Pet Sematary is available to download and keep from Paramount Home Entertainment today, and to mark its release we have an interview with the directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch.  

A huge thank you to Premier Comms for making this possible.  

Pet Sematary is available to Download & Keep on 29 July and on Blu-ray™ and DVD 12 August, from Paramount Home Entertainment

Do you remember the first time you read Pet Sematary?


DW: Oh yeah. Stephen King was one of those guys like [J.R.R.] Tolkien, who I started reading at 11 or 12 [years old]. I’d already read a bunch of his books by then. I’d held off on Pet Sematary because I remember the back of the paperback said, ‘The most terrifying novel he’s ever written!’ And, I had a cat, so something about it always just [kind of] spooked me a little bit. I remember reading it in two or three day and there was something different about Pet Sematary compared to his other ones. When you look at a lot of Stephen King’s work, he is actually very sentimental. He has a heart, you know? Even The Shining [the novel] ends up with Scatman Crothers marrying Wendy. People forget that, because it’s not in the movie but, Pet Sematary isn’t like that. Pet Sematary is the one where the guy never figures it out. His arc is, he spirals. The family is slowly going crazy and that, at a young age, meant I had a very indelible reaction to it. It just felt more dangerous and different than his other books. And it was very autobiographical. It definitely stood out.

Q: So, you’re going full throttle on this, then? No holding back?


DW: Oh yeah! Be warned: we’re not holding back and they’re letting us do it! Our whole thing is to make people think. To make a movie that is going to scare teenagers because it’s supernatural and there’s [characters like] Pascow and Zelda, but one that will also scare parents, because of what happens. It works on both those levels. It’s very mature and psychological.
 
Q: Before this movie, you guys were most famous for Starry Eyes, in which you basically eviscerate Hollywood for its ruthless ambition and deadly greed and, ironically, it was that movie that led to Hollywood calling you for this. Were you ever worried after Starry Eyes that you’d never work in this town again?


KK: Well, we’re not spring chickens [laughs], like some of our friends who are making films in their 20s. We’ve been at this for 20 years, making our own small indie films and we were at a point where we weren’t working in the town to begin with! We were working in a very indie place and we were getting older and thinking we weren’t going to be working in the town, so [Starry Eyes] was our movie that we took out our frustrations on...The funny thing was that it was actually the reverse...It was [Starry Eyes] that got us in meetings for Hollywood movies! So, it was just kind of odd, that it had the actual opposite effect.

DW: Even if you’re poking fun at the industry, if someone sees something in there that’s true and honest, they can’t deny it, no matter what side of the fence they’re on so, the people who knew we were satirising them responded to it. They realised it was coming from a gut place. There was no pretence to it, you know? Really, [Starry Eyes] is about any kind of struggling artist who is scratching to get their way into an industry and is very frustrated by that. So, in that way it’s a very subversive film and I think that stuff just works on people.

Q: You’ve assembled a terrific cast for this movie. What made these guys so perfect for your Pet Sematary?


DW: We have always been big fans of Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty). He’s that guy that people see his face and go: ‘Oh, I like that guy!’

KK: I worked at a post-house in New York, so I saw dailies on so many projects and [with Jason], I was always like: ‘Who is this guy?’ Because he was always popping up in so many projects. I remember always thinking he was someone to keep my eye on. He had a great presence. I remember thinking I really wanted to work with him some day and here we are, on our first studio film, and we got him in there! Same with John [Lithgow] (Netflix’s The Crown). He was our first choice for Jud.”

DW: Amy [Seimetz] (Upstream Color), too. She’s such a great indie horror mainstay. We have friends who have worked with her, a lot of mutual friends and when you look at her stuff, she’s great in everything and we wanted people that weren’t going to distract, that didn’t feel like ‘movie stars.’ We didn’t want a guy who would have been at home on the cover of Men’s Fitness. We wanted people that felt like real people. A real family. The funny thing with Amy was that even though we had lots of mutual friends, we first met her through Skype. We had a great and very long conversation because it felt like we already knew her when we met her.

KK: I agree. This isn’t a Stephen King story about killer chattery-teeth. It’s a very dark one, a very human one, a very personal one. It’s a story that’s about people. The characters are a
big part of it, so we wanted to get the best people who will make this about the characters and the performance, not just about the scares or the horror.

Q: How would you describe your style of working together, as directors?


DW: We’ve been working together for so many years that we’ve learned to do this together. Even though we went to separate film schools, we were always working on side projects together. We learned together, watched films together, studied the classics together. We formed our taste and our vision together. It became like we were one voice, in a way. It just works.

Q: What kind of classics did you think of when you started work on Pet Sematary?


DW: The Exorcist (1973), definitely. Any good horror is a drama – a drama dealing with horrific elements. Most great horror films, the director never says they’re making a horror film. [Stanley] Kubrick never saw The Shining (1980) as a horror film, [William] Friedkin never saw The Exorcist as a horror film, you know? And that’s because, really, they’re domestic dramas, about family. Families that are falling apart. So, we took a lot of influence from that...and they all take their time, just like we are trying to. You’ve got to really build the characters up and earn that psychology before you get to the more horrific stuff and that’s what we’ve tried to do here

.
KK: That’s what we always look for in movies. We’re not just horror people. I mean, Kubrick worked in every single genre, and always brought the Kubrick stamp to it. For us, we always look for great characters and relatable themes. We do love the horror genre but when we make a horror movie, we want those elements in there. Relatable characters going through themes that are universal, that people can relate to and the horror should stem from that, it should be an extension of what these people are going through.

Q: What is it that makes this movie so scary?


DW: I’ll give you an example: Zelda [Alyssa Brooke Levine]. Even we were a little worried about putting Zelda in because everyone remembers how scary Zelda was, from [the movie in] 1989. That made me not want to see that film as a kid. If I ever caught [her shrieking], ‘Never get out of bed again!’ I was like, ‘I can’t watch that!’ So, we weren’t sure if we wanted to tackle that. Our approach to horror is that something that is grounded is always more terrifying than something that is supernatural. So, for us, anything that is supernatural should have a grounded element...A perfect example with Zelda is, she’s not some ghoul who’s up in a room, it’s a 12-year-old girl who is suffering from an ailment and the family doesn’t know what to do. They’re overwhelmed by it and have sort of given up. This poor girl is wasting away up in her bedroom and there’s this younger sister who has to look after her and check in on her and there’s a certain resentment from Zelda because [the sister] is healthy and she’s not. That in itself is pretty scary, without all the bells and whistles – just the idea of a young girl wasting away, with dusty medical equipment, in a bedroom of a
semi-wealthy family who can’t save her. Knowing she’s going to die at some point...She’s become this dark secret that the family has.


KK: That’s what makes the character so scary. It’s not the make-up or the jump-scares, it’s the horrible truth.

DW: You can heighten that as the film goes on, bringing in more heightened layers to it but if you look at the core of what that story is, it’s already horrific because it’s grounded in nature and it’s sad. It’s this underlying idea of not talking about grief. I think a lot of times when we show people [in movies] sobbing and talking about grief, and having these big, melodramatic conversations about it, sometimes it’s not like that. Sometimes you talk it away, sometimes you don’t talk about it and that’s what this movie’s about, about trying to not deal with death, trying not to communicate and talk about death, and the ramifications that come out of that.”

Q: A couple of years ago, the new adaptation of It (2016) was a huge success. What would you say you have you learned from the success of that movie?


​DW: I would say we learned a lot. You know, Stephen King has gone through previous renaissances. He went through one in the ‘70s, one in the mid-‘80s, the ‘90s not so much. But I think that movie reminded people that the guy writes great fiction, great literary horror. And it treated it like prestige horror, not like schlock. It really respected the material. And I think that’s what woke people up – that it could be scary, critically successful and make a lot of money. I think that definitely re-opened doors, the way the Muschietti [Andy Muschietti, the director of 2017’s It] treated it. So, we owe Muschietti a great deal of gratitude for that.”
 

Suitably labelled “The Queen of Filth”, extremist author Dani Brown’s style of dark and twisted writing and deeply disturbing stories has amassed a worrying sized cult following featuring horrifying tales such as “56 Seconds”, “Sparky the Spunky Robot” and the hugely popular “Ketamine Addicted Pandas”. Merging eroticism with horror, torture and other areas that most authors wouldn’t dare, each of Dani’s titles will crawl under your skin, burrow inside you, and make you question why you are coming back for more.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I think I did one of these a few years back but it was heavily edited, not by me or gingernuts. I would say it’ll be interesting to see how I’ve changed as a writer in that time, but it wasn’t a true representation. For those that don’t know, for the past ten years of my life, I have been under continuous and worsening stress. It only lifted in very late December of 2017.
 
I’m currently picking up the pieces from those years of stress. I’m actually a pretty boring person. I like it that way. Boring is stable. Right now, my body can’t handle much excitement, so I like to save those spoons for positive excitement that doesn’t have negative long-term consequences. I get annoyed when people project their own warped views on me and I absolutely hate creeps (the men and women that try to pick me up – I’m not interested, that is not to be challenged). And I don’t like people who cause a lot of drama around me. I tend to keep things like my political and religious views to myself as I have better things to do than argue about it.

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

I enjoy knitting. That is one skill I never lost. I’ve been working on getting back the skills I lost from the time I graduated university until the #metoo movement. Some of them I lost before university. Drawing and circuit bending right now. You can follow my progress on social media.

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

Music plays a large role. I don’t want to give too much of Sparky the Spunky Robot away, but the way the story is told was influenced by a particular album (in a few months, after more people have the chance to read it, I will send something into gingernuts about the album). I did write a massive article about Placebo’s Without You I’m Nothing album for gingernuts.
 
As I’ll be back in the world of Ket Pandas later on this week, I’ll be asking for people to send me their favourite black metal and dance music links.
 
2018’s music themes were pop music from the 90s and 00s – best move I ever made in terms of what to listen to while writing (it came about because I got really drunk at a New Year’s party and declared the Sugababes only ever sing about masturbation and woke up hungover the next day with a slip of paper with that written on it in my bag). And industrial music, which really set the flow of the words across the page. The pop music helped introduce some fresh themes and ideas into my writing from March 2018 onwards.
 
2019’s drunken New Year’s writing theme was bad 80s synthpop (I’ll reveal the actual music video on 31/12/19 which helped decide this theme) with showtunes being added in February (while sober). In some places, I’m still using industrial music to get the words to flow across the page but using musicals for story structure.
 
For updated playlists, follow facebook.com/danibrownbooks.
 
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 don’t really think about it, especially while writing. I say my stuff has “elements of”. Horror itself can be very beautiful or it can be outright disgusting and disturbing. I think people need to understand that it is fiction. I run into that problem a lot, when people think what I write is real or some sort of window into my inner world, even when I take the time to explain. It is very frustrating. It is art. If you don’t like it, look away. I suppose people are always going to look at something they don’t like on a personal level as something that is evil and totally overreact about it. As I’ve had so many pointless problems and drama related to what I write, I release author notes, etc. onto my website. I don’t have the time or desire to be dealing with people who tell me why I write something instead of listening to me when I say I wrote something a certain way because. I’m not suggesting anyone else does the same.
  
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’m really not sure. It is going to be interesting at any rate. Hopefully some sort of collective healing from Trump and Brexit through art. Looking at horror now, there’s so much of it and it is all different.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
I think my early stuff was influenced by Lord of the Rings. There’s a lot of description in there. These days, I’ve been trying to cut down on description and focus more on the flow of words. Sunset Boulevard. Norma Desmond’s house probably features in one form or another in everything I have ever written. These days, she’s influencing characters. I try to leave myself open to be influenced by everything, especially during Era Two (Tainted Love/Push the Button).

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
I read something by CL Raven a few months back which I enjoyed. There’s probably loads more, but my brain hurts from finishing a novella in the early hours of the morning.

How would you describe your writing style?

My writing style changes from book to book, even without stress, or with the normal stresses a single mother living in a strange country faces. I would like to write more prose poetry like 56 Seconds but every time I’ve deliberately set out to emulate it, it hasn’t worked. I’m trying to relax, not worry about deadlines (there will always be something else if I miss a particular one) and let the stories carry me and the flow of words instead. My best stuff is written that way.


Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
I don’t search out reviews, so I’ve probably missed some. I’m finding reviews for Sparky the Spunky Robot interesting. One review said it would work better as a short story and another said it would work better as a novel. Reviews are obviously subjective to the reviewer’s tastes. There will only be one Sparky the Spunky Robot though. The ideas that appeared in the book have evolved into Era Two (Tainted Love/Push the Button).
 
56 Seconds has only positive reviews at this point in time. I’m still waiting for someone to hate it.

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

Writing while dealing with manufactured drama around me. But all of that has changed. These days, I get a bit frustrated if something is taking too long to write or the words won’t flow in the way I want them to. And I’m still in the habit of writing whenever I have spare time. I need to learn to take a break. Over one year out of having to write in secret, I’m still anxious that someone will come along and sabotage my projects or cause some drama because it looks like I’m doing nothing or whatever their reasonings are.
 
Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
I think I’ve crossed most of the boundaries now.

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 name are important and sometimes not. I couldn’t write Ketamine Addicted Pandas until I had the last name that began with the letter “C”. I think Cody was the first panda given a name, with Corey next. But it took a few days for “Casey” to come to me.
 
Marcy’s name is weird. It sounds like it might be the feminine of Mark. There was a Mark who played the Angel of Death, I’ll reveal more about the name after Era Two (Tainted Love/Push the Button) is done. Honey came about because honey oozes down the walls in 56 Seconds.
 
And sometimes characters are given names like the Tentacle Queen and Stolen Daughter.
 
The Forest of the Dead was named because that’s where the dead reside. It is Marcy’s world. Touching it is the Neon Dream. The Neon Dream was shiny and new in the 1980s. I must admit, writing the Neon Dream is fun. As I’m in my thirties, I don’t remember the 80s, so I’ve been watching lots of documentaries and music videos for things to put into the Neon Dream and subvert it somehow.  

Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
I didn’t have a natural writing evolution. I graduated university with a degree in creative writing and the belief people would back off me and let me write and create now that I had an expensive slip of paper saying I can. As people are so intent on “helping” someone they see as less than them (or whatever their reasons are) with me pointing out that their help was more of a hinderance than anything the entire time, that didn’t happen. Right now, I’m basically picking up where I left off when I graduated in 2008. As laws and society have changed to an extent, I should now have that natural creative evolution. I obviously kept writing during that time and had an awful lot published. Keeping me away from writing and creating in general has only created stress and physical health problems related to prolonged stress.

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

An extensive music library and advanced Google skills. Post-it notes and pens.

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

Just write the story. Worry about everything else once the idea is down.

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

It depends on the book. With 56 Seconds, I’ve been slowly tweeting out the entire book and cross posting it across my social media accounts. But that doesn’t work with any of my other titles.
 
With Sparky the Spunky Robot, I’ve been doing the more traditional sending out review copies and interviews. I’ve also been recovering my Photoshop skills, at least on my phone and taking pictures of toy robots to post across social media. I did a public reading of it as well, the video is on my facebook page. It is in two parts because I messed up the order of my papers.
 
Reptile is one that doesn’t do so well on amazon, but it sells really well at events. I tell people to open it to any page and it’ll be the most extreme thing they’ve ever read. It is on kindle unlimited, if anyone wants to find out.
 
Ketamine Addicted Pandas is the first book I started posting about on social media as I wrote it. When that came out, it sold right away. And I did a few interviews in the run-up to release. I will be re-watching the Lords of Chaos movie and giving a run-down of it (I never realized people cared so much about my opinion of black metal related things) on social media and my website. I imagine that’ll sell some copies of Ket Pandas.
 
I maintain a website and I post free short stories on there with links to my books that readers might like if they enjoyed the story. I also write about characters as I develop them. And I try to keep very active social media accounts.

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 current favourite child is Faded Star. He doesn’t appear in 56 Seconds, although he was conceived while I was writing it. He is Honey’s midnight lover. Marcy also seems to be having an affair with him. He’s fun to write. The Tentacle Queen has a piece of him trapped in the Neon Dream and milked him for a third daughter. The Neon Dream is falling apart. It has a brothel with twitching, broken sexbots and lips in the walls, but only cockroaches to eat. He’s considerably older than Donnie, Marcy and Honey and will be dying eventually. And the sun shines out of his arse, which is fun. He is light, where Marcy is darkness. All the characters in Era Two are fun to write in their own ways, even Honey who is very empty and hollow, but purposely so.
 
My overall least favourite character is Rae from Middle Age Rae of Fucking Sunshine. There was too much negativity and drama going on in my life to really develop the character the way I wanted her. With Era Two, she might reappear as I first imagined her.

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

Sparky the Spunky Robot. It isn’t my strongest writing, but it is my favourite story. It was the last book I wrote while under intense stress from outside sources (I detail some of this on my website, as it is over and I’m picking up the pieces, there’s no need to go into details). To get the book finished, I ended up with a tattoo of the toy robot that inspired the story on my arm.
 
56 Seconds is probably my strongest writing.
 
And are there any that you would like to forget about?

I used to want to forget Middle Age Rae of Fucking Sunshine, but readers seem to like that book. I wrote it over the course of many months while the stress I was under intensified and no one around me would let me sort out my own goddamn problems, but it was demanded of me to act as a social worker to others. At any rate, what was happening in my life at the time and the people around me made no logical sense.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
I’ve divided my books into three groups. The time of the intense stress, Era Two (Tainted Love/Push the Button) and books that transcend that time.
 
Out of the books written while I was under intense stress, I recommend Night of the Penguins. It is pretty extreme and perfect for anyone that has ever worked a job they hate. If readers want the most extreme thing ever, try Reptile. The last book written of this time was when the stress was over and I was adjusting, Crackhouse in the Desert.
 
Era Two books, only 56 Seconds and one short story have been published so far. 56 Seconds was very fun to write. It was the second story of Era Two and what I imagined writing would be while finishing my degree. I still don’t know how I arrived at it from “Sugababes only ever sing about masturbation”. I went to an EBM night and nursed cheap gin for the entire night. The DJ kept adding fog to an empty dancefloor. I took a picture. I knew the picture would be important one day, and it was, about five weeks later.
 
Sparky the Spunky Robot I somehow managed to cut myself off from the stress and drama going on around me to get it written. It was me trying to figure out what motivates people to behave in the ways they do and interfere in other people’s lives. Ketamine Addicted Pandas is a bit of a mix of stress and no stress because I kept it running in the background on my computer while writing it. Ket Pandas is violent and extreme but still very fun. Sparky is a bit more meaningful than Ket Pandas, but both are entertaining.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
“out-narc frenemies on social media” That line became the evolution of the residents of Suburban Hell from Sparky the Spunky Robot having a tier system of garden decorations. It is a line that appears a lot in Era Two (Tainted Love/Push the Button). It came about, like the garden decorations in Sparky as a simple way of showing people aren’t living for themselves and in-tune with their true life paths because they care about what others think and post stuff online for validation.
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
My last published book was Sparky the Spunky Robot. Matthew was once a popstar. His band went on and made it without him. Now, he works an office job he can’t describe with any level of accuracy. The only thing that keeps him going is his keytar in the garden shed. Karen has been nagging him into getting rid of it for years so she can have higher tier garden decorations. Every night, Matthew goes out to the shed to jerk off. He can’t cum on the keytar. She might break. So he built Sparky to take his load. One night, Sparky comes to life. He doesn’t have a voice so breaks into neighbouring sheds in search of one, leaving Suburban Hell’s lost dreams scattered across gardens.

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

I’m not so keen on Instagram coming up with a warning when clicking on a horror hashtag. Horror fans are as dynamic a group of any other fandom. I don’t think singling out horror fans is fair.  

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
Oh gosh, I’ve just finished writing The Daisies That Open at Midnight (like at 2 o’clock this morning) and whenever I’m finishing something, I stop reading. I don’t even remember what I was reading when I hit the final stretch of The Daisies That Open at Midnight because it was such a slow write. Guess I’ll either be finding out tonight or picking up a new book.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
Would you like me to buy you a burrito? Yes, please.

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Peter Adam Salomon is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Horror Writers Association, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, the Science Fiction Poetry Association, the International Thriller Writers, and The Authors Guild.

His debut novel, HENRY FRANKS, was published by Flux in 2012. His second novel, ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, published by Flux in 2014, was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Young Adult fiction. Both novels have been named a ‘Book All Young Georgians Should Read’ by The Georgia Center For The Book.

His short fiction has appeared in the Demonic Visions series among other anthologies, and he was the featured author for Gothic Blue Book III: The Graveyard Edition. He was also selected as one of the Gentlemen of Horror for 2014.

His poem ‘Electricity and Language and Me’ appeared on BBC Radio 6 performed by The Radiophonic Workshop in December 2013. Eldritch Press published his first collection of poetry, PseudoPsalms: Prophets, in 2014, and his second and third poetry collections, PseudoPsalms: Saints v. Sinners and PseudoPsalms: Sodom, were published by Bizarro Pulp Press. In addition, he was the Editor for the first books of poetry released by the Horror Writers Association: Horror Poetry Showcase Volumes I and II.

He served as a Judge for the 2006 Savannah Children’s Book Festival Young Writer’s Contest and for the Royal Palm Literary Awards of the Florida Writers Association. He was also a Judge for the first two Horror Poetry Showcases of the Horror Writers Association and has served as Chair on multiple Juries for the Bram Stoker 

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
My best friend turned 13 on June 13, 1980 and even though I was still 12 we ended up going to see Friday the 13th. It was terrifying and fascinating and illuminating and served as a gateway drug to Stephen King and so many others. There’s something deeply rewarding about shining a light into the shadows through fiction and poetry.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
 
There’s a lot of reading, a lot of exploring Atlanta with my girlfriend, a lot of talking about writing and even more writing and reading. Too much television, a bit of theater, and a very eclectic assortment of music.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
Science-Fiction/Fantasy, as a child of the 80’s was thriving and there was so much horror within those genres (Alien/Aliens, for instance). And even going into mystery, The Silence of the Lambs, or the Kellerman’s Alex Delaware novels which are, in their essence, psychological horror. And, of course, poetry, from Poe to Coleridge to Eliot to all the contemporary dark poets writing today.
 
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?
 
So many genre terms are freighted with the tropes of the past, but the breadth of writers working today have reclaimed ‘horror’ in the best of all possible ways. Every branch of horror, from body horror to comedic and everything in between has been reborn in the rich flowering of horror going on today.

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?

There’s such an appetite for horror fiction and dark poetry, I think horror goes to the same place the entire industry is going: indie. Just as the music industry was revolutionized whether they wanted to be or not, publishing is facing the same revolution. It’s going to be an amazing journey producing astonishing amounts of fascinating stories from an incredibly diverse breadth of authors. It’s an honor to be a very small part of it all.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
Frankenstein, creating genres and proving that terror can be philosophical, that horror can be thought-provoking, and that literature is wide enough for all types of stories.
 
Those classic 50s Poe movies, and the entire canon of Vincent Price, proving how powerful a story can be.
 

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
Brian Kirk, might not be new to everyone but WILL HAUNT YOU will, in fact, haunt you. Darrell Grizzle, combining a wicked sense of humor with, well, wickedness, in short stories that linger, as all the best stories do. Jillian Boehme’s debut novel, STORMRISE, comes out in 2019 and she’s is a fantasist to watch.

How would you describe your writing style?

Poetic. I think of myself as a poet first and a novelist second even though I had two novels published before selling my first poem. Since then my poetry has appeared on BBC Radio 6 (performed by The Radiophonic Workshop, who do the music for Dr. Who) and I’ve founded National Dark Poetry Day (Oct. 7, the day Poe died) and the annual Horror Writers Association’s Dark Poetry Showcase competition.
 
Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

Booklist’s starred review of my first novel, HENRY FRANKS, included the line “…the thinking teen’s horror choice of the year” which will go on my tombstone, obviously. And Publishers Weekly described my second novel, ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, which was nominated for a Stoker, with the line: “Salomon creates the sensation of slipping between the worlds of the living and the dead. A complex, intense mystery that surprises and chills.”

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

Plotting, not sitting down and just starting to write. I am an incredibly impatient/lazy writer, and just want to get all the ideas down on paper so I can start making it better.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
That is a difficult to question without going into the differences between my fiction and my poetry. While my fiction is YA, the poetry is definitely for adults and deals with any subject matter that I feel like writing about. Themes in my fiction deal mainly with identity and memory whereas my poetry delves deeply into religion/sexuality and sex/violence/as well as identity and memory. With poetry, I feel almost as though I’m dared to erase any boundaries or borders, that nothing should be off limits to poetry no matter how difficult to write or read that can lead sometimes. So, I have poems that deal with intensely sensitive and personal matters. With fiction, where there’s far more world-building and character development, I tend to stay a little bit closer to ‘coloring inside the lines’ even I blur over them every so often.
 
If I can think of a subject I would never write about, I’d likely take that as a challenge to write a poem 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?
 
Fully depends on the book. I always include names of people I know, for minor characters at least, when needed or possible. My first novel, HENRY FRANKS, was a modern-day re-telling of Frankenstein, so the majority of the names are from the original book. Some more obvious than others, obviously, but I also needed a name for the main character which would work as a plot point, which Henry Franks does perfectly.
 
With the novel releasing in April, 2019, the main characters don’t actually know their own names (as I said, memory and identity are familiar themes for me) so they spend practically all of the book known as ‘L’ and ‘M’ based on the letters found on the clothes they’re wearing (the parallel with ‘Large’ and ‘Medium’ being actual clothing sizes didn’t even occur to me until quite recently, long after I wrote the book).
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
So much better, I hope. HENRY FRANKS took 5 years from idea to published and went through dozens of drafts. ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS took 2. EIGHT Minutes, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS I wrote in 21 days. Still had to edit it, but it started so much better than the first drafts of the books I’d written before so I was able to streamline the process tremendously. I hope that continues. Also, writing a book in 21 days isn’t the best way to write a book, but I’m glad to know I can do it.

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?       
 
Someplace comfortable to write. And that means everything from the seat to the atmosphere to the music. Write where you feel comfortable and safe, so that you can focus on the words and the magic and the inspiration. Anything else is just an extension of ‘comfort.’ Computer v. typewriter v. legal pad v. feather pen: whatever you feel comfortable with. iPad v. laptop v. phone v. the Magnavox VideoWriter I wrote my first novel on 30 years ago. All that matters is that you’re comfortable with the tools you’re using.
 
And save your work. A lot. More than you are even if you’re saving a lot.   

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
Write more. Keep writing. Don’t give up. Don’t 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?
 
Probably lazily and impatiently, the way I approach everything. Having been traditionally published, there were a few things that having a publishing house helping simplified (getting review copies out, but even then I was assisting in ways large and small). I am still working on this one, and have always tried to ‘pay it forward’ as much as possible, knowing how the horror community is so incredibly welcoming and supportive.

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?
 
Justine, in HENRY FRANKS, makes the book work. There wouldn’t be a book without her. And, in ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, while the story is told by Richard (in the first person), he is telling Melanie’s story, not his own. With EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS, there is no question but L is the star of the book, as she is, literally, the only living person. Writing a book where you kill over eight billion people, doesn’t leave much room for poorly drawn characters. It is L’s story, and she her strength and fierceness and vulnerability make the book far better than I could have ever hoped.

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
I’ve a feeling this will change over the years, as I now look back and wish I had one more chance to edit things in my published novels from 2012 and 2014 because I’m a better writer now. I’m incredibly proud of my poem ‘Psalm’ which was an honorable mention for last year’s HWA Dark Poetry Showcase at only 5 lines. I’m usually far wordier than that but managed to capture something special in those 25 or so words. And the book I have coming out now, EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS, is by far the best novel I’ve ever written. It’s a roller-coaster ride that does not let up, at all. With blurbs from Jonathan Maberry (“EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS is a twisty and unnerving horror thriller! Scary, mind-bending and fast-paced! Brace yourself…!”) to Rena Mason (“A taut sci-fi thriller fusion of pure adrenaline and fear that will leave you trembling to the very last page.”) and dozens of other Stoker winners and nominees, the response to this book has been exceptionally gratifying.

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

So many. Thankfully my memory isn’t what it was.

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

ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, nominated for the Stoker for YA fiction, is lyrical and poetic and was extraordinarily difficult to write. I threw out all those fiction rules (ie: no repeated words, no run-on sentences, no sentence fragments, for example) and replaced them with the rules of poetry. And still wrote in prose, not verse. I knew while writing it that there would be critics who couldn’t get past the strong ‘voice’ I was using and that there’d be others who would love it. That proved true with opinions very divided on the book, with some calling it melodramatic and others, like Publishers Weekly, seeing the dream-like aspect of the writing as being a part of the mood of the book, almost another character, the way the weather was a character in HENRY FRANKS.
 
And, of course, the new book is a must.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us
 
Actually, my favorite line is more of a moment, and it’s in a novel that might never be published. It’s called THIS IS WHERE I STAND and is a vigilante/superhero tale featuring a young woman who finally meets the woman of her dreams, only to realize that she’s killed her brother (I did mention the vigilante/superhero part). The moment where they meet is the culmination of 150 pages of despair and she earns that brief incandescent scene even while the reader knows how intensely bittersweet the meeting is.
 
So, I’ll share the poem ‘Psalm’ instead:
 
Psalm
 
Shroud me in a shallow grave
Bury me with wildflower seeds
In an ancient forest
For while life was only rarely beautiful
Death
I want to be a garden

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

As for my most recent novel, EIGHT MINUTES, THIRTY-TWO SECONDS, is post-post-dystopian. There is no evil corporation to topple, no tyrant to overthrow, no government to rebel against, no rag-tag army of survivors to lead. There is no one and nothing. Eight billion people died when the world the world ended. Two survived. And they have no idea who they are or why they’re alive or what killed everyone else.
 
They only know what the AI tells them. And what they learn every time they die. Addicted to a drug that kills them for eight minutes, thirty-two seconds, they treasure the high, for during that time, they visit the past. They see the world as it was. They live as six lonely teens, and with each death, they stitch a little more of the truth together. As the withdrawal symptoms get worse, forcing them to kill themselves more often in order live, they fear they’ll be dead long before they learn what really happened.
 
After that, I’ll have a poetry collection, my fourth, out this summer, and another novel, MORSUS, this fall.

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?
 
No need to erase any, just a need to reclaim some of them. They became clichés because they work, because there’s a need for familiarity. It’s a matter of innovation and breathing new life into the dead.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
Am I allowed to say the Washington bio by Chernow disappointed me? Hamilton and Grant were astonishing, but Washington, while still richly researched and amazingly well-written suffered for lack of a certain humanity in the subject. Hamilton and Grant had tragic, fatal flaws, and those flaws gave their bios a depth and richness lacking in the similar bio of Washington, who had relatively few flaws (in the ‘dramatic character’ sense that makes for great drama…) so the bio seemed to suffer for the lack of that tragic flaw in the subject. Of course, that might just be me and your mileage may vary.
 
The last great book I read was THE RUIN OF KINGS by Jenn Lyons. A new dark twist on fantasy.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
“How did it feel to win the Academy Award?”
 
“It felt pretty good, I have to admit. A lifetime of dreaming, of hearing people say that ‘dreams come true’ and they do, they really do. And those ‘swag’ bags are pretty amazing.”
 
I’d REALLY like someone to ask me that someday.

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Author S.L. Edwards is kind of like the mayonnaise of the horror fiction community. You can put him in anything and it will automatically make that thing better. Like mayo on a sandwich, an Edwards story in an anthology makes it all the more appetizing.
 
FYI: If you’re gagging right now because you hate mayo, congratulations. You and Mr. Edwards have something in common. And, yes, I only wrote that first paragraph to annoy him.
 
Whatever your condiment preference, though, the truth remains the same: S.L. Edwards has become a genre mainstay, contributing original tales to such periodicals as Vastarien, Occult Detective Quarterly, and Weirdbook Magazine, and to anthologies published by Silent Motorist Media, Muzzleland Press, and Planet X Publications.
 
Now, Edwards is getting a book all to himself. Set for release on July 15th from Gehenna & Hinnom Press, Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts is the author’s first collection. The author recently sat down with The Ginger Nuts of Horror to dish about the upcoming release, as well as the place of politics in horror fiction, the possibility of life after death, and his contentious relationship with Hellmann’s most famous product.
 
 
First of all, I wanted to say thank you for taking the time to speak with me. You’ve been busy making the rounds, doing a lot of interviews in the lead-up to the release of Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts. So let’s start off with something a little different: I challenge you to ask yourself a question that no one else has asked, and to answer it.
 
“You’ve published a lot of fiction in a remarkable amount of time. We might say that this is some degree of success. But, as we know from our own experience, writing isn’t always easy. Can you think of a time when writing was hard, or when it seemed too difficult? You joke a lot about story rejections online, but have their been moments where that stung more than others? How did you deal with them?”
 
You know, I joke a lot about my advice for new writers. I think it’s sort of silly, this idea that I am by any stretch of a definition the authority on writing or getting published. But I’m glad you asked this question, as just now I received a rejection from a market that I have wanted to be a part of for some time. Furthermore, this rejection was for a story that was well-received by writers whose opinions I respect and I know to be honest. So, just to have a frank conversation with writers discouraged by a slow down or a lack of progress in their work:


It’s okay. Rejections are not the end of your story. For years I had given up writing, for years. And all it took was one acceptance to get me back in the game. Persistence is the key to all of this, more than thick skin. I know a few writers who I consider to be extremely talented, more than me. Writers who have been in this game way longer than I have. Rejection bothers them. But they don’t quit. I know other writers who have gotten a few rejections and they just stop. And it kills me. It’s very sad to me, because I think they’re denying the world their stories. Their good stories. The stories that only they can tell.
 
It’s okay to hurt for a while, but the way you recognize you have become a “real writer” is that you cannot suppress your desire to tell stories. And you owe it to yourself to keep telling those stories. And if anyone enjoys those stories, you owe it to them too.
 
And, a rejection does not always mean your story was bad. You could have a very good story, but it simply does not work or fit for the publication you so want to be a part of. I do joke about rejections, mostly with editors who I have become good friends with. But the truth is that when they rejected me, they have been very honest in their reasons for doing so. And I respect and believe them.
 
So in terms of “dealing” with these hard moments, just believe people. Try to believe them anyway. If they say they enjoyed as story they mean it.
 
So how about a little background for new readers? What are the roots of your interest in genre fiction? How long have you been writing it? When and what was your first published work? And from there, how did things build up to where they are now, with the imminent release of your first short story collection?
 
I’ve blamed my mom for this in past interviews. I still blame my mom. Great lady.
 
She was out here this weekend and we went to Phantom Carriage Brewing. It’s this little outfit out in the outskirts of the LA area, horror themed, and we happened to be screening the Shining when we stopped in. And it was kind of funny, me as an adult, to be watching scary movies with my mom like I was when I was a little kid.
 
Mom encouraged a love of horror very early on. I was watching movies I wasn’t supposed to be way before I was supposed to. Mom herself is an unashamed fan. She went crazy for Halloween, lined our house with Stephen King books. She has all these first editions but mom is a reader, not a collector. So those books are well loved and well-read.
 
From mom’s house it went to the Goosebumps books at school. Around fourteen years old I found Lovecraft and never quite recovered. Lovecraft to Poe to Bloch to modern weird fiction. A victory lap for Shirley Jackson, Richard Matheson, Machen, Blackwood and Hodgson. Then of course my favorite, Clark Ashton Smith.
 
I honestly can’t recall how long I’ve been writing this stuff. I don’t have a definitive date. The earliest story in Whiskey was first written my Senior year of high school. It’s since gone through several waves of revisions, but at it’s core is still the same story written by someone who was terrified that alcohol would completely subsume their personality. In high school I was unfit, awkward. I put so much stock in my grades, because that’s what I had control of. And I thought any slip in my self-discipline would be disastrous.
 
After I got a bit more comfortable with myself, my horror stories started to mellow out. I think I wrote “We Will Take Half,” my last year of college. Then a slew of stories while I was studying abroad in Costa Rica. For a period of about a year and a half, I gave up trying to get published completely. “Movie Magic” and “I’ve Been Here a Very Long Time” were written in that time period. So were “The Case of Yuri Zaystev” and “Golden Girl.”
 
So you’re starting to see, part of my “success” was that I came into the field with a lot of things already written. At that time I was mainly writing for me, and my friends. “Movie Magic” and “I’ve Been Here a Very Long Time,” were both published within a month of each other, much to my disbelief. My long poem “The Owl,” followed shortly after. From there it was a sort of deluge. My stories were getting picked up quite quickly, all over the place. It left me a little out of breath, and disoriented me. I had a lot of trouble determining what, if anything I wrote was good at that point.
 
As a consequence, to be frank: I wrote a lot of crap. I sent out some stories, thinking they were good because I had some success, and as a consequence I was pretty quickly put back in my place.
 
And that sent me into a period of self-reflection. Intensified my writing. Came up with “Cabras” and “Volver Al Monte,” then revised “We Will Take Half,” which I sent to Charles P. Dunphy. And I’ll tell you, I was pretty sure “We Will Take Half,” was going to get rejected. I wasn’t sure it fit with what CP was looking for. But he not only liked it, he liked it so much he inquired me about a potential collection.
 
And that’s the long version.
 
Many of the stories in this collection have a heavy political or historical component to them. Where does that come from? What do you feel is the benefit of marrying such weighty real-world issues with the weird and the supernatural? Are there any stories in Whiskey that stand out to you as being particularly challenging because of their political/historical subjects? Do you feel any special responsibility when dealing so directly with these kinds of themes in your fiction?
 
I’ve long been a student of history and political science. I double majored in college, then got my Masters not too long ago. I’m furthering my education to that next big degree, so I’ve pretty intensely studied politics and history. Particularly the Americas.
 
My overall writing philosophy, what I try to do, is make a story where you could remove the supernatural element and still be left with a horror story. “Volver Al Monte,” is a good example. I could remove the strangeness of that story, and I would still be left with a story about political violence destroying a country and family. So these things, these real world terrors, are pretty well-supplemented by more cosmic and supernatural horrors. I, in fact, find the fact that these terrors are real makes them more scary. Who needs Cthulhu when you have Sendero Luminoso? Or Tiger Force? Or Abu Grahib? People are capable enough of their own horror, and reflecting that against a more supernatural element amplifies the profundity of that terror.
 
In regards to challenging stories, “Volver” was particularly difficult. Alfonsín Santos was a hard character to write. I had some people who thought he was this tragic hero, and in one sense, he was. But he also admits to sponsoring more than his fair share of ruthless political violence. And this was my protagonist. So I had to really think about what sort of human qualities, what sympathetic qualities we all have.
 
Santos was inspired, in part, by stories about Stalin. Stalin was notoriously at the mercy of his young daughter, who would interrupt his meetings and issue him “orders.” “Daddy must take me to the movies.” And he would obey, much to the dismay of the men who had been threatening with death only moments ago.
 
So people are messy. They’re capable of horrifying acts of violence, but they also tend to go home and love their families. Raise their kids. Retire and die. I think I finally have a handle on that type of character, but they’re still characters who are difficult to write.
 
I’m glad you bring up responsibility. A lot of my stories are set in places that are pretty clearly inspired by Latin American history. A lot of my characters have Spanish-language names. I’ve been changing that recently, because I worry about contributing to a cultural understanding of Latin America as an exceptionally violent place. The truth of it is that we (my North American audience and I) are fortunate in that we benefit from something of a historical accident. Every town in the United States has a police force. The state is present in virtually every area.
 
But that’s not the case in a lot of other countries across the world. And because of that, it’s led to more than a few conflicts.
 
But we’re no different. Conflict could happen here. It has happened here. Not only in the form of the Civil War, but the genocide against Native Americans. Slavery.
 
So I’ve been trying to make clear, in interviews such as this, that Latin America is not a place of exceptional violence. It is a wonderful, incredibly diverse place. Countries like Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, Brazil and Argentina. We shouldn’t think of them as this monolithic cultural unit, or as places of violence. They’re full of great people, wonderful moments, and great food. These nations, quite frankly, have managed to innovate in a few ways the United States and Europe have not been able to.
 
Moving away from serious discussion for a minute, let’s talk about something a bit more fun: booze! The title of your collection is Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts. Are you a big whiskey drinker? A little birdy told me you like IPAs, too. So what’s your poison? Foreign or domestic? Brand name or locally brewed? If your collection was a meal, what would you recommend as an accompanying beverage?
 
I am a big Whiskey drinker. I’m a bourbon guy. Bulleit and Elijah Craig are my staples. I do like IPAs, but I like a wide variety of beers. It’s really dependent on the weather for me. On colder days, nothing much beats an imperial stout. But they keep flavoring stouts. “Pastry stouts,” they call them. And I can’t stand that. On hot days, give me your keller lagers, your pilsners. And yes, your IPAs.
 
I consider it my patriotic duty to buy beer that’s made in America. I’m a “drink local” guy, which is fortunate given that I’m in Southern California now. With all due respect to Portland and Colorado, I’ve had a difficult time finding beer that rivals that from San Diego. Or for that matter, the LA area. You can’t sling a cat without hitting a phenomenal brewery in Southern California.
 
Now the collection being a meal…I suppose that would depend on the type of meal it was. And that requires me making a  bit of a judgement for potential readers. I’d say a steak (or mushrooms, for my vegetarian and vegan friends). Cooked rare, some grilled green beans, tomatoes and potatoes.
 
And I’d pair that with whiskey. Neat.
 
Here’s another not-so-serious question. We already dealt with the “Whiskey” part of the collection’s title, but what about the other part? The “Ghosts” of the title appear more to reference your characters’ inner demons than any spoopy chair-stacking poltergeists. Fiction and allegory aside, though, do you believe in ghosts? Why or why not?
 
You’re absolutely correct in that first part. To bring back my story philosophy, the supernatural elements are supposed to amplify the very real “ghosts” in the stories. So many things can haunt us. Violence, cyclical, familial and political. Falling in love, that can haunt us just as any other morbid fascination.
 
“Do I believe in ghosts?” You know…I’ve had my experiences. After my parents divorced my dad moved into a house where the woman who owned it previously died shortly before. The doors used to slam very loudly. Objects would move when I left the room. Eventually I got fed up and shouted “REALLY?” when I found the remote on top of our fridge.
 
Despite that though, I’m not sure I believe in ghosts. Maybe not in the sense that horror fiction portrays them. And perhaps because I never saw anything. I heard stuff. But I never saw anything! No apparitions, no wraiths. And now that I say that, I hope I never do. I can’t honestly know how I would handle it.
 
Alongside your prose, Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts features illustrations by artist Yves Tourigny. This is hardly the first time you’ve worked with Yves, as you and he have also collaborated on the Borkchito: Occult Doggo Detective comic strips. How did your working relationship with him first come about and how has it evolved? How do you feel Yves’ art complements the stories in Whiskey? Are there any illustrations that stand out to you as being particularly striking? I’m always interested in what authors think when they first see their words realized as images.
 
Hah! You know, it was Yves’ birthday recently and it will be mine in a few days.
 
I have to come clean, Borkchito was almost entirely Yves.
 
The story goes like this: John Linwood Grant was taking his sweet editorial time getting back to me on a series of stories involving my other occult detective, Joe Bartred. And then I saw a meme about a chihuahua being “the littlest paranormal investigator I’ve ever seen.” So, I came up with a way to threaten John. I would write a story about an occult doggo detective, almost entirely in meme lingo.
 
The idea took off far faster than I expected. Yves posted on one that he’d love to make a comic about it. And I’ll be honest, I didn’t respond. The attention overwhelmed me at the time, and I was such a fan of his art. I sort of just hoped that it would be the end of it. Because this was someone I had never dreamed of working with.
 
But then he made the first comic based off some dialog I posted.
 
First I offered a bit of dialog, some general direction for the stories. But Yves had a vision in mind that was at once funnier and more heartfelt than my original idea of Borkchito as a spoof of John Constantine. So I became more a general story direction guy and less a hands-on writer.
 
Yves has been nothing but a Saint with me. Looking at Whiskey I  can’t help but feel that he really wanted to do right by my debut collection. Seeing these illustrations as they developed made me feel incredibly lucky. Yves has a knack for really, really capturing the spirit of a scene. I was shocked at how well he captured the spirit of “Cabras.”
 
That illustration is one of my favorites, as is the one for “Movie Magic.” I don’t want to give away that illustration, but I need to get it made into a print. Or a tshirt, something to scare normies away when I need to be particularly spooky. He visualized “We Will Take Half” far better than I did. And his work on “When the Trees Sing” is particularly haunting.


I think about that illustration a lot.
 
I feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a partner in Yves. He’s gone the extra mile for me, and I can’t say enough nice things about him. He is one of the definitive artists of our genre, along with folks like Luke Spooner, Dave Felton, Murtatis Boswell and Dan Sauer. To work with someone who worked with writers like Laird Barron, S.P. Miskowski, Matthew M. Bartlett, and Kristi DeMeester always makes me feel like I’m out of my league.


In short, Yves is too pretty for me but still seems to like me okay. And I can’t thank him enough for that.
 
After Whiskey, you already have two more collections in the pipeline, is that right? What can you tell us about those and when we can expect to see them? From what I’ve heard, it sounds like some of the material in them offers a look at a different side of you than what’s in Whiskey. How do you compare the different tones and styles, and what do you get from bouncing between them? When you sit down to write a story, do you already have a specific tone or style in mind, or is that something that evolves as you’re writing? Despite the first-glance differences, do you feel there are commonalities that tie these pieces together despite their differences?
 
I am afraid I cannot offer a definitive “when” on either collection. There are so many balls in the air. I can only hope to promise that they will see the light of day when they are ready. I have a publisher for the first post-Whiskey collection, and have my sights on another for the second. The Death of An Author, will be more pulpy stories. It will have vampires, zombies, action-adventure cowboys, and my Congressman Marsh character. And while I like those stories, they just didn’t fit with what I wanted to do in Whiskey. While Whiskey is a sort of sampling of everything I do, and unified by this theme of emotional hauntings, these stories are more my unabashed fun side.
 
The other collection, Monsters of the Sea and Sky is built around the theme of “conspiracies.” Not like the illuminati (I would actually be a lot more comfortable if I believed something like the illumaniti existed). Or Lizard people (save us, Lizard people). More like family secrets. Or political secrets. Something like Grupo Colina in Peru, a paramilitary unit which killed university students and professors during President Fujimori’s counter-insurgency against Sendero Luminoso. When the parents of these kids realized they were gone, they first took their case to the government. But the government hid their birth records. So, the official response for a few days (as I understand) was that these missing kids simply never existed.
 
That’s the kind of conspiracy I mean. Of course, it will have monsters. Sea monsters. Tree monsters. But very human monsters as well, particularly the lingering ghosts of totalitarianism.
 
Aside from all these collections you’ve got on the way, anything else in the works at the ol’ Edward estate? Any particular plans for the future? And how best can readers follow any new developments in the burgeoning Sleddyverse?
 
Right now I’m working on a story for Camden Park Press’s Yearning to Be Free. The anthology is going to benefit RAICES, a non-profit that provides legal aid to immigrants in detention facilities. I tell you, man…the Political Science 101 definition of government is “Who gets what, where and how?” In that sense, I guess the situation at the border is “political.” But the way these kids are treated…that should be non-partisan. We should be able to agree that kids deserve toothpaste, soap and blankets. That they should be with their parents whenever possible. We shouldn’t be having a partisan debate on that. But we are. I encountered someone not to long ago who told me every asylum seeker should be killed.
 
That’s…that’s not acceptable. And it scares me. So, hopefully Yearning to Be Free can help people in need. I’m also hoping to get a story with Nightscape Press’ Horror for RAICES.
 
Beyond that, I’m working on some stuff with my character “John Armitage.” John’s a Warlock sheriff, a freed slave who’s currently the sheriff of “Freedomtown.” He’s meeting racist shapeshifters, secret societies of cave-dwelling vampires, necromancer samurais and even an honest-to-God kaiju. It’s been a bit of a palette cleanser from the heavier stuff I write.
 
I sort of want to be done with the heavier stuff for as long as I can help myself. It affects my mood and sleep patterns.
 
Finally, let’s address the controversy that everyone is whispering it about behind-the-scenes. I know it’s unpleasant but it can’t be ignored. Here at The Ginger Nuts of Horror, we’re very serious journalists. You are well-known for being a vocal opponent of mayonnaise, but an insider source has leaked to me that in private conversations you’ve admitted to enjoying the condiment in tuna salad. How do you respond to these damning allegations?
 
These allegations are true. I’ve let down my friends. I’ve let down the country. I’ve let down our genre, the dreams of all those young people who ought to get involved in Weird Fiction but think it’s too corrupt and mayo-y and the rest. Yup, I’ve let down the weird community, and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of life.


(Author’s note: Yeah, it’s a funny thing. Can’t stand chicken salad because of the mayo. But with Tuna you can mix in quite a bit of mustard. Mustards more often than not saves it for me. So enough mayo to hold the mush together, I guess. Then drown that awfulness in the Lord’s condiment: mustard.)

Interview by William Tea

 

I was honoured to interview Louis Greenberg as part of a panel at the fabulous Cymera Festival, and Louis has kindly answered some of the questions I posed to them on the panel.  

​Louis Greenberg is a freelance editor and writer. He was born in Johannesburg. He has edited mostly fiction for publishers including Random House Struik, Penguin and NB Publishers and some academic work for journals and institutions, and was an online tutor at the South African Writers’ College.

His published work includes a handful of photos, poems and short stories. His first novel, The Beggars’ Signwriters (Umuzi, 2006), was shortlisted for the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the 2007 University of Johannesburg Debut Prize. He compiled and edited Home Away(Zebra Press, 2010), a collaboration by 24 writers set in a single, global day. His second novel, Dark Windows, was published by Umuzi in 2014.

Under the name S.L. Grey, he co-writes horror-thrillers with Sarah Lotz, zombie queen of the south. His latest novel Green Valley has just been published by Titan Books 

 
As an icebreaker here is a light-hearted question to get the ball rolling, with modern horror being more than things that go bump in the night, if we were to look under your bed what monster would we find lurking there?
 
Ever since we moved into our house, there’s been a black bin bag of *something* under there that I’ve been afraid to inspect. It’s heavy and bulky and sort of tacky and somewhat yielding to the touch. I don’t think it’s body parts because they would have decomposed by now. It’s gathering dust. Up to now, I’ve been vacuuming around it.
 
Horror has always been a genre that has reflected the world we live in, how do you see the horror genre developing with regards to the current state of the world?
 
Horror’s an excellent way of exploring our fear of the present and the future with license to exaggerate and fear-monger. Fear is a legitimate warning that hopefully can get people to change their ways before it’s too late – whether it’s avoiding fascism or environmental catastrophe or surviving during an alien takeover, or simply feeling prepared if you’re ever mugged on the street or attacked in your home. But sometimes, no matter how much horror you read, you won’t be prepared for the real thing, whether it’s a hostile alien presence colonising you or an intimate attack.
 
Horror like many other genres always seems to have a foot firmly stuck in the past with regards to style and inspiration, why do you think authors such as Lovecraft, Poe, Shelly and Hill still have such an influence on modern writers, and who do you think of the more recent writers will become the inspirations for style and themes for future generations of writers? 
 
I’m not sure who will be influential in years to come. We seem to be at an odd phase, still dominated by an old guard of familiar writers, with newer voices struggling to break out in quite a normative phase of mainstream publishing.
 
But please let me wax lyrical on Poe for a bit: he was a huge influence for me. When I was ten or so, I took his stories out of the library and wrote doppelganger stories at school. Then at university, a course in nineteenth century horror was a major key to unlocking all my desire to study and read and write. Before then, studying English had been a bit of a dull chore, but now we were suddenly talking about death and sex and perversity. Poe was writing psychodynamics well before Freud was even born. And he worked in science fiction and detective fiction before they were things.
 
How do you  deal with this relatively new phenomenon of instant feedback and how do you deal with any negative feedback you have received? 
 
While I internalise negative comments more than they should, and they come to bite during the gloomiest parts of the first draft and the rewrite, I’ve gradually learned a bit of perspective about them. I still think it’s amazing that complete strangers in places I’ve never been have had my words in their minds and that they bother to spend the time to share their opinions about them.
 
I don’t like the tyranny of the star rating, though. It traps readers and viewers as much as writers and producers. Netflix happily has dropped star ratings and now I feel like I can try shows that sound interesting to me, when before I may have skipped them because they got a bad review. I’m watching and reading more interesting things now that may not have been universally liked but really hit my spot.
 
Another aspect that the modern day horror author has to deal with is the murky waters of fandom, the uproar over the final season of game of Thrones is a prime example of this, and one of the most basic forms of advice for a writer is write about what you know and love, how do you ensure that you get as close to staying true to your writing while at the same time ensuring that the final product is as accessible to your fans as possible? 
 
I’m gladly/sadly not in the position to be worried by mass responses to my work. There’s not really a clamour when my books come out!
 
The modern world is scary place, as a horror author  do you feel horror is in danger of losing its power to scare when your readership is bombarded with images and stories from real life that are way more scary than anything that you have committed to paper?
 
I think the function of horror is not to add more fear into the world but to help us order, manage and understand our fear. So we can use all that material we see, and help society process it. We’re not short of fear at the moment.
 
Louis your latest novel Green Valley , is set in a world that has rejected modern surveillance and tracking technology, but follows a small group that still lives within the virtual reality of Green Valley. Do you feel that the modern world is developing to fast for the average human, and how do you think we can deal with the ever-increasing impact of such things?
 
I try hard not to be a Luddite and a kneejerk technophobe, but I do worry intensely about government and corporate abuse of modern technology and the way it will control and normalise populations and stifle dissent. By buying so merrily into the digital economy, we have signed away our individual autonomy.
 
Fredric Jameson wrote that “It seems easier for us today to imagine the thoroughgoing deterioration of the earth and of nature than the breakdown of late capitalism; perhaps that is due to some weakness in our imaginations.” Like a lot of writers I struggle to imagine a progressive change happening that doesn’t first involve some systemic breakdown. I’d like to hope otherwise and I use my fiction to imagine what alternatives might look like – the negative and positive. In my previous novel, Dark Windows, I looked at the real-world challenges of a peace-loving hippie government of South Africa, and in Green Valley, I consider what it might mean if we had to turn away from digital tyranny.
 
To wrap things up before we open up to the questions to the audience, can you tell us about your latest book and what you are working on next? 
 
Green Valley is a cybernoir thriller set in a city that’s banned the internet and gone back to a version of the 1970s. But there’s an enclave across town – like the remnants of an Apple or Google campus – where everyone lives in permanent virtual reality. But dead children are coming from Green Valley, and not everything is what it seems.
 
Next up, I’m working on a Berlin-based thriller based on cryptogeographic puzzles.

Chilling near-future SF for fans of Black Mirror and True Detective.
When Lucie Sterling's niece is abducted, she knows it won't be easy to find answers. Stanton is no ordinary city: invasive digital technology has been banned, by public vote. No surveillance state, no shadowy companies holding databases of information on private citizens, no phones tracking their every move.
Only one place stays firmly anchored in the bad old ways, in a huge bunker across town: Green Valley, where the inhabitants have retreated into the comfort of full-time virtual reality - personae non gratae to the outside world. And it's inside Green Valley, beyond the ideal virtual world it presents, that Lucie will have to go to find her missing niece.

Jack Bantry is the editor of Splatterpunk Zine. He resides in a small town at the edge of the North York Moors.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
Hello. My name is Jack Bantry. I’m the owner/editor of Splatterpunk Zine, and I writing horror fiction.

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

When not working (I’m a self-employed tradesman, doing anything from painting & decorating and tiling to fitting kitchens, bathrooms and wetrooms), I spend time with my family. I also dabble in a bit of publishing. Most recent being a couple of anthologies co-edited with Kit Power, (Splatterpunk Fighting Back and Splatterpunk Forever).

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
My writing is influenced by the books I read and real life occurrences. For instances, the type of books I read influence the type of fiction I write. My favourite writers are people like Jack Ketchum, Ray Garton, Richard Stark, Richard Laymon, Max Allen Collins, etc. I like my fiction short and straight to the point. 200 page books that read like a film. For example: I prefer James Herbert over Stephen King. And I find real life occurrences scarier than supernatural horror. For instance, the sex trade and the abuse of women and children is probably the worst thing imaginable. Probably why THE GIRL NEXT DOOR by Jack Ketchum is one of the scariest books ever written.
 
The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations.  What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?
 
I think horror is just a title. Some people stick to it and won’t associate with anything else. I tend to go with whatever I enjoy. It’s like music. Some people will only listen to one genre. I like a wide variety of music, (from Bad Religion to Miley Cyrus). Book and films are the same. Horror probably is my favourite. I certain was my favourite, but I also enjoy reading and watching a lot of crime, particularly noir or hardboiled crime. After the success of horror in the 70s and 80s it became a bit of a joke, now though it’s made a resurgence. Just look at the amount of horror on Netflix.

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’m a punk, so I enjoyed politics and I think the political climate gives us a lot of stories. Not sure if it’s really being addressed at the moment, but there’s definitely scope for it. The western world is on a downward spiral, like what happened to the Roman Empire, for example, it’s had its time and we are witnessing its demise. I can see a whole new world out there. Probably not for the better. But it sure would make a good backdrop to some stories. The apocalypse is coming. Bring on Mad max…

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

I started reading horror fiction when I saw a film review for King’s PET SEMETERY on Barry Norman’s FILM TV programme. Read loads of King after that, scoured the car boot sales for second hand books and discovered great writers like Clive Barker, James Herbert, Richard Laymon, Graham Masterson. Reading Herbert’s THE FOG and the rats trilogy made me fall in love with the genre. As far as films go, I was brought up in the Fangoria generation and loved the slasher films. Chainsaw Massacre being my favourite, but there’s too many good films to mention.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
Kit Power, Paul Shrimpton, Brendan Vidito, Matt Phillips…

How would you describe your writing style?

Being the editor of Splatterpunk Zine I’m probably associated with modern splatterpunk but I really love hardboiled crime. POINT BLANK by Richard Stark is one of the best books ever written. As is THE LIGHT AT THE END by Skipp & Spector. Mash them together and that’s the sort of stuff I’d love to write. It’s hard to define my writing style as I haven’t had much published and the books I have coming out this year were written 3-4 years ago. One is a crime/horror/thriller and the other (yet to be announced) is more comedy horror. But I’m currently working on a crime thriller… so there’s loads of diversity. They’re all short-ish. I write what I read. Something that plays out like a film and doesn’t go on a tangent.

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

Just finding time and getting motivated to sit at the laptop…

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
No!

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

I like the way they sound. Like Jack Burton! Now that’s how you name a hero!
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
I just write. I come up with an idea and it develops itself, if it doesn’t and I like what I have then I send it to Robert Essigand we collaborate. I think we grow as people and writing is the same. Who knows where it’s gonna lead? I have no idea as long as I’m enjoying what I’m doing. Along with AIN’T WORTH A SHIT, I have two more books coming out this year. One is a novella, co-written with Robert, and the other is a collection. I’m also editing an anthology. Then there’s the crime thriller I mentioned. I have no idea what will come next. I might not write anything else? I might publish more. I quite enjoyed it, but then again I might be working on something else with Robert. I enjoyed the collaborating process. I don’t even know what day of the week it is. Ask me something else…

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
 
I think it’s like anything in life. People just need to get off their asses and do what they enjoy. So you’ve got to have motivation. You’ve also got to be able to tell a story and not expect immediate success. I failed English at school. I don’t know the difference between a verb, noun or adjective. I just love reading books and getting the chance to tell a story. You can do anything if you try.      

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

Nothing stands out when it comes to writing advice. I remember hearing a song titled Never Give Up, by The Swellbellys, from Edinburgh. Sums it up really.

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

Getting noticed is very difficult, much harder that writing a book, anyone can do that. But getting noticed is the hard part. There’s so much competition and not enough outlets. There’s no zines anymore. Magazines don’t last 5 minutes – probably cos they don’t make enough in revenue to pay the author rates. Publishers can’t afford to advertise in them etc. There’s a few anthos, but you’ve got to be good enough or somehow make yourself popular enough to get in there. And when you manage to write a book there’s so many people sending books to publishers. Self-publishing is an option but then how do you market it if you’re unknown? Getting reviews is very difficult. Again, there’s so much competition and not enough outlets. The answer is: edit your own zine! It’s relatively cheap, gives you a platform and helps create more outlets for writers. Win win! Also, make your books look good, or pay for a decent cover artist and get a good editor.

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

AIN’T WORTH A SHIT. I also really like my short story, THE ITCH, which appeared in The Blackroom Manuscripts Vol. 3, published by The Sinister Horror Company.
 
And are there any that you would like to forget about?

Yeah, I’ve wrote a few shorts which didn’t make the upcoming collection, and they will remain buried!

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

Start with AIN’T WORTH A SHIT. It’s my new one. Then, when you’ve read that I’ll have another book out (in time for Edge-Lit), followed later in the year with the collection. The next book is also a collaboration with Robert Essig, as is the collection. But the collection also contains some of our “solo” shorts. It’s like a “best of”.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
When I was writing AIN’T WORTH A SHIT I finished writing chapter three and I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach. It’s the only time my work has left me feeling like that. (In fact I very rarely get that from fiction). I won’t share any of it here. You’ll have to buy the book…
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
My last book is AIN’T WORTH A SHIT. It’s about a young man who is a small time drug dealer, just making enough to get by, then he loses some money and finds himself in debt to his supplier. He’s forced to work for them at their hotel in Soho to pay off the debt. It’s not a nice hotel. Our hero finds himself in a whole lot of shit…
 
I’m currently working on a crime thriller set on a small island in the Gulf of Thailand. A couple of travellers decide to rob the local mafia. Yeah, you guessed it, things don’t go to plan…


What was the last great book you read?
 
Now that’s a difficult question! My favourite book of 2018 was MONSTERS AND ANIMALS by JF Gonzalez and Wrath James White. Particularly the second story, ANIMALS. What a great conclusion to JFs SURVIVOR series.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
I grew up an avid reader thanks to my parents, and that hobby continues to this day. They also installed a love of music and all art in me. I’ve ended up with huge book, music and movie collections. And I still have a ton of comic books. I just can’t bring myself to throw any of that stuff away, or sell it. Man, why would you want to?

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
 
My previous answer kind of sheds some light on this answer. I’m a huge movie buff; I even went to film school. So I watch a lot of movies. Then there’s music, which is my second love (after the written word). I play the drums (although not as well as I like to think I used to) and will always have some form of music on somewhere in the house, except when I’m writing. If I had a drum set around, I’d be hitting that when not hitting the keyboard.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I love sci-fi and the Hero’s Journey stuff. Anything with the words “Star” and “Wars” in it means I love it and it’s influenced my life in some way. Not a day goes by that I don’t mention it at least once. It’s probably pretty annoying to those around me, but I haven’t had any complaints. Yet.
 
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, to me, is anything that scares us. That can be the scary monster under the bed or losing a loved one and being all alone in the universe. I think when a lot of people think of horror novels, they think of Clive Barker and Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft (as they should), but Trump’s “Art of the Deal” is also a horrifying book. People like what they like; there’s an organic, primordial draw to horror because we all share fear in common. Some people don’t like to be reminded of that, or don’t want to explore that, and that’s fine…to each their own. I don’t mean that in a condescending way. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. For example: I can’t tell you why Metallica is my favorite band other than they thunder-rock my heart and soul. There are many people who think they suck. I don’t particularly care for romantic comedies, but I know many people who do. In art, what speaks to us is what speaks to us. If someone has a certain assumption about horror, that’s part of them, part of their journey in life. “The Shining” might not scare someone as much as, say, “Moby Dick.”

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 we’re living the horror right now. But the thing is horror doesn’t really change. Writing styles do, certain tropes come and go with the times (vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc.), but at the end of the day a horror story is usually just a metaphor for something else, and can be applied to whatever situation you want it to. A zombie novel could be a metaphor for the Trump Administration or the AIDS epidemic. Or it could just be a zombie novel. Sometimes a monster is just a monster.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
Anything by Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft has influenced me. I read and wrote a lot of screenplays in my younger years, and that style has naturally found itself into my novel prose, for better or worse. Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Iron Man 3) is an outstanding screenwriter. His writing is very concise, to the point and quick, and I’ve kind of stolen some of that. The fewer words you can use, the better. I’m not much for flowery writing unless I come up with something really, really good. And I usually don’t. I just like to tell the story that wants to be told.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
You know, there are so many I wouldn’t know where to begin. I usually end up “discovering” authors well after everyone else has; most of what I read is either recommended to me or by an author I’m already familiar with. So you tell me who to take notice of so I can go buy some more books.

How would you describe your writing style?

Quick, concise and to the point. I don’t like to waste words or time.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
There was more than one review of my first novel, Moonlight, that mentioned the less-than-wonderful grammar issues. I took that to heart because, as a writer (and a reader) there really shouldn’t be any grammar issues at all. But it happens, it happens in big-time books as well as indie books. I think about that every time I write because it’s a pet peeve of mine, so I hate it when I find out I’m guilty of it. I’m sure I’m guilty of it here somewhere, too.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
The mental energy one has to exude can be exhausting at times. I usually need to take a break after about two hours, and usually end up taking a nap. Then there’s the flipside to that: the fact that I’m always thinking about my story, or the next story, or a certain idea, and something will click within my brain and I can’t get it all out fast enough. Enter exhaustion. Rinse and repeat.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
Anything involving the injury or abuse of an animal. I’ll kill characters and put them through tons of shit, but not an animal.

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 all depends. Sometimes a name is just a name: everyone’s got to have one. Other times a name will be based on someone I know in real life. Coda has a lot of that going on in it. Most of the first names in Coda are from people I know. And sometimes I just look up a list of names and pick what sounds or looks the best.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
I like to think I’ve matured a lot. Most of my early stories really had no plot at all. Just little character pieces that went nowhere and told nothing. I used to fret a lot over what words to use and when to use them, but as I’ve gotten older I realize the important thing is to just tell your story.


What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?         
 
Access to as many books as possible. And a computer, because these things catch a lot of mistakes.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
I can’t remember who it was, but in high school I showed a friend a story of mine and they asked me if I had ever thought of publishing. I had not, it never even crossed my mind. I thought that was for, you know, professional writers and not me. That opened up the entire world to me.

Getting your work noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
These days, hitting as many websites as I can, doing as many of these interviews as I can, and remembering that there are tons of other writers out there, most of them more talented than me. I’m not a very social guy. The only social media I’m on is Goodreads. But I hear Twitter and Facebook or whatever the kids are into these days are great sources. Writing a really good book helps, too.

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 John Whitley from Moonlight, because he’s basically me. He’s also my least favorite because, well, he’s basically me. Did I just call myself my own child? That’s got to mean something. Besides him, I love Brett Nickson from Coda. He just exudes pure innocence. It’s how he rolls, as he likes to say.

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
Right now it’s Coda. In a year or two it will probably be whatever novel I have just finished. Usually my newest work tends to be what I’m most proud of because it (hopefully) shows growth and gives me an idea of where I’m at mentally in the world.
 
And are there any that you would like to forget about?
 
Many, and I have. There’s one story in particular I wrote called “NSFW” about a guy who gets a cursed email at work, then kills everyone in his office. It was really a displeasure to read. I don’t even remember reading anything in the news that week about work- or school-related shootings or killings, but I’d love to forget I ever wrote that. I can’t, though. All I can do is be happy those little evil gremlins got out of my system.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
Either Coda or Moonlight. They’re both similar in structure, with a large-ish cast of characters, normal people in extraordinary circumstances. My favorite kind of story.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
I know I do, but I don’t really remember my stuff all that well. A lot of times when I read something back, after it’s been released to the wild, I cringe. Because there are so many great books out there and I chose to structure a sentence like that?!? However, there are occasions during rewrites where I’ll say to myself “Okay, that’s some pro writing there, buddy,” but it’s forgotten by the time I get to the next cringe-inducing sentence. I’m not selling myself too well with this answer.
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
My last, most recent book is Coda. It finds a group of earthquake survivors whisked away to a land known only as The Town. The Town seems to know anything and everything about these people, and kind of tortures them with this knowledge. The book plays with the idea that we all have regrets, things in the past which we wish went a different way, and how we deal with them. There are also monsters. I’m currently working on a story about a man trapped in one location, more of an exercise to get into the nitty-gritty of what goes through someone’s mind when all hope is lost. I also thought it’d be challenging to have a story with one character instead of the 10-20 I usually end up with.


If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?
 
Oh man, I love clichés. They’re there for a reason. Sure, some of them are over-used, but if used well, no cliché should be erased. Take a cliché and turn it on its head, I say.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
I absolutely adored Stephen King’s 11/22/63. It was like if King wrote an episode of Quantum Leap, one of my all-time favorite shows. The last book that disappointed me will remain a secret, as just writing one of these things is a success in my mind. But it was by a well-known author, and it made me a little sad. I kind of think it was ghost-written by an insane dog, but that’s just a guess.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
“Would you like to be a part of the next Star Wars movie?” My answer would be a resounding YES. I’ll mop the floors in the production offices, I don’t care.
 

​C L Raven are identical twins and mistresses of the macabre. They're horror writers because 'bringers of nightmares' isn't a recognised job title. They write novels, short stories, comics and film scripts. Their work has been published in magazines and anthologies in the UK, USA and Australia. A story of theirs was published in The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper, which makes their fascination with him seem less creepy. They’ve worked on several indie horror films as crew and reluctant actors and have somehow ended up with lead roles in the forthcoming indie horror film School Hall Slaughter.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

We’re 36, we’re from Cardiff and we’ve been published for 11 years. We love animals, travelling, poledancing, history – particularly the period from the Tudors to the Victorians,  and we have weird phobias such as holes, food and Bungle from Rainbow. We’re the first point of contact for people looking to rehome their pets, or when the army is depleted, we adopt some. Our mum has put a pet ban in place, but so far, two rabbits, 6 guinea pigs, 1 dog, 5 cats and 1 snake have joined the army since the ban. The army currently has 15 members. Our mum says we have enough, but we’ve never had pigs, goats or tortoises, and you can’t take over the world with an army of 15. Plus, we want to be crazy cat ladies, but 5 cats isn’t enough. We think the rule is that you need at least 3 cats per person. We need 4 more then we will have finally achieved something in our lives.

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

Most of our time is spent looking after our animal army. One of our guinea pigs currently requires syringe feeding every hour, so that takes up a lot of time. Other than that, we love polefitness, and are training to become instructors. What we lack in grace, we make up for in enthusiasm. People keep telling us to ‘get a proper job’ but working in an office would cause us to go postal, so we figured we’d get another job doing what we love. We also love exploring castles, graveyards and haunted places. We have a ghost hunting show on YouTube. We also host a horror radio show every Friday night. Once a week we do gymnastics and are a complete embarrassment to the sport.


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

Music. The lyrics by Jim Steinman, My Chemical Romance and Rise Against are a huge influence on our work. Also, art. Often, seeing a dark, creepy paintings or drawing makes our imaginations tingle.


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?

One, get rid of the term ‘literary horror’. We find that term tends to get slapped on work that is slightly dark, but more often than not, isn’t really horror. It’s as though horror is a dirty word and they don’t want to be associated with us lowbrow genre types, so they add this label to give it more respectability. It’s like putting makeup on a corpse. It may look pretty, but it’s still a corpse. It’s like when horror films do really well, they’re said to ‘transcend the genre.’ Uh, no, they don’t. That’s just a term for people who can’t admit that they actually enjoyed a horror film. If you like it, own up to it. We need to break away from this notion that horror is the bastard child of literature. It has so many subgenres, yet people automatically think of gore. It’s so much more than that. It plays on your emotions far more than any other genre.

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?

To be honest, the world is in such a bad place at the moment, that nothing in horror will ever be as scary as what is happening. We once read a trend that when the Labour government is in power, vampires are popular but when the Tories are in power, zombies are popular. Perhaps there will be more dystopia horror as our planet dies around us, or more horror involving Nazis, seeing as those bastards seem to be back. We know things come back into fashion every few decades, but seriously, Nazis should stay dead and buried along with shellsuits and poodle perms. Plus, you’re not really going to get better Nazi horror than Dead Snow 1 & 2. Although technically, The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t horror, it’s bloody terrifying, especially what with what is happening in America, so we expect more fiction like that.

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

Roald Dahl. When we were kids, we wrote stories about Tudor children attending executions and the condemned’s head would roll down the hill. That had to have been influenced by the Cinderella poem in Revolting Rhymes. We had twisted a sense of humour as kids, so he really appealed to us. Also, Dean Koontz had a huge influence on our early work. We were always more fans of his than Stephen King’s, because he often creates very beautiful sentences. Then he found God and that kills any relationship.

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

We love the Sam Spallucci books by A.S. Chambers. We’re not just saying that because we’re friends. We bought the first book from Austin at Scardiff a few years ago and we’d never heard of A.S Chambers. We loved it! Sam is a PI who investigates supernatural cases in Lancaster. A few years later we happened to be at the same con as Austin and got to know each other. Now we hunt him out at every con we go to and buy his books. He’s such a lovely guy as well, which makes it better.

How would you describe your writing style?

We seem to have two styles – dark and gothic, or horror comedy. There’s no in between. It kind of fits with our personalities. We love dark, gothic things and we also have a twisted sense of humour. We also tend to use sentences which are grammatically incorrect, such as one word sentences, but it fits with our style. Kind of like if Edgar Allen Poe, Roald Dahl and Terry Pratchett had far less talented daughters.

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

When we were researching bodysnatchers for our novel, Empty Graves, we met a woman on Twitter who researches the resurrectionists, and has written a book about them which is published by Pen & Sword. She was so helpful, and when we published Empty Graves, she bought it. Our first reaction was ‘balls.’ Then we panicked and didn’t want to read any messages she sent us. (We are massive wusses when it comes to reading reviews.) But she loved it. She said we’d brought her bodysnatchers to life. She’d fallen out of love with researching them, but after reading our book, it fired up her interest again and now she’s back posting photos of the graveyards she’s been to. We don’t think we’ll ever have better praise than that. During a literary festival in East Budleigh, two people compared our work to Terry Pratchett. We nearly died of glory. And that was despite the fact we showed up at the festival completely drenched, covered in mud and smelling of farm animals after we got lost on a straight road trying to find Sir Walter Raleigh’s house. Don’t ask.

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

The endings. We suck at endings and often have to rewrite them. We’re not planners, and as we make it up as we go along, we often have no idea how to end the book or story.

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

Animal cruelty. We can’t bear to see it, or read about it, so we will never write it. We’ve been campaigning for animal rights since we were 8 years old and it’s a subject that makes us so angry. Also, rape. Seriously writers, if you want a badass female character, just create one. She doesn’t need to be raped in order to ‘become strong’ or to have a good reason for butchering a load of men. We feel like going on a killing spree every time we’re stuck behind a slow walker in the supermarket. In action films, a man will go on a killing spree if his family are killed. Or in the case of John Wick, his dog. But when it’s a woman, apparently, she’ll only go all stabby if she’s raped. Really? Have you actually met any women? We are all one ‘give us a smile’ away from beating mankind like a pinata. Unless you’re writing a crime novel, there’s no need for rape. Most women live with the fear of being raped every day of their lives. We don’t want to read about it in books or see it in films. Being raped should not be a female character’s sole arc. They don’t write about male rape so stop writing about female rape. Is it for their own titillation? In which case, put down the pen and go see a therapist. Or better yet, do the world a favour and kindly shuffle off your mortal coil.

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 very important to us. We choose them purely on whether or not we like them. The characters’ names in Bleeding Empire were picked for which Horseman of the Apocalypse they represented. War was Mars, the Roman god of War, Death was twins Morgan and Aeron, who are the Celtic goddess and god of death, Famine was Demi, named after Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest, and Pestilence was Macies, a Greek personification of wasting and thinness. We’re constantly using baby name websites to pick a name. Although some of the names that are on there… *stares hard at parents* we are judging you. Your poor child has to go through school with that name.


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

We like to think we’ve got better, but the consistent rejection emails tell us otherwise. We used to have an abundance of ideas and carry notebooks or Dictaphones around with us to make note of them. A lot of stories were unfinished because the desire to write the newest one was too strong. After over 20 years of writing, that’s gone now. Now we see a deadline and write for it. Maybe it’s because we’ve been doing it for so long or maybe 20 years of depression has had a part to play, who knows. It’s quieter in our heads now. Our invisible friends don’t visit any more. Our work has always been dark – we have stories we wrote when we were 9 that prove that.

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?      
   
A cat. It doesn’t even have to be yours. Our current writing buddy is a ginger cat called Theo. His owner lives about a quarter of a mile away. We keep messaging her to pick him up, but he always returns after a day or two. We always have a feline writing companion. It used to be our big black cat, Warlock, then after he died, our youngest, Ripley, took over. Then a stray wandered into our garden last April and insisted on moving into our writing shed. We named her Mina. She has now taken up residence in our house, so Theo now lives in the writing shed.

Other than that, all you really need is a computer or a notepad. You don’t need anything fancy. When we were teenagers, we used to handwrite our novels whilst in bed.

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

Remove the passive voice and framing. Our work has improved so much since we were taught about those things.

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

So many ways. We’ve done readings at horror cons, libraries, on YouTube, we’ve made book trailers, done press releases, taken out a full page ad in Scream magazine that cost us £600 and didn’t gain one sale. We’ve done free downloads, been on other people’s blogs, we attend as many conventions or events as we can all over the UK. Sometimes, we’re away at conventions every weekend. And the only thing that works vaguely well, is selling our books at conventions. Everything else has been a massive failure and waste of time and money. We lose money at conventions, because we always have to travel so far (Cardiff has comic con and that’s it) but we sell books we wouldn’t have sold sat at home. And we’ve met loads of lovely people at conventions. Our aim is to get a book banned, because that would be great for sales, but nobody knows who we are, so they won’t ban our books.

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?

To be honest, we don’t see our characters as our children. Yes, we love them, but we also have a nasty habit of killing them. And good parents don’t kill their children. We don’t have a least favourite. Some books were harder to write than others and at the time we hated them, but we grew to love them during editing. As for favourite… the stepmother from our Snow White story in Disenchanted was so much fun to write. So was Trey from Romance is Dead. Some of our favourites exist in novels that will never see the light of day. Unless our niece publishes them after our deaths. We’ll have to add a clause to our will that she won’t be allowed to embarrass us in that way.

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

Possibly Autumn of Terror. It was published in the Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper. He’s our favourite serial killer so it was a huge honour to be in that book. And we got paid a decent amount for it, which makes a nice change. Yes, we know it sounds wrong to say you have a favourite serial killer, but ask anyone who is fascinated by them. We’re also quite proud of a short story we wrote called The Art of Dying, but unfortunately, every editor we’ve submitted it to disagrees with us.

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

Ha ha yes. Our first published story. We haven’t read it since it was published 11 years ago, but we’re certain it’s terrible. We pretend it doesn’t exist. Although it was our first acceptance, so we’re proud of it for that. We bought a new laptop plug with the royalties.

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

That’s a really hard one to answer because each of our books is so different. We guess Romance is Dead shows off our horror comedy the best. Soul Asylum is probably a good representative, or Silent Dawn.

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

Oh god, this is going to require us to remember what we’ve actually written! Ok, this is from Soul Asylum: ‘the blood wanted to prick a conscience that couldn’t bleed. Poe could keep his telltale heart. I couldn’t hear it beating.’

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

Our last book was Empty Graves, set in 1828 during the time of the resurrectionists in Edinburgh. We spent a lot of time tracking down various parts of William Burke for ‘research’ and found a card case and notebook made from his skin and got a private viewing of his skeleton. It was a surreal moment to finally meet the man who made us fall in love with Edinburgh. He’s shorter than we thought we would be. Guess that’s why they say you should never meet your heroes.

We’re currently writing a novel, Gods and Monsters, about a possessed woman who performs exorcisms on people for the wrong reasons – her demon is looking for an ancient artefact and exorcising demons stops them from finding it.

We’ve just finished writing an epistolary novella, The Curse of Ravenhall, set in the 1800s surrounding a cursed castle. It got shortlisted to the final 50 of Crystal Lake’s open period, which wasn’t bad considering we finished writing it two days before the deadline and only had the chance to do one edit each. We’re in the process of editing a horror crime novel, The Dead Shall Rise, about a necromancer who raises the dead to interview them for the police.

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

Only one? That’s not fair! Ok. The whole ‘man buys a new house miles away without his wife and kids ever seeing it and it turns out people were murdered there, and the kids always consist of a teenage daughter and really young son.’ Stop it. Would you ever agree to move to a house you’d never seen? No! Any man that bought a house without us seeing it would be turned into a fancy water feature. Dead or alive, it would depend on how mad we were. It really winds us up. You never see a woman buying a house without her husband’s approval. Maybe our angry, ranty feminist sides are a little sensitive about it, but….dear god, even typing about it is making us angry.

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

We love the Dresden Files, so every time we read one of those books, it’s great. Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell was really good. We were surprised by how much we enjoyed it. As for disappointment… Father of Lies by S.E. England didn’t quite live up to its premise. And we know this is going to upset a LOT of horror fans, but we’re often disappointed by Stephen King. There, we said it. His books are too padded and his characters often annoy the hell out of us. IT should have been half that length. There are other famous horror authors whose work has disappointed us, but we’ll probably upset most people with Stephen King, so we’ll keep quiet.

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

“Would you like to become writers in residence at this beautiful haunted castle, where the only drawback is that you can still hear the condemend’s screams in the dungeons?”
“Hell yes!”