FIVE MINUTES WITH MICHAELBRENT COLLINGS

Michaelbrent Collings is an internationally-bestselling author, produced screenwriter, and multiple Bram Stoker Award finalist. Best known for horror, he has also written bestsellers in fantasy, science fiction, mystery, thriller, suspense, humor, and even (under a pen name) Western Romance. Find out more about him at his website, WrittenInsomnia.com.

Links:
Website: http://WrittenInsomnia.com
Facebook fanpage: http://facebook.com/MichaelbrentCollings
Twitter: http://twitter.com/mbcollings
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Michaelbrent-Collings/e/B003VSI88O
Mailing list (free stuff and deals!): http://writteninsomnia.com/michaelbrents-minions/

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Sure. Devastatingly attractive, sweater-vest. My friends call me “the Sausage King of Chicago.”

Wait. That’s Ferris Bueller I’m thinking about.

I’m not that cool, and I definitely can’t rock a sweater-vest.

I’m just a writer-type, which means I am essentially Gollum before he was forced out of the cave by losing the One Ring: kinda unattractive, not really used to bright lights or people. But instead of having a ring I fondle, I sit at a keyboard typing up weirdness.

A good life.

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

I love to watch movies, read, do martial arts, and (most of all) hang with the family. We play board games or video games together, or do the aforementioned activities. Occasionally we pillage a small village while wearing our Viking hats, just to switch things up.

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

Soooo many things. I love to read tons of different books in different genres, and the fact that I also write (and love to read) screenplays has influenced the way I write. I enjoy a sense of immediacy, and my writing is often mentioned as being “cinematic,” which I’ll take as a compliment.

I also enjoy history, so there’s a lot of callbacks to important people or moments in literature and history in my work – Easter eggs that I don’t really expect anyone to catch, but which are fun for me!

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, pinned to the top of my Twitter page @mbcollings (at least at the time of this writing) is the following:

Talking to someone last night, who asked why I write horror.

My response: because horror is the genre of hope.

I’ve found that most people who say they “don’t like horror” really don’t have enough experience with it to know whether they like it or not. What they don’t like in reality is movie posters, for which I can’t blame them given that a lot of them are intended to shock or provide a grim image. It’s an unnuanced, shotgun blast to the psyche. So to those folks who don’t like horror, I talk to them about how the point of the best horror isn’t to wallow in darkness, it’s to show that there is a light beyond that darkness.

I’m a religious guy, so I’ll often talk about the scariest horror story ever written, about this Everyman who gets betrayed by his friends, tossed into prison for crimes he didn’t commit, where he’s tortured Hostel-style, then gets nailed to a cross.

But the point of that story isn’t the torture or the pain or the death… it’s the after. The victory, and the redemption. That’s what horror does best, and when doing it right, can do it better 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?

People are talking about how horror is having a “resurgence” or a “renaissance” or a sudden rise in popularity. That’s bunk – horror’s always been intensely popular. What we do have now are aggregators like Netflix and the other streamers who have drilled into the demographics to quantify that horror is, in fact, popular. So as more people realize it matters to a lot of people, I think we’re going to see more and more horror pictures vying for Academy Awards, more an more horror novels being taken seriously as “literature.” That’s a good thing. Horror’s been treated like the (I’m sorry, GNoH, I have to say it!) red-headed stepchild for years. But it’s high time for the world to realize that the red-headed stepchild isn’t the thing to be ashamed of – it’s been the quiet bad-ass for decades, and is finally getting something approximating its due.

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

Toooooo many to count.

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

That’s a tough one. I can name a few authors who haven’t gotten the recognition they deserve: DJ Butler, Mercedes Yardley, The Behrg. I also think that Stephen King fellow is going to be huge at some point.

How would you describe your writing style?

I love twisty plots and surprises that yank the rug continually out from under your feet. Right now I’m getting ready to release a novel called Terminal, and when a reviewer named Michael Patrick Hicks (no slouch of a writer himself) said the ending caught him by surprise, it was like, *fistpump.*

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

See above. Also, probably my favorite, was a three-star review that literally had a heading of “Lots of pages,” and the review in total said, “It was okay.” I laughed my butt off reading that.

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

Anything that involves me crawling out of my Gollum-cave.

Seriously, it’s great to interact with people and I enjoy marketing… but it’s a LOT of work, and very wearing.

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

Tax law.

But now that I’ve said that, I’m getting an idea about a tax accountant who murders people by beating them to death with an old-fashioned actuarial table, while whispering, “You tax me, sir, you… tax… ME.”

So no, I guess not.

Words exist to talk about important, wonderful, dark, beautiful, evil, abhorrent, miraculous, scary, loving things – and everything else, besides.

There are things I would address with more care, and I definitely don’t ascribe to the “oh, I’m an artist, and I go where my muse takes me, regardless of the outcome” school of thought. I think authors have a responsibility to help the world, not harm it in the name of their “art.” So I definitely think about every story and whether it’s going to make the world a bit better or a bit worse. But that doesn’t have much to do with subject matter, and has a lot to do with the themes and lessons that every author puts into their work as a reflection of themselves.

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 so hard! I will very often use meanings of names to inform the characters, and in one of my books, pretty much every twist and surprise is foreshadowed explicitly by the names… if one cares to go and look up their etymologies. That kind of thing is tremendously fun for me.

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

I think I’ve gotten better at feeling how a good story should lay out. It’s not just events, it’s rhythm and pacing, and I think I’ve gotten better at that kind of thing.

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

Something to write on. Something to read. A willingness to work. And a very thick skin.

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

My father once told me, “Imagine every word you write costs you a thousand dollars.” Really makes you think of your choices, and whether you really need a word or sentence or chapter.

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?

None are favorites, and I don’t view any as my children. I think that’s a potential deathtrap for anyone who wants to make a living at this. I view my work as hamburgers – I’m making them to please people, to give them some energy to face the day, to do them a bit of good for a cost that adds value to both of our lives. I’m willing to change, to adjust. That’s impossible if you view your work on the same level as you view your kids or the things in life you love. By definition, those things are to be protected – even at the cost of others. I view myself as an other-centered author. I enjoy the work, I love what I do. But I’m here for the audience, not the other way around. And I think that’s part of why I have an audience, because fans know that I’m doing my best to give them something that will enrich their lives.

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

Whichever one I just finished. Seriously.

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

Nah. They’re all part of the process. Though I do feel about a few of them sort of the same way a lot of us feel about high school yearbook photos. “Oh, geez, no. I really… that was me, yes, but… oh, geez… I’m not like that now.”

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

Given the range of stuff I write, that’s a tough one. Whenever someone asks what to read of mine, I answer, “What’s your favorite genre? Subgenre? Subsubgenre?” At that point, I can probably point to one of my books that fits in that world, and the reader (hopefully) walks away with a shiny new book in hand.

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

“This is a true fairie tale.  And like all true fairie tales, it is bloody, violent… and there is no guarantee that good will win in the end.” (Peter & Wendy: A Tale of the Lost)

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

Just finished Terminal, which bows on April 24, 2019. It’s about a dozen or so people in a bus terminal in the middle of the night. A fog rolls in, and they’re informed by an entity in the mist that they have a few hours to make a choice: they have to vote on one person to leave. That person will survive, the rest will die. And the vote has to be unanimous – which is bad enough, but things go even darker when the dozen folks realize the best way to ensure a unanimous vote for themselves is to kill everyone else.

As for what’s up next: I’ve got a Western Romance called Only the Brave coming out a month or so after Terminal, then a YA fantasy called The Dying Immortals, then probably a horror called Scavenger Hunt.

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

None. Clichés are more fun to twist and subvert than they are to ignore or erase.

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

Last great book: probably House of Assassins, by Larry Correia. Last book that disappointed me: the Bill Hodges trilogy, by Stephen King. Compulsively readable (he’s just great as a writer, and hard to put down no matter what), but I hated how he jerked the story from mystery to paranormal without setting up the world-shifts, and the structure was so wonky it was disconcerting.

What’s the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
​
“How did you get so handsome?”

And I would toss back my luxurious curls of hair (impossible with a bald head), bat my eyes, and say, “Why… BUY MY BOOKS AND GIVE ME MONEY!”

And they would. Because Handsome.

Terminal by Michaelbrent Collings  

"[Collings] brings the reader close in and doesn't want them to leave... I'd give this an A." - Horror Drive-In
All passengers, please prepare for departure...

An employee, a cop, and six passengers; a prisoner, a stowaway, and a madman.

These are the people waiting at the Lawton bus terminal. Mostly late-night travelers who want nothing more than to get to their destinations, and employees who want nothing more than to get through the graveyard shift.

"The final reveal of Terminal is masterclass-level stuff..." - High Fever Books
But when a strange, otherworldly fog rolls in, the night changes to nightmare. Because something hides in the fog. Something powerful. Something strange. Something... inhuman.

5 stars! "[A] nightmarish tale that was both captivating and frightening and also a novel that I would highly recommend!" - The Genre Minx
Soon, those in the terminal have been cut off from the rest of the world. No phones, no computers. Just ten strangers in the terminal... and The Other.

The Other is the force in the mist. The Other is the thing that has captured them. And The Other wants to play a game. 

"Terminal is a fun read that keeps you guessing..." - Rae's Reading Lounge
The rules are simple:

1) The people in the terminal must choose a single person from among them. That person will live. The rest will die.
2) Anyone who attempts to leave the terminal before the final vote will die.
3) The final vote... must be unanimous.

"Another win for [Collings]... Excellent!" - The Raven Podcast
A nightmare. And getting worse, because the best way to make a vote unanimous... is to kill the other voters.

Welcome to the Terminal.

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