 L.C. Barlow is a writer and professor working primarily in the field of speculative fiction. She has studied with popular writers, including Nancy Holder, Elizabeth Hand, and James Patrick Kelly. Her fiction has reached over sixty-five thousand readers and garnered praise and multiple awards. Barlow’s horror trilogy – Pivot, Perish, and Peak – was picked up in 2018 by California Coldblood Books, an imprint of Rare Bird Books. The first of the trilogy, Pivot, was released in October of 2019. Perish will be released in October of 2020. Peak will be released in October of 2021. Barlow lives in Dallas, TX with her two cats, Smaug and Dusty. WEBSITE LINKS Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/Pivot-L-C-Barlow/dp/1644280531/ Audible Link: https://www.audible.com/author/LC-Barlow/B00CRQLPCM Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utwJ0g6cvLo Author Website: https://lcbarlow.org/ Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/LCBarlowAuthor Instagram Link: https://www.instagram.com/lcbarlowauthor/ GoodReads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44579050-pivot Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? My name is Lindsey Barlow, and I am an English professor at a community college, as well as a writer. I have been writing stories off and on since probably middle school (though I did recently find one of my first stories that I wrote in kindergarten). When I started college, I began writing more seriously – so I’ve been writing seriously for a little over a decade, now. I have a wide array of hobbies in addition to writing. I like to travel on my own and have visited many European countries, including England, Ireland, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Germany, and the Czech Republic. I lived with a host family for a few months in Talheim, Germany, which is halfway between Stuttgart and Frankfurt, while teaching their daughter English. I have gone ziplining, parasailing, skiing, and indoor skydiving. I attended an intensive acting workshop at the William Esper Studio in New York City for several months one summer. Before becoming a professor, I had an array of jobs, and I volunteered in an Emergency Room for about a month. I enjoy outdoor activities and recently re-achieved my backflip, which is saying something, since I’m nearing my mid-thirties. Which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life? I would least like to meet Cyrus Harper in real life. Cyrus is the “primal father.” What I mean by that is that he is the unstoppable adoptive father who heads the following, has unearthly tools at his disposal, and is able to discover those who blaspheme before they can stop him. To Jack, the main character of the Pivot-verse, he is a charismatic and maniacal mentor (think Charles Manson meets Lucifer from Supernatural). The immenseness of Cyrus, and the details of him, came about in the act of my writing. In other words, I didn’t plan him in the way he revealed himself, and so there were moments where he was a surprise to even me. He has no remorse and is willing to do anything to achieve what he wants. I definitely would not want to meet him. Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing? My studies in English during my BA and MA had ensured my exposure to more literary works that I loved just as much, like Moby Dick (which greatly influenced me). In addition, I also ventured into the sexier, semi-mystery, semi-fantasy, and semi-erotica works of Laurell K. Hamilton right before and then during my MA. I primarily read her Anita Blake series, falling in love with the variety of her characters and the sexiness imbued in each and every one. Though the series often had me rolling my eyes, it also had me smirking, and I devoured about fourteen or so of the novels. One other literary influence was actually not really a book at all, but rather a theory that I took to heart and mind very earnestly during my MA—Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory. Lacanian theory aided me not only in deconstructing television series during my first master’s, but also in getting into the psychology of my own characters, of deconstructing them, as well as simply understanding the movements of plot. Though Lacan did not necessarily help me write, he did help me understand. Many times, when encountering new ideas that might have otherwise seemed foreign to me, I am able to hook them onto something in Lacanian theory so that I can more quickly absorb what there is to know. The Lacanian Subject by Bruce Fink is despised by many graduate students, but I truly appreciate everything it offered and don’t know where I would be in my academic or literary career without it. Lacan shows me a different magic than, say, Anne Rice or Stephen King—the magic of the human mind. 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 psychoanalytic graduate school background is probably going to show here. Horror is the abject, which Kristeva discusses quite a bit in Powers of Horror. It is that which disturbs the sense of identity and reality – a breakdown in the self and other, to where they mix in interesting ways. One example of this would be a person staring at a cadaver and having the sense of self break down to the point that one feels like one is the cadaver. Thus, horror could be found in the simplest, most mediocre of things. If one has seen the movie Incendies, what causes the utter breakdown of a woman’s sense of reality and identity (inside and outside) are three dots on the back of man’s ankle – a man that represents two men (which is, of course, the Lacanian split subject). One essential piece of the abject (and of trauma) is that it is not expected. I think the “easy” route to exploring the unexpected is through jump scares or the gross out. Through a bit more work, though, it could be three dots on the back of an ankle or the sound of a silver spoon in a teacup. I think that to break past assumptions of horror, horror has to become more complex, in that how authors explore the unexpected is beyond the easy “jump scare” or “gross out.” That is, the plot and story need to lay out certain rules that get twisted, such that what was once thought to be inside is outside and vice versa. I hope this makes sense. 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? Due to the current socio/political climate, I can envision a lot of horror stories revolving around the following: climate change, the end times, the patriarchal cult, matriarchy, chemical warfare, nuclear war, genetic experiments, zombies, and dystopias. I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it? People have to be civilized day in and day out for the sake of their survival. There are, of course, wonderful things about civilization; however, to be required to be civilized – without any community-oriented way of burning off steam – means that people are often wound tight. For six weeks I took an acting class at the William Esper Studio in New York City one summer. (I did this because Daniel Knauf recommended acting classes so that authors could see just how difficult it is for actors to bring a character to life). While at that studio, I discovered that it is very difficult for most people to remove the mask of civilization. Even in a room where people are given the permission to scream and cry, to bring things to a boiling point, they have lost much of the ability to do so. They have to re-learn how not to be civilized to one another, to scream, to cry – essentially, to be human again. And when they do finally find a way to take off the mask of civilization, it is an accomplishment. I feel like reading and writing horror does something similar to acting. It is a way of exploring that which is not allowed in society, of finding a way to remove the mask of civilization that we don’t know how to take off, anymore. It is, one could argue, a way of staying sane, since horror is willing to admit something about us that nothing else is – that there’s something about us that isn’t civilized, and that it’s okay to acknowledge that. What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre? I’m not sure that I can argue anything is missing from the horror genre, right at this moment. It may simply be that there are aspects of horror that are not yet mainstream, and, thus, you have to dig a little to get to them. From my own perspective, there are aspects of horror that I simply haven’t experienced yet; for instance, I’m just now reading my very first military sci-fi/military horror novel by Weston Ochse, and it’s fantastic. At one panel, I remember an author saying that genre is just a way to advertise, and many things that could be classified as horror are often instead classified as a different genre that is, perhaps, more marketable. So, one could argue that horror pervades the other genres, too, and is simply not named. What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice of? I would like to mention Barry Lyga (I Hunt Killers), Josh Malerman (Bird Box and Black Mad Wheel), Lucas Mangum (Gods of the Dark Web), Stephanie M. Wytovich (Brothel), Maria Alexander (Mr. Wicker), Sylvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican Gothic), and Rena Mason (The Evolutionist). Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you? I tend not to read very many reviews because they can become an obsession. There are a few, however, that have stuck with me. Several readers have either compared my writing to Poppy Z. Brite’s or stated that my writing is what Stephen King’s is lacking. Though I don’t feel like I am deserving of this praise, it does encourage me on those nights where writing is tough and slow, and I’m doubting myself. Most recently, I had someone write to me on my Facebook author page and say that he reads about 100 books a year, decided to give my book a shot, absolutely loved it, and cannot wait to read the next in the series. It meant so much to me, especially since he said he doesn’t use social media. He had gone out of his way to find a means of contacting me. Second to last, the Publisher’s Weekly and ALA Booklist reviews of Pivot were just so meaningful, so positive, and it just felt like they vaulted my understanding of myself to a new level. They were also quite unexpected! Finally, Josh Malerman’s and Weston Ochse’s blurbs for Pivot, as well as Wes’ blurb for Perish, blew me away. I don’t know what I would do without these people. What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult? Whew! This is difficult to answer. I’ll start off by saying that the only thing harder than writing is not writing. It’s a beast, and there’s a lot of blood, sweat, and tears poured into each novel. One thing that’s hard is you really have to get into the world, much like an actor gets into character, and you have to live there for a while. Being so immersed in it, you can feel overwhelmed because at times, it feels like you’re carrying it with you to the grocery store, to class, to your doctor’s appointment, etc. It’s there, begging for your attention. At least, that’s how it was a lot of the time for me. I am curious if this will change as I continue writing. In addition to this, though, good art I suspect is always incredibly difficult. I remember going to an art gallery and hearing various artists talk about their work. One pointed at three different twenty-foot sketches he had created and described them as “Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a hill.” It’s so true. Writing is like that. At the same time, what can be so difficult is the isolation – the four walls all around you. It doesn’t matter if those walls are a mansion or a shack. It’s the same four walls, and they’re always there. You have to get out, you have to live, you have to travel, to go to restaurants and cafes, in order to continue to write, in my opinion. I think this is one of the reasons why writers pursue writing conventions so much. We need them. The wait is tough, too. This has more to do with publishing than writing, but waiting on a response or critique can be so difficult. It was about two years between when I found an agent and when my books landed with a publisher. In those two years, I did several revisions, and before the agent, I did several revisions, so there was a lot of writing and waiting for feedback and writing and waiting for feedback. I also think that going back to square one after finishing a novel is tough. If you can imagine putting years and years of work into a novel or two and then starting a brand new one, it feels a little bit like finding your sea legs again. That’s because all novels are different. I remember a fellow writer telling me one time that writing the second novel is tougher than writing the first, and I think that that’s right. It’s because as a young writer, you’re still getting your system down, the elements of plotting down, and you accomplished it (somehow) in the first novel (woohoo!) and guess what! You have to do it again! But differently! This is how you learn, though. It’s part of the process. Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? I can’t think of a subject on which I would never write. I suspect I do have some boundaries; however, I also think that phrasing and plotting is paramount and that almost anything can be phrased, plotted, etc. in such a way that it is palatable. Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? My process of writing changed dramatically over the course of producing my first book. Pivot was originally self-published, and when I wrote the novel, I didn’t really know anything about writing. I wrote the chapters alternating between past and present, with two plot lines that complemented one another. When I finally met up with several people who were willing to help me produce a more professional, publishable version of the novel, they helped me to significantly change, enhance, and build those different plotlines. When an agent took on the novel, he wanted me to separate the book into two books. At first, I declined, but as time went on, I realized that the book needed to be separated into two, that my agent was right, and I did so, taking the time to build the first one up and knowing the second one would be the second of the trilogy and that it needed to be built up like the first one. The thing, though, was that I had really kind of built that first book through trial-and-error. I had written over 1,000 single-spaced pages to produce a 250-page single-spaced novel, and even though I had managed to make it work, I wasn’t exactly sure how. At this time, I had started an MFA program because I had anticipated this problem. Nancy Holder—an amazing writer, woman, author, person in general—was my professor for two semesters and two residencies, and she told her classes about two books that she uses to help plot books: Black Snyder’s Save the Cat! and Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. I immediately purchased these books and read them. Subsequently, I compared Pivot to see how much its plot points lined up with the 15-point beat sheet in Save the Cat! As it turned out, 13 out of 15 points lined up. Thus, I was able to see how I had made the book work and move onward to the next novel. I used the same beat sheet to help finish the second of the trilogy, and I, like Nancy, will most likely use the two beat sheets from these books for every novel in the future. Writing requires so much problem solving, and these books help me better able to address those problems before seeking outside help. They help me produce things that I didn’t know I could produce, and I learn something new every time I read them. Ultimately, though, after learning how to more effectively plot, I also learned that plotting isn’t everything. There’s just something about letting the novel develop organically that is so important. Really, if you sit down and say exactly what you wanted to say when writing, you’ve kind of failed. It’s only by writing something beyond what you knew to write that you have succeeded – when you write more than you thought you knew. So, when I do pre-emptively plot, I do so while taking it with a grain of salt, and often times the plot shifts dramatically three or four times as I go back and revise. What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? Remember that the first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be written. You can’t revise something that isn’t there. Once you have a draft, and someone suggests trying something, feel open to trying it. You can have several versions of the same story, and just because you take it a new direction doesn’t mean your old draft disappears if you need to go back to it. Be brave and take your story to foreign places. It’s not foreign, anymore, after you write it. Do not expect professionals to be mean. Many are some of the kindest people you can meet. You can only enter a room for the first time once. That’s why it’s important that you get your work to as optimum of a level as possible before submitting it to an agent or editor. Because once they “enter the room” (read your work) for the first time, they can’t see it nearly as objectively after. Your own objectiveness is compromised because you’ve been with the work for so long. That’s why you need workshoppers you can trust (and who know how to get you to emphasize things and back off things without being cruel or mean). In every story there are “crunchy” and “floaty” items, also known as literal and figurative. The crunchy is the bare facts that ground the story. The floaty is the unnatural, metaphorical things. Often times, writers throw in figurative things to feel better or redeem the story. The reality, though, is that you don’t need to do this. You don’t need to “redeem” the story. The more you add trying to “redeem” the story, the more work you make for yourself when revising. Trust the reader to follow you. Keep in mind the Hemingway Theory – that 10% of the story is what the author lets the audience see, and 90% is hidden. It’s very much like a glacier – the top 10% is visible, and the bottom 90% is below water. The amount of work you put into a novel is the 90%. When I wrote Pivot, I wrote about five times the amount that the book ended up being. The book is around 280 pages. I definitely wrote over 1,000 pages while constructing it. Read Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder and The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler. These were books that Nancy Holder (a prolific author and one of my professors) recommended to all of her students in my MFA program. Both books have beat sheets in terms of how a story should move. When I read them, I was so incredibly impressed. Before my MFA, I had written my first novel without any plot guidance. I retroactively compared it with Snyder’s 15-point beat sheet. To my surprise, I found that 13/15 elements in my manuscript aligned. That was the Aha! moment of, “Oh, this is why it worked. I know what I did, so now I know what to do.” I regularly return to these books and always learn something new. Which of your characters is your favourite? I wouldn’t dare choose a favorite. All my characters have a place and a need that they fulfill, and they work in harmony (or disharmony) with one another. They need each other, and together they create something much greater than each one could: a conversation, a statement, etc. That being said, the character of Patrick in The Jack Harper Trilogy is a departure and contrast to the other characters. He is not so dark, he is energetic, he’s funny and entertaining; he has a sparkle. In a way, I think he (or the scenes he’s in) sold the novels to my publisher. I also had a lot of fun writing him; however, I have a lot of fun writing all of my characters. Which of your books best represents you? I don’t know about which of my books represents me, but currently, I really feel as though Perish is a solid representation of my work; however, it is the second of the Jack Harper Trilogy, and I highly recommend reading Pivot, first. Pivot, though, as many have noted, is a more claustrophobic novel, and the main character really doesn’t enter the “real world” until Perish. I was able to have a wider variety of characters in Perish, simply because the world allowed for it, and I think there is a lot there for the reader to enjoy. Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? The following is one of many favorites I have: “The repetition of these particular lessons helped me—the time and effort I devoted to them. Winning a fight had nothing to do with an instantaneous surge of power and awareness but was about maintaining a sense of normality in the moment. It was about what I could forget. I got used to the sensation of a body against my body, of someone coming at me, the foreign twisting, pulling, and driving. When it became the norm, then it all fell away, much like a common denominator. Only the crosshairs, the target, the wind, the heart, the head, the veins were left. Training meant learning what one should remember and, more importantly, what one should forget. The winner is the one for whom the fight feels most like home.” – Jack Harper, Pivot Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next? I am currently working on the copyediting of Peak, the last book in the Jack Harper Trilogy. In addition, I just finished up a dark fantasy novel separate from the trilogy titled Seize. The main character of Seize is Beryl Portant, a seventeen-year-old seer who has just entered into her sight. In her world, there are many like her (millions of individuals) who can see potential futures, as well as the past. They are the aristocracy of Tiresia, and they rule over all those who are not clairvoyant. Though the elite of this world have obvious advantages—knowing everything that might happen before it might happen—there are downsides to visions, including the threat of knowing too much and being driven insane. Thus, seers must use a drug called Imogen to stop or limit their visions, and the government requires seers to dose regularly with it. If seers do not use Imogen, the effects are obvious—their silver eyes shift to black under the weight of too much knowledge. Unfortunately, Beryl soon learns that Imogen does not work on her like it does with others, and after a particularly traumatic vision, one of her eyes turns black. In order to find a way to make Imogen work for her and to maybe reverse her eye’s alteration, she must seek help from an underground vigilante group who has mysteriously managed to thwart the seer dictatorship. As Beryl seeks this group’s help, she discovers the unexpected. There are objects in her world that have no history or future, that are invisible to seers’ perception. In addition, there are people invisible to her, in that they seem to have no future and no past. As she delves deeper into who and what these individuals are, all while seeking refuge from Tiresia’s Capital, she learns that she is at the center of a threatening change in her world—the rise of those who are outside of seer sight because they exist outside of time. If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice? If I could erase one horror cliché, it would be that of a character not believing what one is seeing/questioning what one is seeing. Characters lose so much time just coming to terms with the fact that what they are seeing is reality. I feel like, as a result, they seem less intelligent or less sure of themselves. I would like to see characters who trust themselves and act immediately. What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you? I recently read David Lynch’s Room to Dream and was blown away. It’s an incredibly short book but so well done. I also highly recommend Eddie Izzard’s Believe Me, Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, and Weston Ochse’s Seal Team 666. I can’t think of the last book that disappointed me. What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer? I gave this answer some thought and was not able to come up with anything. You have been very thorough!  “Beyond good and evil, Pivot juggles archetypes until you’re not sure which ball is airborne and which is still in the author’s hand. A story about cracking free of your intended role in life, as plot and depth travel at the same exceptional speed.” ―Josh Malerman, author of Bird Box "Suspenseful and delightfully disturbing (...) This is a promising beginning to the Jack Harper trilogy." ―Booklist “Impressive and arresting prose drives this vivid debut. (...) Barlow’s gorgeous writing will easily propel readers through the rest of the series.” ―Publishers Weekly From the age of seven, Jack Harper is raised by the leader of a mystical cult, Cyrus Harper. Through Cyrus, Jack receives a full education in all usual subjects―economics, literature, mathematics, history―as well as one unique skill useful to a person in Cyrus's position: assassination. With the help of Roland James, a man incapable of dying, Cyrus hones Jack into the perfect weapon to use against all who oppose him. It is not long, however, before Jack discovers that Cyrus and Roland are not the only ones living in Cyrus’s mansion. There, too, exists a mysterious creature in the depths of the house with supposed immortal magic. According to Roland, this creature is responsible for all the miraculous things Jack has witnessed throughout her childhood, including Roland’s resurrection. The creature, potent and powerful, only weakens in the presence of Cyrus’s red velvet box―a dark, enchanted tool that grants Cyrus his invincibility and ensures his reign. Lonely and terrified by her life in the cult, under Cyrus's neverending watch, Jack desperately pursues the mysterious being. When they finally meet, her world is turned upside down, as he offers her more than she could have ever expected―the possibility of escape and her own secret, magical power.   Comments are closed.
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