BABOOSHKA, BABOOSHKA, BABOOSHKA JA, JA, AN INTERVIEW WITH PENNY JONES

16/4/2021

Penny Jones knew she was a writer when she started to talk about herself in the third person (her family knew when Santa bought her a typewriter for Christmas when she was three). Penny’s debut collection Suffer Little Children published by Black Shuck Books was shortlisted for the 2020 British Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer, and her short story Dendrochronology published by Hersham Horror was shortlisted for the 2020 British Fantasy Award for Best Short Story.

WEBSITE LINKS

https://www.penny-jones.com

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Hi my names Penny and I’m a writer of horror and dark fiction, I mainly write in the short form, and my debut collection Suffer Little Children was published by Black Shuck Books in 2019 as part of their shadows collection. My first novella Matryoshka is being published by Hersham Horror as part of their Primal novella range and is due out in both paperback and Kindle on 21st April.

Which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life?

All of them and none of them. A lot of my characters tend to be an amalgamation of people I have met in real life with a little bit of me thrown in for good measure. Though the one character that I would like to meet in real life, but only to give them a piece of my mind and probably slap them in the face would be the Reverend Rod Tines, the antagonist in my unpublished novel Cuckoo. He is everything I think is wrong in people and I hate him with a passion.

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

I love old fashioned sci-fi, especially John Wyndham. I particularly love the characters in his novels, though I’m not sure if I wouldn’t class his writing as horror, surely The Midwich Cuckoos is more of a horror book than say Stephen King’s Firestarter. I also like a good psychological thriller, but one that surprises me, I’m not a fan of reading the same tropes in a thriller book, I just find it boring; although I find it strangely comforting and at the same time horrifying if a trope is repeated in horror (that knowledge that there is something hiding under your bed, can cause me to hide behind the sofa well before the monster is shown in a horror movie)

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 the best thing we can do to break through these assumptions is to try and persuade people to read outside of their genre. My husband loves to read and particularly loves crime and fantasy books; though he’s not really a fan of “Horror” books. But years of sneaking books onto his TBR pile to show him that my Horror books are usually far less horrific than say the Game of Thrones series. And of course his attendance of readings from authors such as Kit Power and John Llewellyn Probert have whetted his appetite for a good horror story.

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 expect horror to continue to become more insular over the next few years. Although we’ve had a global pandemic, and we have global warming, and violence is on our news and our timelines from all across the globe. It is still the fear that it might happen to us that drives humanity, and I think our forced isolation has driven us more into ourselves, extroverts have become introverts, introverts have become more so. I love my own company, but even I’m finding it difficult to entertain myself now, and once there is little to entertain yourself in the world, then you turn to yourself, and that introspection can be terrifying. So I’m expecting an even greater resurgence of folk horror from all across the globe.

Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?

Pure escapism. Also it’s a great way of learning how to deal with these crises if they ever happened to ourselves. Though no one saw toilet roll being quite such a commodity.

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?

I’d always love to read more from different perspectives, whether that is authors from different countries, different backgrounds, or who have had different experiences. I think there is a lot being done to try and champion underrepresented voices in horror, but I do still find a lot of authors who are published are from a privileged background, both here and from abroad, so I would love to hear more from those who don’t have the benefits of a stable home, of those who were brought up not knowing where their next meal was coming from, not knowing if they were going to have a roof over their head that night, not knowing if they’d have a clean uniform for school the next day, or even if they would be going to school.

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

I love Laura Mauro’s work, but as a multi-award winning author she probably isn’t classed as a “new and upcoming author”. I’ve also just read James Everington’s short story The Sound of the Sea, Too Close and that was amazing, as is Tracy Fahey’s new collection I Spit Myself Out. There are so many good authors out there, that I could spend the whole day listing them, but I won’t for fear of missing anyone out, so these are the three that have blown me away with their writing over the past month or so.

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

There were a couple of reviews of my short story Dendrochronology that have stuck with me; some good, some bad, but all for the same reason the reviewer was unaware of the gender of the protagonist. Some reviewers felt it added to the story, for some it detracted from the story, but they all thought it was intentional. It wasn’t. Sorry I thought I’d put it in. As the author I knew what gender the protagonist was, so I didn’t notice it wasn’t explicit in the story. I won’t say here what gender they were, but if it is bugging anyone, feel free to drop me a message and I’ll tell you.

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

All of it. I have terrible Impostor Syndrome, and I find the whole process really difficult, but I find I need to get what’s in my head and out on the page or it just swirls round and round like a maelstrom.

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

No. I believe that all subjects can be written about if done sympathetically. There is a brilliant story written by Don Tumasonis called The Prospect Cards, which I think excellently portrays a very unpalatable subject by the use of negative space within the narrative. The story being told through the reading of old postcards that have been damaged over time so only part of the narrative is there for the reader, meaning they have to fill those omissions with the horror that is developing in their own mind.

Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
I’m not sure if it’s a development, but I am actually plotting my next novel, before this I was a pantser, but I’m not sure if it’s any help. So far I’m only on the fourth chapter post-it, I’ve managed to miss out the post-it for chapter two, but it doesn’t matter as I’m pretty sure nothing before chapter four is actually needed in the story anyway.

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

When I was struggling with my first novel Mark West would give me little pep talks and one of them was to reduce my daily word goal from 1000 words to 500 words. 500 words is only half an hour, and if you manage 750 you feel like you have succeeded rather than the feeling of failure if you were aiming for 1000. This worked and I suddenly found my days of struggling to write a 1000 words were suddenly surpassed by days of writing 2000 words plus.

Which of your characters is your favourite?

I don’t really have one, I find the process so difficult that by the time a story is published I have a deep seated hatred for each and every one of my characters.

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

“They opened the doors to the first cage, the moment they closed the doors on the last factory.”

This is actually the opening line of a short story called The Zoo which is unlikely to ever be finished now. I started writing it in January 2020, and it was a post apocalyptic tale about global warming and how certain aspects of our society would be abandoned. Unfortunately with everything that has happened over the last 12 months this fiction became all too true, and I don’t think the story would pack the same punch that I was hoping for before the pandemic, so it has been put aside. But I still do love that opening line.

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

My last book was my novella Matryoshka, which is being released by Hersham Horror as part of their Primal novella range on 21st April. It’s about pregnancy and loss of self. The story is very loosely based around a patient I nursed who developed post-partum psychosis in the last two weeks of her pregnancy and was basically living in a waking nightmare, where she believed that her son had been replaced by his evil twin, as had her mother, and they were now trying to replace both her and her unborn child.

“There’s something wrong with her husband, Mark. Lucy had heard all the rumours about him, the whispered warning behind her back. The half heard Chinese whispers seemed to haunt her, mocking her wherever she goes. Now it appears that whatever’s the matter with Mark is spreading; tainting, infecting both strangers and those that she loves the most. So, Lucy will go to any lengths to protect both her young daughter and her unborn child.”

For my next book I’m working on what I think will end up being a novel length piece which I’m touting as Bridget Jones meets The Wicker Man.

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

None, I love them all. I think that clichés can add a depth to a story, a feeling of belonging, as the reader or watcher you know what’s going to happen and that puts you one up on the protagonist. I also love it when these clichés are subverted, wrong footing the reader and pulling the rug out from beneath them. That loss of security can really heighten your feeling of horror.

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

The last great book I read would be Sean Hogan’s Three Mothers, One Father. I hadn’t read much of his fiction work before and I was blown away, and even though I had only seen a couple of the movies that the characters were based on it didn’t detract in anyway from Sean’s sublime story telling. I now have England’s Screaming on my bedside table, and I can’t wait to get stuck in and read it. The last book I read which disappointed I won’t tell you the name or the author. But I decided a couple of years ago to grab one of the WHSmith bestsellers to take on my holiday, as the agent feedback for my novel was pretty much always “We like it, but we couldn’t sell it in WHsmiths”. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, the characters were flat, and their responses and reactions were not even remotely plausible. I decided then and there that if that was what it took to be picked up and given a tradition publishing deal then I’d rather not have one.

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

It’s a question I do get asked, but never enough. Do you want to write something for this anthology? For that my answer would always be Yes!

Matryoshka by Penny Jones

There’s something wrong with her husband, Mark. Lucy had heard all the rumours about him, the whispered warning behind her back. The half heard Chinese whispers seemed to haunt her, mocking her wherever she goes. Now it appears that whatever’s the matter with Mark is spreading; tainting, infecting both strangers and those that she loves the most. So, Lucy will go to any lengths to protect both her young daughter and her unborn child.