Staring Down The Darkness: Discussing horror and mental health, with Lee Murray and Tabatha Wood.
 
When I emigrated to New Zealand in 2017, it also heralded my return to creative writing, and promoted an urge to finally publish my fiction. I “met” Lee Murray online through a mutual friend, and very quickly found her to be an incredibly talented, likeable and intelligent woman with an exceptional work ethic and a keen desire to help others succeed. It came as little surprise to me when I discovered that she was instrumental in opening up the discourse on mental health issues within the horror writing community.
 
In 2018, along with some other dark fiction writers, she helped put together a panel for StokerCon, Providence called “Writing from a Dark Place.” What transpired at the conference was a frank and supportive discussion which paved the way for a well overdue look at mental health struggles among creatives.
 
A few months later, Lee used the basis of the panel to write a deeply personal essay exploring her own experiences of anxiety and depression. This essay was included, along with 33 other New Zealand writers, in the Victoria University Press’ Headlands anthology in 2019.
 
Now, in 2020, I talk to her about what’s next for these discussions and how best we can help the community as a whole.
 
A very warm welcome to you, Lee. You got your double diagnosis of anxiety and depression at 50. How did it feel to get diagnosed with mental illness at this age?
 
[Blushes]. Thank you for that lovely introduction, Tabby. As I wrote in my 2018 Headlands essay, Writing from A Dark Place, many of my friends and colleagues struggle to believe that I suffer from anxiety and depression. “But you’re so confident, so outgoing, so bubbly,” they say. Indeed. How could they possibly know the truth?
 
Lifetime anxiety sufferers become ‘masters of the bluff’. Terrified of the stigma that accompanies mental illness and the conviction that there is something terribly wrong with us, we become experts at hiding our pain, internalising our anxiety, and, ironically, exacerbating it in the process. We get so good at hiding it, that even those close to us may not see the hours, sometimes days, of worry and overthinking that might precede an event, the groggy wide-awake nights, the flushing sweats, the panic attacks, and the paralysis. Nor do they see the three-days-on-the-couch melt-down that might occur afterwards. When I think of all the energy that I’ve wasted over the years hiding my condition from the world: my friends, family, colleagues, everyone.
 
Do you wish you had sought professional help much earlier, or do you think the medical profession missed a lot of the usual warning signs?
 
I believe my parents may have possibly missed the signs, although certainly not intentionally. Born in 1965, the Chinese year of the wood-snake, I’ve had a mole on my left shoulder all my life. For my third-generation New Zealand-born Chinese mother, that mole meant I was destined to carry the weight of the world’s burdens on my back. And wood snakes are known for being over-thinkers. Perfectionists. Wood snakes hate to fail. So, for my mother, it was a given that I would be highly-strung and driven. Plus, I’m a first child, and a daughter, which meant there were examples to be set for my younger siblings, chores to be done, schoolwork to complete… the cultural load of submissiveness, duty, and achievement.
 
My dad is Kiwi-European, the educated son of a blue-collar railway worker. In the sixties, multiracial marriages were rare, and sometimes shunned, so perhaps he was compelled to see his children succeed in the face of that opposition. On top of that, Dad had a highly autistic younger sister whom he adored. She lived, and died, in a time where electric shock treatment was commonplace for sufferers of mental illness. Did my parents wilfully deny my anxiety? My Headlands colleague and dear friend Donna McLeod wrote a hauntingly insightful poem for the collection called Voices, which included this powerful line: “We must justify our culture, our being, ourselves.” My parents love me unconditionally. They are kind and generous and want only the best for me. I think they interpreted my anxiety in ways which justified their own cultures, their beings, and themselves, because in their generation, when it came to mental health, there was no other discourse.
 
As for the medical profession, well, like I said, I’d become very good at hiding my anxiety. At 50, after months of sitting on the couch eating chocolate biscuits, my sister-in-law, who works in the medical field and recognised the signs, gently encouraged me to consult my doctor. I made the appointment on the pretext of seeing the doctor about something else. I’m grateful that my doctor truly listened and interpreted what she heard as something other than an old Achilles injury. 
 
Tell me about your Headlands essay, “Writing From A Dark Place.” What made you realise that the time was right for you to start talking about these issues so openly and personally?
 
After the 2017 StokerCon panel discussion, when I effectively outed myself as having anxiety and depression, a NZ colleague sent me the submission call out for Headlands project, and I knew immediately that I wanted to contribute further to the conversation on mental health and creativity. From now on, I want to live as my authentic self — warts, anxiety, and all. Because a problem shared is a problem halved. Because discourse is important if we want to remove the dreadful stigma that accompanies a mental health diagnosis. Because some of us with shaky mental health still don’t feel safe to speak out, and indeed are sometimes disadvantaged as a result. Because so many of my horror colleagues suffer from anxiety and depression and there is power in numbers—and horror writers are fantastically evocative writers, people who use their creativity and to challenge their fears and push back the darkness, so what better community in which to open a wider conversation?
 
Why do you think talking about these conditions is so important? What kind of awareness are you aiming for when you open the discourse, and how do you help overcome the stigma?
 
Tabby, I’m going to share some comments from a series of private messages sent to me by a colleague in the wake of the Writing From a Dark Place panel. They wrote:
 
“I wanted to thank you for the HWA (Horror Writers Association) initiative through the HWA and the recent article you posted, and all the insights you shared from some of the panelists on the Writing from A Dark Place panel, particularly Brian Kirk and Eric Guignard. I wasn’t aware that you struggle with depression and anxiety. I have a whole host of mental health issues and diagnoses including…[names disorders] along with severe depression and anxiety/panic disorder, so it always means a lot to me to see that I’m not alone and that others, particularly other writers, suffer from these issues as well and that there is help out there.”
 
“I appreciate what you’re involved in this initiative because I find that even though the logical part of my brain understands that many many writers suffer from mental health issues, and that I’m not alone, sometimes it feels like I’m the only one, or what’s wrong with me, or why can’t I get over it and I think that part [of that] is societal pressure, worrying about what people think… that effect on me.”
 
“I’ve been working hard on my issues...but it’s always an uphill climb. And yes, like yourself, because I am a positive and cheerful person, it’s something I feel like I’ve been trained to hide, except under the most dire circumstances, or in therapy. There’s also this really negative misconception that writers have to suffer for their art, or it’s romantic or something, which I think is total nonsense, and very harmful. Thank you for understanding my embarrassment. Even though strides have been made, there is still a huge stigma, and I often have to be hyper-vigilant because, if I’m honest, there is always a chance that an employer or writing workshop could discriminate against me.”
 
“Thank you for listening.”
 
When I contacted this writer for permission to publish their private comments on this site, they advised me that in fact their employer, on discovering their mental health issues, discriminated against them to the point they were forced to close their social media accounts—an act which had a devastating effect on their mental health and led to a very painful suicidal episode. They wrote of their admiration for those of us who speak out openly about mental health issues with a view to destigmatizing mental health:
 
“I’m too scared to speak up for fear of negative blowback.”
 
In fact, a number of my colleagues, many of whom feel unable to take up the torch themselves, have sent me personal messages encouraging me to continue the discussion.
 
My colleague Dave Jeffrey, writer and long-time mental health professional, said in our HWA Out of the Darkness interview: “I often wonder if there is a compensatory element in that writers are, by nature, insecure entities and perhaps coming to the aid of others has a basis in the desire to create climates in which they, too, feel safe.” Such an insightful comment. I suspect he is right: that there is an element of self-interest in my wanting to speak out for others. Nevertheless, I feel strongly that those of us who feel able must speak frankly for those who cannot. We must listen without prejudice. And we should always be kind.
 
How does writing about mental health help you? Whether that’s through introspective essays or within your fiction. Do you ever find yourself writing characters with obvious (or hidden) mental health afflictions?
 
Rather than writing about mental health, or characters with mental health disorders, I write horror, addressing the underlying fears that keep me awake at night, harnessing those feelings in the hope of ultimately uncovering strategies for subduing the wolf. Horror writer Nicole Cushing described it well in my Headlands essay. She said: “For me there is a sense of mastery that comes from using fiction to look my deepest darkest demons in the eye. To look at traumatic events and yet not flinch from them, and then capture them in the cage of a novel feels like a victory.” (Murray, 2018, p. 194).
 
 
Exactly 100 years ago the 1920’s German film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was one of the very first horror films to associate mental health with being evil. Modern movies do slightly better at approaching mental health, but still frequently demonise the sufferers. Why do you believe that mental illness in horror is so often used as a lazy trope, synonymous with wicked or dangerous characters?
 
A hundred years ago, given the context, perhaps filmmakers could be forgiven for the superstition and ignorance portrayed in their films. Today, not so much. Although, horror tropes can serve a purpose in allowing the reader to ‘overcome the monster’ from the safety of distance. As Dan Rabarts says: “What is the point of facing down demons, if we can’t hang their corpses from our battlements, so that others know they can be tamed?”
 
Why do you think fiction likes turning mentally ill people into monsters, and what do you think (if anything) is being done to challenge this misleading stereotype, which clearly does not depict the realities of living with mental illness?
 
Tabby, I think it reflects the stigma that dogs mental health sufferers. On that point, Dave Jeffrey says, “Nothing puts me off a book quicker than the thoughtless misrepresentation of mental illness.” To rectify this, Jeffrey’s advice to those who are planning on writing about mental illness in horror fiction is “to treat it with the sensitivity as they would gender and race issues. That way you will take the time to consider what the pitfalls are and ultimately write something interesting and, above all, authentic.” (Murray and Jeffrey, 2018)
 
Some of my favourite depictions of mental health in horror are often predominantly Gothic —  stories such as “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Turn of the Screw” by Henry James and Susan Hill’s “The Woman in Black”. These older stories aside, there are a number of excellent modern writers exploring mental health in fiction. Do you have any current favourites?
 
I’d like to call readers’ attention to Dave Jeffrey’s novella Finding Jericho, an early work which, due to its importance, has recently been re-released by Demain Publishing. Listed on the BBC’s Headroom Recommended Reading List, reader reviews also provide some insight:
 
“Mental illness like horror can take on many faces. Not everyone can be diagnosed, cured, and sent on their merry way. For some and their families, it’s an ongoing battle to achieve a balance in which to exist. For the uninitiated, a story like Finding Jericho offers some insight on what it is like to be or to love someone that spends their life fighting off the demons of mental illness. For someone like me that loves a family member who has been and still is in the fight, this book offers a little reassurance that all is not in vain.”
 
“I half expected the book, with its subject of mental illness, to be somewhat depressing and difficult to read, but that just highlights the ignorance that I and so many others had (or have) to an illness whose seed is planted in all of us from birth. Instead, the book is uplifting, humorous and very enjoyable to read.”
 
 
The trope of the “tortured artist” is a common one, but do you believe that horror writers are more prone to mental health afflictions, or do you think that writing about the darker side of life helps to destroy some of those personal demons?
 
Yes, studies suggest that writers in general are more prone to mental health issues.

• Andreasen (1987) found that not only did writers suffer from a higher rate of mental illness, but their first-degree relatives were more likely to suffer from mental illness than relatives of a control group.
• In a study of more than 1,000 professionals, Ludwig (1995) reported that all forms of psychopathology were more likely to occur in people in artistic professions.
• Researcher Kay Jamison (1996) claimed that mood disorders, especially manic-depression, were associated with artistic creativity. She reported that creatives were eight times as likely to suffer a depressive disorder than a control group.
• In a series of related articles, Barron reports that creative writers are ‘markedly deviant’ from the general population, with distinguished writers tending to show schizoid, depressive, hysterical, or psychopathic tendencies. Barron stated:

“The writers appear to be both sicker and healthier psychologically than people in general… The face they turn to the world is sometimes one of pain, often of protest, sometimes of distance and withdrawal, and certainly they are emotional.” (Barron, 1968a, p. 244).
 
As to whether writing dark fiction helps to slay our personal demons, my Path of Ra collaborator, award-winning New Zealand writer-editor Dan Rabarts, had this to say in a recent Reading Room article:
“Perhaps we’re all a bit twisted on the inside and take great pleasure in the awful things we put down on the page to traumatise our readers. Or maybe we really do wrestle with demons, and what comes out on the page is the outcome of those struggles. I’m no doctor, but I know my people, and it’s not that much of a stretch to say that most of us go toe-to-toe to a lesser or greater degree with some form of anxiety or depression on a daily basis. I’m sure this is not exclusive to those of us writing dark fiction, but is there some deeper purpose to expressing these demons on the page, if that’s what we’re doing?”
 
We’ve talked in the past about how I often write about mental health on my blog, and as you know, I’m leading a team of writers who are compiling a horror anthology which will benefit the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. I feel very strongly that by confronting the Black Dog in fiction I can keep it from sniffing too close at my heels. Does that ring true for you too? Outside of writing, tell me what other things do you do to keep control of your own Black Dog?
 
Yes, absolutely. I believe that creativity and wellbeing are indelibly linked and that the simple act of writing and creating can go a long way to keeping the black dog at bay. Other than writing, I take medication when prescribed; read horror, read Snoopy; browse the internet for pictures of puppies; eat healthily; take a shower; hug my family and cuddle my dog; soak in the spa pool; go to the gym; take long rambling walks in the forest; do some knitting; watch movies; chat with my daughter on skype; take the caravan away for the weekend; ignore the ironing; connect with friends…I try not to let my anxiety swallow me.
 
Can you tell me what’s next for you in 2020?
 
I’m excited to announce that my friends at Things in the Well Australia, will publish my first short fiction collection, including some of my favourites stories along with four new works. Grotesque: Monster Stories will release in July of this year. Here is the blurb:
 
Two-time Bram Stoker Award® nominee Lee Murray delivers her debut collection, and it is monstrous. Inspired by the mythology of Europe, China, and her beloved Aotearoa-New Zealand, Murray twists and subverts ancient themes, stitching new creatures from blood and bone, hiding them in soft forest mists and dark subterranean prisons. In this volume, construction workers uncover a hidden tunnel, soldiers wander, lost after a skirmish, and a dead girl yearns for company. Featuring eleven uncanny tales of automatons, zombies, golems, and dragons, and including the Taine McKenna adventure Into the Clouded Sky, Grotesque: Monster Stories breathes new life into the monster genre.
 
And together with my Australian colleague Geneve Flynn I’ll be co-editing Black Cranes, a long overdue anthology by Asian women of horror, featuring Nadia Bulkin, Gabriela Lee, Rena Mason, Rin Chupeco, Grace Chan, Angela Yuriko Smith and Christina Sng, and with a foreword by Alma Katsu. Releasing in July 2020 from Omnium Gatherum, I feel very privileged to be working with these incredibly talented women.
 
Readers and colleagues can meet me at StokerCon UK (April) BaltiCon 54 USA (May) ConZealand (July), and New Zealand National Writers’ Forum (September) as well as numerous local events.
 
And on the topic of horror and anxiety, I am working with a US publisher on an exciting new project, which I hope to announce in April of this year…
 
Thank you so much, Lee, it’s been a real pleasure to talk to you. I think I speak for many writers and creatives when I say thank you for taking the mic and speaking out, and helping us see the light at what can frequently be a very dark tunnel.
 
Refs:
 
Andreasen NC. Creativity and mental illness: prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives. Am J Psychiatry.1987 Oct;144(10):1288-92.
 
Barron F (1968a). Creativity and Personal Freedom. Princeton NJ. D Van Nostrand.
 
Kay Redfield Jamison, Manic Depressive Illness and Creativity, Scientific American 272, no 2 (Feb 1995) 62-67.
 
Ludwig AM (1995). The Price of Greatness: Resolving the Creativity and Madness Controversy. New York, Guildford Press.
 
Murray L (2018). Writing from a Dark Place. In Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety, Naomi Arnold (ed), Victoria University Press, Wellington.
 
Murray L and Jeffrey D (2019). Out of the Darkness: A Conversation by Lee Murray and Dave Jeffery, HWA, Mental Health Awareness Month, May 2019.
 
Murray L (2019). Horror, in real life: writers and their mental illness demons. Newsroom, Reading Room, 30 October 2019.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
I’m a military brat (and ex-spouse, but that’s another story over bourbon and tears), who, somehow, wound up back in Central Florida, which has always been my place of residence. I’ve been writing since I was eleven. Throughout my younger years, I’d written screenplays, articles, short stories, reviews, (terrible) poetry, comedy sketches, and so on. It wasn’t until the last decade, when I officially reached middle age, when I took my writing career seriously again. I just never thought I’d find more creative satisfaction in writing horror novels of all things.
 
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 they way you treated them in your work.

Oh, I think Ansley Boone in Reception would be quite awful to meet in real life. She’s cutting and snarky, sure, so she’d be fun to hang out with for a while, but she has…other problems.
 
(By the way, she insists that “it didn’t happen that way,” and she says she’s planning on suing me for libel. However, I have documentation that says otherwise.)
 
Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
People and their complex sensibilities—and my own fantasy/daydreaming—have also been major influences in my work. I’ve always been fascinated with the human condition, relationships, interaction, extreme emotions. As a result, my most recent writing has centered around all of that. As for daydreaming, that’s just something that I’ve not been able to shake since I was a kid.
 
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?.     
 
I hate that “horror” had been given such a bad reputation by both popular culture and religious extremism. “Horror” is necessary. After all, it exposes our very human fears as well as our own curiosities about evil. We need horror a little more mainstreamed, and much more representational, than it has been though. When I go to a bookstore, for instance, and see that the lone horror shelf is dominated with work by Stephen King, there’s a problem there, and while it’s great King has paved the way for horror to be mainstreamed in our culture, it hasn’t really helped in introducing new voices as much. We need to be exposed to more horror by minority authors and filmmakers, and we need to see main characters that represent us all. Once horror becomes accessible to everyone else, and we see that happening in what we’re exposed to, I think “horror” will be taken much more seriously than it has been.
 
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 see exactly what I indicated with the previous question. There will be a lot more diverse voices and a heck of a lot more representation in horror fiction. What impresses me particularly right now, especially in this tumultuous political climate, is that readers and audiences are paying close attention to horror as a response to it all. It’s always worked in comedy and drama, but it’s now a significant audience demand in horror, too.

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 people who enjoy horror like reading about what scares them because they can’t understand it…which is a good thing, of course. They like escapism, too, I think. The supposed 1 in 25 of us who have no conscience probably treat horror as a self-help guide or a mirror, but who the hell knows?
 
What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?
 
More diversity and representation. I can’t state this enough.

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 an 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? 

I don’t ever presume to be able to write from a minority’s perspective. I can’t do it, and I don’t wish to attempt it because I feel It Is Not My Place To Do So. For authors who take those sort of risks, that’s fine I suppose, but they’d better make certain they represent accurately and empathetically rather than resorting to stereotypes. (Since I mentioned him, I think it’s one of Stephen King’s worst traits as an author.)
 
As for me, I write with women at the center, because…well…obviously, it isn’t far-reaching. I follow the old standby in that I “write what (I) know.” If I need to enlist the help of a sensitivity beta reader, however, I certainly will.

Does horror fiction perpetuate it’s own ghettoization?  
 
There’s absolutely no doubt that a cover attracts a potential reader, and personally, I became more interested in reading horror because of those sorts of graphic covers that used to be popular (and are coming back en vogue…thanks, Grady Hendrix). As for causing more harm than good, perhaps, but what sorts of readers does that particular publisher wish to attract at any rate?
 
What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice of?
 
Ooo…I like this question because I have a good answer: My fellow newcomer novelist, Wile E. Young, is bringing an old school sensibility back to the genre. His novel, Catfish in the Cradle (Death’s Head Press), is an ode to Universal monsters and bayou mythos, with a genuinely sympathetic protagonist at its center. He has a splatter western novella coming out with Death’s Head Press this year as well as a novel, The Perfectly Fine House, co-written with Steven Kozeniewski published by Grindhouse Press (and I can’t wait to read it!).
 
Another new author of note is poet and fiction author, Mike Ennenbach. His collection, Notches (Death’s Head Press), is hard to describe with a single genre. It’s offbeat, surreal, dark, and sometimes hilarious. There’s something for everyone in it. He has a collection of poetry, UNPOETIC (Potter’s Grove Press) out now, and he also has a splatter western novella coming out from Death’s Head Press.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author

Too many to list. Of note though, currently, Bentley Little’s social horror, Jeff Strand’s Pressure (I’ve been hooked by its character development and simple, effective structure), and a slew of ’80s & ’90s films that are psychosexual thrillers.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

I’ve had some wonderfully detailed, positive reviews indicating certain things in Reception that had resonated with the readers/reviewers. That gives me ample motivation to always write from the heart (even if it’s a most dreadful heart sometimes).

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

Continuity. I have Stickies all over my desktop with page notes and details that I’m sure I’ll forget because I have a terrible memory.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
You know, I’ve not thought about that. I think all subjects are pretty open, but only if I were to approach them with caution – namely ample research and plenty of beta reader input.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

Names are quite important, as they need to be memorable. I tend to choose names based on origins and how they sound.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?

I’ve become more cognizant of my depression as it relates to my writing over the years. I’ve quit so many times out of mental exhaustion as well. Over the past decade, I’ve had to retrain my brain into allowing myself to rest between bouts of grading papers and teaching. I’m learning now to be more disciplined, writing on weekends when I can, and saving the heavy classwork for the weekdays. It’s tough though, and it’s getting worse as I get older.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

I’ve received a lot of writing advice off and on throughout the years. One piece that has stuck with me as it’s come from several authors in a variety of genres (and I’m paraphrasing all of them): Don’t be a dick. It’s good advice for life in general, but it’s especially needed as an artist of any sort. Positive people make positive impacts.

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?

Clyde Northway, my current protagonist in my splatter western WIP, is both my favorite and least favorite child. She does her own thing, gets ultraviolent, and it’s infuriating, but it’s because she’s been trained to take all sorts of precautions when it comes to encountering new people.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?

As I’m new to all of this with only one book out at the moment, Reception, obviously. It’s about family relationships, sisterly bonds (of sorts), and human monsters. It’s all what I know pretty well. Well, except for the cannibalism part.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
The entirety of the reception scene in Reception is my favorite because I used a lot of my screenwriting background to craft it. It’s a bit excessive to put here though.
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

Reception was, obviously, my last book. I’m finishing up Red Station, a splatter western for Death’s Head Press, a project I’ve had quite a tough time working on due to the heavy research involved and work-related delays. It’s a slasher set in the 1870s in what is, presumably, a home station. The villains are very loosely based on the notorious Bloody Benders. That will be out later this year. I’m also halfway done with a psychosexual horror thriller tentatively titled Nice Girl, about a woman who doesn’t take rejection very well.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

Characters existing solely for the author’s titillation.  It happens cross-genres, but I see it more often in horror work. Unless that is a necessary plot device, take it out.
 
What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
Last disappointment: The Outsider (Stephen King) 
Last great book (this is the most recent): A Place For Sinners (Aaron Dries)

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
What is your greatest desire? My answer: All-encompassing, passionate love. Isn’t that part of the human condition? And it’s a common theme in some of what I write.

In the genre fiction community, there are many people who feel that storytellers shouldn’t “get political” and that horror, sci-fi, and fantasy fiction should be solely escapist in nature.
M.D. Parker is not one of those people.

In 2018, Parker and a number of his peers teamed up to put together Trumpland: An Alternative History of the Future. One part savage satire, one part chilling warning of a dark tomorrow, the anthology was about as uncompromisingly political as a work could possibly be.

Now, two years later, the political landscape has only gotten scarier. One bit of good news, though? This February, Parker returns with Trumpland: Divided We Fall, a book whose synopsis promises “Brainwashing implants, segregation, division, mass murder, time travel, and the red hat. It's all a part of the broken American dream, a final nail in the coffin – or is it?”
Good question. Is it? Ginger Nuts of Horror got in touch with Parker to find out.

First off, I just wanted to say thank you for taking a minute to talk to Ginger Nuts of Horror about this project.

It is our pleasure. Thank you

Trumpland: Divided We Fall is a follow-up to a previous anthology, Trumpland: An Alternative History of the Future. Before we get to the newest book, I was wondering if you could tell me a little about the first installment. What inspired you to put together such an anthology? What kind of response did you get?

The first collection began as an idea born of frustration. I, and one or two of those who would later contribute to it, wanted to do something, anything, to combat what we saw as the damage resulting from the policies of this administration. Then, as writers we saw a bountiful pile of story fodder in the remarks and actions coming from the White House. The response was decent, about where we expected. As is typical with a short story collection, people liked parts, didn’t like others – especially those topics that were uncomfortable to them since the stories dealt with subjects of imprisonment based on race, division, environmental catastrophes and increased tensions around the globe and at home.

So what motivated you to do a second Trumpland anthology?

The seemingly endless flow of controversy. Donald Trump and this White House staff cause so many scandals, so frequently, I felt we, as a story collection, had fallen behind the times. So in order to raise more awareness, raise more money for charity, we collectively decided to put together a second edition.

All of the proceeds from the sales of both books go to various charities, is that right? What are some of the charities that these books are supporting? How do you choose what charities to donate to?

Yes, and the charities have included organizations like the ACLU, End Rape on Campus (EROC), 4-Ocean, and RAICES. We choose them as a group collective, generally voting on them (democracy, yay!). The ones on the list make the list due to certain functions or actions they’ve taken. For example, we all wanted to support the ACLU in its fight to make sure unaccompanied minors had representation in immigration court and their fight to block the Trans-Ban on the military. EROC’s mission I think speaks for itself, same with 4-Ocean. RAICES has been chosen for the first quarter of this year thanks to their humanitarian and legal work related to immigration.

There was no hesitation on going with the 100% donation. Each of us donated our work and time to bring it together as a group specifically so we could put every penny where it would do the most good.

In addition to the proceeds going to charity, the Trumpland anthologies are unique in that all of the stories included were donated by their authors. No one took a paycheck, is that correct?

That’s correct. No paychecks, and it was that way from the beginning. This was our donation to the charity, to help craft something that may in some small way help us be a better nation.

So the concept behind the Trumpland series is essentially that these are stories speculating and satirizing dark, dystopian scenarios that could come about as result of the Trump presidency. Who are the contributors for this second volume, and could you tell me about some of the stories included?

This second volume feels tad darker than the first. It feels weird to say that because I believe we have more “happy” endings this time, even though we have stories like one that takes a violent turn at a MAGA Rally, or a mass shooting in another. Our farthest reach in terms of realism this time is, well, just that – time. We have time travel, a pandemic (we had that in both volumes), cybernetic implants… we try to run the gamut of the sci-fi/dystopian worlds.
As I mention these names, please know that I have been honored so much to work with all of these authors. A wonderful group that includes Paul Blake, Jay Bower, Scott J. Couturier, Maxwell I. Gold, Shayne Keen, LeLand Lydecker, Duane Pesice, Artist Daniel Sauer, Margret A. Treiber, and Sarah Walker. A few of them worked on both volumes, and even a few that did not write for this edition, but were part of the first, helped with putting it all together (Thanks Ben, MeLisa, Jason, Richard, and Dave!)

Looking at the different directions various authors have taken the concept in, are there any stories in either volume that particularly surprised you? Did you notice any recurring themes or ideas?

Reoccurring? I’d say mostly the satirical fun of playing with the speeches and rantings this President is known for. Both volumes had an author tackle a pandemic and both dealt with the violent rhetoric and division we suffer right now due to those actions.

The first Trumpland anthology came out in 2018, a little over a year after Trump’s presidency began. Since then, obviously a lot has happened. Are there any predictions in that first anthology that resonate a little too close to comfort with real-life events since then? Of the latest crop of stories, which ideas or themes are the most chilling to you?

Fenced cages in random fields or under bridges. That hit a bit too close to how it really happened. The mysterious circumstances surrounding a death of a prominent figure that rumors indicated had the ability to bring down a lot of powerful people. I think about those and the increase in hate groups that too often match the rise multiple stories indicated.

Have you had any second thoughts about publishing either of these books based on concerns about backlash from rabid Trump supporters? Have you indeed gotten any backlash?

No second thoughts at all. And a small bit of backlash, not too bad – so far – the divisiveness gets worse every week it seems. The funniest part was someone commented online once, a rabid Trump supporter. After a brief exchange, he ended up purchasing a copy of the book. He didn’t leave a review, but his money was donated to EROC.

So where can those who do want to read the Trumpland books find them for purchase? And where should they go if they want to stay up-to-date on Trumpland publishing news?

We published through Amazon, mostly as an additional affront to this administration; we all know he doesn’t like them either. And keeping up on what is happening can be done through any of our contributing authors, or I am working on reprising and updating the Trumpland twitter account to be more reflective of the publishing and the book than the political voice of dissent it once was. (@2020TrumpLand )

Finally, to widen the scope of the conversation, do you have any messages you’d like to share with people in general?

First, voting is the most important, powerful freedom anyone can ever exercise. To not participate, to not vote, is to allow others to decide for you. It is nothing but silencing yourself. As for political commentary, I sum it all up with this:
​
We all say we want to be a people who are proud of their nation. We want to be proud of our place in the world, so start now. Start with the person next to you in line at the store, and let it resonate through every interaction, every vote, every comment you make… work today to be better than you were yesterday. Just be good to one another.
 

John Marrows is an american playwright and author by night and paranormal explorer by day. Since 2015, he has worked seasonal jobs allowing him to travel with everything he owns in one suitcase. All of his works are free to read at JohnMarrows.com. Follow his paranormal adventures on Twitter and Instagram: @iMarrowsJ.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
I’m an epileptic queer who loves all things horror.

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 they way you treated them in your work.

Fuck me. I’d say Twitch from my ‘All My Friends Are Freaks’ series only because I understand his pain and even just writing a few thousand words on it, it was a shit journey to face my own demons. It would be like facing a younger version of myself asking “why it hurts so much?” or “will it ever get better?”. Writing part two took a lot out of me emotionally and honestly, I don’t think I’d be able to handle it.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I’d have to say, my own experiences and trauma have ultimately shaped the way I write and how my characters are portrayed. In 2010, I was nothing more than an unemployed drug addict disinterested in everything life had to offer. Something about surviving a suicide attempt after going through the most horrific withdrawal symptoms makes you want to tell a story or two, you know?
 
 
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?
 
Well, I mean, the term “horror” is so subjective. Even the definition is extremely broad leaving so much room for the imagination. As far as my feelings towards the term, I think people should educate themselves further on the different subgenres of horror. I really do think there’s horror for everyone out there. Similar to the idea when someone hates metal music because it’s all “screamo”. If you take the time to understand what the various subgenres of metal have to offer, you might find a new taste for it. (I hope to see you in the pit.)   

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?
 
Along with some of my own creative goals, I definitely see horror coming to the stage in the next few years. Live theatre productions in off broadway or alternative theatre settings are on the rise. I look forward to seeing this grow for the horror community.

Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre, why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?
 
Why are so many fascinated by serial killer documentaries? It’s out of the ordinary, the strange, the unknown. Society has this fascination with what they cannot fathom to be in their reality. You hear all too often. “That could never happen in my town.” or “They were the nicest person, I never suspected they would do that.” As much as they “can’t believe it,'' they love to talk about it.

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?
 
I want to say more LGBTQ+ representation but I feel it’s already in the works.

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 an 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?
 
My aim is never to offend, but definitely to challenge. I write to face my own demons and I hope my readers find comfort in the fact that their feelings are valid and they’re not alone. In my most recent short story series, The Gatekeeper, the main character is a trans teen navigating life in a rural conservative town. Although I happen to be a genderqueer individual, I’ve made an effort to not involve my own identity struggles with this character because they’re not the same at all. If my content contains potentially triggering material for my readers, I always place a warning before the story begins. Some say that ruins the idea of horror, but I’d rather my readers know what they’re signing up for. I think of it as a virtual seat belt before hopping in the passenger seat as I speed down the highway to Hell that is my twisted imagination.

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 bookshop, and is one that probably is not marketed as horror, does the genre’s obsession with horrific covers cause harm than good?
 
I think if a potential reader is looking for the most “horrific cover” as they peruse their local bookstore, they’re missing out on some choice titles. Again, the term “horror”, to me, can be so subjective. I’ve read some dramas and mysteries that I found to be more “horror” than some titles with those ‘bloodied and beaten’ cover art.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice of?
 
T.J. Tranchell, dedicated to provide a fresh take on horror. His collection of short stories, Asleep in the Nightmare Room, inspires me to this day to continue writing. His newest novel has a mormon exorcist, what the fuck else would want to read about? He’s definitely underrated as an author and can see big things coming his way.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

The Body by Stephen King
A Child Called “It”: One Child’s Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

Once upon a time while I worked as a stage actor, after opening weekend of one of my first professional theatre shows a local critic really shit on me. Ha-ha. His honestly lacked empathy of any kind, which really wasn’t ideal but definitely made me step back a take a look at how I approach performing.

What aspects of writing do you find the most difficult?

Recently, finding the time to read as much as I write.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
Sexual abuse. Some demons should be left unwritten. It’s unfair to place my audience in that uncomfortable position. It’s something I still struggle with as a survivor and understand how uncomfortable that can make someone.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

The names of my characters, unless it’s a period piece, often come to me while I’m writing. I’ll have full outlines of stories with “?” where character names would go. The same goes for their gender identity. As the story forms, so does the character.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?

I don’t think any writer is “developed”, creativity is an infinite journey between the artist and their demons they wish to share with the world.
 
What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

If you’re stuck, change the weather.

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?


Ethan, from ‘All My Friends Are Freaks’ is definitely one of my favorites. He’s so humble, yet challenged by his anxiety. Impressionable, but formed. I relate to him and think we would have been close friends when I was younger. Especially on the unit.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?

All My Friends Are Freaks, no question. These short stories are the ultimate collection of not only my interests as a writer, but my struggles as a human. The reader is getting an inside look of who I am, what I’ve been through, and how fucked my imagination can be.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
“Having someone watch you poop finally getting to you, huh?”
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
The last story I published, Snow Child(ren), was originally drafted as a screenplay but ultimately worked better as a flash fiction. It’s engaging, enticing, and aims for the audience to ask a lot of questions. A fun read for any horror enthusiast. I’m currently drafting part two of my latest short story series, The Gatekeeper, which is my first take on dark fantasy.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

For film specifically, and maybe my opinion as a photosensitive epileptic is bias, but flashing lights. Unless it actually adds to the story somehow or the motivations of a character, just quit it already.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?

Last great book I’ve read: The Institute by Stephen King
 
What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
Question: Other than writing, what keeps you going?
 
Answer: Teaching and Metal Music.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
I started making up stories when I was about seven. My teachers frequently admonished me for staring out the window or for scribbling bits of fiction when I should have been listening to their lessons. I suppose I’ve always been a daydreamer.

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 they way you treated them in your work.

Tori Garrett, the protagonist (or is that anti-hero?) of Spirits, is not a particularly nice person. She’s very selfish. I’ve had other people tell me she’s a tragic figure, but I kind of enjoyed putting her through the nightmare scenarios she experienced in the book. She needed to learn some hard lessons, but I can’t imagine she would appreciate that. I suspect she’d spend a lot of time painting herself as a victim.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I grew up reading science fiction and comic books. I don’t think my parents appreciated that very much. I started reading Ray Bradbury when I was in third grade, and my junior high and high school years were defined by writers like Michael Bishop, Andre Norton, and Harlan Ellison. Writers like Bishop and Ellison, who frequently wove in and out of the horror lane, inspired me to pick up works from writers like Charles L. Grant, Jack Ketchum, Rick Hautala, and John Skipp. I read a lot of Stephen King in my teens.
 
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?
 
I think the heaviness associated with the term “horror fiction” probably comes from people who don’t read horror. I think the assumption is that horror fans are weird or disturbed or get off on seeing people mutilated, and I don’t think that’s a fair assumption.
 
But I don’t think euphemisms are helpful. I would never categorize Spirits as a “psychological thriller” or a “suspense” novel. It’s horror. And I’m proud of that. I think the best way to break past the assumptions is to proudly embrace horror as a genre that has merit and nuance.
 
I think most people who enjoy horror or write horror like being scared in a safe environment. The world is a pretty scary place, but we have little control over real-world horror. Horror fiction allows you to experience thrills and fear with no real threat. You put down the book or turn off the movie, and your life hasn’t changed all that much.
 

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 subversive horror is important in the current socio/political climate.
 
I really enjoyed “Loaded” from Joe Hill’s collection Strange Weather. It was harrowing and important. But I’ve seen a lot of weird one-star reviews of that collection, and it really makes you wonder. Most of the complaints are that the stories within are “too political.” Art has always been political. It will never cease being political. Writers and artists are humans with opinions.
 
I suspect dystopian themes will emerge as well. I’ve been most privileged to read the stories in the forthcoming anthology Dystopian States of America because I’m sleeping with the editor. No, really. My fiancé, Matt Bechtel, has put together an amazing collection featuring dystopian stories from writers like Jonathan Maberry, Bracken MacLeod, Elizabeth Massie, Chet Williamson, and Linda Addison; and oh, by the way, I have a story in there, too. Humble brag.

Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?
 
Again, I think it’s a safe way to feel terror and fear. I think it’s important to experience fear in a safe way.

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?

I think diverse voices are finally emerging in the genre, and that’s so important. Straight, white men have long dominated the horror genre, and we’ve heard their stories. Women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people have something to say as well, and having those diverse experiences makes for really compelling stories.

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? 


I don’t necessarily think it’s a matter of being afraid of offending anyone. I think the real issue here is being sensitive to other people. Sensitivity readers are essential. Jeanine Cummins, author of American Dirt, is being taken to task because her book doesn’t ring true to the very people she’s writing about.

Does horror fiction perpetuate it’s 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 harm than good?
 
I mean, I think if anything, horror’s covers are indicative of the genre’s in-your-face earnestness. People who do not like horror are probably not going to be swayed just because they picked up a rather mundane-looking book if the elements within don’t appeal to them. As a young person buying horror fiction, those creepy, over-the-top covers were a big selling point for me. Today, social media buzz has certainly changed things, and I would definitely grab a book that has been well-reviewed and widely recommended, even if the cover concealed its genre.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice of?

I’m already a huge fan of Gabino Iglesias. Go buy Coyote Songs. It will make you uncomfortable, and that’s a high compliment. Look for work by Cat Scully. Her YA novel Jennifer Strange is also part graphic novel. Kyle Rader has been on my radar for a while. If you like funny horror, you should check him out. I’m also a huge fan of Michelle Renee Lane. Invisible Chains is an important book.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

The Shining, both the book and the movie, were hugely influential, but they’re so different. I would never call the movie a King adaptation, but I enjoyed it as a Kubrick film. The works of Charles L. Grant also really inspired me. I’ve always had a preference for quiet horror, and I think Grant’s work is the best example of that subgenre.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

Cemetery Dance compared Spirits to The Shining, which was insane in the most amazing way. I mean, imagine getting that kind of comparison. But I recently received a review that compared it to another King work––Thinner. It never occurred to me while I was writing it, but I can definitely see that.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

The business aspect of writing is the toughest for me. I’m an introvert, like a lot of writers. The creative aspect is fun. Even editing is enjoyable. Self-promotion is really difficult. I’m getting better at it, but I can’t help but feel like a snake-oil salesman. I’ve learned to use readings as performance opportunities. I find it easier to perform than to just read. I love pulling people in. I think there’s real power in that. I drew this place. Won’t you come into this world with me?

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?

Writing explicitly about child abuse would be difficult. It’s inferred in one of my works, but I don’t have it in me to draw those scenes out. I’m not writing for people who would enjoy reading about such things.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

Names are crucial.
 
Tori from Spirits is named after one of my closest friends. When I told her my protagonist was a trainwreck of an alcoholic, she laughed her ass off. But I named the character Tori because she is such a strong woman, and I admire my friend so much for her strength and courage.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?

I’ve learned to use all five senses. I try to put myself in my character’s skin so I can more authentically write what they experience. I want to drag my readers (sometimes screaming and kicking) through those characters’ lives.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

Keep going. Writing is a tough, sometimes soul-crushing business. But if you keep writing and keep improving your craft, you’ll be successful.

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?

Do parents really have favorite children? I think of it this way. My characters are all flawed, just like my kids are flawed. I love them anyway. There’s not a single character in Spirits who isn’t flawed at the least or fundamentally fucked up at the worst.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?

Spirits is my first novel, even though I’ve had a lot of short fiction published. I think it’s pretty indicative of my style. It is quiet horror populated by flawed humans. I like to play with reality and perception.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
The last line is my favorite, but it gives a lot away! My advice would be to buy Spirits, read the entire thing, and get to the end.
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
Spirits follows Tori Garrett, a woman who is struggling. She accidentally hit and killed a teenage girl with her car, and she copes by drinking. The girl’s mother is distraught and filled with rage that Tori didn’t receive stronger repercussions for killing her child. She exacts a very peculiar sort of revenge on Tori. Tori’s addiction grows worse, and before long, the lines of reality and the supernatural are blurred.
 
I’m working on a few things right now, but I can’t say much about them.


If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

Helpless women. Fewer helpless women in heels running through the forest at night and more Laurie Strodes saving the day. Here’s to Girl Scouts.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?


Lightning Wears a Red Cape from Errick Nunnally was superb. I prefer not to make negative comments about books.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
I wish someone would ask me about my sheds. (RIP Terry Jones.) 

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

As you probably learned above, my name is Jelena and I come from Croatia. Been a horror lover for most of my life and when I say that I really mean it. When I was a kid, instead of requesting Little Red Riding Hood as a bedtime story, I pushed my dad to read me E.A.Poe. What else can I say? Well, I’m living with my boyfriend Danijel, my dad Ivan, four cats and a senior dog. I work as an editor, columnist and blogger in several Croatian literary magazines and am an illustrator who is pushing towards as many solo art exhibitions as possible.  

What do you like to do when you're not writing?

That’s a tough one as I am writing something most of the time; if not for my job, than working on my books. Except from that, I love spending time with my family, playing with my pets; I do some gardening and am playing piano and bass guitar every now and then. 

Other than the  horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?

Life itself. I enjoy human psyche in all its shapes and forms and I think we can all agree that human behavior is an endless source of inspiration. 

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?

Well, I could write an entire book on this topic, but let’s make it as short as possible. Horror genre in general (as every other genre) has some bad seeds. If we look upon the horror that focuses mostly on visual shock and gore, we can’t expect that everyone will like it or just learn to like it. But then there is horror that has a message behind all the blood, terror and psychological “poking”. Horror can be a great way to push people to think about life and the society they live in and make them think of ways they could improve. How to break the assumptions? By showing quality, relatable topics, include mythology and other similar topics into the whole community. Most of all, we can show other people that we don’t kill people out of hobby and that most of horror appreciating community are people just like any other. We can also tell them that we like ice cream…that always helps. 

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 really don’t know and I’m a bit afraid to write of the ways it could go considering the currant situation. Let’s just hope that world domination, mass murders and all other similar topics remain on the big screen and in the books. 

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

It would be great if I could name only horror and thriller movies and books, but the truth is that everything I have watched and read shaped me into the author I am today. You can’t only look upon good stuff you’ve seen/read. The poorly executed work has influence on us as well. 

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off? 

I’ll be a bit short on this one and would like to take the opportunity to mention a fellow Croatian writer named Viktoria Faust. 

How would you describe your writing style?

Straight down to the core honest. A bit cynical. That type of writing that makes you think about yourself and your beliefs. 

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

I am a lucky one and for the most part reviews have been great. But there are some funny stories about people who didn’t understand my books. When I published the first Croatian edition of Shtorka (the book is about a young girl suffering from schizophrenia that talks to her in an archaic language, forcing her to kill everyone who deserves punishment) one girl contacted me, asking if Shtorka is in reality a cat. Yes, you have read it correctly.  

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

I don’t find writing difficult at all. Everything that comes after writing is much harder. 

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? 

Never thought about that really. Straight out of the head-there isn’t. 

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

I use names of my friends and their children in books that are not so gory. And in some books I try to think of names that are different because I think every character should be an individual. 

Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?  

Fantasy was the genre I started in. It was also dark, but still fantasy. Then I moved on to Sci-Fi before finally discovering that horror and thriller are genres that suite me the most. 

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers? 

Brain and a normal amount of ego. :D         

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

Any story needs to be logical no matter the topic. 

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?

As I have started of in Croatia, I tried to focus on the reviews and reaching out to media. Time did the rest. Now, my best strategy is by doing the same thing and along the way I am trying to promote Croatian mythology as it is the topic more relatable to a bigger specter of people. 

To many writers, the characters they write become like children, who is your favourite child, and who is your least  favourite to write for and why?

Well, I would say that books are my children, not the characters. Why? Because I end up killing most them in the end so I try not to attach myself to them. If I had to pick someone let me pick two from the book Shtorka. Era Torin would be my favorite because she is fragile; a murderer, but fragile. And the one I hate most is probably Amon Amnest because he is a hypocritical child molester. 

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?

 You can’t ask a mother of books that question. Just kidding. I am actually proud of everything because I can see personal growth in each sentence. 

And are there any that you would like to forget about?

No. None. 

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your  books do you think best represents your work and why?

I think Shtorka and Shtorka Manifest best represent me because I have written them to my liking, not thinking about what other people will think of them. 

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? 

The first contact of Shtorka to Era: 
May I be here and by thy side linger, while the world is cracking and dense roots over you it grips. Devoted will I lie in the darkness of the attic, till your luck bares fruit. May this darkness be holy because in her lap I shall nurture you.

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

Well, this is actually the first time I am telling it out loud, but I am working on the third book in Shtorka series. Last book was Shtorka (part 1) translated and published in English. 

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

The human stupidity of running upstairs to save themselves. 

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?

The last great book was I read was S. King’s Bag of Bones (I know, I know…am a bit late to the show) and the worst…let me just remain quiet there. 

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?

J: Question: Would you like twenty million dollars, no strings attached? Answer: If you insist. 

Don’t judge me on this last one. You are thinking it as well, aren’t you? 

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I live in a little NYC apartment with my fiancee. I work in the communications office of a city government agency to pay the bills and write fiction when I can. I love to cook, and to travel (again, when I can). I agonize constantly about how many books, movies, bands, TV shows, games, comics, and podcasts I'm not keeping up with.

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 they way you treated them in your work.

I don't want to spoil anything, but I'd least like to meet Jonathan Redmarch from my novel People of the Lake. I'm sure he'd be very cordial and well-spoken while he took me apart piece by piece.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I've been a fan of science fiction and fantasy since I could read. It actually took me a while to get in to horror, I was an easily-frightened child. In my 20's I felt I had to buckle down and learn to write what's usually called 'literary fiction.' I didn't come back to genre until I turned 30, but I now love both “genre” and “literary” fiction. Jorge Luis Borges and Angela Carter, two of my all-time favorite writers, could write both at the same time in the same story.
 
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?

I sometimes catch myself telling people that I don't write “that kind” of horror, meaning horror that is overly violent or grisly. Then I get mad at myself, because that's such a subjective line, and it potentially cuts off so much good horror. Also, I think what puts some people off horror isn't necessarily violence, it's the way it can present the universe as uncaring or actively malign, and that can come from even the quietest horror. I think for me at least that's the core of the genre, that it presents a fundamentally unsafe and unknowable universe. I get that not everyone enjoys confronting that, but I think it's part of what makes the genre so important.

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 don't think it's an accident we've seen so many post-apocalyptic stories lately, and there still seems to be an appetite for more. I think we'll probably see more overtly political themes, which I think is fine as long as they're not simplistic. I think fears of social and environmental collapse also lead to cosmic horror as we question our place in the universe. I hope we're going to continue to hear more from more diverse voices, and I love what writers like Victor LaValle are doing these days to engage with everything that made writers like H.P. Lovecraft great while grappling honestly and meaningfully with their racism and other serious issues.

Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?

There are so many ways to enjoy horror. For me, it's incredibly cathartic. I had terrifying nightmares as a child, but now that I've built up years and years of callouses, I almost relish the feeling of being genuinely scared. Certain kinds of fear, held at a safe distance, are a shortcut to what you could call a state of grace—and the only way some of us will experience something like that. When I was a teenager, it was more about daring myself to confront what scared me, but now I come hoping it'll break down all of my defenses.

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?
 
I don't feel like I'm widely-read enough to answer that, and if I knew I'd probably be trying to write it.

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 an 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? 

I did a lot of research for my novel, and I worked with a sensitivity reader. I think it's especially important when you're writing for younger readers, who have less life experience to compare representations in a book to, and are still forming their own identities. I'm sure I still make mistakes, but I try to always be open to learning and doing it better next time.

Does horror fiction perpetuate it’s own ghettoization?
 
I guess some lit-fic readers who would love Thomas Ligotti might not pick up one of his books because of the cover art, to think of one example, but it honestly bothers me more when people call something “elevated horror,” like it can't be great art and also horror.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
I feel like I'm late to every party. I always tell myself I'm going to keep on top of the latest new voices in magazines, but instead I end up reading novels that have already been recommended to me many times over. Of course they're usually great, but I hope to have a better answer to this question very soon.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

I already mentioned Borges and Angela Carter, and I'll throw in Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino. Neil Gaiman's Sandman got me into horror as a teenager, which led me to Lovecraft, then Machen, and it kind of spread through me like a plague from there. China Mieville's fiction really expanded my horizons as far as what was possible in fantasy. Caitlin Kiernan's The Red Tree is one of my favorite contemporary horror novels.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?

My first novel just came out, and I'm trying not to read reviews, at least not right away.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?

There's that famous Dorothy Parker quote – “I hate writing, I love having written.” There are days when you just feel like you have nowhere to go, but you have to keep going because otherwise you'll never leave that place. Then there are the days when you realize the house you built word by word isn't going to stand, and you'll have to move it all around or rebuild from scratch. Really I guess I'm saying it's all hard.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?

I would have to have a damn good reason to depict sexual violence directly on the page, and I'd be petrified of getting it wrong, so I don't think it's very likely I'll write about it.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

I try not to get heavy-handed with my names, but I do try to make them feel right for a character, which sometimes takes some refining.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?

I feel like I'm a bit better at stepping outside of myself and assessing my own writing. One thing that helps me is to try to put myself in the mindset of someone I know, and how they would read and react to what I wrote.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

Lots of the standard aphorisms for new writers, “show don't tell,” “avoid adverbs”, etc. are like training wheels on a bicycle – useful at first, but eventually you have to discard them. “Read deeply and widely” is one that always stays true though.

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 got pretty attached to Clara, the narrator of People of the Lake, but sometimes the characters we least expect grab us. There was one character in the novel I'm working on now I thought I'd have a terrible time writing, but she turned out to be one of my favorites.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?

I've only got the one, so far, so I've got to say People of the Lake.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

My first novel, People of the Lake, is about ghosts, twins (and cryptophasia, aka 'twin talk'), buried secrets, and messed up family history. My next project is a historical fantasy set in a magical Gilded Age New York, with secret societies, social unrest, sorcerous plots, and messed up family history (which I'm realizing might be a theme I'm drawn to).
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

The standard tropes of the slasher genre kind of leave me cold. Nothing against them, I know lots of people love them, it just tends not to do it for me.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?

I loved Victor LaValle's The Ballad of Black Tom, Paul Tremblay's A Head Full of Ghosts, and Nathan Ballingrud's North American Lake Monsters. I might sound like I'm trying to be too polite, but I genuinely can't think of a book I've been disappointed with lately. That probably means I'm just not reading enough.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
No one's ever asked me where I get my ideas, so I've never had the satisfaction of saying I have more ideas than I'll ever know what to do with, it's turning any of them into something real and worthwhile that's the problem.

As well as getting the opportunity to review the excellent A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life   I also had the amazing opportunity to interview director, Staten Cousins Roe and  star of the film actress, Poppy Roe.

Described as“ Sightseers meets Thelma and Louise” (Deborah Haywood, Pin Cushion), A Serial Killer's Guide to Life is written and directed by Staten Cousins Roe( This Way Out) and produced by ForwardMotion Pictures–a multi award-winning production company run by husband and wife team Staten Cousins Roe and Poppy Roe, who have just been longlisted as ‘Breakthrough Producers’ for the 2019 BIFAs

A Serial Killer's Guide to Life follows Lou Farnt (Katie Brayben): a 30-something, self-help addict who wants nothing more than to escape her overly controlling mother and the dead-end seaside town where she grew up. So when strange and strikingly confident new life coach Val (Poppy Roe) suddenly arrives on the scene and invites her on a road trip of alternative therapies, Lou finds the perfect opportunity to leave, and the perfect person to become. Unfortunately for Lou, Val’s a serial killer. A Serial Killer's Guide to Life is guaranteed to satisfy the self-help generation, and the modern human’s blood lust.

HOW’D THE SUCCESS OF YOUR SHORT FILM (THIS WAY OUT) LEAD INTO A SERIAL KILLER’S GUIDE TO LIFE?

STATEN COUSINS ROE: “I think they’re (This Way Out and A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life) very connected. When we made This Way Out it was very similar to the process where we crowd-funded the money and shot it in our flat with a crack team of people made up of friends and recommendations. Katie (Brayben) and Poppy had been friends since drama school and done theatre together as well.”

POPPY ROE: “Staten, got the initial idea for the short because we (Katie and them) were having a cup of tea together and discussing the idea of euthanasia not being very funny.”

S: “And we thought, ‘there’s a hit comedy right there.’ But underneath the hood of that is a satirical element towards the target-driven society that we’re in with a jet-black, dark comedy edge. That went out into the world and we were very lucky to do 30-some festivals and it received a lovely reception, which led to a number of meetings with sizable film companies. But after I came out of one of them, I had this gut-reaction of wanting to do our first feature film the same way.”

​P: “He [Staten] phoned me up because he went to one of these meetings that went really great and he just went, ‘let’s just do this ourselves and we can make it now instead of a few years’ time.’ And I reacted positively to it, which little did we know was absolutely mental. We ended up adding another producer with Giles (Giles Alderson) and called up all the same people involved with This Way Out down to the extras sitting in the waiting room. We went on to make the Kickstarter and decided if we raised the money and it received a good response then we’d make the film. That takes us to when we started to shoot.”

S: “In terms of the story I found self-help in the academic proportions for which its consumed particularly the western world. It’s another system that was ripe to be poked in the same jet-black comedy, but perhaps a bit more violent and fun way.”

P: “He [Staten] phoned me up because he went to one of these meetings that went really great and he just went, ‘let’s just do this ourselves and we can make it now instead of a few years’ time.’ And I reacted positively to it, which little did we know was absolutely mental. We ended up adding another producer with Giles (Giles Alderson) and called up all the same people involved with This Way Out down to the extras sitting in the waiting room. We went on to make the Kickstarter and decided if we raised the money and it received a good response then we’d make the film. That takes us to when we started to shoot.”

S: “In terms of the story I found self-help in the academic proportions for which its consumed particularly the western world. It’s another system that was ripe to be poked in the same jet-black comedy, but perhaps a bit more violent and fun way.”

WHAT WAS THE SELF-HELP RESEARCH THAT WENT INTO FORMING THIS STORY AND PERFORMANCES?

S: “I did a lot of reading and watching of documentaries that go underneath the veneer of prolific self-help procurers. It was this interesting thing where you start to find a level of quackery. It wasn’t necessarily the actions that these people were told to do like nature therapy but rather the agendas of the individuals peddling these ‘quick fixes.’”

P: “We had a lot of fun looking into all of these programs, and some of them were too big and extreme to believe but you can’t write this stuff like rebirthing therapy. The stories you read about the people that have done these things and the accidents that have happened as well, it’s incredibly rich and gets quite cult-like. For Val, I looked up webinars and the charisma of these leaders and some of them came off more disturbing than serial killers. Just the kind of huge belief and unwavering self confidence that they had when looked at from a certain angle could be creepy. Though I looked at decisive serial killer movies like Christian Bale (American Psycho) or Jack Nicholson (The Shining), I didn’t feel that Val was a serial killer. She just really believed in her method and ambition, and people kept getting in the way that she didn’t believe in so she had to remove them.”

WHEN DEALING WITH THE SUBJECT MATTER AND BLACK COMEDY, HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO KEEP HEART INTO THE STORY?

P: “Well it’s actually a road trip movie and a buddy movie. The heart of it is between these two women and one’s helping another one that’s very much lost in life and needs rescuing. While there’s the self-help world and the satire, the core of it is these two oddball characters.”

S: “I think there’s that feeling that we’d all like a Val in our lives to take us by the hand and lead us. People recognize that in Lou and Val and coming across people with their agendas that want to take.”

WHILE THERE IS SOME AMBIGUITY IN THE FILM, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WISH TO LEAVE WITH THE AUDIENCE?

S: “I like the idea of the audience owning the story themselves at the end and it reflects on who they are. Are you a Lou or a Val? Who do they want to be in a way? Being structured like a self-help book it’s the antithesis of self-help. The one you watch in order to undo the messy strands you get from consuming this quackery, peddled by people asking for you to give them your money. Listen to the voice inside of you.”

P: “For me, it’s nice to see someone who needs help and having someone that has no qualms about telling people off. It’s a refreshing thing to see and play, because we don’t always get to do that in normal life.”

WHAT’S THE FUTURE FOR YOUR FORWARD MOTION PICTURES PRODUCTION COMPANY?

S: “We’re currently writing our next project together which is a supernatural horror story.”

Thanks to Staten and Poppy for participating in this interview, as they were incredibly personable and their passion for the project bled through. Unfortunately, some hilarious on-set stories and quips between the two were unable to make it in but if given the chance I’d do an extensive chat with them again in a heartbeat.

A Serial Killer's Guide To Life will be available on AppleTV, Amazon Prime Video and all other UK, US and Canadian digital platforms from 13th January 2020. Staten has also stated that the iTunes version will come with a behind the scene featurette that should have more content.

For upcoming news on a  Serial Killer's Guide To Life,  Staten and Poppy, their company (Forward Motion Pictures), or Arrow Films, check out:
ASerialKillersGuidetoLife.com
ForwardMotionPictures.co.uk
Arrow Video's Facebook Page 
Forward Motion's Facebook Page 
Or follow on them  Twitter at: @FMPictures, @AKillersGuide, and @ArrowFilmsVideo or by using the #aserialkillersguidetolife hashtag ​

Cody T Luff’s forthcoming novel, Ration, will be released by Apex Book Company in 2019. Cody’s stories have appeared in Pilgrimage, Cirque, KYSO Flash, Menda City Review, Swamp Biscuits & Tea, and others. He is fiction winner of the 2016 Montana Book Festival Regional Emerging Writers Contest. He served as editor of an anthology of short fiction with twelve contributors titled Soul’s Road.
 
Cody teaches at Portland Community College and works as a story editor. He completed an intensive MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College. Cody grew up listening to stories in his grandfather’s barber shop as he shined shoes, stories told to him at bedsides and on front porches, deep in his father’s favorite woods, and in the cabs of pickup trucks on lonely dirt roads. Cody’s work explores those things both small and wondrous that move the soul, whether they be deeply real or strikingly surreal.
 
Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I grew up driving the dirt roads of rural Montana. My family moved a total of fifteen times before settling just outside of Stevensville located in the Bitteroot Valley. Sage brush and summer fires colored my youth in smoke and dry greens. My father would set up one of his two teepees every summer, even after my sisters had grown and fled the nest. Some of my fondest memories are of sitting in my father’s teepee around a fire, listening to stories of his time in the Navy or as a guide in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. These stories weren’t always true but that was allowable in the light of the campfire. All shadows grow a little on a good summer night. When I grew a little older, I found that I was the one telling stories.
 
I was always in love with stories, the portable kind you find in books and the silent kind I would stumble across in the hills behind our house as a child. Whitetail bones and a long tuft of horse tail clinging to a red curl of barb wire rising from the dry remains of a homestead could hold me in place long enough to annoy my father as we spent a little too much time trespassing on someone’s back forty.
 
College gave me access to a wild rush of new ways to tell stories, film, theater, performance art. I tried a little of everything before finding my way back to the page. My campfire has changed shape several times but in the end I find that what I love the most, what I am always drawn back to, is the intimacy of being a storyteller. Of leaning over the fire and inviting a listener to lean with me.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
 
I teach writing at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon. My nontraditional background has inundated my classroom, my assignments range from a term-long zombie apocalypse survival simulation and journal to the gamification of students’ personal legacies. I want my classroom to be one part laboratory, one part critical reactor, and one part creative explosion.
 
I am fascinated by folklore and urban legends. I find myself hungry for these kinds of stories, collecting them no matter where I find myself. I lived in the Osaka area in Japan for a year, haunting temples and streets, soaking in as many bits of folklore and urban legends as I could. I recently visited Iceland and spent a great deal of my time there lost in hundreds of years of history. The Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in Hólmavic captured me for an entire afternoon. The legend of the Necropants alone was enough to make me want to return for another go.
 
Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I think I’m going to step away from literature and lean into music for this answer. Tom Waits has fueled a great many of my short stories, feeding me blue gravel lyrics and the kind of rusted out love that lives in between work days and weekends. More recently Nina Simone and Nick Cave have been feeding my work. My writing has always been inspired by a variety of authors but music has been equally influential in all periods of my writing. Influence and inspiration are deeply linked, music and prose no less so.
 
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?
 
The word horror evokes monsters. The kind that slip from dark pools or rise from darker pits. Horror reaches into the part of us that wants to shape our fears into something unreal, something we can safely drown in the pool or rebury in the pit once the story has found its close. Our job as horror authors is to create monsters that do not lose their shape once the story nears its ending. Fear is an essential emotion, one that needs to be felt to be understood. Stitching a monster out of understandable tropes doesn’t evoke true fear. Our job is to find the cloth that is adjacent to the skin of our reader, to stitch the fear so closely to the monster that we are unsure if we are wearing the cloth or the monster is wearing us. After all, the truly frightening thing about monsters that are no longer understandable is that they resemble us. Devils must follow rules, humans do not.


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 believe climate-focused horror will lead the way in the next few years. Our monsters are already changing and I think that we can see these monsters rising in unique and disturbing ways. What could be more frightening than how we treat one another in the heart of a terrible drought or the death of small kindnesses in the mouth of famine? Climate horror will break genre boundaries and change our definitions of monster in the next decade.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
This is a tough question for me simply because I have too many I want to share. Dunn’s Geek Love, McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness all have changed the landscape of my mind. But if you ask me this question again tomorrow, I’ll have another list and defend it with equal passion.
 
Bladerunner was my first taste of greatness when it comes to film. I return to it far too often, my family fleeing the room when that particular sparkle finds its way into my eye. Kurosawa’s Rashomon and the television series Twin Peaks are among many that continue to resonate with me. 

How would you describe your writing style?
 
My style is deeply seated in the senses. I want my readers to feel everything my characters feel, smell and taste what they taste. I want every moment of my story to have a body feel, a lingering sensation that will follow my reader long after the story has spun away.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
I once submitted a short story to a publication which will remain unnamed. I received a prompt acceptance letter full of specific praise. The editor loved my style and wanted to publish my work right away. I was ecstatic, the journal was quite popular and I was a very hungry writer.

A week later I received a rejection from the same journal under the name of a different editor. For each and every note of praise written by the previous editor, the new editor gleefully tore my story to kitty litter. The last line was both a question and a statement. It assured me that I was not a poet and that my skill with poetic language failed my story, and did I really think I was a mature enough writer to submit to such a well-known journal?
 
I was … confused. I reached out to the publication and the second editor responded with a terse note that explained that their opinion was the final opinion and that the first editor was no longer employed with the journal. They suggested I pursue other avenues of creativity. I sold the piece a few months later but the sting didn’t quite go away. The idea that my work wasn’t good enough became a ghost that haunted me for some time. But then again, I rather enjoy hauntings so I guess it worked out in the end.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
The most difficult part of a story is separating from my characters. I am sure this sounds corny but I grow very attached to my characters and when I’ve finished a story, I find that I miss them terribly. Even the villains. I am sure a friendly neighborhood therapist could weigh in on this phenomenon but the closer I get to the end of the story the deeper the sensation of loss becomes. Placing these same characters in terrible situations is equally difficult and killing a character has been known to send me on long walks to deal with a bit of guilt or grief. I think it is simply because I follow my characters through their story rather than leading them.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
I have tried to approach my work with the understanding that I will need to write what frightens me if I ever hope to frighten my readers. It is necessary that I feel whatever my reader feels in order for my story to be a living thing, important enough to share. At the same time, I am very willing to admit that there are a great many topics that scare me but I want to hold myself to a very specific promise. I must write about everything, even if it is frightening, perhaps specifically because it is frightening.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
Names are always a group effort in my work. My wife has saved my life on a number of occasions, pointing out that four characters all had names starting with J or that one of my character’s names mutated into something entirely different by chapter three. I define my characters so much by what they feel like that their names usually come much later in my writing process. This has annoyed not only my wife but numerous writing groups over the years.

Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
Two of the large influences on my development have been travel and the good luck of finding incredible writing groups. This boils down to the influences of other story makers on my own work. Gathering folklore and myths from around the world and working closely with gifted writers has helped me grow as a writer in a myriad of ways. Without the blunt-yet-loving notes of my writing groups or the deep wonder I discover in old temples and dusty dirt roads, I don’t think I could continue to develop in the same way.
 
What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?   
 
Support, a true love of stories, and the ability to listen to critique. These are essential pieces in the puzzle of figuring it all out. The idea that we write alone is false, we need other writers, we need readers and we need them long before we’ve published our life’s work. Writing is a form of insanity, a wonderful form but one that requires others who are in the grip of it to fully understand why you’ve spent the last seven days changing your verb from twitch to pulse when the reader will spend less than a second actually reading it. We also need readers to point out that they didn’t care if it was twitch or pulse to begin with because they weren’t sure what the hell was going on in the first place. And we need to listen to them when they tell us these things, even if they aren’t always right.      

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
A poet who was once referred to by their students as the Velvet Hammer once told me that it’s never really finished but it will tell you when it’s ready.

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
The answer to this question is terribly frightening to quite a few writers. We sit at desks and live in worlds that we create. The way to find notice is to leave those worlds and tell others what you have seen there. We have to find others who are equally excited about our work. Other writers, agents, and if we are very lucky, publishers. I have discovered that this happens more often if you step away from your desk, away from your computer and join the conversations that are happening elsewhere. Writing groups, conventions, even writer meet ups are a way to meet others who are in love with stories. There are so many of us now that it is very hard to find notice in a slush pile. It isn’t impossible but it is so much more likely if you are a part of a community of creatives that come together to share their work and spread their talents.

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?

My favorite character to write for was a boy born without a heart. His blood circulated through his body by the action of constant and steady breathing. The story itself contained a cow living on a roof in a large metropolitan city, a love affair with a bus driver, and an old superintendent who spoke with his hands. “Empty”, the name of the piece and the character, was strange and sad, the kind of story that I wrote in one fever dream of an evening and spent a year revising.
 
My least favorite character is an anthropomorphic brain tumor that takes the shape of a woman with a duck’s head. She was an impossible character, a liar and a cheat but also simply a manifestation of the main character as he was dying. Writing her gave me chills.

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
I am most proud of Ration. I wanted to write a story that would last beyond the final pages, that could keep telling itself even as I stopped writing.

And are there any that you would like to forget about?
 
I once wrote a short story about two repo men discussing Meatloaf’s “I‘d Do Anything for Love” as they broke into a dual axle club cab pickup truck in Santa Fe. I still enjoy the characters but I’ll never let that story out into the wild again.

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
I think both Ration and my short story “Sweat” are the best representations of my work. Ration explores the greater darkness of humanity, of what we might lose and what we might give away. “Sweat” is also a type of horror, the horror of memory and invisibility. Both are ultimately about love and loss, about how thin we can stretch our souls before the silver stuff that holds them to our bodies finally breaks.


Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
This is one of my favorite sections from Ration:
 
The building breathes its constant hush, distorted voices, touches of static, the deep belly gurgle of flushing toilets, running taps. It is the dull music of Cynthia’s sleep. It lulls her, and she closes her eyes. So many nights, lying on her thin mattress in the dark. Smelling the sweat of the place, old, harsh soaps, unwashed clothing, even the mattress itself holds the odor of the girls before her. Backs and shoulders carving out the well in the cotton batting she sleeps in. Heels pressing the gentle craters into the seam at the foot. She imagines all of them, all the girls who came before, curled around one another in sleep, holding one another for warmth in the dark and listening to the building whisper its rumors.
 
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
Ration is about hunger, primarily the hunger of the body but also the hunger of the mind and spirit. The world of Ration is defined by the lack of food, of warmth, safety, and honesty. The characters struggle to determine just how much of themselves they are willing to let go to feed the hollow places inside of them.
 
I am currently working on a novel in which a family, fractured and reknitted after a separation by war, faces the growing discordance of a corrupt local government as the father continues to practice a strange ritual of speaking to the dead by drowning himself over and over again.

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?
 
Knowable terrors and understandable monsters. A silver bullet, a sharpened stake, placating the unquiet ghost, all horrors that we can put away safely at the end of the night.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
I have been making my way through Sidney Williams’s novels at the moment. I am addicted to his style. Midnight Eyes is a clever thriller with deep touches of darkness that I enjoy tremendously.
 
I have been spending a lot of time with graphic novels, and I have discovered that I tend to shy away from the characters and stories that tend to treat their readers with a lack of trust.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
I have always wanted to be asked Which? The answer, of course, would be both. 

For more information on Cody and to follow him on social media please click on the links below 

https://codytluff.com/
 
Amazon author page
 
Twitter: @codytluff
Facebook.com/cody.luff

Preorder today and receive 30% off your book! Be sure to use checkout code RATION30 when you place your order. All trade paperback preorders will include the advance reader edition of RATION and will be delivered immediately to your inbox.

Also available for preorder from the following vendors: Amazon (Trade Paperback) |Amazon Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | B&N.com | Google Play
Coming August 13th!
Set in the far future, Ration is an unflinching take on the ways society can both thrive and go wrong as pressure to survive builds.
All the girls who live in the Apartments are forced to weigh their own hunger against the lives of the others living in the building. When Cynthia is wrongly accused of ordering an "A" ration, she punished by the other girls. Eventually, she is forced to leave the Apartments along with Ms. Glennoc, one of the former managers who has tormented and abused her for years. Together, they encounter a world of even more scarcity, but one filled with politics and intrigue. Cynthia struggles to return to the Apartments and help the girls who are still there.
Forced to reconcile her role in the destruction of these girls with the greater needs of society to find any sustainable source of calories, Ms. Tuttle makes one bad decision after another while she grapples with a mother who is growing more and more impatient with her mistakes.
Ration is a dark and forceful book, written in a surprisingly nuanced and accessible way. It combines the darkness and despair of The Road and The Handmaid's Tale, but has notes of charm like Lauren Oliver's Replica.
Cover art by Mikio Murakami
ISNB (TPB) 978-1-937009-75-5

Today we welcome author Jon Black to the site with an interview to promote his new book Gabriel's Trumpet.  We are also offering a chance for the readers of the site to win one of three copies of his book, details of how to enter can be found at the end of the interview, and be sure to check out the excerpt from Gabriel's Trumpet, which was featured on our site yesterday by clicking here 

Multi-award winning author Jon Black Jon Black writes historical fiction with pulp, supernatural, or horror flavors.

His Bel Nemeton series combines 6th century Arthurian historical fantasy with brainy 21st century pulp. Its first book, also called Bel Nemeton, won Best Thriller Novel of 2018 in the Preditors & Editors Readers’ Poll. Reviewers have called the novel “An Intellectual ‘Tomb Raider.’”

Jon is also a two-time winner of P&E’s Best Short Story (All Other Genres): in 2017 for his Jazz Age supernatural mystery, “Gabriel’s Trumpet,” and in 2018 for his pulpy mystery (and Sherlock Holmes homage) “A Scandal in Hollywood” set in Tinsel Town’s Golden Age.

His other publications include “Swinging Londons,” a novel-length Dr. Who story included in Defending Earth, an anthology of Sarah Jane Smith stories raising money for cancer research, as well as many other novellas and short stories.

Jon is also an internationally-published music journalist and music historian, a perspective he brings into much of his fiction. His other writing work includes ghostwriting, speechwriting, and roleplaying games. He has spoken on author outreach, writing for roleplaying games, and the use of music in fiction to ArmadilloCon, the Texas Library Association, and other audiences.
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Jon began writing fiction when he was 43 years-old … and wishes he had started much sooner. Raised in a university town north of Dallas, Jon lived in Egypt for several years, bounced to various locations around the world, and ultimately landed in Austin. His previous jobs include archaeological excavator, Benjamin Franklin impersonator, embassy worker, graduate assistant, newspaper reporter, pizza jockey, political speechwriter, small business owner, substitute teacher, and summer camp counselor…not always in the order one might expect.

WEBSITE LINKS 

www.jonblackwrites.com
www.facebook.com/JonBlackAuthor/
@blackonblues
https://www.amazon.com/Jon-Black/e/B01MEFVIWT

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I am best known as a writer keeping one foot in historical fiction, while using the other foot to drag in elements of horror, pulp, and the supernatural.

In addition to fiction, I am an internationally-published music journalist and music historian, an obsession working its way into much of my fiction. My other writing work includes ghostwriting, speechwriting, and roleplaying games.

Coming to fiction writing relatively late in life, I submitted my first short story when I was 43 … and was fortunate enough to land a book deal out of it.

My previous employment include archaeological excavator, Benjamin Franklin impersonator, embassy worker, graduate assistant, newspaper reporter, pizza jockey, political speechwriter, small business owner, substitute teacher, and summer camp counselor.

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 they way you treated them in your work.

That would have to be New Orleans photographer E.J. Bellocq -- and he would probably be right to do so. A historical figure, Bellocq is justly celebrated for candid and humanizing photographs of the inhabitants of Storyville, New Orleans’ famous/infamous red-light district at the turn of the last century.

In Gabriel’s Trumpet, a visit to Bellocq’s studio provides a clue pivotal to the protagonist’s investigation. While history documents that Bellocq could be eccentric and irascible, my portrayal of him adds a layer of creepy menace that was beneficial to the narrative but not supported by the historical record.

Whenever I deviate from established sources in portraying historical figures, I am careful to detail this in the notes at a story’s end. While Gabriel’s Trumpet is no exception, I’m still not sure I’d want to hear what Mr. Bellocq would have to say about it.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
Long before trying my hand at fiction, I worked as a music journalist and music historian. Through that vocation, I cultivated a highly descriptive, sensate writing style intended to put readers right there at concerts beside me. I bring the same approach to my fiction, especially horror. That passion for music is something I am unable to keep out of my stories. While few are as explicitly musical in their orientation as Gabriel’s Trumpet, music weaves its way into almost everything I write.
 
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?
 
I embrace the term horror, though such a broad label often benefits from supplementing with something more specific, such as Mythos, Gothic, supernatural mystery, etc. I am far from convinced whether there are assumptions regarding horror which need to be broken past. To the extent that a liability exists, I wonder if that is a burden we place upon ourselves by sheepishly acting as if there is something unseemly about what we do rather than singing it loudly and proudly to the world.

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?
 
As a private person, I bemoan so much about our world’s current condition. As an artist, I can at least appreciate that moments of sociopolitical tension are fertile ground for art (Exhibit A: punk music). While much of our current tension will no doubt manifest through the subconscious as good general horror, I think we will see some issues (most notably climate crisis and privacy/identity issues posed by new technology) manifest more explicitly in the horror of coming years.
 
Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?
 
From the Epic of Gilgamesh to the oldest surviving epic poetry of oral traditions, it is clear storytellers and their audiences have always enjoyed an element of the supernatural, the terrifying, and the grotesque. I think horror allows humans to process their fears and anxieties in safe, comfortable, and even pleasurable environment via storytelling.
Regarding supernatural horror specifically, I believe there is an extra appeal because even the darkest of tales contain a hopeful element –positing the presence of “something more” and a broader meaning and context to existence.

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?
 
As with every corner of fiction, we would benefit from a more diverse cast of characters: as protagonists, antagonists, and in every other kind of role. 
 
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 an 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? 
 
This is a critical point. Though our journey is far from complete, authors are increasingly aware of how important respect and sensitivity are in portraying our characters and themes as well as realizing that the concept of “the other” in fiction requires radical reconceptualization.

At the same time, there is a risk that if we grow so timid that we only tell stories about characters like ourselves, we cut ourselves off from the rich and diverse tapestry of human culture, tradition and personality – and writers, readers, and stories themselves are poorer for it.

For writers, this requires a constant balancing act. There will never come a point where we “get it perfectly” with no need for continued refining of our efforts. Rigorous research is the foundation of walking this tight rope. Sensitivity readers are a great resource that authors should take advantage of. It has been my experience that people want you to succeed in telling stories about their community and will usually bend over backward to help you.

All of this was constantly on my mind when writing Gabriel’s Trumpet. It intimately weaves elements of African-American history and culture into its narrative. I was privileged and fortunate to work with historian Jordan O’Neal to ensure I treated these elements as accurately, clearly, and sensitively as possible.

I wrestled with one other point in this regard for Gabriel’s Trumpet. One of the story’s major settings is New York City at the height of Harlem’s Renaissance. But “Harlem Renaissance” is a retronym. The period appropriate term was “The New Negro Movement.” That is a term I was uncomfortable using and ultimately elected to use the anarchistic language (I admit it didn’t hurt that “Harlem Renaissance” is so much more evocative that “The New Negro Movement.”)
 
Does horror fiction perpetuate its own ghettoization?
 
Perhaps. If we do, it is mostly self-imposed through behavior and attitudes that imply we deserve to be in our own dark little corner rather that bathing in the sunlight with other genre fiction. Again, we sometimes as act as if there something shameful and unseemly about what we do.

Such behavior is absurd. If horror has a problem, it is that we are a prisoner of our own success. Whether you’re talking about movies, television, books, graphic novels, roleplaying, or video games; horrific elements have become so ubiquitous in genre fiction that is almost impossible to find an example completely free of our influence. Indeed, if we have a real challenge, it is how to define “pure horror” in contrast to a horror-saturated SF/F multiverse.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
In alphabetical order to avoid favoritism:

I’ve been enjoying J. Patrick Allen’s Dead West series, both as wonderful works in their own right as well as inspiration and insight for my own newly completed Weird West novel.

Recently, I was thoroughly charmed by Madeleine D’Este’s The Flower and the Serpent, a tale straddling the line between horror and supernatural mystery, set against the backdrop of a high-school production of Macbeth.

While fantasy, I want to mention indie author R.J. Hanson’s Roland series. His work contains enough dark elements that I think most horror fans will be satisfied.

I’ve also enjoyed Heidi J. Hetwett’s “paranormal procedural” Past Lives. With its blend of temporal investigation and supernatural overtones, it invokes a flavor very similar to that of Gabriel’s Trumpet.  

Back to horror, but deviating from the printed word, I am also a big fan of Ian Murphey’s gritty urban horror podcast Under the Shroud.
 
What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?

I am a fan of the “good-bad” school of 80s and 90s films. Three films, Big Trouble in Little China, Hudson Hawk, and The Golden Child, are particularly powerful influences. I secretly believe all three of these films took place in the same universe and try to steer my fiction so it would fit seamlessly into such a world.

Harry Turtledove’s alt-history and Caleb Carr’s Alienist series are my gold standard for historical fiction and the use of historical figures in fiction.

A more unusual and subtle influence is YA author Daniel Pinkwater, and his stories of misfit children struggling to fit in to the banality of daily life, before being initiated into the weird and wonderful world hiding just out of plain sight.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
I’m still tickled pink by having my historical fantasy/pulp novel Bel Nemeton described as “Tomb Raider for intellectuals.” Also, positive feedback regarding my use of music in fiction has only further encouraged me in this direction.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
There are two. First, I’ve always needed to resist the temptation to indulge in massive exposition dumps at a story’s beginning. Second, I still struggle with dialogue. Only by ongoing editing can “hear” how dialogue is wrong and gradually fine-tune it to be both believable and interesting.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
Anything involving cruelty to an animal. I just wouldn’t be able to do it.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?

Names are critical. Readers can feel if a name is right for a character and, when they’re not, it distances them from the character and the story. Names usually come pretty easily to me. When I get stuck, I will usually pull out a map (either in real life or online) and look it over until I find a community, a river, a mountain range, whatever, with a name that inspires me.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
In recent works, I find myself gravitating more toward ensemble casts of protagonists, albeit usually still with a clear “main” character. I also tend to do more hinting rather than telling about characters’ backgrounds, except where absolutely essential to the narrative. Additionally, I feel I’ve learned how to whet a reader’s appetite by teasing information out in small bits over time.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?

“Don’t get too hung up on making your first draft perfect, or even necessarily good. The first time around, your only job is to vomit the basic concepts up onto the page.”
A close second is “The only rules in writing are the ones you haven’t gotten away with breaking yet.”  

For 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?

Dr. Vivian Cuinnsey, the main character of the 21st century arc in my Bel Nemton series, is my favorite “child.” Her interests are pretty much identical to mine (but she is much more successful), she owns a wry wit to which I can only aspire, and, let’s face it, who doesn’t want to write the academic with a two-fisted streak?

He’s not a “least favorite” but the most difficult character I’ve ever written is another historical figure appearing in Gabriel’s Trumpet, poet and author Langston Hughes. My conundrum was this: how does a writer write a better writer?

For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
That is a surprisingly tough question. Gabriel’s Trumpet is the epitome of my passion for music working its way into my writing, and many of its locations are places intimately familiar to me. But, in the end, I have to go with Bel Nemeton because it ties together so many of my interests and passions: travel, archeology, folklore, academia, linguistics, adventure, and even occasionally international cuisine.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
It’s funny, it’s not even a major line, but I’ve always loved the sound and imagery of one line from Bel Nemeton, “From the air, Samarkand appeared to be a place apart; a separate creation by some god whose first love was desolation.”
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
Most recently, I completed The Clash at Crush a novel-length Wild West caper story set against the backdrop of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, with a light dusting of steampunk and weird west.

I am now turning my attention to Mark of Cornwall, the third installment of the Bel Nemeton series as well as editing Overdue, an anthology of stories set in a “shared universe” joining the Bel Nemeton books with M.H. Norris’ All the Petty Myths series.

Finally, I am very excited about the ambitious new series from Soteira Press, HorrorUSA, envisioning a 50-volume series, with each volume offering an anthology of horror stories set in a different American State. I have a pieces appearing in their California, Texas, and Washington anthologies and am hopeful my work may make an appearance in several other volumes as well.    
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

I’m not sure that there is truly such an animal as the irredeemable cliché. That being said, there certainly are ones that suffer from overuse and poor use. One that bugs me in particular is the (mis)use of Native Americans (and other indigenous groups) in horror: everything from the “Ancient Indian burial ground,” to the tribal legend providing exposition neatly tied-up with ribbon and bow, to the “magic minority” archetype.

Again, I’m not saying that these need to be taken completely off the table. Stephen King’s Pet Sematary shows that even the “Ancient Indian Burial Ground” can be handled deftly and to great effect. The problem is that they’re usually not. These tropes have become magnets for ham-fisted plot development, lazy exposition, and (at best) questionable cultural sensitivity.

The reason I’m so irked by their misuse is because I would like to use them. Especially in Cosmic Horror, in not unreasonable that phenomena have histories stretching back hundreds or thousands of years, at which point indigenous perspectives become the best lens for exposition. However, because these themes are typically handled so poorly, I tend to shy away from them lest readers get their first whiff of them and immediately set down the book.

This is an ongoing internal debate, maybe someday I’ll take the risk and bite the bullet. I don’t know.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
I just finished Paddy Hirsch’s The Devil’s Half-Mile, a tale of murder, organized crime, and financial shenanigans set in 1799 New York City. There is a plethora of historical fiction set in 1800s New York. But stories set there in the previous century are at least two orders of magnitude less common, and The Devil’s Half-Mile ranks as a jewel among them. It does what great historical fiction must do: present believable characters which readers can connect with across the centuries while still pulling them viscerally into another time and place, and teaching them a few interesting things along the way.

It’s hard for me to talk about books that disappointed me because I generally don’t let it get that far. Life is too short to read books I don’t want to. As soon as am I confident a book isn’t working for me, I put it down and try something else.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
I’ve always wanted to be asked “What’s the weirdest feedback you’ve ever had from a reader?” And I’ve wanted that question specifically so I could relate the following story. It’s probably bad form to make public a comment from a reader, but this one is so singular that I’ve been dying to share it.
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I got an email from reader upset that Bel Nemeton fudges the tenure of Gainas as Archbishop of Alexandria by a couple of years. I understand that every reader has a unique relationship with each story, but it is counterintuitive to me that someone would be okay with the whole “Arthur and Merlin were real people” premise, and all the others implausible-but-not-impossible ideas I inject into the relative tabula rasa of 6th century history, but this tiny little inaccuracy drove them sufficiently to distraction that they had to email me about it.  

That’s the question confronting Dr. Marcus Roads, physician and investigator for the Boston Society for Psychical Research, in this Jazz Age supernatural mystery. Gabriel Gibbs, a jazz trumpet player, was murdered in New Orleans two years ago. Now, Gabriel is back … with a gleaming silver trumpet and preternatural musical talent.

Marcus’s superiors task him with a high-stakes investigation. Is it really Gabriel? Or is someone (or something) claiming to be him? From tracing the musician’s origins in the tragic Mississippi Delta community of Pilate’s Point, Marcus follows in Gabriel’s footsteps through New Orleans and into the mysterious deep bayous. Ending in Harlem at the height of its Renaissance, Marcus searches its streets for his ultimate goal: a face-to-face encounter with the trumpeter whose life threatens to consume his Marcus’s own.

The latest work by award-winning novelist and music historian Jon Black, Gabriel’s Trumpet simmers in the music and musical scene of the 1920s. Having walked in the same footsteps as his characters, Jon vividly brings to life the great locations of America’s Jazz Age, putting readers right in the action alongside Marcus as he struggles to answer two questions…

Who, really, is Gabriel Gibbs?

And what is the truth behind Gabriel’s Trumpet?

​Read an excerpt here