 Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? Born and raised on the east coast of the United States in the shadow of New York City, I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1999 to pursue a career in newspaper journalism. I was a reporter and magazine writer for 14 years before moving into public relations and marketing. I’ve been writing fiction since I was a young kid. I started out writing fantasy novels and short stories before moving into “serious literary fiction” as a college student. Later, after a long hiatus writing fiction, I wrote two more novels (both remain unpublished) and had started my third when I got stuck and decided to take a crack at writing in my favorite genre – horror. A year or two later, I had a dozen or so short horror stories and my first writing credit. I’ve been writing horror ever since. What do you like to do when you're not writing? Spend time with my wife and son. Read widely across fiction genres and history. I am also a passionate baseball fan and die-hard Seattle Mariners fan (which means I watch a lot of losing baseball.) Big movie fan and TV binge watcher as well. Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing? I’m an English Lit student, so I like to think SOME of what I spent four years studying at college has found its way into my writing. However, I read a great deal of fantasy, science fiction and mystery writing, as well as a fair amount of history. That’s in addition to horror, of course, which I read widely. 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? My feeling is that the best horror is atmospheric and infused with a gradual and unmistakeable feeling of dread. The feeling that something truly awful is going to happen to the protagonist. A great example is a classic of the horror genre I only read very recently – Song of Kali, by Dan Simmons. Simmons’ writing immerses you in the wretchedness that was Calcutta back in the 1970s – there’s a real sense of otherworldliness to it, almost as if the city is on another planet. Part of it is the authority with which he wrote that book – I am not an expert on Indian history or culture, and I know there has been some debate about the way Calcutta and Indian society was portrayed in Song of Kali, but the writing was so vivid that I often felt like I was there. And the protagonists felt doomed from the vert first page. THAT’S great horror writing. I don’t want to see that changed – I want to see MORE of it. 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, thankfully, we’re going to see more and more diverse voices in the horror genre. Points of view and stories that might not have had much of a chance of getting told even five or 10 years ago. Jordan Peele comes to mind. I was a big fan of Get Out and I will be seeing Us on opening night, or shortly thereafter. The more diverse the genre becomes, the better. Maybe we’ll see more cross-pollination of new perspectives as writers – as they are wont to do – beg, borrow and steal ideas from one another. It can really make all of our storytelling so much richer. I really hope the current trend of diverse voices getting the attention they deserve continues. What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author? The Exorcist has probably had more influence on me than any other book, though I also consider H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Ambrose Bierce, Ray Bradbury and W.P. Kinsella to be major influences. From a film perspective, I’m all over the place – Star Wars, Star Trek and Halloween all made a huge impression on me as a kid. What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off? How would you describe your writing style? Economical and invisible to the reader, yet evocative of feeling. Hopefully. I always cringe when my writing “feels or sounds like writing” – typically that’s a sign I’m showing off my writing chops instead of trying to tell a good story. I think my long career as a newspaper reporter helped instill in me a sense that it’s verboten to insert myself into a story. That’s not why the reader paid for my book with his or her time and money. They paid to escape the real world for a little while and read a good yarn. Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you? My published work has not been widely reviewed, unfortunately. I am very grateful to all those who had taken the time to review what’s out there. My hope is that my work evokes a strong reaction one way or the other. And 14 years in newsrooms gave me a pretty thick skin. I won’t say I haven’t gotten criticism from editors (both news editors and fiction editors) that I disagreed with or dismissed out of hand because I have; but it doesn’t stay with me for long and I don’t take it personally. Better to get a negative reaction than NO reaction. And in the end, most of it’s completely subjective. Certainly there’s never a reason to lash out at reviewers. To my mind, it’s better to thank someone for giving you the gift of taking the time to read your work and provide feedback, good or bad, and leave it at that. What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult? Summoning the willpower to keep writing when I am stuck or when I am losing passion for a work in progress. Typically, I force myself to finish what I start, because such feelings of dissatisfaction and hopelessness are fleeting. Over the years, I’ve abandoned only a few projects, and I’ve hated doing it every single time. I’m not saying there aren’t times when letting a project go isn’t the right thing to do, because there are, but those times, for me, have been few and far between. Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? No. I don’t think writers should shy away from any subject. In general, I think it’s a bad idea to write (or not write) out of fear. It’s true in writing and it’s definitely true in life. 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 pretty important. Great characters are people, and people have names that are as core to their beings as anything else about them. So it’s important to get names right. I choose names based on lots of factors, including when and where the story takes place. Different names have come into and fallen out of favor over the years, and they need to be authentic to the story’s time and place. Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? Well, hopefully, I’ve gotten better at it! In all seriousness, I hope I’ve become more open minded and less controlling of my stories as they unfold on my laptop screen. Sometimes, you just gotta let your story be what it wants to be and get out of the way. Easier said than done. What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers? Passion for storytelling, discipline to read and write every day, curiosity and courage to ask one’s self the tough and scary questions that lead to great stories. What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? Never 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? To date, I’ve had about 14 stories published in magazines, anthologies or podcasts, including two novellas. Getting my work noticed has been a tough go. For me, it started with magazine editors. And the only way to get your work noticed is to be relentless. Submit, submit, submit, submit. More recently, I’ve tried to make use of my background in digital marketing to amplify news of my published work, but the challenge there is rising above the noise. And there’s a lot of noise out there. It’s a learning process, and, as in my day job as a marketer, the most critical thing for me is to keep trying new things to get my work noticed. 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? What piece of your own work are you most proud of? It was never published, but to this day, the first novel I ever wrote is one of the works I’m most proud of. It was a huge accomplishment for me and very cathartic. I’ll never forget the moment when I wrote the last sentence and thought to myself, “That’s it. I did it. I’ve written a book.” Getting my first story published back in 2009 is a close second. And are there any that you would like to forget about? Yes, pretty much anything I wrote before the age of 30. For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why? Hmm. Great question. I love combining history and horror, and both Old Hollow and The Death Chute have elements of both, so I’d have to go with those two. Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? I’m a big fan of the final passages in Old Hollow, where the protagonist, U.S. Cavalry Captain Benjamin Lawson, comes face to face with the demonic creatures that killed one of his men earlier in the story. Warning: Spoilers below. Harsh rasps and whispers filled the night air, but Lawson ignored them. He started walking toward the creatures and lined up a shot. As he moved, a passage from a poem with which he’d become acquainted during his final year at West Point flashed through his mind. It had been a new poem at the time, appearing in all the popular magazines. The academy’s English composition instructor had forced the cadets in his charge to commit the entire poem to memory, though Lawson was damned if he could remember the title or author. One particular stanza came back to him as he fired: “Storm’d at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell ...” Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next? Sure. My latest book is a horror novella called The Death Chute. It’s basically a classic haunted house story that takes place in an old tuberculosis sanatorium. The sanatorium has been converted into a posh rest home for seniors. The book comes out April 9 and is being released by indie publisher Aurelia Leo. It’s my second book with Aurelia, which published another horror novella of mine, Old Hollow, which takes place during the waning days of the American Civil War. Gingersnaps was kind enough to allow me to guest blog about Old Hollow and my love of historical horror stories a year or so ago. At the moment, I’m working on the second draft of a new horror novel – it’s about a man who discovers an old console radio from the 1940s that he becomes obsessed with restoring. One night, the radio starts talking to him and telling him to “do things” and the things it tells him to do aren’t very nice. Hope to finish it up soon. If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice? The whole “in the end, it was all a dream” cliché. You know, Bobby wakes up from a dream in Dallas. Man, I hate that crap. What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you? The last great book I read was The Dixon Cornbelt League, a collection of mystical baseball stories by W.P. Kinsella. Read it in about two days. The last book to disappoint me? Probably Live and Let Die, by Ian Fleming. I’m a huge James Bond fan, but some of the writing in the Fleming books hasn’t aged well, specifically the way women and minorities are portrayed. It’s not really a fair criticism because all writers are products of their time to a certain extent, but what I can tell you is there were several times when I was knocked out of the story due to language and word choice. This isn’t to say it’s a bad book or Fleming was a bad writer – neither is true – I just know what I felt when I read that book, and it was disappointment. What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer? Question: Why do you love the horror genre? Answer: More than any other genre, horror allows writers (and readers, of course) to explore the things that scare us the most – usually, the fear of the unknown. It’s scary to not know what’s going to happen, and our fears change as we age. When I was a kid, I was afraid I’d never grow up. When I was a young man, I was afraid I’d never find a job or someone to share my life with. As a middle-aged man, now with a wife and a son, my greatest fear is losing those who are most important to me – my wife and my son – through some terrible accident or misfortune. Another fear I have that I feel more and more is the realization that I’m pretty much at the halfway point. Will I ever get where I really want to be – writing full time? I don’t know. But there’s a lot of grist to write about there, wouldn’t you say? AMBROSE STOLLIKER Ambrose Stolliker lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and son. He is the author of two horror novellas, Old Hollow (2018) and The Death Chute (coming April 9, 2019) both from indie publisher Aurelia Leo LLC. His short stories can be seen in Stupefying Stories Magazine, WEIRD CITY, the Tales to Terrify podcast from District of Wonders, Creepy Campfire Quarterly, Ghostlight Magazine, Sex and Murder Magazine, Hungur Magazine, Sanitarium Magazine, The Tincture Journal, Charon Coin Press’ State of Horror: Louisiana, Volume II anthology and DAOwen Publications’ horror anthology Muffled Scream I: Corner of the Eye. Mr. Stolliker is a former newspaper and magazine journalist and currently works in digital marketing at a global technology company in Seattle. Social Media: Blog: https://ambrosestolliker.wordpress.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/amstolliker Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmbroseStolliker/ Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Ambrose-Stolliker/e/B07B7G52N1?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1553143256&sr=1-2 GoodReads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13754143.Ambrose_Stolliker The Death Chute by Ambrose Stolliker When his mother, Sophia, is diagnosed with an aggressive form of dementia, 44-year-old reality television producer Jake Porter leaves Hollywood and returns to his native Vermont to look after her. Jake plans to set her up in a posh new retirement community in the Green Mountains and then head back to Los Angeles to revive his career, which is now in jeopardy after his last few projects bombed in spectacular fashion. But when he learns that the retirement community was once a tuberculosis sanatorium, Jake is uneasy at the prospect of leaving Sophia on her own. Only the assurances of the community’s chief medical officer, Christine Barrett, convince Jake that his mother will be in good hands. Not long after she’s moved in, however, Sophia has the first of many frightening experiences when she encounters the apparition of a little boy suffering from TB. At first, Jake dismisses her story as a symptom of her dementia, but as time goes on, it becomes clear the rest home houses dark secrets and is haunted by something terrible and strange.   Comments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2023
|
RSS Feed
|
|