EVAN WITMER IS ONE OF PLAUSIBLE PEOPLE-EATERS

20/8/2021

It’s rebellious and it’s novel. There’s a lot of fresh ground still uncovered in the genre because people are so apprehensive to explore darker themes, afraid they’re going to lose an audience.

My name is Evan Witmer; I am the sole writer and webmaster for oddfiction.com where I post free short stories. At the end of each year I take down the last ten stories I wrote and self-publish them online; containing the ten stories within a surreal framing device. Pages from the Pizza Crows has a crow deliver me the stories in exchange for pizza slices. Digest: Ten Short Stories by Convicted and Plausible People-Eaters has each short story authored by a different known cannibal. My next collection is How to Burn This Book; which includes a brief reason to burn each of the short stories inside. That’s due out January 8th, 2022.

My "work-sona", as they call it, is a Masters of Bioengineering who does tech transfer for the University of Buffalo, but this is simply a means of supporting the laissez faire lifestyle of your typical late millennial. I'm an uncharacteristically optimistic twenty-seven year old who fought his way out of a massive depression three years prior using Prozac and mood stabilizers. I've been using my new outlook on life to focus on what's important to me: spending time with my cat and writing really weird short stories. I'm tall and quirky; I collect beer labels in my free time. I relate more to the works of MC Ride and Tarantino than I do most modern authors. I'm trying to lose forty pounds.

WEBSITE LINKS

www.Oddfiction.com
https://twitter.com/FictionOdd
https://www.facebook.com/oddfictionpage

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I’m a tall, soft man living in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. I have a cat named Orga; named after my favorite Godzilla villain. I have two collections of surreal short stories: Pages from the Pizza Crows and Digest: Ten Short Stories by Convicted & Plausible People-Eaters. I also have tons of free content on my website oddfiction.com. I frequently buy beer off the internet and collect the labels in scrapbooks. I’ve eaten lion meat before and I’m a Gemini.

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

Out of my new collection, Oleg Popov Jr would be the worst to run into. He’s the bastard son of a famous Russian circus performer; horribly abused by his mother, he’s become a master in the art of killer clowning. He hunts his victims with a pack of killer chihuahuas, but worst of all he’s a sexist. And I don’t like sexists.

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

Politics for sure. A lot of my writing in Digest stems from my anger boiling over into aggressive fantasies. I also fed directly off of the nonsensical mythology created by Qanon believers for my story “The Life & Times of a Rockefeller Pregnancy Zombie”.

I also was inspired heavily by music. I wrote a whole southern gothic based on Buffet’s Margaritaville. It’s not that I liked the song, I just wanted to give such an easy breezy jingle a dark hidden meaning.

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 really know what you mean. I’ve actually been pushing my books as surrealist fantasy or dark fantasy because a lot of people won’t try anything labeled horror. I think this stems from a lot of lackluster genre fiction that boils down to drawn out gore descriptions. I think gore is great but it needs to be paired well with drama and clever imagery. Why was a certain character discarded in that specific way? Were they decapitated because “ew, beheadings are gross” or because you’re tying in an allusion to the death of John the Baptist.

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 don’t think horror is going to lose its political edge just because Biden got elected. I think if anything we’re going to see horror movies where the threat is kept deep below the surface of society and painted over with a bright colorful visage. We still have many social issues that need working out and a lot of people see Biden as “done”, but it’s just a wet bandage on a gaping wound.

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

It’s rebellious and it’s novel. There’s a lot of fresh ground still uncovered in the genre because people are so apprehensive to explore darker themes, afraid they’re going to lose an audience. But that novelty is so inspiring when you see a monster that you never could have possibly imagined brought to life.

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

A return to giallos would be nice; make it like Clue but with over the top death scenes. More giant monster movies would be great too.

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

Monsters in Appalachia: Stories by Sheryl Monks

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

Yeah, Bi Book Boy has a great point about one of my earlier stories “The Red Constellation”. It never describes rape or sexual assault, but it does dance heavily with those themes. It’s a fair criticism that it might be best to not rely on these themes in horror as it exploits a very real trauma people have felt. It’s made me put an end to a couple other projects I had planned. Mainly because there’s so much material to write about why do material that just shows a lack of respect?

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

I struggle with tension. I often find myself trying to keep a brisk pace since I’m doing short stories and I want to fully explore my theme. I really need to take some time to slow down on dark moments. Let people wonder if the character is going to survive.

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

Graphic depictions of pedophilia and rape would be pretty fucking tactless. I’d have to have a really good point I’m trying to make to want to break that boundary.

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

My biggest leap between Pizza Crows and Digest is the character development. I think Pizza Crows had good concepts but the players were rather 2D. Digest you start to see the focus shift onto the character and exploring how their world view changes from the events.

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

Get an editor. Stop being cheap. Take your work seriously.

Which of your characters is your favourite?

The bear in “Captured by Animals”. He gains sentience after eating edibles out of a frat house dumpster. Then he spies on people having sex in the woods, so he can use them in his romance novels. That’s honestly the kind of life I’m looking to live.

Which of your books best represents you?

Pages from the Pizza Crows. I’m just a quirky guy who likes to eat pizza and watch cute birds on Youtube. But I can also tell you some dark shit that’ll make you laugh.

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

Digest: Ten Short Stories by Convicted and Plausible People-Eaters has each short story authored by a different cannibal. Next up is How to Burn This Book where after each story is a reason to burn said story.

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

Explaining the mythology in a classroom. That info dump is such lazy writing.

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

Golden Apples of the Sun was dope. I love Ray Bradbury and I love short stories, so it hit a bit of a sweet spot for me. The Mothman Prophecies sucked. I’m open-minded but that was not well-written; it was all over the place; doesn’t tell a compelling story; it’s more just a list of interviews with incoherent strangers.

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

Who’s the best slasher villain? And the answer is the Djinn from Wishmaster.

I've tracked down ten authors who have, at some point, participated in the act of cannibalism. I've collected one short story from each writer and combined them here for your amusement and observation.

Isaac Cone presents “Margaritaville”, Jimmy Buffet’s hit song reinterpreted as a southern gothic.

Sandeyu Yamamoto writes “Antiquing” about a family with a rare type of OCD where they haunt the object they most obsessed over.

John Doe submits “Jesus Christ Meets the Chupacabra” which is exactly what it sounds like.

Arsenio Alonso adds “A Vacancy in Staffordshire” about a team of researchers hunting for black-eyed kids in the British wilderness.

Greige Wagner contributes “The Life & Times of a Rockefeller Pregnancy Zombie” about a girl who is hypnotized by the New World Order to feel unfathomable pain unless she uses her every egg for procreation.

Mago Schlecter's brings us “Ring the Belles”, a mix between historical fiction and a slasher where the villain only kills the teenaged daughters of slave-owners in the Antebellum South.

Cassius Crown surrenders "Zooland” about a cursed town where everyone is reduced to their id at night becoming either vicious wolves or delicious deer.

Bonny Bride sends “Glee-Maiden”, a story about a woman seeking to make it in the male-dominated field of killer clowning.

Matthew Hoga pens “Comorbidity”, the story of two different plagues of zombie with wildly different styles that collide in the ruins of Zhengzhou, China.

Joss Iger authors “Six O’s”, the most light-hearted of the bunch, about a man who can only orgasm six more times before he can never do it again.

I share these stories in hopes of emphasizing the unique voices oft ignored in favor of traditional masticators.