Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? Sure! My name is Luke, and I'm an avid reader and aspiring author of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. I'm also an experimental musician and passionate outdoorsman. If I'm not working, writing, or recording, I'm probably somewhere far outside of cell phone service. Which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life? Bocephus Bodine from Early Retirement, no question. He's a racist, homophobic bigot who thinks himself above repercussions due to family connections in high places. In short, a rather disagreeable fellow. Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing? I'd say my two biggest influences outside of the horror genre would be George R. R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie. Fantasy was my first love, and it was Martin's exceptional work in A Song of Ice and Fire that inspired me to seriously pursue my childhood dream of writing fiction. 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 think that we will see a sizable influx of plague-based apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic horror due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While this sub-genre has been consistently popular for decades (especially if you include zombie fiction under this umbrella), it's been just over a century since humanity has had to face a global catastrophe of this magnitude. Prior to last summer, few people alive today had ever experienced firsthand the kind of overwhelming apocalyptic dread upon which works like Stephen King's The Stand or Cormac McCarthy's The Road are predicated. I predict that the coming years will see a host of more personal, poignant, and chillingly relatable stories published in this sub-genre. Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it? I think that the appeal of explicit gore in media stems from a wider sociocultural shift away from localized agrarian living towards a globally integrated and industrialized lifestyle. Contemporary western culture has largely separated us from our mortality by sterilizing our conception of death. Our death rituals are performed in pristine funeral homes over meticulously embalmed and life-like cadavers, our meat is skinned, trimmed, and packaged in neat portions before being sold in white-tiled and coldly lit supermarkets, etc. We're not forced to confront the inevitability of death or the nature of our bodies as briefly animated sacks of flesh in any real or visceral way. Violence and death are inherent aspects of the human experience, wether we like it or not. The less that we confront them in our daily lives, the more we stoke a primal need to engage with them via our art. In this sense, I would argue that the prevalence and popularity of extreme horror fiction is a positive cultural sign in that we are turning to fantasy, rather than reality, to engage the least savory manifestations of our collective human psyche. What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre? I think a greater effort could be made to incorporate the strengths of different sub-genres within horror as a whole. Why do we split splatterpunk apart from psychological horror? Why are creature features distinct from Lovecraftian fare? I feel like there's a level of elitism peppered throughout the publishing industry that prevents appreciation and synthesis between various approaches, and that same elitism trickles down to the genre level as well. What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off? As embarrassing as it is to admit, I'm fairly out-of-the-loop when it comes to my fellow up-and-comers in the genre. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a fantasy aficionado first and foremost, so my reading habits still tend towards the more established, mainstream side of horror. But my reading list is growing all the time, and I can't wait to dive deeper and deeper into the underground of horror! Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you? One reviewer remarked that Early Retirement “walks that edge well of original and fan-fiction” in specific reference to John W. Campbell Jr.'s Who Goes There. I found this remark fascinating because I have never once read any of Campbell's work. Though I have since watched (and loved) John Carpenter's The Thing (a film adaptation of Who Goes There), I was unfamiliar with the story while writing Early Retirement. I am perennially enthralled by the evolution of individualized narratives into wider cultural myths and motifs over time, and this is such a beautiful example of that phenomenon. Campbell's work so profoundly impacted those writers who have influenced myself that his narrative fingerprint can be found in my own work, despite my never having read him myself. It really is incredible the impact that one voice can have on the evolution of a genre or medium as a whole. What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult? Just sitting down and hammering out a first draft is by far my least favorite part of the process. I love big-picture world-building and plotting, and I get a ton of satisfaction out of revision. But the step in between, the actual process of forcing a giant, amorphous blob of ideas into a coherent string of words, can be extremely frustrating. Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? If pressed for a one-word answer, I would say no. I believe that imposing limits on one's artistic endeavors is an ultimately self-defeating practice that stifles creativity and shackles creators to mediocre ideas in the pursuit of “playing it safe.” That being said, however, I do think that it is crucial for any artist to thoughtfully examine the social context and cultural ramifications of their work before putting it out into the world. I disagree with the popular notion that some topics are strictly off-limits, but I do think that the more sensitive any given subject matter might be, the more crucial it is to treat the subject with care, compassion, and attentiveness. Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? Nearly ten years ago I decided out of the blue that I was going to sit down and compose a sprawling, epic fantasy series unlike any the world had ever seen. My debut novel would stand beside the likes of The Fellowship of The Ring, Dune, and A Game of Thrones as a pillar within the pantheon of great works which have ushered in new eras of speculative fiction. Obviously this did not happen for a multitude of reasons, chief among them being that I had zero writing experience and was therefore not very good at it. So I would say my biggest growth has come in humbling myself, tempering my expectations, and taking the craft of writing seriously for what it is: a painstaking and difficult endeavor that takes even the greatest storytellers a lifetime to perfect. What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? I've always loved this quote from Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” I feel like that's such a simple, yet profound statement. Nothing was ever accomplished by waiting around. If you want to achieve something, you have to just do it. Which of your characters is your favourite? That's a tough call, but I would probably say the mercenary-turned-community leader Krevynyn from my upcoming fantasy novel, The Chains of Fate. He is my first attempt at a genuine redemption arc, and I really enjoyed cultivating his growth from cynical, bloodthirsty nihilist to upstanding steward of a burgeoning spiritual movement. Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? I really like this passage from Early Retirement, as I feel that it conveys a lot about the story's world and characters in a single paragraph: “Cap allowed himself a tired smirk at the notion of calling his last shift 'last night' in a place where the sun never shone. When he was a kid, way back when the schools still taught general ed alongside vocational studies, his fifth year teacher said that Old Gaia spun on its own axis faster than it orbited its sun, resulting in regular cycles of day and night. Supposedly, that was how mankind had developed the twenty-four hour standard clock that was still used all over the galaxy. It seemed an absurd notion to Cap. In a world with darkness and light for all, how did they split up the rich from the poor?” Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next? Early Retirement is a novelette that follows the story of Cap Jenkins, an average Joe working in an off-planet manufacturing facility, through two nights on the job as his equipment begins to malfunction and his co-workers grow increasingly strange. Without diving too deep into spoiler territory, the story sets out to examine toxic workplace dynamics, paranoia, and social inequity in a futuristic setting with a splash of body horror and just a hint of black comedy. My next piece will be a novella that builds upon the workplace horror premise of Early Retirement while swapping out the dystopian sci-fi elements for dark fantasy. This novella, along with Early Retirement and one other story set in a contemporary American setting, will form a trio of shorts that I plan to release as a compilation titled Night Shift: Volume I early next year. If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice? I've come across a handful of horror novels that often turn to gratuitous rape scenes for shock value. It's a cheap tactic that alienates readers who have experienced sexual violence firsthand, and it does little to inspire the more cerebral dread and terror that most readers come to the genre for. What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you? After about three years of on-and-off reading, I finally finished Glen Cook's Black Company series last month. The final installment, Soldiers Live, was a great novel that really pulled the whole series together. On the other hand, I recently got about halfway through Richard Matheson's What Dreams May Come before ultimately shelving it. I really enjoyed I Am Legend and was intrigued to see what else the horror great had to offer, but Dreams just didn't click with me in the same way that Legend did. I think the next Matheson that I'll pick up will be Hell House, which I've heard nothing but good things about. Luke Ethan Knight Luke Ethan Knight is an author of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, as well as an experimental musician and nature photographer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Technology from Capital University, and currently resides in western Washington state with his partner and two cats. WEBSITE LINKS Author website: https://lukeethanknight.wordpress.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/LukeEthanKnigh1 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lukeethanknight/ Bandcamp (music): https://wewereravens.bandcamp.com/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Early-Retirement-Luke-Ethan-Knight-ebook/dp/B091BR42J4/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=early+retirement+luke+ethan+knight&qid=1618160529&sr=8-1 Early Retirement by Luke Ethan Knight A lifelong production operator who's been dragged from boiling-hot reactor cells to outdoor polar pipeline arrays, Cap Jenkins figures he’s seen just about every ugly thing that life on an extraterrestrial corporate mining colony has to offer. But when a fresh, unnervingly innocent young operator clocks in for his first night shift with no warning and no introduction, Cap and his small crew of surly workmen are quickly reminded that things can always get worse. As Cap's woes progress from minor equipment failures to inexplicable and horrific happenings in the shadows, one thing becomes increasingly clear: there’s something very strange about this rookie. A gory, profane, and darkly humorous trip through two very bad nights at work, Early Retirement is a space-horror fright fest sure to delight fans of Stephen King, John Carpenter, and Edward Lee. TODAY ON THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR WEBSITE RICHARD MARTIN REVISITS THE MASTERS OF HORROR:THE DAMNED THING DIRECTED BY: TOBE HOOPER The Heart and Soul of Horror author interviewsComments are closed.
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