 As part of Ginger Nuts of Horror's LGBTQ+ focus drive we approached several straight writers who have written stories featuring LGBTQ+ characters with a view to discovering why and how they approach this topic. Today we welcome Chad Stroup, author of the brilliant Secrets of the Weird, for our LGBTQ+ focused Five Minutes with interview series Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? Hello, I’m Chad Stroup, and I am an addict, though my vices are far from the usual suspects. I am an obsessive collector of words, images, and sounds, all of which steer me like a substitute religion. The various types of art I adore, as well as my daily experiences, influence my brain to create dark and strange fiction. Why horror? What is appeal of the genre to you as both a fan and as a writer? For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a proclivity toward the dark side. It’s the ultimate irony, as I’m a fairly positive and jovial fellow. Call me a sick man, and I’ll likely just shrug, but horror is so much more fun than any other genre. As a fan, I’m not interested so much in being “scared,” but rather I hope to have my face ripped off and handed back to me with a little note tied to it that says “Betcha never seen THAT before!” I want something to stick with me longer than a cheap cat in a cupboard. As a creator, I suppose I write horror by default. Though I fly the horror flag proudly, my stories often don’t fit what most people associate with the genre. They don’t neatly squeeze into a single box. Instead, they poke a hole through the side of the cardboard and reach their mealy hands over into an adjacent box to see what might be hiding there that could help. Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing? I love dark satire, Bret Easton Ellis. A lot of people think of American Psycho as horror, but really it’s satire with a horror backdrop dressing the set. I became very influenced by modern literary fiction while pursuing my MFA, and I think that informs my work just as much as horror. I’m also a lifelong lover of comic books. Granted, many of the comics I love would be considered horror, but two of my all-time favorites are really in their own category (The Maxx & Love and Rockets). The way Sam Kieth and Jamie & Gilbert Hernandez tell stories in their respective books is so brilliantly left of center, and they’re likely the creators who are most responsible for my choice to weigh character heavier than plot. 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? Horror—at its best—is so much more than how it’s commonly portrayed in mainstream media. It should slice open your skin, crawl through the slit, hook into the sinews, and never let go. It should stay with you and haunt you indefinitely. I think the more we as writers push the limits of what can be considered horror, the more the public will be open to new interpretations. Never settle for the simple “boo” moment. Instead, dig deep into the dread and spread it like a highly infectious disease. 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? I rarely allow current events to directly influence my fiction, as I’m always concerned it could quickly become dated and irrelevant. It’s one of the reasons I often set my stories in the recent past or in some indeterminate present that may or may not include certain modern amenities. I often reflect on what has come before and attempt to see how it might impact things today. I feel forcing a political message into a story is highly unlikely to work. If it comes naturally, it can be brilliant, but that’s rare. As for where horror might go, I’m just hoping whatever limitations might still be attached to the genre are eradicated. What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author? When I discovered Clive Barker via Cabal at a fairly young age, the whole game changed. I was like, “Oh, you can do that with horror? Count me in!” Also, the Hot Blood anthology series. Just so many wonderful stories of erotic horror, including my all-time favorite Bentley Little story (“Llama” still blows my mind). Interestingly, despite myself not identifying as LGBTQ+, many people have compared the vibe of Secrets of the Weird to a slew of authors who do/did (e.g., Barker, Brite, Burroughs, Palahniuk). So I suppose queer fiction inadvertently (and heavily) influenced my own work. As for films, all the wild and crazy movies of the 80s have been with me since childhood. But more than anything else, the films that have influenced me as a writer are those of my favorite director—David Cronenberg. The Fly and Videodrome are my personal favorites, but I love most of his work. I respect him deeply as a filmmaker and a writer, and since much of my own work could be loosely classified as “body horror,” I owe Mr. Cronenberg great gratitude. In recent years there has been a slow but gradual diversification within the genre, which new LBGTQ+ writers do you think we should be paying attention to? J. Daniel Stone, Larissa Glasser, Indra Das (honestly not sure if he himself is LGBTQ+ or not, but The Devourers definitely is as a book, and it’s incredible), Torrey Peters (not really horror, but her stuff is dark and weird and I believe open-minded horror fans would still love it). Honestly I’m probably missing quite a few amazing authors because I don’t happen to know offhand if they are LGBTQ+ or not. How would you describe your writing style? Punk rock after it discovered more than three chords, but before it lost its sense of humor. Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you? There have been a handful of reviews for Secrets of the Weird that floored me because it was clear the reviewer completely “got” what I was going for as a reader and appreciated what I’d done. Sometimes it’s tough to tell if you’ve pulled off what you’ve attempted until you get responses from individuals you’ve never met before, and it’s like the words earned souls and linked from writer to reader. A wonderful feeling. On the negative side, I once had a short story referred to as the only story in a particular anthology that was “unreadably awful.” That one stung because it was just plain mean. But then I realized the story was so stylistically different from the others in the book that it was just at the opposite end of the spectrum from what that reader was looking for. I don’t care if someone doesn’t like something I wrote. No writer is right for everyone. I just wish this reviewer had been more constructive in his criticism. What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult? Getting that first draft done. I always feel like the most wretched writer on the planet during the early stages of developing a story, and it’s a difficult feeling to shake until starting on subsequent drafts when the real magic starts to happen. Are there any subjects that you would never write about? As far as things that might be considered “taboo,” no I don’t think so. Any subject can be written in such a way that still serves the story and its characters. However, there are plenty of dull subjects I’m sure I’d never care to write about. Like, say, “Soccer Mom Dreams About Vanilla Sex During Tupperware Party.” Writing is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? When I was in grad school, I improved by leaps and bounds. I found the discipline I needed, and I realized I could write stories that weren’t easy to pin down and still have them accepted by genre readers as well as readers who normally wouldn’t be caught dead reading genre fiction. When I wrote for sheer shits and giggles when I was younger, the stories lacked substance and finesse and were rarely anything more than an arguably cool idea. But I also wasn’t trying. I had no legitimate dreams of being a writer at that age. Once I actually began to take things seriously (which came much, much later), I think my writing started to feel like something I was proud of and wanted to share with the world. What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? Write what you want, but do it well and only in the way that you and no one else can, and eventually those who want to come along for the ride will find you. Many CIS white male authors use LGBTQ+ characters in their works, what’s the mistake that they make when trying to portray these characters? As a cis male, this is the absolute perfect question for me, and I go into greater detail about this in my accompanying article, so I’ll not waste the space repeating myself here. Moving on to getting your work read by unwashed masses, what do you think is the biggest misconception about LGBTQ+ fiction? Perhaps that it’s solely intended to be about LGBTQ+ issues and/or a person’s sexuality and has no substance beyond that, which is completely untrue. There are as number of presses dedicated to LGBTQ+ fiction, do you view these as a good thing, or do you think they help to perpetuate the ongoing exclusion from mainstream presses? I think it’s fine as long as they’re committed to the same level of quality as any other respectable press. If they have authors and/or stories I’m interested in, I’ll read them. The only drawback is that it will unfortunately turn off some readers, though they’re probably not enlightened enough to appreciate it anyway. And here is the million dollar question do you agree with movements like this and things such as Women in Horror Month? If so how would you like to see sites such as Ginger Nuts of Horror tackle diversity? Absolutely. Visibility is important, and I think all readers should check out writers who come from different backgrounds than they do (race, gender, or whatever the case may be). As far as tackling it on Ginger Nuts, you’re already doing it right, so just keep it up. The most common phrase you hear when people object to active movements to encourage all forms of diversity is “I don’t care about the sexuality, gender, color etc etc of the writer I only care about good stories” what would you like to say to these people? Look, of course the story is the most important element in the end. That’s a given. But detractors who think someone of a particular sexuality, gender, etc. isn’t going to bring their own unique perspective to a story that someone else might not be able to—they’re just fooling themselves. Who you are as a person and the experiences you’ve had in life are, more often than not, essential to the fiction you create. At times, it’s near impossible to separate these things. So, for instance, let’s say two talented writers (one of them hetero, the other not) are both given a prompt to write a coming of age story with horror elements. The stories are almost guaranteed to be vastly different, and thus they are both worth reading for the unique perspectives. A “good story” is nothing without the guts that went into writing it. 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? Trixie from Secrets of the Weird is positively my favorite child, but perhaps that makes me a horrible parent considering what I put her through and what I plan to put her through in future books. But she taught me so much, and I’ll forever love her for it. My least favorite is probably whichever character I’m working on in any given first draft because they tend to be stubborn and refuse to do what I tell them. What piece of your own work are you most proud of? So far, it’s Secrets of the Weird all the way. I mean, it’s my first book, which I never imagined would ever become a reality. I created it on my own terms while bending and breaking the rules and still managed to find the perfect home for it. As much as I want all of my future works to match up to and/or surpass that one, it’s really hard to beat the feeling of that first success. For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why? Well, I only have the one full book so far, so that one. But even if I already had a a dozen books out, Secrets of the Weird is very representative of me on various levels. It takes inspiration from many of the things that have made me who I am today and twists them into something hopefully unlike anything else out there. Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? I’ll have to go with the opening line from Secrets of the Weird. I’ve actually sold a few books at conventions and book fairs just by getting some wishy-washy folks to open up to the first page and read the line. Others have run away in terror upon reading it. That line? “Trixie loathed her penis.” Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next? My second novel, Sexy Leper, is in the can and should be out relatively soon from Bizarro Pulp Press. I also have a three-issue comic series called Hag coming this year from American Gothic Press. My current work in progress is a novella featuring some of the characters from Secrets of the Weird that is intended to serve both as a stand-alone story to get people interested in the Sweetville universe and also as a bridge between the first book and the eventual full sequel. What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you? The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay is probably the best book I read in 2018. I’ll pass on the second part of the question, as I prefer to not publicly mention books I don’t like, but instead ignore them until they go away. What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer? Q: Well, what do you thrash? A: What do you got? ABOUT CHAD STROUP Chad Stroup received his MFA in Fiction from San Diego State University. Secrets of the Weird, Stroup’s debut novel, is available from Grey Matter Press and his second novel, Sexy Leper, is forthcoming from Bizarro Pulp Press. His short stories have been featured in anthologies such as Chiral Mad 4, Lost Films, Splatterlands, and California Screamin’, and his dark poetry has appeared in all five volumes of the HWA Poetry Showcase. Visit his blog Subvertbia at http://subvertbia.blogspot.com/, follow him on Instagram (@chadxstroup), and drop by his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ChadStroupWriter. SECRETS OF THE WEIRD The fulfillment of your every desire… That’s the enticing yet dangerous promise of Sweet Candy, the new designer drug making the rounds through the community of club kids, neo-Nazis, drag queens, prostitutes and punks who populate the mean streets of Sweetville. With its chewable hearts and candied lips threatening to forever transform the delicate social balance and the very lives of each and every member of the city’s underground, Sweet Candy is poised to ignite the tenuous powder keg that is life, love and lust in Sweetville. But could the enigmatic back-alley surgeon Julius Kast and his partnership with a peculiar cult be the spark that lights the fuse once and for all? And how will their actions affect the life of a young woman named Trixie who is seeking salvation through transformation? Take a remarkable journey that’s equal parts irreverent social commentary, revisionist dystopia, dark fantasy and horrifying reality when you travel to the unforgettable world of Sweetville’s counterculture where a host of sometimes dangerous, often deviant and always dark secrets are waiting to be revealed. Such secrets refuse to be confined to Sweetville. But instead will come home with you. Changing everything. Forever…   Comments are closed.
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