HORROR INTERVIEW : 5 MINUTES WITH KANE GILMOUR

Kane Gilmour is a Vermont-based author and editor–that devilishly good looking fellow in the banner art. He has finished his first thriller novel, Resurrect, and he’s now working on his first mystery novel and a YA paranormal adventure novel. He writes short stories and webcomics too. He’s also the co-author of the upcoming Chess Team novella CALLSIGN: DEEP BLUE, with series creator Jeremy Robinson.

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Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I’m primarily a thriller author, working on my own series of action/adventure novels, featuring a mountaineer, and working with Jeremy Robinson on his Jack Sigler/Chess Team series. But I also write nostalgic horror novellas, and I’m writing horror short stories under the name Edward Phantom. When I’m not writing, I’m editing for several thriller authors. When I’m not doing that, I’m publishing New Pulp, Space Opera, and Erotica stories for some other author friends. When I’m not doing that, I’m wondering what sleep would feel like.

Do you prefer the term Horror, Weird Fiction or Dark Fiction?

I much prefer the term Horror. I have an issue with it, in fact. Pisses me off when the genre doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Bothers me to hear horror authors calling themselves psychological thriller authors, or some other thing, because it further removes some of the respect the genre should have. I hate it when I see something like Justin Cronin’s The Passage shelved in Literature, when the store in question has a horror section. I get the Weird Fiction title from its association with the Weird Tales magazine, and I have respect for that, but Dark Fiction or any other variant bothers me. Horror has good writing in it as a field. It’s worthy of respect. So I use it where it’s warranted.

Who are some of your favourite authors?

I like a wide swath of authors in different genres. Stephen King, Clive Barker, Bentley Little, Simon Kurt Unsworth, and the New Duke of Spook, Stephen M. Irwin in horror. I’m a big fan of Robert B. Parker in mystery, and Matthew Reilly and Jeremy Robinson in thrillers. Neil Gaiman and R. A. Salvatore in fantasy. I also really like Arthur C. Clarke in sci-fi. Had the chance to meet the man a few times in Sri Lanka. He was quite funny in person, and loved to talk about anything but himself in his latter years.

What are you reading now?

King’s Doctor Sleep, and the as yet unpublished Jeremy Robinson sequel to his Kaiju novel Project Nemesis, David Wong’s John Dies at the End, Carol ‘ Pixie’ Brearley’s Rise of the Dark Angel, and a few manuscripts from newbies. I’m usually reading several things at once.

How would you describe your writing style?

Most of the things I write have a style that fits the project. I tend to throw in something gross and disturbing in nearly everything, and there’s usually a lot of action toward the end of a Gilmour or Phantom story. Beyond that, I’m just trying to fit the scenery and time, whether it’s 210 BC, WWII Japan, or 1899 in Hungary.

Describe a typical day spent writing. Do you have any unusual writing habits?

I don’t have typical days. Every day is a new adventure in finding time to write in a house with two fantastic (but wild) kids, a freelance editing career, and a small publishing venture. When I do write, I tend to do so for anywhere between a two to ten hour stretch. I can generally knock out a thousand words (that are keepers) in an hour. So a lot of my work has been done in a very short amount of time, once it gets started. I alternate between a standing and sitting desk, and I try to listen to either metal (where I’m so familiar with the lyrics that I’m not concentrating on them while writing) or film and video game scores from a variety of composers. Following the lead of my mentor and friend Jeremy Robinson (horror’s Jeremy Bishop), I’ve gotten to the point where a single film or game score becomes the soundtrack to a story or novel. Going back to that music brings those characters back to mind rapidly. I wrote The Crypt of Dracula to Health’s score for Max Payne 3 and Christopher Young’s score for the 2011 film ‘Priest.’

What’s your favourite food?

I was born in New York, so I think by law I have to say Pizza.

What’s your favourite album?

The eponymous album by the Riverdogs from 1990. Soulful singing from Canadian singer-songwriter Rob Lamothe, excellent guitar from Irish phenomenon Vivian Campbell (before he joined Def Leppard), and great bass and drums as well. They were a short lived thing, as they came out right before Grunge pretty much executed hard rock and metal, just when a lot of hair bands decided to get serious about songwriting and were becoming influenced by the blues. Riverdogs were a truly great band that slipped away too soon.

What’s the most important lesson you have learned about writing?

To shut up and do it. Otherwise the books don’t get written.

Fame and fortune, or respect?

You can keep the respect and the fame. Right now I’d settle for Fortune. Actually, right now I’m grateful for the fans I have, who are the best fans you could ask for, and who relentlessly hound me for more. That’s a great feeling. But being so famous you couldn’t walk down a street without being mobbed isn’t something I aspire to. I like to please fans and I like to please reviewers, but as for the respect of peers or academia? I’ll live just fine if I don’t have it.

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

I dig all my stuff, but oddly the thing I’m most proud of is the anthology I co-edited with Scott P. Vaughn, Warbirds of Mars: Stories of the Fight! The book was a labor of love, and has some amazing stories from a wonderful list of creators covers a slew of genres from action and adventure to noir, new pulp, weird western and horror. So basically it has something for everyone.

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

My most recent book is OMEGA, with Jeremy Robinson. It’s the finale to the existing storylines in the series, and for the monster fans, it has the team battling an animated Colossus of Rhodes. I’ve really enjoyed writing with Jeremy on his Chess Team series. We make it balls-to-the-wall action and then get to throw in whatever wacky sauce ideas we can come up with. I’m currently writing a Kaiju story for the excellent upcoming anthology Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, which just blew the doors off with a Kickstarter campaign that earned out in seven days and then went on to meet all of its stretch goals. After that story, I’m hoping to get another nostalgic novella done and out in e-book format for Halloween, called The Monster of Frankenstein. It will be a direct sequel to Mary Shelley’s story, showing the creature coming back for the corpse of his creator, and Captain Robert Walton fulfilling his vow to the doctor, to hunt down the creature and attempt to destroy it. Once that story is done, I plan to package it with The Crypt of Dracula and offer the two books in one compilation. I’ve also just started releasing one horror story a month under my Edward Phantom name. Two stories out so far (“The Firmament of Night” and “The Wound in the Woods”), with “Lunar” on the way in November. The latter features an astronaut on a mission to a space station in Lunar orbit, who was bitten by a werewolf before the mission. If the sight of a full moon can turn a man into a werewolf, what does he turn into when he’s just 50 miles above the Lunar surface?

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