 Joe Ortlieb interviews Kenzie Jennings for Ginger Nuts of Horror, The Hearty and Soul of Horror Author Interviews. Kenzie Jennings is an English professor sweltering in the hurricane-heavy, tourist pocket of central Florida. She is the author of the Splatterpunk Award nominated books Reception and Red Station (Death’s Head Press). First I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me. When I saw they were going to do splatter westerns I was like blah I really hate Westerns. Just so not my thing. Then I read an amazing book titled Red Station. It blew me away. How hard was it writing being set in that time and how much research was involved to write it. Well, thank you for inviting me to take part! As for the difficulty of writing historical fiction, I’d started off the wrong way and began researching rather than sketching out a draft. I mean, it’s the 21st century, and research has become a regular part of our lives thanks to the Internet. I fell down the rabbit hole and wound up neglecting the writing part, and because of that, I was going to be late in turning Red Station in to Death’s Head Press. Once I figured out the story though, which was inspired by my research (look up the Bloody Benders), it became a lot easier. Instead of researching and then writing, I wrote and then researched. I merely highlighted anything I was unsure of and then went back to it when I was in the editing stage. And man alive, there was a LOT of research. I’d not considered even the smaller things like colloquialisms, house architectural design. weather patterns, and fashion. Most of what I’d assumed to be fairly accurate was on the nose, but the smaller things… Yikes. That all consumed my time while in the editing/revising stage. So is Red Station a once and done or would you consider doing another western story? Oh, I’m not done at all. Right now, I’m working on two things that tie into Clyde Northway’s backstory, a short story for an upcoming anthology and another novella that primarily takes place after Red Station. Yes! I mean that's great. Speaking of deaths head press. I've been married 3xs and thankful none of my receptions turned out like Reception. So where did you get the idea for that? I should hope not! 😆 Reception was initially inspired by a location, the place where my baby sister got married. It was exactly as described in the book, this weird, rundown place in the middle of Texas hill country. The story then grew from that. I needed family drama, an impulsive narrator, and monsters. After that, it became a survival story with bite. 😏 You story in slash-her the vacationers. How good did you feel getting into that collection with all those kick ass ladies of horror? It was fabulous and flattering to have something appear alongside the work of such amazing women…and it won’t be the last time I do something like that. 😏 If you could collaborate with anyone out there right now. Who would it be? You mean a dream collaboration? I’d love to collaborate with another female author someday, someone whose style somewhat matches my own, like Sara Gran, Somer Canon, Zoje Stage, or CV Hunt. So are you working on anything right now that you're really excited about, or anything top-secret that you could hint about? I’ve a book collaboration underway right now that has such a great story. I wouldn’t say it’s predominantly a horror story as it feels more of a thriller that dips its toes in the horror genre. It’ll be a fun read with good character development. I’m also excited about the release of a longer short story I wrote for an upcoming anthology, The Avarice, from D&T Publishing. It’s another collection with all women involved. Who would win in a fight pinhead or Jason? A fight between Pinhead or Jason, Pinhead is from hell, so my money is on him. Not only that, he has Cenobite minions, basically a team. The only thing Jason has going for him is durability. 😂 If you haven't read anything from Kenzie Jennings you should fix that right now. Red Station |
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