Hello Phil, some people know of you as one of the best legs in horror, and as the Grand Infidel Master Slomanite,  for those who don’t know you, just who is Phil Sloman? 
 
Firstly, thanks for having me over, Jim. Having a proper chin wag with you over at Ginger Nuts has been something I’ve been wanting to do for ages.
 
So, who am I? Good question and one I ask myself on a daily basis! In essence, a bloke with a love of horror who likes to get his thoughts about life down in story format. I tend to write what I guess could be termed dark psychological fiction or psychological horror. I’m not really too concerned about the definition of it, but what I do try and do is tease out what makes us tick, what are the peculiarities of our personalities which will drive us to the horrendous when pushed in a certain way.
 
Beyond writing, I guess curry wrangler combined with a very sensible taste in confectionary and the awareness that it needs no interaction with any coffee related substances. I would add in nice bloke trying to do some good in the world but that sounds like a really bad dating profile!

Your latest collection Broken on the Inside (read our review of it here) has just been released by Black Shuck Books.  How did you get involved with them?
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I’ve known Steve Shaw, founder of Black Shuck Books, for a few years now, generally when we’ve been at a convention or book launch of some kind and alcohol has been involved. So our relationship was more friendship than professional up until FantasyCon last year in Peterborough.
 
I was at the Awards Banquet waiting to hear if I had won the Best Newcomer award for my novella Becoming David. I didn’t win but I’m still so proud to have been shortlisted. Anyway, Steve came up to me asking about my plans for the future. I mentioned I was thinking of pulling a collection together and possibly self-publishing and he stopped me there, told me he’d read Becoming David, loved it and had come over to ask me to be part of his Black Shuck Shadows series where he has published stellar names like Paul Kane, Joseph D’Lacey, Gary Fry and Thana Niveau.
 
Obviously I jumped at the opportunity given that Black Shuck are doing some amazing things at the moment and we sorted things out from there. The great thing was I had the concept of what I wanted to do with the collection already plotted out in my head so it was wonderful to know Steve would take care of all the publishing aspects plus he has a great fan base for the books he puts out and rightly so. A pleasure to work with.

The collection is a mix of new and reprinted short stories, how did you decide on which stories to include, and did you have a running order in mind for the collection? 

I had a read through my back catalogue to see what I wanted to include. I had the collection title and concept there from the start so it made it a lot easier to think of what to include. I also had the cover concept as well. Something involving Matryoshka, those Russian stacking dolls, and a cracked skull and possibly a teardrop on one of the dolls’ faces. Steve took that initial idea, ran with it and then some for the final design and I love what he’s done!
 
Anyway, back to the stories. I wanted to pick some old and new stuff and particularly work I knew had resonated with readers previously. Nothing worse than putting something out there you’re not convinced readers will enjoy. All the reprinted stories included have had at least someone previously point to them as their favourite in whichever anthology they’ve appeared in (and not just from my mates telling me that either!). There’s a couple of other stories I considered putting in but overall I’m very happy with what’s there.
 
In terms of running order, I wanted to open with a new story and I wanted it to be a strong one. The other thing for me was it had to set out the theme for the collection from the get go, looking at the issues we all carry with us in one way or another. And in the opening story Kira is quite literally carrying her problem within her in the form of malfunctioning nanotechnology and the physical and mental problems that brings with it.
 
There was a lot of hard work went into that short story - Broken on the Inside which shares its title with that of the collection - but I think that work has paid off given the reaction from some early reviews I have had. Kira’s tale has a bleak ending (without spoiling things too much, my tales rarely have a happy outcome) so I needed something marginally lighter to follow. So something with anthropomorphic food seemed just right by way of Discomfort Food. I remember reading from it at EdgeLit a few years back with laughter in the right places even though the tale becomes bleaker as it progresses.
 
The Man Who Fed the Foxes and There Was An Old Man come next but could possibly change places with not too much issue although they are both very different tales. And then the closer.
 
Now I think all the stories in Broken on the Inside have more than earned their place but I wanted to go out with a bang, something to make the reader question what they had just read. Ross Warren of Dark Minds Press was really kind to allow me to reprint Virtually Famous from Imposter Syndrome given that it hasn’t been out a year yet. That story has had some great feedback and there’s a lot of love out there for the culmination of what I think of as one of the more mind-bending pieces I’ve ever written.

One of the stories is what I like to call your infamous story The Man Who Fed the Foxes.  It’s a story that has always stuck in head, can you tell us about the genesis of the story and for those who haven’t had the pleasure of reading it, what you aimed to achieve with it? 

So I live in down in Kent with my wife and our two boys. One of the things we do as a family is go down the allotment together; my wife to garden and the boys and I to check out the slow-worms, frogs and other wildlife.
 
Now being out in the countryside we get a lot of foxes around and about. At the time of writing The Man Who Fed the Foxes we were getting repeat visits from a mange-ridden fox in our garden, springing out of the trees at the back where we had some raised beds for veg and salad and where the compost bins were. All aspects play a part in the story.
 
Somewhere along the lines I started pondering about why a fox might come to visit and tied it up with the mental disintegration of our protagonist Paul.
 
In terms of achieving what I wanted, as a writer, yes I think I have but I guess it’s down to the readers to let me know if I did or not. One of the things I’ve tried to do, and I do it with all my work, is lace in a bit of social commentary through my stories. Rachel Gladstone, for example, is as much a villain of the piece as anyone else, the well-meaning snooper who is more interested in picking at the bones of Paul’s failures than helping a neighbour get back on their feet.

The anthology has a theme, as the name suggests, of being broken on the inside, it’s a theme that I find is common to a lot of your work.  Is their a reason as to why your fiction tends to have a deep psychological core to them? 

They say writers put a little bit of themselves into their work and I’d say that was pretty accurate here. I struggle with the world quite a bit. Externally I have this outgoing, confident, happy persona but internally I’m fractured, trying to make sense of things which I’m not sure were ever meant to make sense.  I suspect we all are to one degree or another. Perhaps like a moth to a flame it’s that purpose of trying to understand what is going on which draws me to write these kind of stories but also to read them by other writers.
 
There’s also an aspect of writing the things which scare you personally and for me it’s humans and the darkness in their minds. Monsters are all well and good, and there have been some great creations over time, yet it’s always humans and the things they are capable of which I’m drawn to. And not even in the sense of someone chasing you with a massive knife, even though that kind of imagery features in some of my work. It’s the drip, drip, drip of the hateful word, the constant belittling of others, the one-upmanship which occurs as people try to score points off each other.  As someone who has been bullied both at school and work in that insidious mental way you recognise how debilitating it can be.
 
I guess that’s why I gravitate to innocuous stuff online like our great Coffee Cream War – don’t tell the Slomanites I said it was innocuous – and making jokes about delays in getting served curry. It’s an escape from daily life and I think that, in a similar way, writing the stuff I do is a way of me coping with all this anger and hate in the world.

Even though you say you are not really interested in writing about traditional monsters, there must be one that you would like to write about, if you were invited to submit to a monsters only anthology which monster would you choose to write about and what Slomatastic twist would you give to it?

Slomantastic! Love it! I shall be using that somewhere, for sure.
 
What would I write? I did get asked to do that once and chose nightmares as the monster so what does that tell you! Aside from that I’ve written a couple of stories to date with more traditional monsters in.
 
There’s a story of mine in Black Room Manuscripts 3 from the Sinister Horror Company (great guys to work with) called Gifts. It’s a folk horror tale to a degree but it’s also about the relationship between the husband and wife in the tale. Anyway, there’s these Critter-esque furball creatures in the story (all teeth, squat, lots of fur and claws) who leave gifts of dead animals for the family. Except they want something else in return. Something which threatens the heart of the family.
 
Plus I’ve written ghost dogs in a recent charity anthology as I figured if you can have ghost humans then why not ghost dogs.
 
I guess if I had to go for a traditional monster then it would have to be a working of Frankenstein in some way. In a similar vein, I like the route taken by Clive Barker where the monster can be as much the victim as the villain.

Do you have a favourite story in the collection? 

I’ve a soft spot for There Was An Old Man. While I think Broken on the Inside and Virtually Famous are the strongest stories, I like the insanity on display in this story and the way our clean living old man is forced into hermitising – is that a word, hmmm, let’s go with it – into hermitising himself and the things he has to endure to survive and achieve his goal. I also remember Chris Hall reviewing it over at DLS Reviews as part of an anthology. Chris said some really nice things about the story which spurred me on at a point when I was thinking of calling it a day with trying to get into this writing malarkey.

Looking at your career so far you have contributed to some, shall we say odd themed anthologies, there was one dedicated to Potatoes, then in almost perfect idea for a sequel one called Chip Shop of Horrors.  What goes through your mind when you see a call for a themed anthology with such an obscure and potentially limiting theme? 

I see them as a challenge. How can you take something and twist it in a way someone else would not expect? Before I started submitting to anthologies I used to take part in a 100 word flash fiction challenge run by the wonderful Lily Childs who is a great writer and one I would encourage others to read. Lily’s challenge to us was to write a 100 word horror piece each week using three words, drawn at random, and placing them somewhere within the text. That really gets you thinking. It’s like trying to solve a complicated puzzle. And I think it’s served me well both in nurturing ideas, asking the ‘what if’ question, as well as in paring down my own writing to the essential language.
 
In my opinion, a good writer can craft a story about anything. The prompt is just that, a prompt. And often in these cases the prompt will inspire you to stories you didn’t know you wanted to tell even if that prompt is simply a humble potato.

Can you tell us about the stories in these collections?  

So, The Banshee’s Egg, my tale in Potatoes, was one of my first forays into the world of anthologies and I was blown away when my story was selected as the opening piece. The proposition itself was an interesting one, write a short story based around the theme of a potato. Now the Banshee’s Egg was the potato, the thing I needed to craft my story around. Our protagonist, a superstitious woman in the Scottish islands, heals a sick child. The cheapskate father of the child gives her a potato as payment but tells her it is in reality a Banshee’s Egg which she must protect and, in so doing, it will keep her from harm (or something along those lines – it’s a good few years since I wrote it so my memory is fading!). Of course the real story is not about the potato but about bullying and retribution.
 
Similarly with Chip Shop of Horrors, the takeaway business is simply a tool to tell a story. From somewhere the phrase comfort food popped into my head, eating to make yourself feel better, but I wondered if there was such a thing as Discomfort Food (the title of my story). That got me pondering about what would happen if your food spoke to you and the reason why. As you’ll know, Jim, it wasn’t a pretty ending!

Talking of themed anthologies you will have a story coming out in Anthony Cowin’s In Dogs We Trust anthology .  It’s an interesting concept, how much freedom did you have with your entry to fit in with the Planet of Apes with dogs concept from the editor?

I had loads of freedom. I was thrilled when Anthony approached me to be in the anthology and especially for such a good cause. His simple instruction was ‘write me something scary involving dogs’. Now the problem with this is you’re suddenly given too much freedom and 101 ideas flash through your head
 
As I alluded to earlier, I decided to write a story about a ghost dog because I didn’t really think it had been done before though I am sure more learned folks than me will point out examples where it has been Anyway, there had to be a reason for the dog to be dead and for it to want revenge; it’s a horror story, it had to be a tale of revenge! This took me to the murky world of dog-fighting.
 
Writing about dog-fighting was a tricky one as I wanted to highlight the barbaric nature of this vile sport, and I use the term sport in the loosest sense, without showing violence against the dogs especially with the charity being Birmingham Dogs Home. I think I got the balance about right but will wait to see what the readers think. In Dogs We Trust launches at EdgeLit in July for anyway who is heading that way and wants to grab a copy.

In a world ruled by dogs what role would you see yourself fulfilling?

Obedient servant to our canine masters!

There has been a number of complaints and concerns voiced in recent months about charity anthologies, with regards to writers giving away their stories for free and that the resulting anthologies are substandard, what’s your response to this? 

Honestly, I think people have more important things to complain about. As long as the anthology is managed appropriately, and by that I mean that the monies from it go to the intended charity and not the pocket of the publisher, then that is the most important thing. If the writer wants to be paid for their story then there are plenty of markets out there if they don’t want to feature in the charity anthology.
 
I personally see it as donating to a charity in the same vein as someone donating a prize for a charity raffle or auction and it’s my choice to give up my time to pull that donation together. In terms of quality, when I write for charity anthologies, and I have done a few now, then I try to write something to the same standard I would if I was being paid for it. There’s two reasons for this. The first is that the better the stories are then you’d hope it would shift more books and make more money and the second, in a selfish way, is I don’t want to have poor quality work out there with my name on it.

Last year saw the publication of your novella Becoming David (read our review of it here), which made it into my top five books of the year.  It’s not an easy read but it is a compelling look into the world of a sociopath and their subsequent breakdown when their actions finally catch up with them.  Are you concerned that your actions in the great Coffee Cream War will catch up with you?
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Haha! That made me snort my drink! I love this rivalry thing we have going on and honestly can’t remember where it started. All I do know though is that I am happy for my actions to be recognised and celebrated when the Slomanites finally win this sad yet righteous crusade. Onward, brothers and sisters!

But seriously the book, for want of a better term, contained a number of brave choices.  Firstly the lead character is devoid of any saving graces, he is totally unlikeable,  what challenges did you face in making sure that the readers cared about him despite having nothing for the reader to empathize with?  Secondly you made the character gay, were you ever concerned about having a right nasty piece of work serial killer also being gay, and did you ever wonder if you would be accused of writing a character from a perspective that you couldn’t fully understand?

I love characters without any saving graces. I’ve mentioned this before in interviews but people like Merricat in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle and David Hanlin in David Pinner’s Ritual are not exactly the pleasantest of human beings yet they are so wonderfully constructed. I wrote a list of my favourite of these types of stories over at Kendall Reviews if people want to check it out. If you can make the characters interesting then people will want to read them. And you only have to look at the true crimes market and the people buying books about real life serial killers to see the fascination people have with those types of people. Perhaps surprisingly I do, however, shy away from reading those real life pieces personally as I’m not sure I want to celebrate their acts even though my own writing may make that stance somewhat hypocritical.
 
Anyway, so how did I make people care about Richard? It was never a conscious decision to make people care about him per se, but more a thought of how can I get people to want to read to the end and I think the whole basis of Becoming David achieves this. What if a bad guy developed a conscience? What if he could find redemption? And I think it’s that which engages the reader, the fighting between David and Richard, the way Richard’s haunting by his one-time lover forces him to decide which path to take either to redemption or something else.
 
I guess any concern I had in having a gay serial killer was that I didn’t want to write something clichéd as it has been done so often before and I also wanted the character to feel real. And while Richard is gay his sexuality isn’t the defining part of his character in the same way David’s sexuality doesn’t define him or other characters are defined by theirs. The bigger concern for me is that I fall into a trap where there is zero diversity in my characters and that I simply write identikit versions of myself; it’s not how the world works. You have to reflect reality and embrace the differences that exist in the world.
 
Did I wonder if I would be accused of writing a character from a perspective I couldn’t possibly understand? I’ve a degree of perspective, the usual of having a load of gay mates throughout my life and people I’ve worked with plus my mother is a lesbian. I’ve also kissed a couple of blokes in my youth but it didn’t set any fires alight. However, in saying all that, none of those experiences can come close to giving me the lived experience of being gay and having that personal perspective. So I did a simple thing. I wrote Richard and David as Richard and David. I was conscious of trying to get the characters right as gay men but I was more conscious of them as humans first with their sexuality as part of a wider melting pot. Did I get it right? I hope so. No one has said so either way. And if I did get it wrong then I’d be happy for people to tell me so I get it right next time.
 
I guess the flip of this is I’ve no experience of being a serial killer but no one’s questioned that either!

Will we be seeing any more novellas from you?  And how about a novel?

I’ve a novella length story out later this year from Western Legends Publishing. It’s a French folk horror piece Dean Drinkel asked me to write. When Dean asked me I thought ‘Crap, I don’t know how to write folk horror, let alone French folk horror’. It was only after a while it dawned on me that I needed to essentially write a French Hammer style piece and from there La Vacation was born. La Vacation tells the story of Frank and Elizabeth, a couple in their fifties on their first holiday abroad staying at a gîte in southern France back in the 80s. While the story focuses on their abode and the local villagers (witchcraft and superstition abound) the story is really about Frank and Elizabeth.
 
Aside from that, I am currently working on perhaps the angriest thing I have written as well as one of the most complex. There’s lots of trying to tie multiple plot points together mixed with sleight of hand. Current working title is Stanley Sebastian Solomon and I’m around 14,000 words in. The basis of the story is a young man in a halfway house where he is staying having been released on probation. As the story unfolds we find out about him, his past and also meet the other residents of the house. I was in a bad place personally when I started the story last year and I think that’s why I describe it as angry; a lot of angst and frustration with the world can definitely be seen on the page! In saying that, the words I have down read well, although it’s like chipping away at granite with a toothbrush at times to get the right words, and I reckon it will be finished in the next month or so. Then I need to find a paying home for it!
 
In terms of novels, I have a couple of ideas for a novel and think this is where I will need to focus my attentions if I am ever to change this writing lark from being more of a hobby and into a paying career. And alongside that I need to give serious consideration to getting an agent to steer me through the complex world of publishing!

As a writer you are very active within the community, actively promoting other writers and you are almost part of the fixtures and fittings at every genre convention in the UK.  As a fan of the genre what do you get from having such an active role to play in it? 

The people! It’s all about the people. There are so many amazing and wonderful folk out there and it’s a pleasure to share time with them but also to read their writing and get recommendations from them. I know many have said it before me but I truly believe we are in a golden age of horror looking at the quality from the both indie presses and the mainstream too. And it helps that the majority of folks I meet are really friendly and welcoming.
 
The other thing is a sense of belonging. I can’t stress that enough. It can sometimes feel awkward to talk to non-genre folks about a love of watching, reading and writing horror though this may be a personal hang-up. Yet when I’m at conventions or book launches it seems the most natural thing to discuss what you’ve been consuming or working on. I always come away inspired to write more when I come back from any genre-related events.
 
Plus lots of books! Whenever I come back from a convention my wife keeps reminding me to buy more shelves next time I go as I return laden down with more stuff for my ever growing TBR pile.

I’ve seen some writers say there is no community there is only the genre (I call nonsense on that), as with a lot of us your lasting friendships within the genre have started off with social media, do you think the bond you have with people such as Mark West, James Everington, and Ross Warren would have happened without social media, or do you think you would still have “found each other through your appearances at places such as Fcon?

Completely agree with you about the community bit and that one does exist. I see people coming together all the time to help each other out whether it is writing related or something to do with health or family.
 
I think social media was how James, Mark, Ross and others, including your good self, found each other but our friendships have all been cemented in meeting up at conventions and a shared love for books and writing. Would we have found each other without social media? I’m not sure. I know that I would probably not be writing, or at least actively being published, were it not for the online world. One of my oldest and dearest friends, Dion Winton-Polak who many will know for his Fine-Toothed Comb editing business, asked me and a few others to do a book podcast a few years back. From there I started interviewing authors in the genre and realised I fancied giving writing a crack again having shelved it a decade or so previously. So a hat tip to Dion.
 
Equally, I’ve met loads of folks at British Fantasy Society events, EdgeLit and FantasyCon who I would never have met online so I think it works both ways. And I would always encourage new writers to get along to these conventions and nights out. It’s not going to mean you’re going to get published but you will meet some great folks with similar interests to you and learn so much along the way.

What’s your favourite memory of Fcon?

Beyond sitting in the bar and chatting with my mates, you mean?

I think your book has to be up there. The planning it took to get it all together in the first place. And where you mentioned community before, that was a great example of community. So many amazing authors putting themselves out to say thanks for what you’ve done in promoting the genre. Plus your reaction was wonderful.
 
Another highlight would be appearing on a panel last year with Mark West, James Everington, Nina Allan and Ramsey Campbell which was chaired by Helen Armfield. The title was Horror: Mastery and Apprenticeship and I definitely felt an apprentice in amongst such legends! The room was packed with writers and readers alike. And that moment you look at the front row and see someone like Adam Nevill sitting there listening. I think sharing that panel with Mark and James as such good friends was the cherry on the cake.


But the best memory would have to be launching Becoming David in Scarborough alongside Mark and James again plus Stephen Bacon and Marie O’Regan who were all launching their own Hersham Horror titles with Peter Mark May orchestrating proceedings. That weird feeling of people not only buying my book but asking for a signature. Weird but great!

The genre is always in a constant state of flux, where do you see the horror genre going in the next few years? 

I think that’s hard to define as there are so many aspects to the genre. There’s a whole bizarro and extreme side of the genre I have little to no idea about and there’s also the more paranormal romance aspect which is massive and yet I delve into minimally.
 
I think advances in technology will change the things we write about and I think this is shown through the love of things like Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror pieces. I know my writing has definitely embraced that more.
 
But I also think we will see a lot more politically charged pieces of horror coming out (and horror has always had a political voice). There is an angry world out there and our writing can give voice to it. Plus I think that further barriers are being broken in terms of diversity and that can only be good in giving us a greater variety of voices and quality writing.
 
My big worry though is that whenever you go into any traditional book shops you have to search for the horror section. And I’m not sure if this is going to change. Perhaps it doesn’t matter given the ease at which you can download or order a book online. But it does concern me that we see so much great quality horror on TV and at the cinema yet horror books aren’t getting a similar profile even given the quality of work out there.

What writers should we be paying attention to right now?

We both have a love of Chris Kelso. Man, that bloke is amazing and I know he made your number one book of the year a couple of years ago for Unger House Radicals.
 
Though she has been around a few years, a newish writer to me is Viola di Grado, an Italian writer, whose work I discovered walking through Waterstones in Covent Garden earlier this year. The book was Hollow Heart which tells the tale of a suicide victim and her subsequent experiences of being dead. Some of the writing in it is exquisite! The reason I picked it up was that I loved the cover first then read the blurb which is why I always think people need to take time over their covers.
 
Priya Sharma is amazing and everyone should be reading her. I was lucky enough to be one of the judges at the BFS Awards for Best Short Story the year her story Fabulous Beasts won and it was up against some stiff competition!
 
And I keep seeing Charlotte Bond’s work appearing in all the right places. Loved her story The Lies We Tell in Great British Horror 2 and I noted she is in Johnny Mains’ Best British Horror 2018 so keep an eye out for her.

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

I’m currently reading Graeme Reynolds’ High Moor. I bought it a few years back at EdgeLit but it’s remained on my TBR pile for a while. Should have picked it up sooner. A really good werewolf story which just rattles along. I’ve about 80 pages to go so let’s see if he nails the landing! Hearing praise from others, I’m pretty sure he will.
 
Otherwise, I loved Laura Mauro’s Naming the Bones which was out last year. I’m expecting that to pick up awards this year and I should have named Laura in folks to look out for earlier.
 
Plus Rikki Ducornet’s Netsuke was a welcome discovery having been recommended by Georgina Bruce (Georgina is another name to add to that folks to look out for list!). A grimy tale about an egotistical controlling psychiatrist. Short but excellent book.
 
And the unstoppable force which is Sarah Pinborough needs a mention for Behind Her Eyes which I think just about everyone was praising last year! Great book for those who haven’t read it yet.
 
In terms of disappointment, I’m possibly going to upset a few people here but Spiral by Koji Suzuki was a bit of a letdown. While the writing itself is great, I couldn’t buy into some of the explanations for what was happening so the ending fell flat for me. I suspect I’m in the minority here though given the amazing sales and positive reviews!

What are your plans for the future in terms of your writing? 

I have a few anthologies I’m involved in over the coming year with most of them already signed off. One of my highlights this year was getting accepted into the Alchemy Press Book of Horrors alongside some legends in the genre! Prepare to see me getting star-struck when it is launched at FantasyCon.
 
Beyond that, I guess my future writing all goes back to getting that novel written and seeking an agent. I think I am at that stage now where I need to push on with my writing career otherwise it will only ever be a hobby around my day job. The dream, like so many other people, is to be able to write full time which means a lot of hard work ahead of me and then some! If any more seasoned pros would like to offer me any advice then I would gladly welcome it.

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

I really like the opening line to Virtually Famous: ‘He’d died a thousand times today and would die a thousand more.’
 
Plus the scene in the kitchen of There Was An Old Man when he sits down with the steak and the string. I quite like how that played out.
 
Aside from that I like a few of the more subtle word plays. I’m not sure anyone has ever picked up on the dual meaning of Becoming David as a book title. I also have a story called Dust in the recently released Holding on by our Fingertips from Grimbold Books. It’s a sad story about an old couple on the cusp of the apocalypse which looks at what happens if you aren’t aware of your surroundings. Having the opening and closing words as dust made me smile though I doubt anyone will notice, or care, but me!

It’s been fantastic to finally sit down and have a chat with a dear, dear friend if the readers of this interview would like find out more about you where should they look?

It’s been great to catch up, mate. Always fantastic when we get to do so. And I’m looking forward to seeing you in person at FantasyCon rather than this long distance natter so we can sit down over a beer or two and talk books, films and life!

For anyone wanting to find out more I’m generally flitting around on Facebook or Twitter plus have an under-utilised blog which I keep having to remind myself to update!
 
Thanks for having me over, Jim!
 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/phil.sloman.77
Twitter: @phil_sloman
Blog: http://insearchofperdition.blogspot.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phil-Sloman/e/B00TIUH9UW

​Terence Hannum is a Baltimore based visual artist, musician, and writer. His death-metal coming of age novella Beneath the Remains was published in 2016 and his recent novella All Internal is available this April from Dynatox Ministries. His stories have appeared in Terraform (Motherboard/Vice), Lamplight, Turn to Ash, and the Sci-Phi Journal. (www.terencehannum.com)


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

My name is Terence Hannum and I am a visual artist, musician and writer. I play in the bands Locrian, on Relapse Records, and The Holy Circle. I make minimal art that uses obsolescent cassette tapes and I write weird, speculative and horror fiction.

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

I make music and visual art, so I always have projects going or collaborations.. I also DJ horror soundtracks on the radio show Dead Air, and write a column of the same name for the newsletter of the Horror Writers Association that features a different soundtrack every month that I write about. Other than that I spend a lot of time with my family.

Other than the  horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
A lot of science-fiction like JG Ballard, Samuel Delaney, William Gibson but also writers in the New Narrative tradition like Dennis Cooper, Kathy Acker and Kevin Killian.


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 as a genre it’s an interesting time, I think the audience is there, there’s a lot of horror and better horror. What I think helps break past these assumptions is perhaps when horror retains its ability to use itself as a genre to assert larger issues. People accept certain things when they read genre fiction, and can maybe think about something they would not have before.

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 what is brilliant about the genre is that it allows a suspension of reality, and within that framework writers can insert content that can address issues that maybe an audience hearing a politician drone on would not be so open to. I think the horror I am most interested in is going to deal with environmental issues, racial disparity and class. There’s probably a nexus in there too between all of it.

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

Books are kind of all over the place JG Ballard’s “The Crystal World”, Dennis Cooper “My Loose Thread”, Don DeLillo’s “White Noise”, Samuel Delaney’s “Dhalgren”, Shirley Jackson “The Haunting of Hill House”, Jeremias Gotthelf’s “The Black Spider”, Margaret Atwood “Oryx and Crake”, I could go on. As far as films Dawn of the Dead, Stalker, The Descent, The Last House on Dead End Street, Forbidden World, The Innocents, The Vanishing, Gummo, Shivers. I could go on, I like things a bit off the beaten path that are more concerned with atmosphere.

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

I really liked Jason Willamson of the Sleaford Mods book he did for Amphetamine Sulphate. Paul Curran, Kathryn Born, her “The Blue Kind” was really potent. Also Jeremy Bushnell has two great books you should grab that are totally weird.

How would you describe your writing style?

I owe a lot to the surrealists, so strange juxtapositions, dreams, time slippages, they all are a part of what I write. I spend a lot of time describing things.

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

Sure. My favorite is from the Baltimore City Paper when they reviewed my novella “Beneath the Remains” and compared it to Carl Hiassen and Gummo. I enjoyed that.

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

Trying to get it published.  It’s the worst.

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

No, it all depends on the story. I tend to find things I would never be personally interested in or involved in exciting. I like being a tourist sometimes.

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 change a lot, I try and not let it get to obvious and avoid easy symbolism. I often start with a character name and change it maybe two or three times.

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

Research and outlining, I realize it helps to plan a lot more.

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

A notebook. I started carrying one for years, just something that fits in my pocket and I can write in with notes, outlines, and ideas. It’s helpful to go back to what the original kernel of the idea was sometimes, or see it evolve.

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

To read, to read a lot, to read things that aren’t what you normally write. Get away from genres. It helps a lot.

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
For me there can be some cross over with music, it has given me a small audience and a way that someone who interviewed me for music may be interested and have a venue for a literary thing. It helps. I also just think of how to find other angles to your work, rather than just literary areas. Sometimes you’ll be surprised who may be into what you pitch them. Oh and have good pitches, I learned a lot from being in a band and watching press kits get made. It makes sense.

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 really liked writing Galen in “Beneath the Remains”, he was the main character whose death-metal obsessed brother goes missing. It was fun to go back to the 1990s and place a teenager there. However, I really struggled with the character Anita in “All Internal” when this alien consciousness takes over her mind, I wanted to balance the entities cruelty against the violence, and disdain – to make sure it meant something, and wasn’t just gratuitous.
 
What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
Probably “All Internal”, I feel a sense of clarity with it.

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

Not really. Most of the pieces get kind of edited and honed into shape over time before they get published.

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

Well probably my most recent novella “All Internal” that uses certain tropes of body horror and manipulates point of view and timeline.

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

From All Internal - “I do not know how it happened, but I know it happened. I know I woke up, I emerged into the morning fully aware as if nothing had happened. Not stunned into this submerged existence. But awake, really awake. Fully. I can move, so I move, first my hand and then my arm.
I jump out of the bed. Ignore the smell of the decaying apartment and quickly toss on the dirty clothes piled on the floor. A pair of old jeans, a pink t-shirt from Gap. Whatever. I can feel my insides heave. I pull on my sneakers. I can feel the repulsion inside of me. I crack open the door and stare inside the apartment hallway now contorted into some organic cave or hive. Hive - that is it - insect like.

I run. I grab my keys and phone and I run. I run through the hallway, past the form of a standing man.
Get the fuck out of my house!”

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
“All Internal” is the recent novella that is coming out on Dynatox Ministries and is about the mind-body problem as told through a parasitic entity that inhabits a cam girl dragging her body through the amateur porn industry, replicating the male stars.
 
My next novel is “Lower Heaven” and it is about religion and surveillance in the suburbs and follows a small family surrounded by security cameras, car alarms, the father runs a Quality Assurance, the mother is a debt collector, is it’s about the false security and privilege, guns and a sentient surveillance blimp that the father grows spiritually attached to.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

Other people’s monsters. I just don’t get why there are whole replications of other creatures and characters in different contexts – not to say it can’t work. I just feel like a lot of the heavy lifting got done for you.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
I just finished “I” by Wolfgang Hilbig and it really blew me away, it was so paranoid, and dark. It felt almost Kafka-esque but in Communist-East Germany. It’s brilliant. I really thought there was a lot of potential with Keegan Goodman’s “The Tennessee Highway Death Chant” but it would really repeat, and start over, and it got a bit monotonous as a formatting decision.

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

Why the novella?
 
Because I like it. It’s the perfect length to say something and it is relatively easy for a reader to digest.

                Be sure to check in tomorrow for our review of All Internal