 I am an award-winning filmmaker and novelist with a MFA in Screenwriting from Chapman University (Class of 2012). Been in California a little over ten years now, mostly working in the film industry, now branching out to prose. WEBSITE LINKS http://hellishbeasts.brianzwriter.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Hellish-Beasts-Brian-Carmody/dp/1684333350 https://twitter.com/BrianCarmody9 https://www.facebook.com/Hellish-Beasts-804159549929052/?modal=admin_todo_tour Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? Irish Catholic. Marine brat. Southern boy. High school dropout turned film school grad. Those are the basics. I read for a living and am trying to make a go at writing as well. To get the ball rolling and get everyone relaxed, here is a hopefully lighthearted question to break the ice, which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life and have them complain at you about they way you treated them in your work. The King of Wax. Scary fellow. And I don't think he'd just complain. Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing? Catholicism, and I very much think they're intertwined. You see this in Trent's guilt and the pervading sense of dread. The notion of sin as a real tangible thing and not just a post-modern abstract. Hell itself manifesting in a medieval sense. The infernal. My favorite living author is Clive Barker, who wasn't raised Catholic, but I would never tell it from his work. The term horror, especially when applied to fiction always carries such heavy connotations. What’s your feeling on the term “horror” and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions? I love horror! The word itself is so loaded, and what I think of is not just scary things, but profoundly scary things. I use "Horror" in the Judge Holden/Kurtz sense, speaking to something innately frightening in human nature itself. I think we break past assumptions by opening our mind to the diversity of the genre and accept that horror is not any one element. It's a state of mind. And words matter. It's why H.P. Lovecraft's cosmicism is so much more AWEsome than simple nihilism. 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? Hmm. Hard to say. And I wasn't trying to make a political statement. But horror often is reactionary and/or radical. I think there is an increased climate of polarization and alienation in America, and I imagine that might crop up. Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it? Often it's escapism, but there can also be something strangely cathartic about seeing your fears manifested so tangibly. And as bad as it gets in your own life, you're most likely reading about someone who has it worse. What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre? Everybody could always use more Jesus. In the past authors were able to write about almost anything with a far lesser degree of the fear of backlash, but this has all changed in recent years. These days authors must be more aware of representation an the depiction of things such as race and gender in their works, how aware are you of these things and what steps have you taken to ensure that your writing can’t be viewed as being offensive to a minority group? I try to be sensitive to this type of thing. One of my theories is that you never have the right to tell someone else when they should or should not be offended. I certainly don't want to offend. I try to present the world as it is, seen through the eyes of a character with a conscience. At one point, Trent, my narrator, has to listen to this obscenely misogynistic rant from his best friend, just pure venom. The thing is, that as appalled as Trent is, he's uncomfortable speaking out, as we too often are. So I tried to convey his discomfort in a realistic, conscionable way. Trent is also in an interracial relationship, and I try to be cognizant and sensitive without harping on it. Does horror fiction perpetuate it’s own ghettoization? I can really only speak for myself. I try not to limit what I write about by genre. I'm interested in characters and scenarios, and I think there's a lot of room for crossover. Blurring the lines between the comic and the tragic, the grounded and the fantastical. What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off? I have to shamelessly plug my cousin, Jessica Leake here, as she gave me the inspiration and the tips to get published myself. Her sensibilities are more towards fantasy than straight horror, but worth a look. What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author? Hop on Pop was the start of a lifelong love affair with the written word. Bret Easton Ellis's stream-of-consciousness is an influence, as is Lovecraft and Barker's tangible dread. Quentin Tarantino helped me see how pop culture references, which, let's face it, everybody is addicted to, can be used organically as part of casual conversation to further the story. Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you? Well I'm new on the scene, so I have yet to deal with reviews. Hope they do right by me! What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult? I'm an idea man and I have a very demanding work schedule. Buckling down and actually getting to it is a challenge. I've got a lot of concepts floating around there, no shortage of ideas, but putting pen to paper- or, uh, fingers to keyboard- is another story. Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? I wouldn't say anything's necessarily off-limits. Yet sensitive subject matter requires sensitivity, and I wouldn't write some things explicitly. Sexual violence, for example, I wouldn't see the need to write out. Or sex for that matter. Rather, I'd focus more on the character aftermath. How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? In person, physical appearance is the first impression. On the written word, it's often the name, and that may color how you see that character throughout. Sometimes a name just comes to me, feels right. Other times it's more deliberate. In Hellish Beasts, Lilith's name is obviously quite significant, and maybe by the end you know what Mike Kripke's name means as well. Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? Part of it is medium. I've traditionally been a screenwriter, but it's only in recent years that I finally found the patience and follow-through to finish writing novels. I guess that's maturity? Not to say screenwriting is any less mature, of course, just that I'm branching out. What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? Andrew Wagner, one of my professors at Chapman, recommended "sitting in the question." That means that you resolve an issue by sitting on it. Not rushing ahead. Considering what works, what doesn't work. Really taking the time to think it out. 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? I guess I'd have to say favorite is Trent Malloy, cause he's sort of my author avatar, which is worringly obvious to anyone who knows me at all. His buddy Mike is hard to write because he's so far from my experience. A victim of childhood trauma, military veteran, borderline nihilist. I have to articulate a worldview quite far from my own, which is a fun challenge. For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why? So far, this is the one. Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? And then the DVD was loaded, and she was by my side once more. Her thigh again pressed against mine, and neither her denim nor my own could hold back the warmth and unmistakable pressure. And she leaned into me, indicating it was appropriate for me to lift my arm and place it up on the sofa, giving her entrance to intimacy. My arm around her, her soft head leaning against me, I soon forgot the sad subject, and the flickering images on the screen and the nearness of her body soothed me into a placid waking dream. (Hellish Beasts, pg 195) 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 first book. It was more of a standard detective story without so much the supernatural. Same lead though. Yet unpublished, but we'll see about that. Next project is something completely different. Teen paranormal romance. Magical realism. Coming of age set in Texas 1994. Summer of '42 meets Twilight, of which I'm actually a big fan. If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice? I'd like more happy endings! What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you? Last great book I read was Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby, which is in its own way a horror novel, about the nightmare of the human condition in the throes of addiction. Tuck Everlasting was a disappointment, to be honest. I guess I liked the title and the ideal better than the book itself. What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer? When's your next book coming out? And we'll see! HELLISH BEASTS BY BRIAN CARMODY   Comments are closed.
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