affected even just one individual, if I made him think or shifted his perspective or inspired him—which many times we writers don’t hear about—then I’ve been successful as an artist. The second is from my mentor the late Daniel Pearlman, who said that “you have to make sure the movie that’s in your mind makes it to the page so that the reader isn’t confused.” Meaning, make sure that everything is clear, because sometimes, we think we’ve put things we intended to into the work but really haven’t—because we, as writers, are living in that world and know things about it the reader doesn’t.

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

I don’t write for recognition or to make a living, because for me it isn’t about that. Getting it out there so that people read it in the hopes I’ll reach that one person is what it’s about for me. Yes, I have to do my marketing; yes, I have to put myself out there; yes, I have to write blog posts, and I have to be willing to spend money to promote and do what it takes so the stuff gets read. But in the end, if that’s all I’m focused on, I’m really not much more than a car salesman. Most of my time is spent on the craft and the work. You can’t change people’s lives if what you’ve written isn’t powerful enough to affect them. So my advice is, quality first, promotion second, and where the latter’s concerned, just do as much as you can without sacrificing the time you need to make great art. There’s so much noise out there that even if you obsess on it and do everything right, there’s no guarantee you’re going to get the results you expect. The sooner you accept that, the happier you’ll be.

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

My favorite is definitely Todd from This Poisoned Ground, because he’s so complex; getting him to come alive on the page required understanding his inner workings, and how his conflicting emotions and paradoxical personality traits could co-exist. He was a huge challenge, and one I could embrace. Helene, from “Under the Kudzu,” was my least favorite, because she was deliberately written to be a blank slate. She couldn’t be fleshed out, but still had to be rendered so the reader could engage with her. She was a challenge also, just not a fun one.

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

My latest short story, “Wrecking Malcolm,” was inspired by a recently-discovered shipwreck graveyard in Rhode Island. I had some personal issues going on at the time, and what I needed to express collided with my fascination with the graveyard and some unresolved issues from my past. What came out was a well-blended supernatural cocktail. Although I’m also enormously proud of the four prize-winning tales I wrote for the Toasted Cheese Dead of Winter Contests: “Wailing Station,” “King of Bull,” “Bridging Christmas,” and “A Bone to Pick.” Twisting a given theme on its ear is one my specialties.
 
And are there any that you would like to forget about?

Of course. I’ve been getting work published since I was 13 years old, so there is plenty (although, thank God, there wasn’t the Internet or Amazon for over half my career, so most of it’s gone now). A short (published) story called “All Dolled Up” is pretty clichéd and predictable; the short (published) pieces “Growlers” and “May You Grow Old and Bitter” feel like they just need more work in terms of the endings, and the published “The Lace in the Window,” which I wrote for my wedding, feels contrived. I have a dozen or more that I’m not super proud of, but I don’t beat myself up over them for two reasons: A, this is all a growth process, and as a writer, you should always be improving; and B, honestly? I’ve read much worse by others that’s actually won awards. So it’s very much about the journey, and about understanding that one’s man’s junk is another’s treasure.

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

“Splendid Chyna”—one of three novellas in a collection called Three on a Match—is a great example of how I take an abandoned amusement park setting and turn it on its ear, and it’s also got one of my signature “out there” characters—everybody seems to love Farah.  This Poisoned Ground is where Poe’s influence is extremely strong, and both “A Bone to Pick” and “King of Bull”—which are available online at Toasted Cheese—are my best examples of the unreliable narrator. One of the stories featuring my most vivid settings is “Wailing Station,” also available at Toasted Cheese.
 
Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?

There are so many passages that I love, but it’s not necessarily because of how I wrote them. I often feel that I’m writing something just for me. My favorite new passage is from an unpublished story that hasn’t found a home yet, so I don’t want to reveal it here. But one passage I like to read repeatedly when I feel sad—it comforts me; I feel not so alone, and that things in my life could be far worse—is this one. It’s the opening of the short story “Roots,” which is being reprinted in the upcoming The Shadows Behind:
 
The only place I see my daughter Anna’s face now is on a milk carton.

She was just five years old when she wandered out the back door into the woods behind the house and disappeared, but in that moment, less traumatic but still painful, I lost more than the Anna I loved. The other women on Merrow Street—neighbors, friends, confidantes—withdrew; they didn’t understand because they still had their children. Oh, certainly, in those first days they were all aflutter, alighting on my doorstep with their lasagnas, cookies, and wine. Two weeks in, their voluntary visits tapered off, and despite my well-in-advance invitations, they had their excuses: Bethany was in the weeds picking up after the girls; Diane had to take Derek and Tyler to soccer practice; Sabrina had to give Miranda her piano lesson. I knew, of course, that they weren’t really that consumed; they hadn’t been too busy for me when I had my Anna. They regarded me as though I had an infectious condition; as though the loss of a child were viral; as though being near me were to guarantee that one day their children would disappear, too.

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

The Shadows Behind is a collection of new and reprinted short stories. Each story deals with the monsters that live inside us and has supernatural elements (I’ve often thought of my work more as magic realism than anything else). My next project is a novella called “Tidings.” It has to do with one of my passions—birds—and although it’s typical of my style, it’s also a love story. I don’t want to talk about specifics, because if I do, I’ll let all the energy out of it, and I won’t finish it.


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

I toe-curl at the “moving into a haunted house” scenario, although the reality is? If you believe in that phenomenon (my husband is an occult researcher), that’s the way it happens in real life. I love ghost stories, and we have seen new ways to tell them over the years, but this scenario just won’t let us go.

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

I often read in other genres besides horror, and so the last great book I read that I couldn’t put down was Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World by Noah Stricker. It’s a creative memoir about a man who embarks on an international Big Year. Powerfully written, moving, and solid. The last book that disappointed me was A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons. I loved The Terror, so I was excited to read this. It was fine, and I’d  even recommend it to people who like ghost stories, but it wasn’t what I’d hoped.

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

The question I’ve always wished someone would ask was this: Was your family supportive of your writing? If not, what advice would you give to other writers who may feel as though their loved ones don’t support them?
 
My parents constantly discouraged me from spending time on my writing in favor of “something more productive” (mostly whatever their own agenda was that day), or critical when I got something published (“you could’ve thought of a better title” or “why don’t you write something happy?”). In fact, my father stopped paying for me to go to college in my senior year because I refused to move home and finish out locally.  But, eventually, I not only finished my BA but also got my MFA—and I paid my own way and went to the schools I wanted to. I’m grateful, because their objections just made me persist. I wouldn’t have gotten this far with my work if they hadn’t been so unsupportive. So, if you’re a writer and you’re constantly undermined by those you love? Don’t let that discourage or stop you. Use it as fuel instead. You might find that your determination to succeed is that much stronger for it.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
Born and raised on the east coast of the United States in the shadow of New York City, I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1999 to pursue a career in newspaper journalism. I was a reporter and magazine writer for 14 years before moving into public relations and marketing.
 
I’ve been writing fiction since I was a young kid. I started out writing fantasy novels and short stories before moving into “serious literary fiction” as a college student. Later, after a long hiatus writing fiction, I wrote two more novels (both remain unpublished) and had started my third when I got stuck and decided to take a crack at writing in my favorite genre – horror. A year or two later, I had a dozen or so short horror stories and my first writing credit. I’ve been writing horror ever since.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
 
Spend time with my wife and son. Read widely across fiction genres and history. I am also a passionate baseball fan and die-hard Seattle Mariners fan (which means I watch a lot of losing baseball.) Big movie fan and TV binge watcher as well.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I’m an English Lit student, so I like to think SOME of what I spent four years studying at college has found its way into my writing. However, I read a great deal of fantasy, science fiction and mystery writing, as well as a fair amount of history. That’s in addition to horror, of course, which I read widely.
 
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?
 
My feeling is that the best horror is atmospheric and infused with a gradual and unmistakeable feeling of dread. The feeling that something truly awful is going to happen to the protagonist. A great example is a classic of the horror genre I only read very recently – Song of Kali, by Dan Simmons. Simmons’ writing immerses you in the wretchedness that was Calcutta back in the 1970s – there’s a real sense of otherworldliness to it, almost as if the city is on another planet. Part of it is the authority with which he wrote that book – I am not an expert on Indian history or culture, and I know there has been some debate about the way Calcutta and Indian society was portrayed in Song of Kali, but the writing was so vivid that I often felt like I was there. And the protagonists felt doomed from the vert first page. THAT’S great horror writing. I don’t want to see that changed – I want to see MORE of it.

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?
 
I think, thankfully, we’re going to see more and more diverse voices in the horror genre. Points of view and stories that might not have had much of a chance of getting told even five or 10 years ago. Jordan Peele comes to mind. I was a big fan of Get Out and I will be seeing Us on opening night, or shortly thereafter. The more diverse the genre becomes, the better. Maybe we’ll see more cross-pollination of new perspectives as writers – as they are wont to do – beg, borrow and steal ideas from one another. It can really make all of our storytelling so much richer. I really hope the current trend of diverse voices getting the attention they deserve continues.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
The Exorcist has probably had more influence on me than any other book, though I also consider H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Ambrose Bierce, Ray Bradbury and W.P. Kinsella to be major influences. From a film perspective, I’m all over the place – Star Wars, Star Trek and Halloween all made a huge impression on me as a kid.

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

How would you describe your writing style?
 
Economical and invisible to the reader, yet evocative of feeling. Hopefully. I always cringe when my writing “feels or sounds like writing” – typically that’s a sign I’m showing off my writing chops instead of trying to tell a good story. I think my long career as a newspaper reporter helped instill in me a sense that it’s verboten to insert myself into a story. That’s not why the reader paid for my book with his or her time and money. They paid to escape the real world for a little while and read a good yarn.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
My published work has not been widely reviewed, unfortunately. I am very grateful to all those who had taken the time to review what’s out there. My hope is that my work evokes a strong reaction one way or the other. And 14 years in newsrooms gave me a pretty thick skin. I won’t say I haven’t gotten criticism from editors (both news editors and fiction editors) that I disagreed with or dismissed out of hand because I have; but it doesn’t stay with me for long and I don’t take it personally. Better to get a negative reaction than NO reaction. And in the end, most of it’s completely subjective. Certainly there’s never a reason to lash out at reviewers. To my mind, it’s better to thank someone for giving you the gift of taking the time to read your work and provide feedback, good or bad, and leave it at that.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
Summoning the willpower to keep writing when I am stuck or when I am losing passion for a work in progress. Typically, I force myself to finish what I start, because such feelings of dissatisfaction and hopelessness are fleeting. Over the years, I’ve abandoned only a few projects, and I’ve hated doing it every single time. I’m not saying there aren’t times when letting a project go isn’t the right thing to do, because there are, but those times, for me, have been few and far between.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
No. I don’t think writers should shy away from any subject. In general, I think it’s a bad idea to write (or not write) out of fear. It’s true in writing and it’s definitely true in life.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
Names are pretty important. Great characters are people, and people have names that are as core to their beings as anything else about them. So it’s important to get names right. I choose names based on lots of factors, including when and where the story takes place. Different names have come into and fallen out of favor over the years, and they need to be authentic to the story’s time and place.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
Well, hopefully, I’ve gotten better at it! In all seriousness, I hope I’ve become more open minded and less controlling of my stories as they unfold on my laptop screen. Sometimes, you just gotta let your story be what it wants to be and get out of the way. Easier said than done.


What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
 
Passion for storytelling, discipline to read and write every day, curiosity and courage to ask one’s self the tough and scary questions that lead to great stories.


What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
Never stop writing.


Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
To date, I’ve had about 14 stories published in magazines, anthologies or podcasts, including two novellas. Getting my work noticed has been a tough go. For me, it started with magazine editors. And the only way to get your work noticed is to be relentless. Submit, submit, submit, submit.
 
More recently, I’ve tried to make use of my background in digital marketing to amplify news of my published work, but the challenge there is rising above the noise. And there’s a lot of noise out there. It’s a learning process, and, as in my day job as a marketer, the most critical thing for me is to keep trying new things to get my work noticed.

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


What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
It was never published, but to this day, the first novel I ever wrote is one of the works I’m most proud of. It was a huge accomplishment for me and very cathartic. I’ll never forget the moment when I wrote the last sentence and thought to myself, “That’s it. I did it. I’ve written a book.” Getting my first story published back in 2009 is a close second.
 
And are there any that you would like to forget about? Yes, pretty much anything I wrote before the age of 30.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
Hmm. Great question. I love combining history and horror, and both Old Hollow and The Death Chute have elements of both, so I’d have to go with those two.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
I’m a big fan of the final passages in Old Hollow, where the protagonist, U.S. Cavalry Captain Benjamin Lawson, comes face to face with the demonic creatures that killed one of his men earlier in the story.
 
Warning: Spoilers below.
 
Harsh rasps and whispers filled the night air, but Lawson ignored them. He started walking toward the creatures and lined up a shot. As he moved, a passage from a poem with which he’d become acquainted during his final year at West Point flashed through his mind. It had been a new poem at the time, appearing in all the popular magazines. The academy’s English composition instructor had forced the cadets in his charge to commit the entire poem to memory, though Lawson was damned if he could remember the title or author. One particular stanza came back to him as he fired:
“Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell ...”
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
Sure. My latest book is a horror novella called The Death Chute. It’s basically a classic haunted house story that takes place in an old tuberculosis sanatorium. The sanatorium has been converted into a posh rest home for seniors. The book comes out April 9 and is being released by indie publisher Aurelia Leo. It’s my second book with Aurelia, which published another horror novella of mine, Old Hollow, which takes place during the waning days of the American Civil War. Gingersnaps was kind enough to allow me to guest blog about Old Hollow and my love of historical horror stories a year or so ago.
 
At the moment, I’m working on the second draft of a new horror novel – it’s about a man who discovers an old console radio from the 1940s that he becomes obsessed with restoring. One night, the radio starts talking to him and telling him to “do things” and the things it tells him to do aren’t very nice. Hope to finish it up soon.


If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?
 
The whole “in the end, it was all a dream” cliché. You know, Bobby wakes up from a dream in Dallas. Man, I hate that crap.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
The last great book I read was The Dixon Cornbelt League, a collection of mystical baseball stories by W.P. Kinsella. Read it in about two days. The last book to disappoint me? Probably Live and Let Die, by Ian Fleming. I’m a huge James Bond fan, but some of the writing in the Fleming books hasn’t aged well, specifically the way women and minorities are portrayed. It’s not really a fair criticism because all writers are products of their time to a certain extent, but what I can tell you is there were several times when I was knocked out of the story due to language and word choice. This isn’t to say it’s a bad book or Fleming was a bad writer – neither is true – I just know what I felt when I read that book, and it was disappointment.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer?
 
Question: Why do you love the horror genre?
 
Answer: More than any other genre, horror allows writers (and readers, of course) to explore the things that scare us the most – usually, the fear of the unknown. It’s scary to not know what’s going to happen, and our fears change as we age. When I was a kid, I was afraid I’d never grow up. When I was a young man, I was afraid I’d never find a job or someone to share my life with. As a middle-aged man, now with a wife and a son, my greatest fear is losing those who are most important to me – my wife and my son – through some terrible accident or misfortune. Another fear I have that I feel more and more is the realization that I’m pretty much at the halfway point. Will I ever get where I really want to be – writing full time? I don’t know. But there’s a lot of grist to write about there, wouldn’t you say?
​

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
I’m a writer from Long Beach, California.
 
I started playing roleplaying games in the late 1970s/early 1980s. This started with D&D which led to Call of Cthulhu, which led me and my library card to HP Lovecraft which opened the door to horror fiction for me. I was already a big reader of fantasy, Tolkien had already led to D&D, so I suppose there’s a circular path in there.
 
After watching the original Cosmos, I wanted to be an astronomer, but when it came time for university, it was clear I wasn’t good at math, but I was good at literature and history, and I earned a History degree, specializing in ancient and medieval history.
 
When I moved out of the house, I was lucky enough to have roommates who went to work at Blizzard Entertainment. They helped me leave my miserable delivery job that I had stuck with way too long due to my obsession with Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash, and I started in the testing department at Blizzard. I worked there for eight years and got to work on games such as Diablo 1 and 2, Starcraft, Warcraft III, and much of the early testing on World of Warcraft. I then moved to Seattle for six years, where I was happy to get to work with great people, at a terrible company for part of it, and then got to work with great people at a great company on the game Torchlight.
 
The games industry expects crazy hours, and I wanted to spend more time writing. I’d sold a couple short stories while I was living in Seattle, and when moving back to Long Beach gave me the chance to spend more time reading and writing, I took it.
 
So far in addition to a handful of short stories, I’ve written three novels that have been published by Omnium Gatherum books: The Whisperer in Dissonance (2014) , End Times at Ridgemont High (2015), and Four Corners (2019).

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
 
Reading, movies, or in this era, television, I’m pretty obsessed with stories. Along the same lines I still play roleplaying games regularly, tabletop games less often but whenever I can. My other obsessions are: music, mathematics, whisky, cooking.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
Really all genres. I learned to read, I mean proper see it in your mind’s eye read, when I was a kid because my dad read us the Lord of the Rings, and I wanted to hear it again, but my dad was always working so if I wanted the story again I had to read it myself. Fantasy fiction has always been my favorite to get lost in, although I also think it has horror elements. At least when your seven, that chapter where the black riders come into Bree… I still get a shiver. Along with fantasy I grew up reading comic books and the classic science fiction writers, then Douglas Adams came along and Hitchhikers Guide joined Lord of the Rings as the books I’d reread whenever I needed cheering up. When I grew a bit older I discovered the hardboiled detective fiction, and I’m named Ian because my mother really liked spy novels (lucky for me I was born when I was, a year later and I’m pretty sure my middle name would’ve been Le Carre), so I think genre fiction has always been there for me.
 
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 know exactly what you mean. I’ve been in the HWA tent at the Los Angeles Time Festival of Books a few times, and a sizeable number of people turn away saying, “I don’t like horror” and the odd thing is, I think it’s a difference preconception for each of them, or at least one of a number of different preconceptions: some mean they don’t like vampire stories, others don’t want to read torture porn or slasher stories. The cause varies but the reaction is the same.
 
I think the answer must vary as well. Certainly there are people who want to read the torture porn or slasher stories, etc. But I think most readers would be open to horror stories if they weren’t thinking of them as automatically being about that preconception. I think some of this can be accomplished with crossed genres. Or at least I think that the horror averse reader assumes that they’ll spend the entire story with the character miserable, and who wants to be immersed in that? Just scanning the book shelves behind my monitor for the “horror” books, I don’t think any of them do this. I think the majority of those stories are fun. Okay the characters might not be having joy all the time, but they’re unlocking a mystery, discovering something weird, in a plot that verges more on science fiction with some intense scary bits. Just scanning a few on one shelf, I see the Cody Goodfellow books, which are often manic hilarity mixed with horror elements, the Laird Barron books a few of which have legitimately given me nightmares but tend to be more psychological than the characters being endlessly tortured, Robert Jackson’s American Elsewhere is set in a town so interesting it’s fun to spend time in that setting despite the horror. There’s a line in Twin Peaks about “I’m having the most beautiful dream and the worst nightmare at the same time,” and I think the two pair weirdly well together. To sum up this ramble, I think there needs to be a way of describing the genre to the averse reader to ensure them that there will be fun and joy and not just page to page terror.

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?
 
The way the world is going at the moment, I fear that future books will have to be written in the mud with a stick. But yes, what to write given the state of things is something I’ve worried about. It started that I was writing a lot of dystopian fiction only to have to throw it out because by the time I finished the story, the thing I was going to warn about had happened, only worse and also somehow, a lot stupider. This is going to sound odd coming from a writer who has written three novels with apocalyptic elements, but I’d like to see some optimism in fiction, given that there seems to be none in the real world currently. The crazy part of my mind almost wonders if we caused this. Did we write so many dystopias that we inverse The Man in the High Castled ourselves? Have we metad the wrong direction? Unfortunately I don’t know if optimism is in my wheelhouse, but I think I’m going to try.

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

I think I’m paralyzed by the possibilities for the answer to that question. I read so much and so often get totally carried away by stories.
 
Since I’ve already mentioned a few of those stories in other questions, I’ll go with the Borges short story “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.” It’s a bit of metafiction about people who create a fictional world that starts to come into their reality because that’s what happens within their story.
 
For a movie I’ll pick How to get Ahead in Advertising, although Chinatown or They Live or a whole bunch others are tempting.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
I’m not sure at what the metric is on new and upcoming. Two writers I’ve met who I think are great horror writers are S.P. Miskowski and John Claude Smith. I look up to both of them, both for their prose and for their storytelling. Pete Aldin is an Australian writer with some great updates on werewolf and zombie fiction in particular. In addition to his excellent what if Tom Waits were a deity in a fantasy series books, Brent Kelley has actually written a dystopian novel that actually disgusted me, and I’m usually pretty jaded.  

How would you describe your writing style?
 
The good thing about my writing style is it’s usually fast paced. There’s an Elmore Leonard line about cutting out the bits you’d skip over while you’re reading. Sometimes I do that too much, but fortunately editors have been kind enough to help. I guess that’s the best description of my writing style is I really can’t thank editors enough.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
I’m still at the stage where I’m happy to get any reviews. I guess the one odd thing about that… Some of the blurbs on my first book were so nice, I took them way too seriously. The early drafts of my third book took forever to write partially because I kept thinking about those blurbs and “oh god, now I have to live up to that!”

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
Focusing on one story to get it written and not getting distracted by the million other stories I want to write is a tough one. Writing the middle of a story can be tough. Usually I know the beginning and the ending, but sometimes they don’t connect as well as I think they will. Ooh. Time is a big problem. It takes me so long to write that things change and I forget things and… I guess really all of it is a struggle, or everything is a struggle except research. I always like researching, I only sometimes like writing. If there were a way to do the research and have the story form magically, I’d take it.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
This is tricky, because answering the question is almost like writing about it. I think it’s unlikely I’d write a rape scene. There are other much better writers who can deal with this. I don’t think I could do it, and if I tried to write it I’d be terrified that I’d make some terrible mistake.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
 It didn’t occur to me to worry about the way things sound until I had to do readings and then I realized how much it matters. Names are very important. I try to make sure I research the name, where it comes from, what that says about the character’s background. There was a fantasy book I have since shelved (and been running as D&D instead) where every name was derived from a different language. Spent months researching those names, just to abandon the story, ah well.

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

I sure hope my writing has evolved in a positive way. One thing I’ve learned is that I need to write what I want to write. It seems obvious, but it took some learning. After my second book was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, but didn’t sell a lot of copies, I started worrying too much about sales. I tried writing a book for what I thought would be a mass market, and basically lost a couple of years to writing a boring book that thankfully is now in the trash where it belongs.  
 
What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?         
 
Everyone is different. For me the best thing I found is Scrivener. The way it helps separate a chapter from the main file, and a scene from the chapter, makes writing more manageable.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
Everybody is different and what works for one writer might not work for you. Like everything else I do, I’ve read tons of books about writing. For me I really like Stephen King’s On Writing, Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird, and Jeff Vandermeer’s Wonderbook isn’t just a great book for writers it’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen. But I think you need to treat writing advice as a buffet and select the parts you like or are very good for you and leave the rest for other people.

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
I’m pretty sure I’m terrible at this, but I’m trying. I’ve put up a website, I’m on social media, I’ve done readings, attended conventions etc. At the end of the day I think I’ve written some good stories, but I think it’s going to take a great story in order to stand out and get the word of mouth going. Hopefully Four Corners will be that book, if not, maybe it will be the next.

To many writers, the characters they write become like children, who is your favorite child, and who is your least favorite to write for and why?
 
My favorite character to write was Dean, the stoner surfer from my second book End Times at Ridgemont High. His chapters and scenes were as close to effortless as I’ve found writing, and he made me laugh which seems insane since I was writing what he did and said.
 
There’s never been a character I didn’t like writing, but if there were I’d guess it would be a character who fights a lot, or is the action hero in a group. For some reason I hate writing fight scenes. I’m going to have to get a lot better at this given some of the books I have planned, but at the moment it always feels like a chore.

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
I did so much research for Four Corners and the ways that research (what didn’t get cut) found its way into the book still surprises me. Without giving too much away, there’s a scene where the protagonists find a lost diary of John Wesley Powell (the man who first forded the Colorado River despite having lost part of an arm in the Civil War). I think I got Powell’s writing style down, or came close to it anyway. I love this and the way that an incredibly varied array of history works its way into that book.

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

I have stopped and started too many stories to count. I guess the book that I wrote in between End Times at Ridgemont High and Four Corners, the one where I was trying too hard to please an imagined market rather than writing what I want, I should forget about. It still bothers me because I think there’s a good book in there somewhere, but it’s not what I want to work on and probably is better forgotten.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
I think either Four Corners or The Whisperer in Dissonance are probably pretty good representations of my work and myself. Sleep deprived, too much coffee, scattered and often manic… yeah that about sums me up. Four Corners might be better, I sure hope my writing has improved over the last six years, but also I think the book with all its research conveys my wish to acquire knowledge to the reader. I hope.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
I like this chapter ender from Four Corners: When he passed each of the places where his comrades had been, all he found was their gun belts submerged in a puddle of rain water. Over each puddle a spiral petroglyph had been scratched into the rock.
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
My latest book is Four Corners. It’s a story of a conspiracy running through deep time set in the American southwest. As the characters unlock the mystery they find weird esoteric libraries in the guise of abandoned buildings, learn how the conspiracy affected the disappearance of the ancestral Puebloans and later the Puebloan revolt, how a modern cult had run ins with the Wild Bunch, uranium miners, and a lost cult classic psychedelic 70s western… amongst other madness.
 
There are two projects I’m really eager to start. One is a science fiction story in a fantasy setting. The other is a spyfi series I’d describe with shorthand as Sandbaggers in space.

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

The thing about clichés, is it often seems like they’re there for a reason, especially with horror. I’d suppose some things are just conveniences for the writer, describing a character by looking in the mirror for instance and we could probably do without these (I know I’ve done that one, shame on me.) On the other hand, I think I probably overuse having my characters be sleep deprived for instance, but a) write what you know and b) I think it’s a good way to make their perceptions unreliable which eases the weird into the book.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
I just read two books I really liked. A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman and Fire and Blood by George RR Martin. Both were histories, one fictional, but still. Both had a lot of great moments of backstabbing, treachery… I love the way Martin used a fictional historiography to make the sources of his book characters of their own. I don’t just highly recommend them, I recommend reading the two together.
 
Another nonfiction book I recently read was an account of the commando raid on the heavy water processing plant in Norway during World War II. I didn’t care for the style of the writing I suspect. There were jumps between the raid taking place and the interviews in the 1970s that I found hard to follow.  

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
Probably something to do with research. I’d probably have to admit that I have a research problem and need therapy for it.
 
Thanks for letting me ramble on!

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I was born in Newcastle, Australia which is a quiet little place with 5 beaches all within walking distance from each other. I started writing movies and that was my goal, to be the next Tarantino or Kevin Smith. But, then reality came crashing down on me and I turned to novels and short stories. And here I am.

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

Watching movies, playing video games and spending time with my wife. How about you?

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

My father and his father before him. They were natural storytellers and I was lucky enough to get the gift of the gab. That and the old Jim Henson TV series ‘The Storyteller’ with John Hurt in it.
 
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?

Well, “horror” is extremely subjective. I mean one man’s horror is another man’s pleasure. For me personally, “horror” is anything that cannot be described or explained rationally, so to break past the assumption that “horror” is a low genre or what-have-you we need to slowly move away from the standard clichés and some authors have already done that. Just look at Gabino Iglesias and John Hornor Jacobs, both have done that. But, for the majority “horror”, unfortunately, will always be the realm of jump scares and poorly defined characters.     

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?

The phrase “Big Brother is watching you” springs to mind. That and the infantility of society.

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

Oh, that is a tough one…For books I’d say David Eddings, Raymond E. Feist, Don Winslow, Jake Bible, Brian Keene and Miguel de Cervantes. Movies? The Princess Bride, Big Trouble in Little China, In The Mouth of Madness…Anything John Carpenter…Okay it’s better to go by director. Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, Edgar Wright, Billy Wilder, John Landis and Stuart Gordon.

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

Can I say myself? No? Oh, okay then…well, definitely Gabino Iglesias and John Hornor Jacobs and Valerie Lioudis, Angel Medina and Sylvester Barzey (those last ones specialize in Zombies)

How would you describe your writing style?

Very cinematic, since that was how I started. I go more for action and violence than creepiness, which I must work on.

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

Definitely, a review for my book ‘Flicker’ said “Don’s (the main character) journey is one that few will forget as both he and us are assaulted by the kind of vomit-inducing sights that would make Clive Barker say “steady on”.” I love the part about Clive Barker.

And the most negative was someone said about my very first book “a very condescending writer”, which I am still trying to figure out what they meant.

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

Hmmm…editing is the big one. I’m very much a one and done kind of author so the moment I type ‘the end’ that’s it. I move on. So, having to come back to edit is like dragging me to the dentist.

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

Nope. As long as I find it interesting and can spin it to horror then I’ll write about it.

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

Sometimes they are so important and other times a complete after thought. Honestly I go with how they sound. I try to find names that have a musicality to them, which to me at least means they’ll stay with the reader long after they have finished the book.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?

When I first started writing prose, I was constantly worried about how much description to put in and how long a chapter should be. Now, my mantra is “everything is as long as it needs to be, so quit worrying.” That and my research-fu has improved by leaps and bounds.

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

Having a thick skin is the best tool a writer can have. Whether you are traditional, indie or hybrid publishing you are releasing something into the world that is going to touch people. Some will accept it and be positive while others will try to tear you down because you have done something they never could or would.

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

So far it would have to be, switch to using a word processor…No, I’m serious. I used to write long-hand and give it to my lecturers and they would all say the same thing, “I don’t understand hieroglyphs.” Now, using a laptop my output has increased tenfold.

Other than that it would be “Don’t try to imitate anyone else, what makes your writing unique is that it comes from you and you alone. Nobody talks, thinks and writes like you do, so embrace it.”

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

You’re telling me! So far Facebook Groups and twitter have been the best approach. Stephen Kozeniewski has a facebook group for authors to tweet and re-tweet weekly any book related posts. That in itself has been a great help to me.

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

You mean I have to pick one?! Well, it would have to be Don English, the star of ‘Flicker’. He is a throwback to Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane but in a modern world full of horrors. He is my favourite. Now, least favourite? Well so far I haven’t gotten to that point, but the moment I do, I’ll let you know.

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

Definitely ‘Flicker’. And maybe a short movie script that I entered a competition. It didn’t win any awards but the feedback was great.
 
And are there any that you would like to forget about?

Certainly! I have a bunch of old short films that are just atrocious, and unfortunately they are on Youtube. And you know what they say, once it is online, it is there forever.

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

The Outback. It’s a short story in the Australian Outback during a post-apocalypse. It has everything that I love: action, drama, chills and thrills. The main character is not my favourite but close and there is this scene towards the end where I cried after writing it. Plus the ending is one that will either make you cheer or want to beat me up.

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

Certainly, it’s from The Outback, a description of a Dropbear (ask any Australian about it):

It was larger than a regular koala, at least four times the size and the already formidable claws were longer with serrated edges. The cute grey fur was now a mottled black colour with splotches of the familiar. The ears were slightly more pointed than regular ones but it was the face that inspired fear in the woman and the panicky attacks Dog would launch. The dropbears face was more long and the features heavier than the cute plush looking koala. The eyes were bigger but completely black and devoid of anything resembling life, the brow jutted forward and bathed the entire thing in shadow while the nose was more related to that of a bear or wolf. And the mouth…the mouth was filled with jagged fangs that went out in odd angles and seemed to penetrate the lips and cheeks. This thing was more hideous to Noni than the Resurrected.
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

My last book was a short story, ‘The Outback’. Before that I had two. One from Severed Press called ‘Kaiju World’ and the other was self-published, ‘Flicker’.

Right now I’m working on another short story called ‘White Dress’ about how far love can push us into doing truly horrific things and a novel called ‘Hound’, which is a bit like Cujo meets Jack Ketchum.

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

Definitely ‘jump scares’ and maybe having to explain everything. Sometimes no-explanation is scarier than finding a reason.

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

The last great book I read was Thomas Ligotti’s ‘The Conspiracy Against the Human Race’. It has really opened my way of thinking about horror and my next books will be more nihilistic and pessimistic towards humanity and horror.

And the last to disappoint me would have to have been James Ellroy’s ‘L.A. Confidential’. I read it after seeing the movie and it is just a sprawling mess that needed to be cut down by at least half…well that’s what I think.

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

That’s a good question! Let me see…Well, it would have to be “Are you corrupting hearts and minds with perverse prose and images?” To which I would emphatically say, “If anyone is old enough to make a decision about their jobs, meals and bedtimes then they can make the decision about what they read and not blame the author.”
Thank you and goodnight!

 
Tabatha Wood lives in Wellington, New Zealand with her husband and two boys. A former English teacher and school library manager, her first published books are non-fiction guides aimed at teachers and others who work in education. She now teaches from home, while writing in her spare time.

Born in Whitby, North Yorkshire, Tabatha has always had a passion for weaving strange, unusual often gothic tales, entwined with her deep love for the land and sea. She strongly encourages the use of writing and creativity for positive mental health, and runs a group which supports women who write for wellness. She also hosts writing workshops, often gets involved in cosplay charity events, and enjoys knitting and making jewellery.

Her short story collection, Dark Winds Over Wellington: Chilling Tales of the Weird & the Strange is the first time she has published her fiction.


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
I was born in ‘Dracula’ country. No, not Transylvania, but Whitby, on the north east coast of England. The imposing form of Whitby Abbey standing on the headland and glaring down upon the town was a constant reminder of the gothic myth, and in some ways, a powerful motivator.

I did write creepy stories when I was a kid, but I got a pretty negative reaction from my family, so I ended up abandoning writing fiction for a long while, and my first published works were books for education, which I wrote while I was working as a teacher. I’m proud of that achievement, but it’s a very different kind of writing, and not one which I derive much pleasure from.

I’m a Jack of all trades when it comes to writing and art, but I don’t see that as a negative thing at all. My most recent collection of short stories are rooted in horror and the supernatural, but I write material in a swathe of genres. I’m a bit of an ageing Goth-slash-hippy, and I’ve always been attracted to anything dark and weird, but I’m also a bit of a creativity magpie — writing, to me, is my “shiny” and I get very easily distracted, tempted and absorbed. I’m also a self proclaimed serial procrastinator; I need to have very clear goals, or I tend to wander off and start getting involved in something new. It’s only as I’ve got older that I've found the courage and the confidence to try writing fiction again, and I’ve also found different ways of working which I hadn’t explored before.

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

I love being outside in nature, and I have a passion for swimming in the sea off the coast of Wellington. I’m a water baby, but I stopped swimming for many years. I have nerve deafness in both ears, and for a long time I felt really uncomfortable about taking my hearing aids out to swim. I was too scared. Too self-conscious. I’m glad I’ve got over that now. Ocean swimming is both humbling and grounding — you can enjoy the feeling of being free in the water, while also being acutely aware that you can never get too comfortable just in case the sea decides it’s had enough of you. I like that. I like the excitement it brings.

Whenever I need to quieten my mind, or just get a sense of myself again, I go to the sea. The sea doesn’t care who you are or what you do — it can be beautiful and calm, or mighty and terrifying. It just does as it wants, it needs no validation. I can identify with that.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I read a lot. Of all kinds of stuff and by a whole range of authors. I’ll even be completely honest and say I don’t read nearly as much horror as I probably should.

I can never really pinpoint what the touch paper was, what triggered the explosion that provided my creative boom. While the usual male suspects of King, Koontz, Barker and Hutson got me into horror as a teen, it’s been other writers such as Tom Cox, Deric Longden, Ursula Le Guin, Karin Slaughter, Lee Murray, and the late, great Terry Pratchett who have helped me hone my own fiction writing. They all showed me very different ways of crafting a story.

Amanda Palmer’s ‘The Art of Asking’ is basically what inspired me to get off my backside and stop waiting for permission. Meeting and talking with (‘Constantine’ writer) Jamie Delano made me want to prove to myself that I could do this. A personal loss led me to using writing cathartically to balance myself again and embrace the habit of writing every day.

Around ten years ago I found myself getting into graphic novels much more than books. My husband is a big comic book fan, but they appealed to me most when I lacked the free time to actually sit down and read a novel. Raising my kids took priority. I’ve carried on reading them because the stories are just so good. Some of my favourite runs are: Brian K. Vaughn’s ‘Y, the Last Man’, Kieran Gillan’s ‘The Wicked and the Divine’, Garth Ennis’s ‘Preacher’, Warren Ellis’s ‘Transmetropolitan,’ all of the original ‘Constantine: Hellblazer’ series — Delano, Ennis, Gaiman, Carey, et al, and ‘The Astonishing X-Men.’ arcs written by Joss Whedon.

I used to be such a book snob at one point, I really didn’t understand what kind of positive impact comic books and their writers could have on the literary world. It’s a very different, visual style of writing, but one which I have found has taught me a lot in terms of thinking about story progression, dramatic tension and character arcs. Every time I write a story I think about how I would shoot it cinematically. This always helps me fully realise my characters, and consider their interactions within the narrative. Plus, its always kind of fun to imagine which actor or actress you might cast if you had the opportunity!
 
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 that a lot of people hear the word “horror” and assume blood, guts and grisly death. They think ‘Hellraiser’, 'American Horror Story' or ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ and they forget that horror doesn’t have to be disgusting, or even remotely bloody. I think a lot of that misunderstanding is due to the influence of movies and television which tend to use the horror tag to focus on the revolting and violent as much as the frightening. There is also that lingering social prejudice that horror writers and readers are a bit weird or unpleasant. There are as many clichés attached to horror writers as there are in some of the stories themselves. I initially struggled to find beta readers amongst my immediate writing feedback group because a lot of people said, “Oh, horror isn’t really my thing.” What they meant was, “I don’t like gruesome and grisly stories,” or, “I am concerned that people might think I am weird for liking this.” I had to promise them that it was “emotional horror” and not gore.

I actually used to worry that my stories weren’t horrific enough, that they didn’t even really fit into the horror genre. Not enough blood or monsters. Not weird or other-worldly enough. I understood that horror holds up a mirror to society and explores its fears. It highlights the distrust of the Other and the unknown. When I first started writing, I wasn’t fully sure how to capture that and present it without resorting to gratuitous bloodshed, and still be accepted as a ‘real’ horror writer. I now know that was because I didn’t really understand what being a writer of horror really meant to me personally. I needed to find my own style. 

Horror, much like speculative fiction, is such an umbrella term for any story which unsettles or revolts us. I know some authors even shun the term, and prefer to label their work as dark fiction, or gothic fantasy. Psychological horror always seems to get lumped in with thrillers, which makes no sense to me. Horror writers shouldn’t need to feel apologetic for their art, nor have to find alternative ways to describe it. We could definitely start by redefining some of the parameters of what the horror genre covers and start owning the horror label with pride, rather than trying to water it down by calling it something else for fear of alienating readers.

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?
 
I feel like we need stories which not only scare us, but educate us. Stories which don’t shy away from facing the monsters in our midst — quite specifically, certain governments and world leaders. Stories which acknowledge the potential for humanity’s impending doom, but offer some way we can change the narrative. I imagine we will see a lot of new horror focusing on our desire to terraform and build societies on other planets. Stories which focus on the likelihood of extinction events and our need to survive. I also anticipate much more dystopian horror — not just exploring themes of societal control and government intervention — but racial and sexual tensions, and the beasts who live beside us and within us which we can’t always see. Or don’t want to.

I often think a lot of the real horrors in our world are what’s out there waiting for us. The impending environmental, medical and population crises many humans don’t want to acknowledge let alone tackle. All those things which we do to ourselves, and make it harder for humanity to thrive.

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

I’ve always been a writer in some shape or form, from being very small. I mentioned being inspired by Bram Stoker’s gothic novel, but I think my earliest memory of really wanting to be a proper writer was after reading C.S.Lewis’s Narnia chronicles and thinking, “I could do this. Hey, I want to do this!” I knew I was pretty good at creating believable characters, and as a clichéd only child, I enjoyed spending time in my own head. Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’ and Susan Hill’s ‘Woman In Black’ definitely inspired me to write the slow-creep kind of horror which I really enjoyed. ‘American Psycho’ (Bret Easton Ellis) shook me up and stayed with me for weeks. I hated it. It’s a great book, but I found it hard to stomach.

Honestly, I think I am inspired by everything I watch and read, without always being conscious of it. It’s really hard for me to say, “that, there, is where it all started” or “that’s been a huge influence to me,” because I tend to squirrel everything I see or read in the creative filing cabinet inside my brain, and it all gets mushed up into other things. It’s often suggested that, “good writers borrow, great writers steal.” (The internet is hazy about who actually said this.)

If I were pushed, I would probably name television shows such as: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer', ‘Dead Like Me’, ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Being Human’; and movies such as ‘The Cabin in the Woods’, ‘What We Do in the Shadows,’ ‘An American Werewolf in London’, ‘Clive Barker’s Nightbreed’, and the original ‘Red Dragon’ movie, ‘Manhunter’ with William L. Petersen. In reality, any movie which tells a good story with great pacing and characters is teaching me how to craft a tale. I always want to be surprised.

I think it’s worth mentioning that I learn just as much from the not-so-great stuff too. Sometimes it’s good to take notes from stories you find mediocre or just plain bad, and think about how you might try to improve them. There are quite a few popular horror books and movies which just don’t excite me at all, and some which are considered a bit middle-of-the-road which I adore. Inspiration often arrives when you least expect it, you just have to be open to letting it in.

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

Can I say  myself? *haha!* That wasn’t a terribly original response was it?
I’m going to come clean and say because I’m just returning to the ‘scene’ of sorts, I’m still finding and exploring new authors. I’m making a point this year of reading more female-authored work, and exploring the indie publishing scene a lot more. They are not all necessarily new and upcoming, but on my reading list at the moment are: Priya Sharma, Sunny Moraine, J. C. Hart and Georgina Bruce, plus a whole load of others. I am also going to mention Penny Jones, because without her I really don’t think I would have finished my own collection. She is a master at creating tension and suspense in her writing, and always writes fully realised and believable characters. She is a little ray of sunshine in the horror writing world and I mean that in the best possible way. She highlights just how important being genuinely kind and networking well really is. I’ve found that the community on the whole is very welcoming, and I really want to uphold and foster that sense of belonging, not to accrue more sales, but to find more friends who ‘get’ me.
 
How would you describe your writing style?


My style of horror is the creep of paranoia, where everything is almost normal, but not completely. It could be real, but not quite. I don’t want to write something that repulses people, I want to create something that lingers. Good horror will leave you with a feeling of unease. An itch in the brain that you can’t quite scratch, but equally you can’t ignore. It should squirm around in your head for a while, and leave you still thinking about it for a few days afterwards. I don’t write about blood and gore because I personally don’t like it much. The things my brain often conjures up, I don’t want to commit them to paper, because I am always totally weirded out by where those thoughts have come from! I don’t feel comfortable sharing them. Yet. Maybe my next collection will be full-on shock and gore. 

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

I’ve been super lucky not to receive any negative reviews yet. I am sure they will come along in time. I tend to be of the opinion that any kind of criticism is always useful, but I don’t have to be immediately beholden to it. I understand that I can control what is on the page, but I can’t control how people react to it. I know I still have a lot to learn, and that’s half the fun of it.
I’m actually really excited to see how my writing style might change and evolve, and I’m just trying to be the best writer I can be right now. I suffer from terrible imposter syndrome and at the moment I feel like I’m still waiting for someone to say to me, “You’re no good at this, kid. Go back to the day job.”

One positive not-quite-a-review which really tickled me was when someone ‘live tweeted’ my stories to me while they were reading them, and it was great fun to read their reactions. It reaffirmed for me the reasons why I enjoy writing; not for fame and riches, although they would be very nice, but because I like entertaining people. I still get that warm, fuzzy glow when someone reads my work and likes it. That’s why I do it, and why I will continue to do it.  

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
Letting the story go. Actually admitting to myself that it is finished, that I have to stop tweaking it and changing it, and put it out there. Also, I love writing dialogue, so my characters always talk a lot. Maybe even too much. I can easily get carried away and a character will start monologuing. I’m aware that sometimes I fall into the trap of too much ‘throat clearing,’ and I have to work hard to avoid that. I’m still finding my voice. I’m not even sure I have settled into a particular style as yet.

I also struggle with some the technical stuff like accurate punctuation and formatting. Teaching grammar as a subject to a class of thirty kids is somehow very different to putting it into practice in my own writing.

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


Yes, and I’m not going to write about it here either. Let’s just say it involves creepy crawlies and leave it at 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?
 
In most cases it’s a bit of both. There are characters in my recent collection who have been named very specifically, and others which were basically picked out of a metaphorical hat. I try to consider diversity while I’m writing, so I don’t want every name to be inherently ‘white’ unless there is a good reason for that. Equally, you can’t write diversity simply by dropping a non-white name into the story — every character should fit their name.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?  
 
I definitely plan more now, and in greater detail, than I used to. I suspect part of the reason I never actually completed any of my fiction stories was due to a dreadful combination of not feeling like I was a good enough writer, and not having a clear goal or plan of progress. I pay more attention to the ‘rules’ of writing now too, although I do also break them occasionally.
As you can imagine, writing non-fiction is quite different to writing fiction, and for me at least, it was a hell of a lot easier. You don’t really put anything of yourself into non-fiction, and that was something I struggled with at first when I came to write some of the short stories in my most recent collection. One in particular is very personal, and I deliberated for a long time about whether or not I should include it. I’m beginning to see my writing as a journey now, and I’m embracing that as much as I can.

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

I can’t speak for every writer, but for me there are a few essentials: A regular writing schedule so I can write daily and just get shit done; a notepad with me at all times  — paper or electronic — it doesn’t matter as long as I always have somewhere I can capture the muse, because they almost always arrive unexpectedly and at inappropriate times; a bottomless coffee pot; a good pair of headphones so I can work anywhere without distractions, an understanding partner who doesn’t mind when I abandon them to go and write; and a bunch of writing buddies/critique group who share my drive and passion.

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

If it’s not working, let it go. Don’t be afraid of scrapping it and starting again.William Faulkner once said that in order to be a good writer you must, quite often, “kill your darlings.” Understanding that sometimes the creative journey is better than the destination will help you as a writer. There’s absolutely zero shame in accepting that.

I’ve adopted quite a few mantras in the past couple of years and the two I get the most from are: “shovel the sand to build sandcastles” and “progress not perfection.” I believe a good writer needs a good growth mindset if they want to evolve and improve.

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

The usual suspects of social media have been useful to me, but I have to admit that I find Facebook, Twitter etc. absolutely emotionally exhausting, and it’s often hard for me to maintain my online presence. Equally I know it’s part of the job. Networking is essential, as is having realistic expectations of how your work will be received. Friends and family might say they’ll support you, but in reality they are not your target audience.

Being genuine and polite will get you everywhere, and if you say you’re going to do something for someone, do it. Even if you get nothing in return, you should always present yourself with the utmost integrity. I’ve also got better at asking for help. There is a great quote in Amanda Palmer’s book which I feel is super important to every creative individual:
 
Asking for help with shame says: You have the power over me.
Asking with condescension says: I have the power over you.
But asking for help with gratitude says: We have the power to help each other.
 
I like to try and look for the ‘purple cow’ approach whenever I do something new; that is, if there are fifty cows in a field, people will remember a unique, purple one. Figure out what other people are doing which works and look for ways to add to it. For example, I made a Spotify playlist to accompany my stories. It’s a small thing, but it’s about utilising the platforms available to you in different ways and making yourself stand out.

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 genuinely don’t have a favourite yet. The female vampire character in two of my stories — I won’t name them so as not to give away any spoilers —  has definitely stuck with me, and I think she has a few more stories left in her yet. I don’t really like her, she is quite problematic and dishonest, as well as pretty manipulative. She is, however, great fun to write. The empathy she garners is due, in part, to her humanity, which is ironic given that she is no longer human. I keep considering killing her off, but somehow always manages a reprieve.
 
What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
I’m genuinely proud of all of my stories at the moment, although my favourites are “From The Deep,” “The Things You See,” and “Heat Pump”, simply because they were the most fun for me to research and write.

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

The first draft of “Blood Bonds” was awful. Really and terribly awful. I was trying to incorporate some Māori legends and people into my stories, as they are all set in New Zealand, but I got it really wrong. I ended up writing stereotypes and potentially offensive ideas without even realising I was doing it. I was approaching another culture from a privileged, white perspective — writing about my idea of Māori culture instead of writing what I knew. I am so grateful to my friend who read it and told me bluntly, “Do not publish this!” and then advised me where I’d gone wrong. I learned a lot about myself that day and also how much responsibility writers have to properly research and present their subjects, or risk a serious backlash.
Thankfully I am not averse to the idea of scrapping my work and starting again. Remember; “kill your darlings.” So that’s exactly what I did.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
Right now, I have only released one fiction collection — “Dark Winds Over Wellington: Chilling Tales of the Weird & the Strange.” I would say it’s an accurate representation of where I am as writer and a person, right now. I might feel very different about it a few years, and hopefully a few more books, down the line.

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

One of the stories in the collection, “Mongrel” was written as an experiment. I wanted to see if it was possible to write a story completely through dialogue. It’s actually the shortest in the book, but I think it’s pretty fun. I particularly like the opening lines.
 
      “Are humans classed as red or white meat?” 
      “What?”
      “Are humans...”
      “No, I heard what you said, I’m just disturbed by the content.”
      “It’s a perfectly reasonable question.”
      “Yeah. For a cannibal, maybe. Or a serial killer. Should I be concerned?”
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
My last book was a collection of short supernatural-themed stories all based around the ‘Coolest Little Capital’, Wellington in New Zealand. They mix local legends and folklore with elements of horror. It was, at least in part, inspired by Taika Waititi’s ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and ‘Wellington Paranormal’, but it was also very much a result of my own research into the local area and my need to integrate myself in the community. As a recent immigrant to the country, it was very important to me to learn about the culture and the people. The stories are a result of the excitement and joy I felt at living in Wellington, while giving a little nod to some of the weirder parts of the city.

I feel like I want to continue writing about Wellington, as it just has so much inspirational material to offer me. As is usual for me, I have a couple of ideas already sketched out just waiting for me to sit down and give them some real attention. However, I am involved with running and facilitating some writing workshops in Wellington for women for the next few months, so I suspect most of my free time will be focused on those.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

If I could only erase one, it would likely be the overuse of negative stereotypes which depict mental illness as a cause of violent or abhorrent behaviour. If I could rub out two, using rape or sexual assault as a shock tactic rather than progressing the plot in any way is another I’d like to see gone for good.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
‘The Bone Season’ by Samantha Shannon had me absolutely riveted from the very start. I don’t know how I had managed to miss her until recently, but I’m so glad I’ve found her now. It’s a dystopian supernatural story, and not at all what I expected.

The last book that disappointed me, although it is still a good story, was M.R. Carey’s ‘The Boy on the Bridge’. It is a prequel to ‘The Girl With All the Gifts’, which I really enjoyed, but I just didn’t feel like it was as thrilling, probably because the ending was a forgone conclusion.

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

“Would you like ten million dollars and a lucrative publishing deal with Big Name Publishers?” 
“Certainly!”
 
Okay. Seriously, I often wish people would ask me why I so often put queer, disabled and/or people of colour characters in my stories, just so I could remind them that a broad range of character representation in every genre is incredibly important. It’s not about ticking some “diversity checklist,” but because minorities are seriously underrepresented in many genres, and particularly in the horror genre, and we should be challenging and changing that.

Nancy Netherwood is a playwright from South East London and a recent graduate of the University of East Anglia’s Creative Writing Programme. She has taken part in projects for young people with the Almeida and Royal Court, and earlier this year was chosen for The North Wall Arts Centre's artist development programme Catalyst, as well as the Pint-Sized Theatre longlist 2018. 

Goodnight Mr Spindrift is her second play, and we sat done with Nancy to chat about the play, horror in general and her thoughts on the UK Theatre scene 

Hello Nancy, welcome to Ginger Nuts of Horror, could you briefly introduce yourself to the readers, please?

Hello! I’m a 23 year old London-based playwright making my professional debut with ‘Goodnight, Mr Spindrift.’ This play is a pretty good example of what I write - I love using surreal or fantastical touches to explore things like mental health, gender and heredity. When I’m not writing I’m mostly lurking in theatres and taking a really long time to get through books.

Why Horror?  What is it about the genre that inspired you to start writing about it?

Until we did this play for the first time last year, I didn’t actually consider myself a horror writer. I’ve always enjoyed horror fiction - M. R. James, John Darnielle, Shirley Jackson, Neil Gaiman, Mary Shelley and Samanta Schweblin are particular favourites - and I’ve recently plucked up the courage to watch more horror films. I’ve even used horror tropes in most of my writing, but they’ve never been at the centre of my play so I guess it never occurred to me that I wrote Horror with a capital H. But I started writing it for the same reason I love reading and watching it - it’s where some of the most original and exciting storytelling is happening at the moment.

And why have you chosen to focus on writing plays over a more traditional form of horror prose?

Once I started more actively writing horror, theatre seemed like the perfect fit. The immediacy and physicality of it works so well for the genre - I’ve never felt more genuinely frightened by horror than I have when it’s happening right in front me, and a little goes a long way. There’s no rewind button so you can really play with what people see or think they see. But as said I do love horror fiction and I’d love to write some myself someday.

What would you say is the biggest misconception about writing theatre plays, and what do you find to be the biggest challenge for yourself with regards to creating a play?

That there are so many stages in your career before you make it to the Royal Court, say, or the National. When I started writing plays I sort of assumed you sent work off to big theatres and sooner or later someone would accept it and you’d be on your way. But it’s a much longer process, and you end up doing short projects, making work with friends, trying and failing a lot as you work out what you’re doing, which is scary but also really exciting.

I think my biggest challenge is spending a lot of time on my own when I’m writing. Unlike prose or poetry a script is such a collaboration, and sometimes you get to a point where you just need to get it on its feet. You can spend a lot of time torturing yourself over details when actually you need an actor or director to unlock it. But that’s one of the great things about theatre as well.

As a playwright how do work around the confines of a live stage show to deliver the scares, and maintain the tension of your script?

This play isn’t a jump scare kind of horror, it’s all about the slow build, which works well in theatre. You have your audience there in the same space as the actors, experiencing the show in real time, and without the advantage of special effects and editing the scares mostly have to be rooted in character, so you want them to be with the characters and experiencing their fear.

Your latest play Goodnight Mr Spindrift has just been confirmed for a full run at the Old Red Lion Theatre after a successful showing at the London Horror Festival.  You must be over the moon at this news.  How did this run come about, did you pitch your play to the theatre or did they contact you?

Yes, I’m very excited! Last summer Danse Macabre put out a call for horror plays and chose mine for a rehearsed reading at Old Red Lion. We had a lot of fun rehearsing the play and we got great feedback, but I thought that would probably be the end of it. Then Joe and Sam said they’d love to do a full production if I was interested, and that the Old Red Lion were keen to continue with the play. And here we are!

How much involvement with the play once it has enter pre-production and during its run, do you have, are playwrights given more credence than scriptwriters on film shoots?

In most cases it’s up to the writer and director to decide. Theatre is more collaborative than film so you generally have a lot more freedom to define the relationship of the writer to the production - personally I like to be in the room for the readthrough and the first couple of rehearsals to answer questions and make sure the director is on the same page as me. Then I leave them to work their magic and come back at the end to help finetune everything. But there’s a big chunk of time in the middle of the process when, I think, my presence wouldn’t help. The director and cast need to feel like they can experiment without the writer breathing down their necks. But all writers have their own preference.

If you could change just one thing about the industry with the wave of a magic wand, what would it be?

For the industry to be balanced and egalitarian. So many theatres still program more white men than any other writers. Until last year only one play by a black writer had EVER had a West End production. Things are improving but it’s a slow process. I wish we could see all theatres programming work that’s actually representative of the artists working today and the country we live in, and by extension bring in the audiences from those currently under-represented groups. There’s still a big elitism issue with theatre which theatres need to address, and representative programming would go a long way to start fixing that.

Why do you think theatre is essential?

In a theatre everyone comes together - audience, actors, technical team, stage managers, ushers - and we get to experience something together. I think that immediacy is the thing that got me hooked on theatre. Getting to see your favourite actors give a performance that they’ll never give again, sharing a live, one night only experience with a room full of strangers. That affects you differently from film or literature. Plus the speed with which you can make a show and its relative cheapness mean you can respond to world events quickly and take risks that you can’t in other forms. Anyone with an idea and some friends can make a play and take it to a festival. That’s amazing.

Goodnight Mr. Spindrift sounds like a dark dystopian look at life in the UK, what was your inspiration for the play?

A lot of things fed into it. I saw the word ‘Spindrift’ on a poster and wrote it down, then added ‘Mr’ because it sounded right somehow. I got very angry about the current government and very anxious about the pressures of being in a relationship. I saw the stage adaptation of 1984 and fell in love with it, which has been a massive influence on my writing ever since but particularly on this play. All those things were sitting in my head for a while and eventually they became this play.

Is it important to you that your work has a deeper meaning and a morality core over and above the "horror" elements of your work?

I think all horror has a deeper meaning! Even slashers and B-movies are about something, even if that something is never overt. But yes, I definitely use horror tropes to explore other issues - in this play it’s self-doubt and repressed trauma, but I think you can write about anything using horror as a form if you find the right metaphor. It’s a really fascinating way to explore those issues in an inventive and powerful way.

And what do you hope that people get out of watching your play?

I want to surprise people - I hope horror fans are moved by the relationship drama and straight theatre fans get drawn into the horror. I also want to get them angry on behalf of these characters and themselves about oppression and abuses of power. And that they come out wanting to tell the important people in their life that they love them.

Does the title have any significance?

You’ll have to come and see the show and find out!

How happy are you with finished play?

Very happy! It’s hard to ever feel like a piece of writing is finished, but I’ve drafted it several times, done two readings and had good feedback, so I think we’re ready to bring it to a wider audience! Plus Sam and the cast have brought so much to the table, and I can’t wait to see what Natasha and Annabel do with the design - so even though the script is finished there’s a lot more to come which I’m really excited about.

What advice would you give to young people interesting into getting into your kind of work?

Write every day, even if it’s just one sentence. See and read as many plays as you can. Films, TV, art and books are all useful too, for your work and yourself. Make sure you meet up with friends and other artists when you can, it can be a lonely job, and being around other people is probably the best thing that can happen to your work.

What are you working on next?

I’m going to be at the North Wall Arts Centre in Oxford for two weeks working on my next play, which will be receiving a rehearsed reading as part of their Alchymy Festival. It’s a much more grounded, naturalistic piece, but there’s still a nightmare sequence and plenty of blood.

I’m also in the early stages of a horror adaptation for stage, though I won’t say too much about that one yet...

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into writing?
 
I’ve always been obsessed with reading and writing, but it wasn’t until I turned 30 that I started thinking about trying to write for publication. I finished my first ever short story and it won me a place on a screenwriting course taught by an absolutely brilliant woman called Liz Clegg. From there I got into writing screenplays, teaching screenwriting, script consulting and then back to prose again. That same short story was made into a film, and also won first prize in a competition judged by Graham Joyce – so it opened a lot of doors for me.
 
How would you describe your writing? (E.g., Horror, weird, poetic, etc)
 
I really don’t like labels. I think we are too obsessed with naming things and trapping them in boxes. If pushed, I’d probably say weird or maybe slipstream, since all my stories are about negotiating contact and conflict between different dimensions of reality. In fact, a majority of my stories are science fiction, but because I tend to focus on the domestic, and on women’s lives, they often get mistaken for horror. I never set out to write horror but I don’t think it’s possible to write about reality without encountering horror imagery and themes.
 
Who or what has been a major influence on your writing?
 
As a child, there were some books I read so many times I can still recite bits of them by heart: the Alice books, and Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers ‘trilogy’. I constantly see the influence of these books in my work. Philip K Dick is also a major influence, especially “The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch” which is a hallucinatory trip through different levels of reality. It’s profoundly disturbing.
 
You are known for your amazing short stories, and your story “White Rabbit” won the British Fantasy Society award for best short story. So whose work do you admire, and which authors would you like to bookend one of your stories in an anthology?
 
That’s a difficult question because there are a lot of people writing amazing short stories these days and I admire them all for different reasons! I’ve been teaching Priya Sharma’s “Egg” again this year and love its emotional directness, and how moving and meaningful it is to my students. Padrika Tarrant is, to my mind, a great and under-appreciated writer. Her short stories are absolutely wild. Lydia Davis is a writer I hugely admire, who takes mad risks with stories. Helen McClory is another. I like risk-takers. Even if the risks don’t pay off, it’s always interesting to see how far it’s possible to go.
 
What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? Or what piece of advice about writing would you tell someone if they asked?
 
Take risks. Break rules. And don’t be afraid of failure – that’s all there is.
 
What aspects of writing do you find the most difficult?
 
Nothing about writing is easy, but honestly, I think I like writing because it’s difficult. I like a challenge. Then again, I cannot tolerate exposition. I hate it! So anytime I have to explain something it’s really hard for me. I want to create knowledge by some form of osmosis, not by actually just telling you in a straightforward way. It’s a weird thing.
 
On your website www.georginabruce.com you are currently running a feature where you ask authors to give us a peek into the places where they do their writing, so could you tell us a little bit about your inner sanctum?
 
My inner sanctum is currently hidden underneath an enormous pile of laundry, so that probably tells you all you need to know about that!
 
Tell us about a bit about your debut collection “This House of Wounds”.
 
The stories in This House of Wounds span ten years of writing, so there’s a lot of variety in terms of style and subject matter, although I think you can see certain themes and concerns echoed throughout. The four previously unpublished stories in the collection are a bit of a departure in some ways from the rest of the book. They are definitely floating more freely away from genre conventions and taking more risks with what a story can be. I’m increasingly interested in structure, in making the telling as much a part of the story as the action or description, so these stories are testing out ways of doing that. I’m definitely nervous about how they’ll be received and whether people will get what I’m doing! Having so many stories collected in one place is quite exposing in many ways. It’s a bit like ripping open your chest and watching the feathers and petals fly out…
 
My favourite story in your collection would have to be “Cat World”. The subject matter of human trafficking is a sensitive subject to cover in such a short piece, but you managed it wonderfully. Showing us the humanity and the horror in equal measures. A difficult tale, but an important one to tell. Is there any subject matter you wouldn’t write about?
 
Thank you – I’m proud of that story. I’m not sure there’s any subject I wouldn’t tackle if I really wanted to write about it, but I do always try to be honest with myself about my intentions with writing. Nothing is necessarily off limits but I’m not interested in gratuitous violence or anything in a story which is only there to shock, titillate or frighten the reader. One thing I wouldn’t write now is a completely hopeless story. Maybe in the past I would have, but given our current political climate I feel it would be delinquent and reactionary to create anything that doesn’t have a little space for hope to creep in.
 
And finally can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
I’m writing a novel. I’m using a pseudonym, so I can’t say much more than that, in case I blow my cover!


Read our review of This House of Wounds here