 Hello J. Daniel Stone! Welcome to Ginger Nuts of Horror and the LGBT+ Awareness Month Project. I’m happy to be able to interview you today as part of the project to highlight and bring positive exposure to minority groups such as the LGBT+ community. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, or misinformed, in any way I state anything here, but it is my best intention to allow your voice to be raised and heard in the horror writing community. A big thanks to Jim, editor at GNOH, for this platform and project! Second, I just want to say how thrilled I am that J agreed to this interview. He’s long been a favorite writer and friend of mine. His passion for his art, for words, for issues ...they motivate me to be a more open and more critical thinking person. He’s creative and fun and feisty and very talented. I hope that this interview will give you a peek into his writing word enough that you’ll try out his work, but also into the depths what it’s like to write as a LGBT+ author. Let’s get started. Erin: Who are you as a person? Let us get to know you as a person through your own words… J. Daniel Stone: Down to earth empath with a ravenous creative drive. Erin: Tell us a little about your overall writing: what you have published, your themes, your background? J: I’d say my work encompasses my own personal tortures, dreams, nightmares and hopelessness; anger, angst, dread and overall disappointment. Queer horror at its finest. With that said, I have two novels, a novella, and short story collection under my belt at the current moment. The Absence of Light Blood Kiss I Can Taste the Blood – a collaborative set of novellas with Josh Malerman, John FD Taff, Erik T. Johnson Lovebites & Razorlines Erin: What are your goals for 2019 as a writer? J: I want to see my new novella published “If Only It Would Remain” which was written for John FD Taff’s I CAN HEAR THE SHADOWS (the big sister of I Can Taste The Blood) anthology collaboration, which also features novellas by Taff, Josh Malerman, and Erik T Johnson. I also plan to complete the final edits on my new novel STATIONS OF SHADOW and then want to send it out to publishers. Erin: What do you feel is your great accomplishment so far? J: I think Blood Kiss is the best published thing out there of mine. I also enjoy Lovebites & Razorlines as that collects my best early short stories. But I’ve really changed as a writer over the years so it’s interesting to see where I was then compared to now. Erin: What has been your greatest struggle? J: The need to outdo myself. Erin: Does any of your own work (stories, novels, etc.) deal with LGBT+ themes? Why or why not? J: All of my work is queer. It’s how I live my life. LGBT people exist. They should be in books and movies and tv shows and etc. There’s no arguing that. Erin: Have you ever heard of a story about an LGBT person facing discrimination in the writing community, and/or have you personally been discriminated against for your sexual orientation or gender identity? J: All LGBT writers have been discriminated against whether they know it or not, whether someone told it to their face or not. Proof is in the pudding in the publishing world. Just look at what books are the most popular across all genres, or the books that get turned into movies. It’s never about us, I can assure you that. The only literal discrimination in the publishing world I experienced was a rejection that came which said there was too much gayness in one of my short stories (that one is published in Lovebites & Razorlines entitled “Ecdysis”). But at least that editor had the balls to tell me what he really felt. I literally valued that. I don’t crumble when people resist my way of life. I literally just keep living because I don’t give a rat’s ass what they think. Consider that the true New Yorker in me. Erin: What does the word discrimination mean to you as a writer? J: Someone in power who has the power to keep you down because your life doesn’t align with theirs. Well I have words for them. TOO FUCKING BAD. The world doesn’t revolve around you. Erin: Can you briefly describe some of the gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people who are important to you in your life and why? J: My amazing group of friends, who are my chosen family. I truly have the best people in my life. Erin: Do you have some LGBT+ authors you admire and why? What are some books you can recommend to others in horror or others written by or about LGBT+? J: William S. Burroughs is tops for me. He taught me everything. I have a tattoo of his initials. Of his work I’d say one should read Naked Lunch, Cities of the Red Night, Interzone, Queer and Junky. That’s a good start. Also, the finest living trans author, and my personal favorite, is Caitlin R. Kiernan. I’ve been following her work before I even thought about writing my own stories. I believe she helped shape who I am as a writer as well. Of her work I’d recommend Tales of Pain and Wonder, Silk, To Charles Fort with Love, Low Red Moon, The Five of Cups and The Drowning Girl. Erin: How do you personally feel about January being delegated as LGBT+ awareness month? J: It would make more sense if it was in June since that’s Pride Month, but January is fine by me. Erin: What is something you want all straight horror authors in the community to know, if you could tell them anything about supporting you? J: Don’t support me just because I’m gay. Support my badass fiction. Erin: What is something you want to tell your fellow LGBT+ authors/writers? J: Don’t let anyone scare you into thinking you shouldn’t write queer fiction. We need more of it desperately. Erin: Furthermore, what is something you’d like all editors and publishers in the horror community to know? J: Make an effort to publish more queer fiction with queer characters and themes, written by QUEER authors! Erin: For fellow straight writers who want to broaden their characters to include people of other minorities, what is something you could offer them in terms of how to create a LGBT+ character properly? J: Queer people are so diverse there really is no recipe for writing us. All of our stories and histories are unique and very different from each other, though we are all centrally bonded by being queer. Erin: What’s your next upcoming work? J: I Can Hear The Shadows with John FD Taff, Erik T Johnson, and Josh Malerman. Then I’d like to see my third novel, Stations of Shadow, find a publisher this year at some point. Erin: Where can everyone find you on social media best and please leave any links to past or upcoming works here - J: Twitter and Instagram @SolitarySpiral and Facebook. Erin: Thank you so much for joining me in this important and eye-opening discussion! I wish you the best of luck in the future with all things. ABOUT J. Daniel Stone J. Daniel Stone writes from NYC where he was born and raised. He is the author of the urban horror novels The Absence of Light and Blood Kiss; the collaborative, stand-alone novella I Can Taste the Blood; and the short story collection Lovebites & Razorlines. In 2016 he was selected by readers to be included in Dread (the Best Horror of Grey Matter Press). He writes under a pseudonym to keep the wolves at bay. Find out more about JDS on his website The Absence of Light The Absence of Light is a dark prose novel written by 25-year-old J. Daniel Stone. The story involves two groups of friends--one group a metal band and the other a clan of ghost hunters--who clash after a night of rocking out in a seedy downtown club in NYC. With his fascinating ability for mapping out interesting characters, and a natural ability at setting a gloomy mood, Stone successfully takes his readers through the problems that everyday people face within the boondocks via a small Pennsylvania mining town dusted in anthracite, to the frightening throes of the ever-changing face of New York City with an authenticity that is rarely found in first novels. His words will resonate like a hangover long after you read them. about Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi has Bachelor of Arts degrees in English, Journalism, and History. She has twenty years of experience in the communication and marketing fields and is currently an author, writer, journalist, publicist, and an editor, primarily in the publishing industry, among many other things. Breathe. Breathe., published by Unnerving in 2017, is her debut collection of dark poetry and short stories and was an Amazon best-selling paid title, debuting at #2 in Hot New Releases in Women’s Poetry. She has poems and stories featured in several other anthologies and magazines and was the co-curating editor for the gothic anthology Haunted are these Houses. You can e-mail her at hookofabook (at) hotmail (dot) com and find her easily at her website Oh, for the Hook of a Book!, Amazon, or GoodReads. You’ll also find her on Facebook, Twitter (@erinalmehairi), and Instagram. 
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