 Despite his choice of subject matter, Lee Glenwright describes himself as, the nicest person called Lee Glenwright you could ever hope to meet. His short fiction has been published in the anthologies, 'Forever Hungry,' from Far Horizons Press, 'Mrs Rochester's Attic,' from Mantle Lane and 'O, Unholy Night in Deathlehem,' from Grinning Skull Press, among others. He has recently published 'Ripe, and Others,' his first collection of short fiction. Lee Glenwright lives in Sunderland UK, with his family, far too many reptiles, and a dark sense of humour. He can be stalked on Twitter (@LeeGlenwright) and Instagram (@leeglenwrightwriter), or through his Facebook page (@LeeGlenwrightWriter). He has an Amazon author page, and his website can be found at www.leeglenwright.weebly.com Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? I don’t usually like talking about myself, but since that’s the whole point of an interview really, here goes. I first started writing when I was in my late teens and into my early twenties, stopping when the need to find gainful employment got in the way. About eight years ago, by now settled down with a family, I thought to myself that if I didn’t take it up again, I would end up a bitter old man, forever wondering, what if? My short fiction has been published in several small press anthologies and magazines and I’ve recently self-published my first stand-alone collection (Ripe, and Others). I live in Sunderland, in the North-East of England, with my family, a menagerie of reptiles and other pets, and the voices in my head that get louder if I stop writing for too long. To get the ball rolling and get everyone relaxed, here is a hopefully lighthearted question to break the ice, which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life and have them complain at you about the way you treated them in your work. Most of them! I tend to get a buzz from writing characters into uncomfortable, yet inevitable situations. With that in mind, I don’t think too many of them would be overly pleased to meet me and it would probably end up being mutual. There is one character, a journalist called Frank Popper, who makes an appearance in a couple of my short stories, as well as two (so-far unpublished) novels. In my first few stories featuring him, I wrote him as an unashamed, grubby hack journo, with few redeeming features, something that he would probably be quick to complain about. In a second novel that I’m currently working on, he takes more of a central role, and I’ve made it my mission/challenge to make him a little more sympathetic. Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing? Ray Bradbury is my all-time favourite author, without a doubt. Although not horror in an explicit sense, so much of Bradbury’s work, especially his earlier tales, is incredibly dark. If you don’t believe me then check out stories such as The Whole Town’s Sleeping, Skeleton, The Man Upstairs and The Jar, all of which are a stone’s throw away from being out-and-out horror. Those last three are prime examples of body horror. His story, The Lake, is one of the few pieces of fiction to make me cry like a baby. I draw inspiration from a variety of sources, too, usually by following some weird or obscure news story, or by taking a real or imagined situation and asking myself what if? But then again, that’s how all stories start out, right? 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? At the risk of sounding cliched, horror is more than a genre, it’s an emotion, a state of mind. There’s no other genre that has the same connotation or effect upon a reader or viewer. I think that horror tends to be slighted, looked down on, all too easily, to the extent that some writers experience more mainstream or literary success when they break away from it. I’ve already mentioned Ray Bradbury. His trick was to take themes that were often horrific, and relocate them to some otherworldly place, Mars for instance, thereby making them slot into the wider, more respected genre of fantasy. I think that horror is sometimes treated like a dirty little secret by those outside looking in, something that people like to enjoy vicariously, without always being quick to admit it. Seriously, everybody likes a good scare, even if they wouldn’t freely tell you so. Horror is a healthy genre, learning the limitations of your fear is an exhilarating experience, not a morbid one. Unfortunately, as long as certain arms of the media continue to label horror as something that can rot impressionable young minds, then the wider audience will continue to perceive it as such. 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? Onwards and upwards. We’re living through strange, dark times at the moment. Given the current state of the world in general, there is just so much going on to influence writers, both seasoned and emerging. It seems to me that the genre goes through certain boom and bust cycles, and I feel like we’re on the threshold of one hell of a big boom. Horror seems to be permeating the mainstream at the moment, influencing so many movies and TV shows, the likes of which are gaining far more exposure than they would have even just a few years ago. I think the latest upward trend was kick-started by the likes of The Walking Dead (I lost interest in the series about three seasons ago, by the way), but there is plenty of real-life darkness going on right now to help things along, just like the genre has far more to offer than TV zombies. Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it? Going back to something I said earlier, I reckon that, in many cases, the love of horror is a vicarious one, to which some people wouldn’t necessarily be quick to admit. My own feeling is that sometimes, if you read about the worst that can happen, then that makes reality a little easier to bear - something that seems to be getting more difficult sometimes in the current climate. More generally, I do think that a lot of people do get a sadistic kick out of seeing bad things happen, knowing that it’s okay, since no one really gets hurt. Kind of like guilt-free aggression, with a clear conscience at the end of it. What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre? Me (I’m laughing on the inside)! Seriously though, of course, there’s always more room for diversity in the horror genre. The situation is changing on that front, but it is proving to be a slow process. In the past authors were able to write about almost anything with a far lesser degree of the fear of backlash, but this has all changed in recent years. These days, authors must be more aware of representation and the depiction of things such as race and gender in their works, how aware are you of these things and what steps have you taken to ensure that your writing can’t be viewed as being offensive to a minority group? There are obvious cases where something that was a product of its time just wouldn’t wash with people nowadays. Things that were once considered acceptable, or in some cases almost lauded, are pretty much treated as taboo subjects today and, in the case of areas such as racism, quite rightly so. I feel that the work of authors such as Lovecraft can still be admired for what they are, but, at the same time, there has to be a degree of distance placed between the creator and his work. It is possible to learn a lot from HPL’s work whilst, rather than eschewing the negative aspects, learning from them too. We can’t hope to change peoples’ negative perceptions if we bury our collective heads in the sand and pretend that they don’t exist. It’s far better to confront that negativity and call it out for what it is. I have tried to incorporate variety and diversity into my own work where necessary, although I have been admittedly nervous about doing so, mainly for fear of doing a disservice. Representation is important, but it’s more important to get it right. Does horror fiction perpetuate its own ghettoization? For example Julia Armfield’s latest collection Salt Slow has a cover that most horror fans would walk past in a book shop, and is one that probably is not marketed as horror, does the genre’s obsession with horrific covers cause more harm than good? Nah! As a kid, I used to love being freaked out by the garish, pulpy, downright bloody covers on the paperback stands in most local shops. I remember having several nights worth of nightmares just from looking at the cover to Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot in a local department store. Some of those old covers actually suggested that you were going to get more than you actually ended up with anyway! About a year ago, I finally read a copy of Paperbacks from Hell, by Grady Hendrix. That book was such a blast down memory lane! What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice of? Rachel Autumn Deering made the successful transition from comics to prose fiction a few years ago now, and has a few things under her belt, so to speak. Her debut novella, ‘Husk,’ was a pretty impressive character study, focusing on real-life horrors, such as addiction, trauma and alienation. Worth checking out, if you haven’t already (which you have of course, right?) What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author? Books - I’ve already mentioned Ray Bradbury. I was also influenced by Robert Bloch, along with the more obvious choices, such as Lovecraft and Stephen King. Growing up, I was lucky enough to happen upon Russ Cochran’s EC Comics reprints from the early ‘90s, and I’m still the proud owner of complete runs of all the EC horror title reprints. I was raised on the old Hammer movies. I’m old enough to remember ITV’s Fear on Friday, along with the first forays into 24-hour broadcasting, with the Night Network - Monday night was horror night! From there, I gravitated towards Romero, and Night of the Living Dead remains my all-time favourite movie. With Martin, George Romero crafted what I think is possibly the best ever vision of a vampire committed to film. That is what I hope to aspire to in my writing, something extraordinary that can be found hiding somewhere in the totally believable. Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you? No, as a new writer (albeit who has been practicing for a long time), I’ve yet to experience the joy/heartbreak of reviews of my work. One thing that has stayed with me though is a Tweet from Brian Keene. There was a Twitter discussion about traditional versus self-publishing, and I had yet to try my hand at the latter at the time. I made a comment along the lines that I was just submitting my work to whoever I thought might take an interest. Brian Keene replied to it, and his response was pretty supportive, something that has stuck with me. I’ve heard that his supportive nature is something that he’s renowned for. What aspects of writing do you find the most difficult? Finding the time. I have a full-time day job and a family, so time management is a struggle sometimes. Priorities, and all that. Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? Probably, but I haven’t found it yet. For a while, I shied away from writing anything sexual. I feel that it’s far too easy to write badly about sex, with the whole thing ending up contrived and forced-looking, or at worst, laughable. However, I’ve come to realise (no pun intended) that sex is sometimes a necessary evil in the horror genre, with the two things sometimes going hand in hand. The sex act involves insertion of one body part into another. If you were to describe it to a person from another planet in those sort of terms, what could be more horrific-sounding? How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Wherever possible, I try to give my characters ordinary-sounding names. I usually want them to sound like the kind of people that you would walk past on the street, probably without looking twice at them. Doing so makes for more relatable characters, I think. Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? In my teens and early twenties, I used to write for the sake of the gross-out, although I wouldn’t have admitted it back then. Nowadays, I think I’ve grown, where it’s all about telling a story - one that just happens to have nasty things going on within it. I like to think that I’ve stopped emulating other writers, developing what I feel to be my own voice. With my first novel (currently unpublished), I primarily used first-person narration, and I tried to get a relaxed, almost conversational flavour into it. I wanted to create the illusion of having the reader engage in a conversation with the narrator, making him into someone that they could almost want to be friends with. What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? Ernest Hemingway was right; the first draft of anything is shit. Also, I once read in a biography of Roald Dahl, that he was notoriously slow and would sometimes only write 200 words a day. In my low moments, when things aren’t going well on the writing front, I’ll sometimes remind myself that it’s only storytelling, and if I can at least be as prolific as Roald Dahl then I’m doing good enough. 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? I like my hack journalist, Frank Popper. He's getting easier to write as I become more familiar with him. Besides, it's fun to be able to write about someone so unashamedly seedy. For me, part of the enjoyment comes from writing about people as far removed from myself as possible. I don't think I've ever come across the problem of writing someone I hate yet. Bearing in mind some of the characters I have written about, perhaps that says more about them than it does about me. For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why? I wrote a story called ‘The Feast of Stephen’ for a 2018 Christmas charity anthology ‘O Unholy Night in Deathlehem’ from Grinning Skull Press. I was pretty proud of that, not just because of the association with a great cause (The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation), but because it captured pretty well what I like to think I’m about as a writer; drawing upon a real life experience (I won’t say which part!) and building everything up into a not very nice payoff. A deserved payoff (it was a Christmas tale, after all), but a not very nice one, nonetheless. Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? “Our scars are what shape us, define us. They are us.” A line from an unpublished short story I wrote, called Little Wounds: A Love Letter. Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next? My first solo collection of short fiction, ‘Ripe, and Others,’ has just been self-published in both physical and ebook formats. I have what I hope will be my first novel, ‘Mutt,’ with about a dozen publishers and agents, I’m waiting on responses, which will determine where I go with it. I’m biding my time working on a second novel, a body horror tale with the working title of ‘Insatiable.’ If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice? Sparkling vampires. Romero nailed it with ‘Martin.’ What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you? Last great novel: ‘The Girl Next Door,’ by Jack Ketchum. I came to it shamefully late and found it a brutal read. I actually put it down more than once, thinking that I couldn’t finish it, but I’m glad that I did. Last non-fiction: ‘Paperbacks from Hell,’ by Grady Hendrix, I’ve already said why. I’m not often disappointed by novels. One exception was ‘The Survivor,’ by James Herbert. It’s not that I thought the book was terrible, I love James Herbert’s work. I managed to guess the ending about three pages in, which is usually a killer for me. What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer? Q: “I really like the sound of your book, where can I buy a copy?” A: “Check out Amazon.” I’ll give it time. Ripe and Others by Lee Glenwright "Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable...the stories are waiting." - A young boy is kept in isolation in the cellar of his parents' house. His only contact with the outside world being with his mother, he yearns for change. - A girl who spends her evenings inventing an entire persona for herself through internet chatrooms forgets one thing: that other people can be who - or whatever - they want to be on the web, too. - A man rescued from the brink of death comes to realise that true love really is forever. A collection of ten short stories of dark fiction, from the mind of Lee Glenwright.   Comments are closed.
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