Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Sure thing. I’m the author of eight novels, and I’m most known for my Blackmoore Legacy series of which there are two novels, Blackmoore and Symphony for the Devil, along with a two-part prequel novella, Rise of the Nephilim and Fall of the Nephilim, and will be followed next year (hopefully) by the third book in the series, The Beckoning One. It’s a series focused on Trevor Blackmoore, who is seventeen in the first book, and who comes from a secretive family of rumored witches (which they are,) and all the complications that come from that.
   I am an out and proud gay man who writes horror and I co-host a podcast called Queerly Spoken, which is focused on curating the LGBTQ experience in all of its fantastic complexity. I love to cook, it’s a passion of mine for sure, and any excuse to drink champagne (which is pretty much all the time) I will find it. I live with my husband and my adorable Staffordshire Nikita.

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.

Honestly, that would be all of my characters. I’m not easy on them, that’s for sure. But two specific ones come to mind. In my novel Blackmoore, there is a character named Christian Vasquez, who is a dick when you first meet him, but as the story goes, you see how really complicated he is, and his love for Trevor Blackmoore, which goes back a long way, gets used against Trevor by Christian, and in turn Christian gets it used against him. In the end, Christian redeems himself but things don’t turn out the best, and I think he would have a lot of bitterness towards me. Actually I’m sure of it. Often I feel him hovering over me with that bitterness. But he’s not exactly out of the picture.

The other is Andy Stone, who is a character from Ghosts of Blood and Bone, my latest novel. This one is complicated because every single person in the novel is based off of real people, and Andy gets a raw deal, but she’s also not a really likeable person, and so though she would complain till blue in the face, I don’t really feel bad for her.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
Music. I write to music. I put together playlists for every book, individual songs for scenes and chapters, and certain songs end up assigned to particular characters. I am inspired more by music than anything else. Also, architecture, geography, the news. The works of Gore Vidal, Jim Grimsley, Edmund White, Michelle Tea, etc. great queer authors, both living and dead, who have chronicled the richness of our lives. 

In my work it has always been important to me to show that queer people can be heroes too. That young gay boys, no matter how butch or effeminate, can see that they can be heroes and save the world too. We aren’t weak or need to be rescued. Being an outsider is where our strength and resilience lies. Every person I write about teaches me something about survival, and in their worlds—worlds filled with breathing shadows—I get closer to understanding my own journey as a queer person and the experiences that bind us all together. No matter how individual our own personal journeys are. That’s the beauty of writing. That’s the power of literature; all the lives we get to inhabit.
 
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 love it. I think horror is amazing. Horror and gothic literature lives in the space of grief. Grief is a powerful thing. The constant sense of loss and a refusal to give up the ghost—whether that ghost is metaphoric or literal. It is a bleakness and a pain that gives the darkness life and keeps the dead from moving on.
  
It is a genre that deals with the big things. Life. Death. Gods and Devils. Questions of morality, good and evil, and everything in between. I think that has always made people uncomfortable. Even in the slasher sub-genre, we have the concept of original sin—that thing that sets everything else into motion later on, and that always begins in a loss and grief of some kind. Horror explores the brutality of ourselves more than it shows anything else. Ghosts are everywhere in the horror genre. Whether they be actual vengeful spirits and beings, or people haunted by the ghost of experience and memory. They exist in the places we refuse to see, because those places are in the corner of every eye and within every shadow, and facing them means facing ourselves and that historically has made people uncomfortable because they don’t want to be reminded of how dark the night really can be. Do I think we can really break these apprehensive or negative connotations of horror? Probably not. It is getting embraced more and more, thanks to popular shows and groundbreaking films, but I think it’ll always have a stigma to fight against.

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?
 
More explorations of Us versus Them. The terror of being marginalized and oppressed in an increasingly fanatical, nationalist, religious world. We’re watching a terrifying seismic shift in the western/free world, where oppressive movements—these dark relics of the past—are gaining so much support and traction.
  
Horror will do what it always does and does effectively; it’ll continue to shine the light on the worst of ourselves and continue to supply cautionary tales of what can happen when all of these things are taken too far. Horror has this amazing capacity, whether film or literature, to show us viscerally what the end of the road can look like if we continue to follow it, and often it makes us ask ourselves what our own capacity to hurt others, and what we do and do not value, really is.

Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?
 
 It’s a safe release. It’s the ability to explore our fears—to face what scares us and to have the assuredness of knowing that no matter how terrifying it can get, we can close the book and put it back on the shelf and get back to our lives, where by and large, the things we are reading about will never touch us personally in our real world. It can also help us cope with the terrible things that have touched us. It can sound weird for example, for someone who has had a loved one killed brutally, turn around and watch a bunch of slashers or for someone who has experienced the impact of suicide to then turn around and watch or read stories about angry, sad, lingering ghosts who took their own lives, but it can be a catharsis that no other genre can provide the same way horror can, because horror isn’t nice. It doesn’t sugar coat, it doesn’t fade to black. It takes you through all of it and we need that.

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


Queer representation. Being a queer horror author, I can tell you this genre is historically a ‘white straight boys club’ even though women, LGBTQ people, and people of color are some of the largest and most fanatic consumers of horror, we find ourselves continually and systematically shut out of it.
  
There is an uphill (more like a mountain) battle for queer authors, regardless of whatever genre they are writing in, to get the same kind of traction and to be embraced by readers the same way straight authors writing about cis-hetero main characters and focused stories receive. In the film industry, even amazing queer storylines get the short end of the stick, because the production quality is so low. Simply because the studios don’t want to touch it, they don’t think it’ll have a broad enough appeal/waste of money/can’t be “marketed properly” etc. so we have to rally and do what we can ourselves to tell our stories, but because of the quality of production and the ‘cheap’ feeling to it, it’s hard for even us to watch them.
  
It’s really not the filmmaker’s faults, it’s just funding is a mountain with a summit that’s hard to reach. So many queer authors, especially in horror, have no other choice but to self-publish, because for all of our progress, a lot of publishers just don’t want to take on queer lit, especially when it’s horror. Writing memoir, coming-of-age, YA, stories of coming out, AIDS, these are the things publishers are more likely to take on when it comes to accepting queer novels, but horror? That’s just too weird. Even if the only thing queer about it is the character or characters themselves and not the story’s plot; it’s still too risky.
  
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? 


First, I don’t believe in censorship in art. Art is the enemy of censorship. Horror especially is the enemy of censorship. Horror is not safe. Horror is a place where all things can and should be tackled. I’m gay. I’m mixed. I write and explore the subjects and things that I know. If a character is African American or some other race or nationality, aside from mentioning it in character description, that’s about as far as it goes. I focus on who they are as people. If I have a racist character and they say something derogatory or offensive, well, that’s life. That’s the world we live in. obviously a character like that would more than likely be an antagonistic character, and would either evolve or something bad will happen to them.
 
I have characters who are homophobic and heterosexist (obviously) and they say terrible and derogatory things, but again, that’s reality. I’m not advocating for or perpetuating those views, but I’m not going to leave out reality in order to ensure someone isn’t offended by the F-word or anything else.
 
Parents calling on schools for bans on books like To Kill a Mocking Bird and Huckleberry Finn, these books, are not only a product of the times and our history that we shouldn’t be running from, but their authors were not racists nor did they advocate for the mistreatment and abuse of POC. This whole safe space, cancel culture thing—it’s not good. Shutting down opposing viewpoints, demanding everyone’s heads; bullying and attacking authors—it’s pathetic.
 
I am gay. My responsibility, my mission as a queer person is to write about that. To tell stories that anyone can enjoy, but to do so through the lens of queerness. Toni Morrison famously said, that she writes outside the white man’s gaze, and when she’s writing, she’s writing to black people, free of having to explain anything to white readers about blackness.
 
I write without the cis-hetero gaze hovering over me. I have a lot of straight-identified readers, and yet I don’t worry if they are understanding the things I am and am not referencing when it comes to the queer experience.

For many queer people, growing up is a constant horror, and you spend your life terrified and hiding from everyone, and sometimes really awful horrific things happen to us—it did to me, and in horror that’s what I get to tackle, that’s what I get to approach and shed light on and explore. It could offend people or anger people who strive hard for this social media purity of ‘wokeness’ and I’m aware at any time that the mob could suddenly come after me out of the blue, but so what? I have had hundreds of cis-straight people call me a faggot from a passing car or walking down the street, I’ve been bullied and attacked everyday as a teen who was the only openly gay kid in school, and twice I’ve been gay bashed brutally and I was surprised both times that I somehow lived.

I don’t fear mobs and I don’t bow down to them. Horror and art is dangerous. Literature is dangerous. It’s dangerous because it takes you places, and you may not always like where it goes or what it reveals. But unless the author and the work is openly advocating harm and destruction of other communities and groups, actively promoting oppression and enslavement as good things, then the rabble needs to shut up.

Human life and people are complicated, messy, and so uniquely individual and we have no right to go after people with some litmus test of being woke. If you’re spending all this time harassing, stalking, dictating, attacking on social media, then you’re not living life and you obviously have nothing better to do and I feel sorry for you.

Does horror fiction perpetuate its own ghettoization?  For example Julia Armfield’s latest collection Salt Slow has a cover that most horror fans would walk past in a book shop, and is one that probably is not marketed as horror, does the genre’s obsession with horrific covers cause more harm than good?
 
I think the only obligation of a great cover is that it reflects the story between it. I definitely think that means the cover should evoke horror or the gothic in some way. Salt Slow is definitely a book that based on the cover does not reflect those things, but from what I understand, it kind of crosses a lot of genres. If I saw it in the horror section, I think it’s lack of horrific imagery would actually pique my interest, if for no other reason than I would be like “what the hell is this noise?” so that may be to its benefit.
 
Does horror create its own ghettoization? Of course it does. It’s horror. It attracts who it attracts and repels who it doesn’t. We also have this skewed definition of ‘literary’ fiction. Often what is given the badge of literary merit and considered intellectual is pedestrian realism. Coming-of-age-human-condition-the-struggle-is-real kind of stuff. Genre is often dismissed as childish/entertainment/escapism. Rarely do people explore what it actually means. A prime example is the misogyny accusation hurled at the slasher genre and yet, we have the mythology of the Final Girl, and that final character was made almost deity-like in horror mythos in Buffy Summers. The ultimate Final Girl. We understand that of all genres, especially in film, Horror uplifts and celebrates the strength and power of women and the feminine. It’s not about the casualties, it’s not about the women who are killed along the way, both men and women are fair game in horror, but nine times out of ten, the hero—the chosen one, is a woman.

But horror has its stigma, as most genres do, and sadly, horror is considered as degrading and smutty as the worst porno for a lot of people. It doesn’t really get taken seriously. With films like Get Out, Us, Midsommer, The VVitch, etc. we’re seeing the same critics looking at the genre with new eyes, and I think they are now finally starting to see what we’ve all known about the genre all along.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
Benjamin Hively comes to mind. His novel, The House the Devil Built impressed me as a debut, but by and large, I don’t read a whole lot of new authors unless we connect through social media or at a party or something. Drew Forest is another one. His book The Corpse Rooms was fantastic. Queer authors of horror are really exploring and doing fantastic things in their work, and more people—the cis-hetero majority—really need to start paying attention to the fantastic stories we’re telling. Just because it’s queer, doesn’t mean there isn’t anything you can’t relate to or identify with.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
How much time do you have?

Let’s see… Interview with the Vampire (both film and book), The Virgin Suicides (both film and book), Dream Boy, A Density of Souls and The Snow Garden, Exquisite Corpse, The Value of X, Liquor, Prime, and Soul Kitchen, The City and the Pillar, Messiah, The Hellbound Heart, Candyman, Hellraiser and Hellrasier II, Valencia, Dark Shadows (1990), Original Halloween, Halloween II, and H20, Nosferatu (Both 1922 and 1979), Dracula (1931), almost every Hammer film, A Boy’s own Story, Stella Maris and Other Key West Stories, Little Reef, The Boy’s in the Band, Other Voices, Other Rooms, In Cold Blood, Haxen, The Tropic of Cancer, Less Than Zero, The Client, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Summer of ’84, Fantasia, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Fashion documentaries… honestly, the list goes on and on. All of these things converged; blending with art, history, and defining and powerful songs and musicians to create the tapestry of who I am and what I write and explore.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
My novel, Symphony for the Devil, the second novel in my Blackmoore Legacy series was described by The Manhattan Book Review as descended from the same lineage that gave us Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. That review confirmed to me that everything I had hoped to achieve with that novel was achieved and re-confirmed for me that I’m doing something right and what I’m meant to do.

For years I was in such a dark place due to a terrible heartbreak, that I was unable to write anything. As a result my career was slipping away from me. I was honestly uncertain if I would ever write again. I kept telling people Symphony was a work in progress, but the truth was, I thought it would never be completed. But then I finally got the closure I had been waiting for, for years, and it opened up that part of myself again, and the rest of the book poured out of me and I got it finished, and it was so well received and my first signing event for it was a packed house. It was such an incredible thing to remember who I am and that I can touch people with my words. It is a bar that once set, I have fought to keep that standard for myself.

The negative review that stuck out the most had actually nothing to do with the writing or the story telling or anything else, and I hesitate to call it a review because it was so absurd and therefore I’m not even going to name the review site or the reviewer. It was for my novel Blackmoore, the first in the series, and her issue with the novel was that the main character, Trevor Blackmoore, had not one, but two male love-interests, and for her, that was just not realistic for her since they were seniors in high school. Yet, she had reviewed other books with opposite sex love triangles set in a high school and loved them and believed them, etc. but when it came to a love triangle involving three boys, she just couldn’t wrap her head around it, and therefore gave it three out four stars.

 That’s the kind of ridiculous stigma and heterosexism that I was talking about earlier. The book wasn’t given a fair shake all because two guys were interested in Trevor at the same time.


What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
Starting. Literally that first paragraph. I research and research so much that when it’s time to start writing I can convince myself I still have more research to do, even though I’ve read 52 books in prep for said novel, I can still feel not ready. Also, picking the voice.

None of my novels sound the same. The voice and structure of Blackmoore echos that of 19th century Victorian gothic novels and penny dreadfuls, Symphony echoes the horror novels and sagas of the Gilded Age (1900-1920) like The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. For Ghosts of Blood and Bone, I re-read a lot of thrillers and contemporary American Gothic novels that I love and have always inspired me to get to the desk and start typing. A few examples are The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, which I think is one of the most perfect books ever written, along with Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite (Billy Martin), A Density of Souls and The Snow Garden by Christopher Rice, and The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris.


The voice—the language and syntax should reflect the kind of book it is. I love when readers of my books catch that. That each one sounds different and each books’ voice is intentional in that difference.

These are the things that can drive me insane and cause stagnation. The fear of starting, the fear of being too ambitious, and then failing in that ambition.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
Not really. I will probably never write a book with a straight male character as the central focus/main character. My straight male characters will probably always remain supporting because that’s a skin I can inhabit in small doses, but not for a whole novel. I just can’t connect with it and honestly I don’t want to. It’s the queer experience, particularly the gay male experience that I write about. It’s those stories and that lens that I am coming from and what I want to tell. But when it comes to actual subjects? No, there isn’t anything I won’t write. If it catches me and demands to be explored then I will.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
No. The names come with the characters. When they show up, their name usually comes with them. Sometimes I do have to hunt for names because the character has shown up, but they are still in the distance, and I know I have them if I stumble upon names and they suddenly come into being. That’s when I know their name has been found.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
        
Just growth. Each book is a constant evolution for authors. I started writing at a really young age, and I was submitting to publishers by the time I was fourteen. Obviously none of these things would result from anything, but it got me going early. I landed my first agent when I was 19 and my first publishing credit was at the age of 20 or 21 with Alyson Books which for two decades was like the Knopf/Random House of LGBTQ publishing, and I had a long career with them writing for their various anthologies, and I can see the evolution of my skills through all of those stories in all of those collections. As you get older and keep writing, the writing changes with you. It sharpens, you learn what works and what doesn’t, and with each story, with each novel, you continue to hone that skill.

Reading voraciously and dissecting the books you love, their use of language, especially if they are books that inspire you to sit down and write are all ways of sharpening your skills and feeding your talent.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
Never stop writing the book you want to write, and never stop exploring what inspires you and terrifies you, no matter how different or strange it can seem. Always maintain your integrity because readers will know if you don’t believe in the story you’re telling. So only write what you believe in. My strength is telling the story through the characters, and not just the plot and events. I get to all those things through the journey of the characters that these things are happening to. I don’t respond to novels with flat, one or two-dimensional characters. I thrive in description and emotion and it is through the people who inhabit my worlds that I most effectively tell the stories I want to tell. Learn what things are your strengths—where you excel the most—and use those strengths everywhere you can to write something that pierces the heart of what you care about to make readers care about it too.

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 actually call my characters the Boys. Even though, yes, there are female characters, it’s my male characters—the gay boys—that bring the others into the room with them. Out of all my Boys, my favorite is Trevor Blackmoore. We are very different, but in other ways, very similar. Trevor came into my life and changed it forever. When the time comes and our journey together is over, I think the pain I will feel—the loss—will be some of the most profound I will ever experience. As for my least favorite? I don’t really have one, honestly. If I don’t like writing about them then I just don’t. I have to understand all of my characters. I will say I have written about some vicious Boys and when I’m alone with them it can leave me in a dark place, but that only means that hopefully I’m  translating that to you, the reader.

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

Of all of them? The Blackmoore books and my latest, Ghosts of Blood and Bone. These are the books I would direct people to if they are reading me for the first time. They get to the heart of who I am and what I can do and do exceptionally well, and huge pieces of me are throughout them. Don’t read too much into that last statement though. Nothing irks me more than when people super impose me on the main protagonist. No matter what of my life finds itself in the narrative, they are not me, and a lot of those experiences have been modified from the facts of them. 

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

The last sentence from the prologue of Ghosts of Blood and Bone:
“No one would forget this year. It would always be there in the back of their minds—the day they were forced to grow up, the day that killed them. That day in spring when flowers bloomed and school gods fell, their thrones left vacant and unattended. A day like none other.”
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
  
Ghosts of Blood and Bone is my latest, and to sum it all up, I will just give the tease from the publisher:

“When four eighth-graders experience the sudden death of a school bully, they are drawn back together years later by the dark secret it involves and the terrifying force hiding in the shadows. Ghosts of Blood and Bone is a lyrical and haunting exploration of trauma, love, and the loss of innocence. This engrossing, ominous psychological horror-thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat and linger long after the book is closed. It is Christopher Rice’s A Density of Souls meets I know What You Did Last Summer. A smart and compelling entry into the slasher genre.”
 
What I’m working on next is the third Blackmoore novel, The Beckoning One. It’s been a year and a half of research and three research trips and mountains of notes. The research process is very thorough for me and I probably do more research than I really need to, but it’s important to me that I get everything right. Even if two books worth of research on something culminates in a couple of paragraphs in the actual novel, the reader will know that everything available to learn about it has ended up there. 

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?
 
Honestly, it’s just in film, and it’s the jump-scare. Especially the false jump-scare. You hear something, then a cat or friend appears, leaves, and then the real bad happens. It gets used so, so much. I’ve counted eleven of these in some films, and it has gotten used so often that now you can always spot when it is coming. Along with the “ah-ha, gotcha” ending. It makes it super predictable. I’m not saying get rid of them, but lordy, they need to be reduced and used more sparingly by filmmakers.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
The last great book I re-read in horror was Exquisite Corpse. It just guts you in the best possible way. The last great book I read for the first time, and that I’m ashamed to admit took me forever to finally get to id Mysterious Skin. I have already seen the film many times, but the novel wrecked me in a different way than the film did. It wrecked me in the best way.
 
The last book to disappoint me? The novel I know What You Did Last Summer. It’s not a slasher. There is no body count, everyone is okay in the end. I get the story behind the author and what happened to her in her own life, and I understand why she didn’t like the film, as it was a skeleton of her actual book and she didn’t like slashers. The film was all of the bones of the book but not its meat. As a film, the book had to be turned into a slasher to be effective and to translate, and there is still so much meat there, just a different type. The book just sort of peters out and I kept waiting for the pay off. It builds and builds to what you think is the horror you’re going to get, but then you don’t and yay, happy ending.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
Honestly, I have no idea. There’s a couple I would have listed, but you actually asked them. So thanks for that!  

Michelle R. Lane writes dark speculative fiction about women of color who battle their inner demons while falling in love with monsters. Her work includes elements of fantasy, horror, romance, and occasionally erotica. In January 2015, Michelle graduated with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her short fiction appears in the anthologies Dark Holidays, and Terror Politico: A Screaming World in Chaos. Her debut novel, Invisible Chains, will be available from Haverhill House Publishing July 2019. She lives in South Central Pennsylvania with her son.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
I never know what to say when I’m asked to tell people about myself. Because identity is always evolving and mutating, I never feel like the same person from day to day. But I suppose my origin story has something to do with being a multiethnic woman of color born and raised in Pennsylvania in the United States.
 
I grew up in a homogenously white, rural community and dealt with varying degrees of bigotry and racism that masqueraded as acceptable social norms. I was born in the early 70s, which was a chaotic time of racially charged outrage and political protest. The historical events and social climate of that time helped to shape the person I am today, and they have had an influence on my voice as a writer and what I choose to write about.
 
But, I’m also a single mom who works full-time, so balancing the priorities of my life can be challenging. Writing is a priority. When it isn’t at the top of my list, when I’m not writing every day, my mood shifts and I get very cranky.

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

I love to read, but lately I don’t feel like I have a lot of time to do that. So, instead I listen to audiobooks while I’m walking to work or doing chores around the house. And, I love watching TV shows and movies. I suppose you could call me a narrative junkie. Hi, I’m Michelle, and my drug of choice is escapism.
 
I also enjoy spending time with my son and going out for a drink with friends. I like to cook, because I love to eat good food and I was raised by some of the best cooks in the world.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I’m a fan of all speculative fiction, so science fiction and fantasy have been major influences on my writing as well as horror. I tend to prefer the darker side of these genres, and probably have my grandparents to thank for that. Until she passed away, my grandmother collected every Stephen King novel in first edition, and they were on display in the bookshelves that lined her dining room. She also collected Richard Nixon memorabilia, which helped me learn to appreciate the complexity of the human psyche. My grandfather preferred to read Louis L’Amour Westerns, but he introduced me to The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and fostered my love of 1960s spy films and TV shows.
 
I found a copy of Anaïs Nin’s Little Birds and Delta of Venus in my early teens. I’ve been fascinated by erotica and the representation of sexuality in art and fiction ever since, which has also had an impact on what I write.
 
I spent a lot of time reading about feminist theory, queer theory, gender politics, and race politics as an English major, which gave my academic writing a certain flavor, and whenever possible, I would slip in a reference to vampires and/or fairy tales. Fairy tales have had a major impact on my work, and two of my favorite books on the subject are The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood, by Jack Zipes and Morphology of the Folktale, by Vladimir Propp.
 
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 a lot of people who haven’t explored the vast range of narratives within the genre have a very narrow, and often negative view of horror. Horror is really the genre of emotions, and I think because people have a hard time confronting their own feelings, it can be difficult to enjoy stories that focus on some of the more unpleasant and terrifying aspects of human nature.
 
While I was earning my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, we were assigned a common reading that we would discuss at each residency. During one of my last residencies, we were assigned Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, which is one of my favorite books of all time. It was the first time a horror novel had been assigned since I entered the three-year program. To be fair, I think categorizing this novel as solely horror does it a disservice. It is a multi-genre novel that delves into fantasy and horror with a literary writing style. NOS4A2 is a masterpiece of fiction. So, I was very excited to talk about it at residency.
 
When we began discussing the novel, it became very clear that people who didn’t write or read horror fiction were upset about having to read the book. They couldn’t get past the child abduction, rape and murder to see that this is a very dark fantasy novel with an amazingly strong female lead who defeats a terrifying villain and saves her family. Not only could they not see beyond the horror, but they were angry with the horror writers in the program and accused us of being very sick individuals.
 
Fortunately, the faculty used this experience as a learning opportunity and had further discussions about how people view genres. ALL GENRES. We talked about some of the negative perceptions people held about romance fiction and discovered that a lot of people didn’t view the romance writers among us as serious fiction writers.
 
It was an eye-opening experience for all of us and I think it brought us closer together as a community regardless of what genre we enjoyed writing and reading. I think more conversations, more exposure to different kinds of narratives, and a willingness to share opinions can go a long way toward breaking down the stereotypes associated with horror fiction.


A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?
 
As more diverse voices emerge within the genre, I think that we will have more stories that redefine horror on a very personal level. Stories that look at identity politics as well as horrific experiences that can only be told from the POV of people who have experienced them. I wrote a mixed-genre slave narrative with supernatural characters. Yes, there are monsters, but the history of slavery in America and all the terrible violence associated with it create the real element of horror in the novel.
 
I’ve also noticed that film and TV writers are using horror as a liberal seasoning to science fiction and fantasy narratives. Oddly enough, I think the obsession people have with reality TV has sparked an increase in the desire for sensationalism. Horror seems to appeal to more people as we examine how unsettling real human behavior can be, which may be why shows like Black Mirror are so popular.

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


When I was in my teens, I wanted to write like Anne Rice. The Vampire Chronicles created a strong desire in me to write about vampires. But, as an English major, I started reading more classical fiction and philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Michel Foucault, and I began thinking about writing in a very different way. Then I discovered Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Octavia Butler and Jewelle Gomez, and realized I wanted to write like them. It occurred to me that stories do more than entertain. Language has the power to start revolutions and open people up to the endless possibilities in the Universe.
 
Images, like language, can also change your view of the world. In college, I took several film studies courses and watched many of the films that defined the art form. Classic cinema led me to explore more films based on who was directing them rather than subject matter or genre. And I became obsessed with silent films and foreign language films. It’s difficult to point to one film or director and say, “That influenced my writing.” I think the art of filmmaking has influenced my writing more than films themselves. The narrative devices, the use of scenery, or color, and the casting of characters. And most importantly, dialog and how it is used to tell a story.

How would you describe your writing style?
 
Recently, a friend contacted me and told me she had a dream in which Oprah declared me the Alice Walker of Horror. I laughed about it at first, but then started thinking about that as a concept.
 
How would I describe my writing style? Invisible Chains is a supernatural slave narrative with monsters. Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a horror novel in my opinion, Black Southern Gothic Horror. I don’t know if that’s a recognized genre, but that’s what came to mind when I read it. Morrison’s novel affected me deeply and had a lasting impression. It’s a ghost story set in the South after the Civil War and it is filled with powerful images that explore the idea that slavery had a lasting physical and psychological effect on the people who suffered under it. I wanted to achieve something like that.
 
In my bio, I claim that I write dark speculative fiction about women of color battling their personal demons while falling in love with monsters. I believe that to be true for most of my work. But is that a writing style? I don’t know.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
I have gotten some amazing reviews of Invisible Chains. It’s a little strange to have people read your work and say that some of the scenes brought them to tears. I never really expected to have that kind of impact, but I am beyond grateful for that kind of feedback.
 
I loved the review Ben Walker did for his YouTube series, Bizarre eBook Review. I was kind of amazed by the time and effort he put into it and I loved the pop culture references he chose to talk about the book.
 
But, by far, the best review I’ve gotten has been from one of the writers who inspired and gave me courage to write the stories I wanted to tell. A few months ago, I was seeking reviewers and writers who would be willing to blurb my book. I contacted Roxane Gay and she declined, but very politely. Then, I contacted Jewelle Gomez and she agreed to read the book. Her feedback was very positive, and after reading her blurb I floated around on a cloud for a few days.

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

The self-exploration can be difficult. I put a lot of myself and the people I know into my writing and I am often shocked when I go back and read something I wrote several months or years ago and see a snapshot of the feelings and experiences I was going through at that time. It can be wonderfully cathartic, too.
 
Procrastination brought on by self-doubt can be a real stumbling block from me at times. I don’t suffer from writer’s block; I suffer from imposter syndrome and the anxiety caused by those emotions.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
I tend to write about subjects that make many people uncomfortable, so I’m not sure what would be out of bounds for me.  Invisible Chains has rape, murder, and incest – something for the whole family. I like the challenge of tackling difficult subjects, unusual settings, and diverse characters. So, at this point, I don’t think there’s a subject I would avoid writing about.


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 characters are important to me. I try to find names that are appropriate for specific time periods and the cultural practices of certain ethnic groups or nationalities. I think about their economic standing as well. And their personalities. Sometimes, I’ll hear a name while listening to the news or overheard while eavesdropping and write it down to use later. And, in some cases, the names of my characters are based on real people from my life, like Carlos Velasquez, the vampire in my novel.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?
 
When I was writing for an audience of one (myself), I really didn’t plan on publishing any of my work because I didn’t think it was very good. And, in some ways, I felt freer to write about whatever I wanted. But after I decided to apply to the MFA program and had to share my work with others, I realized that writing in a vacuum wasn’t going to help me improve my writing. Working with writing mentors and critique partners forced me to not only learn better writing skills but start thinking of myself as a REAL writer.
 
When I’m writing a first draft, I still try to write the story I want to read without listening to the voice in my head telling me to edit for an imaginary audience. It’s hard not to listen to that voice sometimes, but I find that if I can ignore it, I usually end up with a much better story.


What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
 
Books. The more you read and the more variety of books you choose to read go a long way to making you a better writer.

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


RECON! One of my friends and unofficial writing mentors from my MFA program, Timons Esaias, told me that one of the best ways to break through a writing block, to figure out how to write a particular scene, or, you know, write that pesky middle part of your book between the beginning and end, was to find similar books within your genre and see what other people are doing.
 
You simply go find a stack of books that are attempting to tell a similar story and you read them to figure out what to do next. I ended up reading a lot of real slave narratives to see how they were written. Many slave narratives were first-hand accounts that were recorded and then later transcribed by someone else. Some were written by former slaves.
 
I struggled with finding Jacqueline’s voice for a long time, but after reading first-hand accounts of people who survived slavery, I had a better sense of how she needed to tell her story.

Getting your work noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
For the most part, I have been using social media (Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, LinkedIn, etc.) to get the message out about my novel and short stories. It seems to be working so far. I’ve made connections through friends, and I reached out to people and asked them for favors – blurbs, reviews, interviews. Sometimes, people say no. That’s okay. But if you don’t ask, the answer is always no. It helps to reciprocate also. If a friend does a review or interview on their blog, you should try to return the favor.
 
Beyond that, I don’t know. I’m planning some face-to-face events like book signings and readings, but I’m open to any advice for how to get more people interested in reading my work.

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 characters to write are my villains and antagonists. I love writing dialog and the thought processes of monsters. I had a lot of fun writing the dialog between Jacqueline and Carlos, and the three-way conversations between them and Aleister Gale. I enjoyed writing their arguments, but my favorite parts to write were the suggestive comments and attempts at seduction from Carlos to Jacqueline. He is a delightful pervert, and one of my favorite characters to write.
 
At the moment, I’m struggling to finish a short story and what is most difficult is figuring out what the supporting characters should be saying to my protagonist. A lot of my stories begin with a line of dialog, or a phrase, and I just can’t seem to get these people talking to each other. It’s driving me crazy.

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


I am most proud of Invisible Chains. It’s the first full-length novel I’ve completed, and it was my MFA thesis project. I worked very hard to bring this book into the world and I am absolutely thrilled that people actually enjoy reading it.
 
And are there any that you would like to forget about?
 
I wrote an obscene amount of Duran Duran fan fiction as a teenager that I pray has been lost in the winds of time.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
One of my favorite lines in the book is, “Vampires are terrifying creatures, driven by an insatiable cannibalistic hunger and murderous urges. I was glad to have one at my side when I left the safety of the Lynches’ house.”
 
I think it shows just how complicated Jacqueline’s life is. She isn’t exactly safe in her master’s house. She doesn’t feel safe wandering the streets of New Orleans after dark. But the company of a vampire whom she doesn’t completely trust provides a sense of safety she doesn’t experience anywhere else. And, it shows us just how seductive and manipulative Carlos can be.
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?


I’ve only written one book and that’s pretty much all I’ve been talking about lately. But I’ve started plotting out the sequel to Invisible Chains, which I’m tentatively calling Blood Work.
 
And, I’ve been working on another series for several years that I just need to finish. It’s an erotic dark fantasy series about a succubus promised to a demon in an arranged marriage that will prevent the Apocalypse. It examines how polyamory tests the boundaries of a long-term committed relationship between two people who are completely in love while preventing the end of the world.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?
 
I think that’s an unfair question. Tropes and clichés help define a genre and make them recognizable for a broader audience. If we’re talking about horror films specifically, there are certain things many people probably think are done to death that I still enjoy – spooky settings like a basement or attic in a haunted house, jump scares, character types like paranormal experts and wholesome families with dark secrets, and stories based on actual events that are supported by found footage.
 
Sometimes, the familiarity of a genre can be comforting. I watch horror films to relax and spend quality time with my son. We are both diehard fans of The Conjuring and Insidious franchises. We love the recurring characters and disjointed timelines that connect different parts of an unfolding story.
 
We just went to see Annabelle Comes Home last weekend and we watched Insidious: The Last Key the weekend before and loved both even though they were completely ridiculous at times. Say what you will about the clichés found in these films, but the malevolent spirits, creepy backstories of the characters, and occasional comic relief make them enjoyable films.

​ 
Joshua Chaplinsky is the Managing Editor of LitReactor.com. He is the author of ‘Kanye West—Reanimator.’ His short fiction has been published by Motherboard, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Thuglit, Severed Press, Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, Pantheon Magazine, and Broken River Books. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @jaceycockrobin. More info at joshuachaplinsky.com. And check out his books at his Amazon Author Page 
 
Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
In West Philadelphia, born and raised… Just kidding. I live in Queens with my wife and two kids, Donut and Nino. I work in film production as an assistant office coordinator. I’ve been the Managing Editor of LitReactor.com since its inception in 2011. I’m the author of the hip-hop/horror mashup, Kanye West—Reanimator. I co-directed a no-budget documentary on Chuck Palahniuk with two guys who have gone on to have actual Hollywood careers. I knew I wanted to be a writer since high school, but didn’t start pursuing it (semi-) seriously until a few years ago. The internet really helped facilitate that.


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.
 
Most of my characters are pretty troubled, if not outright horrible people, so I probably wouldn’t want to meet any of them. I barely like the people I like! I suppose it would be interesting to meet the real Kanye West and hear his thoughts on how I portrayed him in Kanye West—Reanimator. Preferably in public, with witnesses. For my own safety.
 
Or that poor character I gave a gasoline enema to. Yeah, he didn’t deserve that.


Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I’d say screenwriting, as a form. I spent a good ten plus years writing screenplays before I decided I wanted people to actually read what I wrote. But the minimalist style of the screenplay has stuck with me, especially when it comes to short stories.
 
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?
 
Personally, I love horror, and it’s a term that draws me in, especially when it comes to movies. When it comes to books, I have to admit I skew more to the weird and literary side of horror. I know sometimes those terms are viewed as part of the problem, that all genre is literary and shouldn’t be ghettoized. I guess what I’m trying to say is I like my horror atypical. And I’m more willing to throw away 90 minutes on a movie that might be terrible than spend a week or more reading a bad book.
 
As for assumptions, I think from a marketing standpoint, certain assumptions are viewed as a positive, at least by marketing types. I don’t think those are gonna change much, at least not in the mainstream.

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 horror continuing to do what it’s been doing so well for so many years now, which is addressing issues people are hesitant to talk about otherwise. It might require a little more ingenuity, though. I think it’s getting harder to present evil as an abstraction, because real evil has become so cartoonish and abstract.

Given the dark, violent and at times grotesque nature of the horror genre why do you think so many people enjoy reading it?
 
Because it’s the fucking coolest! Also, confronting your fears in a safe space, escaping reality—the usual armchair psychoanalytical stuff.

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?
 
If I had the answer to that, I’d keep it to myself and write it! Horror has become so broad, there’s something for everyone. You just have to know where to find it. It’s like those people who complain “they don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Sure they do. You just have to wade through the garbage. People always namecheck the same few properties as to why horror “used to be good,” but they forget about all the other schlock that came and went.  Thankfully, we now have Paperbacks from Hell and Grady Hendrix to remind us.

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 mean, I’m definitely more aware of it. It’s a sign of the times. I recently read a big horror title from the early 90s and the depictions of race, even though they were mostly from the perspective of “evil,” made me cringe a little. I just try to be open to people’s feelings and defer to those who have more experience and knowledge than I do. Who wants to double-down on being an ignorant jerk? (A lot of people, apparently.)


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?
 
This goes back to what I was saying earlier. Marketing a book is a whole different beast than writing one. Different aesthetics attract different consumers, and in the end, I suppose publishers are going to cater to the group most profitable for them. For me, personally, it’s about being true to the work. To thine own self be true! You know, if your publisher allows. And if they don’t… maybe you chose the wrong publisher?

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
You hear of this kid, Josh Malerman? Haha.
 
Now that people like Josh Malerman and Paul Tremblay are “big” authors, we need a fresh crop of young blood to get excited about. I don’t know if I can name any horror authors your readers haven’t heard of already, or that haven’t been toiling away at it for years. People outside indie publishing are starting to catch on that Gabino Iglesias and Max Booth III are awesome. My publisher, CLASH Books (I know, I know…) are putting out some really unique stuff—African horror from Unathi Slasha and Mame Bougouma Diene, Jewish horror from Maxwell Bauman.
 
Outside the genre, I’m reading a book right now called Mary Toft; or, The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer, which is actually pretty horrific. It’s based on a true story about a woman in 18th Century England who gave birth to over a dozen dismembered rabbits.


What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
Growing up it was mostly fantasy. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. I was a softy and didn’t get into horror until much later. And when I did, it was through movies, first. My fragile mind was scarred by stuff like Faces of Death and The Exorcist at middle school sleepovers, but eventually I decided to face my fears. I developed a taste for the works of the Davids—Lynch and Cronenberg—and those have definitely had a lasting effect on me as a writer. I am also a huge fan of author Steve Erickson. His writing showed me there are endless narrative possibilities available, you just have to be brave.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
I’m still new at this, so I’m happy to get any reviews at all. I think I have a pretty good stomach for bad reviews, especially if they are constructive. And I get a good chuckle from the kneejerk, vitriolic ones. We’ll see how well I do once I have a novel out.

What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
I wish I worked faster. I’m a compulsive rewriter, and often rewrite as I go, so I’m not as prolific as I’d like. I envy the Stephen Graham Jones’ of the world, who can crank out quality work like nobody’s business.


Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
I haven’t come across it yet. Let’s just say that whatever I write about, I want to be well informed and treat the subject matter with the requisite respect.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
Some characters I like to have nondescript, unobtrusive names. Others, I like to have unique, memorable ones. Depends on the story. Meaning isn’t always important, but I think how a name sounds in the head definitely is.


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


Like I mentioned earlier, I was obsessed with screenwriting for a good long while. I worked out a lot of the kinks and retained a lot of the lessons I learned doing that. Lessons about plot, structure, dialog, economy of language… When I started writing fiction, I sort of just ported my voice over from there and started fine-tuning.


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

Learn the difference between good and bad advice. Discernment is the name of the game.

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 don’t particularly care for children.


For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
Definitely Whispers in the Ear of A Dreaming Ape. Aside from Kanye West—Reanimator, which is sort of a goof, it’s the only one I’ve got! It is definitely representative of my work over the last few years, and gives a good indication of where I’m going with it.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
I do, and I would not.
 
I mean… I would, if I had one?
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
The aforementioned story collection, Whispers in the Ear of A Dreaming Ape, out October 15th from CLASH Books. It is a weird, dark, medley of genres.
 
I also have a novel coming out from them in 2020, which I haven’t really talked about and don’t know if I can yet. I would describe it as a family drama masquerading as a supernatural sci-fi collage obsessed with Stanley Kubrick.
 
And I am also currently in the planning stages of a second novel.

If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?
 
Terrible decision making for the sake of plot convenience! We hates it, precious!

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
The last book to really surprise me and knock my socks off was Liminal States by Zak Parsons. Jut a really well done melding of genres.
 
As for disappointment, I recently read Mindhunter, and while the individual stories were fascinating, it was really just a collection of anecdotes. The Netflix series strung them together into a narrative so masterfully that the book just paled in comparison.  

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
These are the first questions I’ve ever been asked! And I’m grateful for every one!

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
I’m not your regular woman. I would rather be throwing axes than cooking, discussing the best ways to kill zombies than homework, and hiking through the woods for hours with my dogs than walking through a shopping mall. My husband is from Argentina, and together we are raising three amazing boys. Originally from Western Australia, we have moved to beautiful North Yorkshire and we are loving it. I supported my husband to get to where he is now, and now he says it’s my turn.
 
I’ve always been a massive reader; it was my way to escape a tumultuous childhood. I always dreamt of writing, but my English teacher informed me I would never make it as a writer, and so I never really emerged past teen-angst poetry before life took over. I studied Tae Kwon Do and boxing and served in the Australian Army in logistics. I was deployed twice to East Timor. I have driven all around Australia, both personally and in semi-trailers for the Army. After my second child, I left to become a personal trainer. Being fit and active have always been massively important to me; I find it easier to write action and fight scenes if I am better connected and in tune with my body.
 
I’ve worked a variety of jobs in logistics, mostly for the government. Some I can’t tell you about, or I might have to kill you. But this Yorkshire writing life is definitely for me.  

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 to you about the way you treated them in your work.

OMG, who would I start with? I treat them all a bit bloody awful, even my favourites. Especially, my favourites. I guess maybe Doc from Green Hell. He’s a priest turned medic, nabbed by some beastly alien, and had his rib cage ripped open only to be shredded by a landmine. He is a sweet guy, decent human being, no matter how much I messed him up. My only defense would be: the more I like the character, the spectacular exit plan I have in store for them. Wear it as a badge of honor…I guess.
 
Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
I have to say horror hasn’t been a massive influence in my writing. Not consciously anyway. I never read horror growing up. I grew up watching action flicks. Anything with Arnie or Stallone was my bread and butter. I consumed pretty much any book that came my way, starting with Enid Blyton at age four. Historical fiction (any period prior to guns) I thoroughly get lost in. I discovered horror as a byline of the action flicks with movies like Predator and Aliens leading the charge. Which is funny in itself as I’m not particularly into sci-fi. I guess if it has enough action it will hook me. Looking back, all of the above has created the hot mess that is me as a writer and undoubtedly comes out in my work.
 
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 believe the knee-jerk reaction to “horror” is slasher films. Stupid teenagers making inexplicable decisions followed by copious amounts of blood and gore. I believe Peter Laws non-fiction book The Frighteners tackles these assumptions nicely. Essentially, horror is healthy, grounding, and a part of the natural order. Horror through film and books help us deal with our fears in a safe space. How do we get this to a reluctant audience with pre-conceived ideas is tricky. Maybe it lies in the merging and blurring of genres that will lead them in, who knows? Besides, horror is subjective as we each have different fears and squeamish tolerances.

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 doubt any horror I could write at the moment could surpass what’s happening to the world politically, environmentally, or technologically. There’s a plethora of horror fodder to be explored as the world sits on the precipice of a new era. I believe we’ll move more away from the human psyche (serial killers) and into the potential consequences of where we are headed –dystopia, social collapse, evolution of new creatures for the new world, etc.

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

I believe people enjoy reading horror as it grounds us in our own mortality. It allows us to experience pain and misery through others in a safe space. If your life is only ever full of sunshine and rainbows, you will never appreciate and embrace the beauty of it. What is the saying, the best thing about pain is you know you are still alive.

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

I feel we have the horror genre pretty well covered. Well, that is if you read from a broad range within the genre, and it’s a very broad genre. There are so many new voices being heard now, with fresh stories. There is something for everyone if you look hard enough. I would definitely like to see more folklore from indigenous communities.  For example, the Australian Aboriginal community has some outstanding stories and characters that are truly horrific. It probably is there but I’m not looking hard enough. If you know of any, please send them my way.

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? 

This was very important to me in the writing of Berserker – Green Hell. My main character is a bi-racial Australian Aboriginal male in 1960s Australia. I wrote how things were, not how I wanted them to be. I did actively seek out collaboration from within the Aboriginal community and I was fortunate to find it.  I didn’t want the story to be focused on race; there are many other themes that drive the story forward. Pinny’s race, while important to the story, is only a thread in a larger tapestry.  I found it a precarious line to balance, but believe I have, with collaboration and support, found the right balance. I did seek collaboration with Australian Vietnam Veterans but didn’t have such luck. Undoubtedly, I will offend somebody, more likely a Texan or an American. But, I believe it’s my job as a writer to be as accurate as possible regardless if we like the truth of it or not.

Does horror fiction perpetuate its own ghettoization?  For example, Julia Armfield’s latest collection Salt Slow has a cover that most horror fans would walk past in a book shop and one that probably is not marketed as horror. Does the genre’s obsession with horrific covers cause more harm than good?
 
I think like in any industry, we play to what works. What the market recognizes. I wouldn’t say it’s an obsession as much as a habit. The cover of Berserker Green Hell is definitely stock-standard horror and is more the publisher’s vision than my own. Maybe we could be more subtle, but then we might end up with more complaints in our reviews by misled readers. I’ve seen it happen.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
Ummm me? I’m new and upcoming. No, seriously, DJ Doyle is somebody to watch for in the splatter scene with her Red books. She also dabbles in a fair bit of Irish folklore and hosts an awesomely funny Irish priest.  
 
Luc Vors, I really enjoyed his Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, a grey psychological twisted mess. I think he’s in the process of releasing a revised edition.

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

Anything pumped full of action adventure. Predator, Indiana Jones, Conan the Barbarian. My biggest inspiration, writing wise, would be Australian author Matthew Reilly. While not horror, his pieces are reminiscent of Indiana Jones on steroids; it’s fast paced, head spinning, neck-snapping action with some really great characters and Dan Brown-esq storylines. 
 
Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative, that have stayed with you?

So far I have only been blessed with positive reviews. I am certain that will change at some point because I don’t expect everybody to like my style or story, and some will just find fault with it, because that is what they do. It is my first novel though, so I would be bummed out if it was perfect because then there would be no room for growth or improvement. I will always put out my best work, I just hope that my work keeps getting better.
 
I must say that my first ARC reviews from Karen Perkins (an European Awarding winning author of Yorkshire Ghost Stories), Simon Clark (Night of the Triffids, Blood Crazy, etc), and Peter Laws (The Frighteners and his Matt Hunter series) were amazing and blew me out of the water. Not only their reviews of my work, but the personal notes I received on my writing were a truly amazing experience. All of these are well established, experienced writers within the industry, that owed me nothing. The fact that they loved my work is very encouraging and still makes me buzz.  
 
What aspects of writing do you find the most difficult?

Self-belief. I am still pretty new to this game, and I am constantly asking if I’m an imposter. But, mainly editing. I really truly suck at editing. Punctuation and grammar are definitely my Achilles heel. I am improving, but why I never learned it through school or reading is beyond me. I blame it on a life of speed reading.

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

I haven’t found it yet. Hence a pen name.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way they sound or the meaning?
 
Names are important to me. In Berserker – Green Hell, a lot of my characters are named after people I know, or a play on their names. My main character Pinny is actually named after my father. I used it as a placeholder and then it just stuck. But a few more are named after my eldest and youngest sons. The middle son is missing out so far, but that’s okay. He’s the middle child and used to it.
 
Writing is not a static process. How have you developed as a writer over the years?

Well as I’ve not really been writing yet for years, it’s hard to gauge, so far. I guess I’m more confident in my voice and comfortable with my style. I’m transitioning from that fine line of purple prose into what has been suggested as great imagery. 

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

Your first draft is putting sand in the sandpit. You can’t make a sandcastle without any sand. And, don’t get bogged down with the first perfect sentence, or chapter. It will change with each draft. Worry about it at the end.

For 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?

There’s a lot of me in Pinny; he is reactive, non-confrontational, and just tries to keep life as simple as possible. That’s probably why he’s not my favourite child, he reflects my weaknesses. He will evolve, or I might just do what you do with all recalcitrant children and lock him in the basement.
 
Jacinta Harding is definitely my favourite child and everything I would love to be. Smart, sexy, and assertive. Okay, yes, she has some psychotic “Thanos” type tendencies, but no one is perfect.

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

My short stories are quite diverse as I am trying new things all the time. But definitely my favourite is my novel Berserker - Green Hell. They say write the book you want to read, so I did. It’s action packed, yet still deals with relevant themes and is deeper than just a gore splatterfest. It combines everything I enjoy: action, conspiracy, cryptids, and others I can’t say too much about without giving it away.  

Do you have a favourite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
“The jungle rippled out towards us just before the shockwave kicked me in the solar plexus and carried me bodily over the lip of the gorge. Aviation fuel roared in a huge, blistering explosion and flickering tongues of orange flame blotted out the endless green as we rolled down the side of the steep embankment like sacks of meat and bone in some ghoulish pinball machine.”
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and what you are working on next?
 
Well I’ve talked enough about Berserker – Green Hell. I’ve started work on its sequel. I’m thinking Berserker-Sand Fire or something to that effect and it will be much more international. We’ll be in a Russian gulag, the Australian Outback, and tearing through the U.S. I would love to have this ready for Stoker-Con 2020 in Scarborough, UK.
 
Will there be more Berserker after that? Only the readers can decide. 

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

That stupid people making stupid decisions that are obviously going to get you killed.

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

I’ve just finished reading Them by James Watts and quite enjoyed it. The last book that disappointed me was Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter. It’s a great premise and should have been so much more, I feel she really just pulled the punches

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
“Hey Lee, can we make your book into a movie?”
“Sure, let’s talk.”

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Hi there! My name is Stephanie and I’m a pretty serious bibliophile with a writing problem. My focus is all things horror, and I write poetry, fiction (short stories and novels), and essays—typically about women in horror (both in literature and film) and the craft of speculative poetry. I’ve been writing professionally for about ten years now, and by day I work as a Student Success Coordinator for Point Park University as well teach in two MFA programs (Southern New Hampshire University and Western Connecticut State University), and in 2016 I took home the Bram Stoker Award for my erotic horror poetry collection Brothel.

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, this is an easy one: Paimon from my novel The Eighth. I’ve done some pretty down-right horrible things to that man, and I would not like to have a real conversation with him any time soon. Plus, he still has two more journeys ahead of him, so knowing what he’s about to go through wouldn’t make that conversation any easier for me.

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

I obviously really enjoy poetry and I read a lot of memoir and true crime as well, but fantasy and science fiction sneak in every once in a while for me, too. I love world-building, creating monsters and legacies, and playing with mythology, but I also like the machines and technology of advanced societies, too.
 
However lately, I’ve been reading a lot about death rituals and funerary practices throughout history and across cultures, and it’s been widely influential on my work. For example, right now I’m reading a book by Caitlin Doughty, my favorite mortician—people have those, right? —titled: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death.

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 love horror and the genre has always brought me immense comfort and catharsis throughout my life. I tend to think the fact that we get associated with monsters, trauma, evilness, and mental illness is a sad, weak excuse perpetuated by someone who is afraid of looking into and exploring their own demons and is willing to make any excuse not to do so. I mean, you can’t have light without darkness, right?
 
Personally, I think anyone who is willing to confront what scares them is not only brave but admirable. Those working in this industry have been some of the nicest, most compassionate, and intelligent people I’ve met, and in a world where everyone is so quick to stereotype and judge a book based on its cover, I think the best thing that we as artists and fans can do is speak out and share stories and art to combat that prejudice. A great example of that is the #horrorishealthy hashtag on twitter and Instagram that fans and artists have been using to combat the trigger warning message that comes up when someone uses #horror in their post.
 
My suggestion? Read, write, view, and immerse yourself in the genre and talk about it across your various social networking platforms. Review art. Tell your friends about it, spread the word! The more we share and discuss why horror has a noteworthy place in society, the less taboo it will become.

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 we’re moving into the next era of the Satanic Panic, and it’s why we have movies like Hereditary, The VVitch, Satanic Panic, and shows like Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and AHS: Apocalypse, and documentaries like Hail Satan? being pumped out like crazy. People are on edge, angry, and looking for a different way of handling x, y, and z, and as a result, conservative fears about alternate ways of thinking start to rise. The scapegoat for that is evil and artists are deliciously exploring it.

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

For me, horror has always been about survival. I think we flock to it because we like confronting our fears in a safe place where we can observe terrible things, but not be directly threatened by them. On the whole, it’s a blunt genre that doesn’t sugarcoat things, and I think it allows us to examine our faults and instincts in an environment that’s actually teaching us about our values, morals, and faith so we can constantly reevaluate the person we are inside as well as learn how to navigate the world and the people around us.
 
Furthermore, I think we’re all looking for that magical equation that shows why evil exists, i.e. something happened during our childhood, our mothers didn’t love us enough (or too much), etc. Horror attempts to answers those questions—oftentimes not in the most flattering light, especially for women---but nevertheless, it’s giving us a chance to try to understand evil, death, trauma, and grief. After all, if we understand it, then we know how to overcome it, right? If we know why the monster exists, we could prevent it from becoming a monster in the first place, maybe learn how to fight it, better survive against it if it gets loose. If we know what happens after we die, then perhaps the notion of death became less scary and we’re better able to handle our grief when we lose someone we love.
 
At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to live a comfortable, safe life, so it makes sense that we would be drawn to a genre that tries to teach us how to make those things happen and prepare for the moments when life is anything but.

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

Personally, I’d like to see more diversity and inclusivity in the genre. While there are countless male horror writers (see, that sounds awkward doesn’t it?) that I love and will read, review, and sing the praises of, I want to read more stories by people of color, by people of varying genders and sexual orientations. I want to read a story about an asexual succubus that’s written by someone who has the experience every day of identifying as asexual, or watch a lesbian vampire movie that isn’t written for the male gaze and is directed by—you guessed it! —a lesbian. I want to learn about different monsters from different cultures explored by people who grew up hearing those bedtimes stories. It doesn’t seem like it should be that hard, but for some reason it is.
 
Currently, I think it’s great that we have Women in Horror Month in February to help raise awareness and shine a light on all the rad women working in the genre, but I also really have to hand it to the Ladies of Horror Fiction, who forever work (regardless of what day/month it is) to make sure that there is both a directory for and of female horror writers so the conversation surrounding us can happen at all times. The horror #bookstagram community is also ridiculously on point with spreading a message of diversity and inclusivity whether they’re opening a dialogue about certain authors, participating in Pride, promoting new releases, etc. I also want to take a moment to give a shout out to the Night Worms, who constantly bring a smile to my face and give me hope for everything that the genre can become.
 
Honestly, for the first time in a really long time, I’m starting to feel like just a horror writer…. not a woman who writes horror.

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’m very aware of this, and like I said above, I think diversity and inclusivity is something that horror is in desperate need of, and while we’re taking steps in the right direction, I think a bigger renaissance is on the horizon for the genre. Having said that, I tend to write with a strong, feminist—and at times, LGBTQIA+—bent to my prose in order to restructure old clichés and stereotypes that are usually attached to female characters in horror. I also want to shed a more sex-positive light on the genre because there’s such an engrained fear surrounding female bodies, their power, and a new angle of thought could and would be beneficial to the genre as a whole.
 
If I’m concerned about how something is coming off, I’ll send it out to my beta readers and some friends to get their take on it before I send it out into the world. I always like to have a bunch of eyes on my work because others will see stuff that I can’t or refuse to see because I’m too close to the material. It’s a nice safeguard to have in place and the feedback is truly invaluable.
 

Does horror fiction perpetuate its own ghettoization?  For example, Julia Armfield’s latest collection Salt Slow has a cover that most horror fans would walk past in a book shop and it’s one that probably is not marketed as horror. Does the genre’s obsession with horrific covers cause more harm than good?
 
Truthfully, I’m not sure how I feel about this. I think I would have to take it on a case-by-case basis, but I agree that by looking at Armfield’s collection that I wouldn’t think it was horror based off the cover alone.  Is that necessarily a bad thing? If I’m browsing the store looking for a horror novel, then yes, but the truth behind that is that most stores don’t even have a horror section so that doesn’t really come into play. I think the title for it is far more important here, and when it’s coupled with the color scheme and mystical nature of the cover, I’d probably pick this one up to investigate it more.
 
However, when it comes to horror-laden covers in general, I think it’s fine to an extent, i.e. no explicit violence, naked women, abuse, etc., but this type of exploitation isn’t only in horror; it’s something that the romance genre deals with as well. Having said that, a cover that is generally of a dark, weird, and/or macabre nature will certainly draw me in and cause me to investigate more compared to something that’s open to interpretation like Armfield’s book.

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

Some favorites I can fully recommend are: Gwendolyn Kiste, Christa Carmen, Sarah Read, Brian Kirk, Todd Keisling, Zoje Stage, Usman T. Malik, Lee Murray, Gabino Iglesias, and Claire C. Holland.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
My cannon starting out looked something like this:

A Nightmare on Elm Street, directed by Wes Craven
Hellraiser (movie), The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Carrie by Stephen King
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
The Brood directed by David Cronenberg
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Lost Boys directed by Joel Schumacher
Rosemary’s Baby directed by Roman Polanski
 
These days, I’d say my inspiration and influence comes from stuff like:

The VVitch directed by Robert Eggers
The Babadook directed by Jennifer Kent
Suspiria directed by Dario Argento
Dead Ringers directed by David Cronenberg
Midsommar directed by Ari Aster
You by Caroline Kepnes
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

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

Oh, god yes. There is a review for one of my books out there that says something like I’m glad I bought the kindle version of this so I didn’t kill a tree reading this awful book. Who told this woman she could write?
 
Fun stuff.
I obviously never think of it…
*shifts eyes in denial*

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

All of it, ha! Writing fiction is rough for me, and it’s something that I’ve been focusing on more and more lately in an effort to release some of the pressure I associate with it. I tend to write prose rather slow, so cranking out that first draft is always a bear for me. I am taking steps in my life to alleviate some of my day-to-day workload so that I can focus more on writing fiction, so I’m hoping that more practice in the craft will lead to less stress about sitting down and writing.

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

I am a huge animal lover, and my dogs are my life. Animal abuse isn’t something that I plan on tackling any time soon—if ever, really—and in the one story that I’ve even lightly touched on it, the readers don’t see or experience it in any way.

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

Most of my choices are made on auditory appeal—must be the poet in me or something. So yeah, this is something that I typically agonize over until I find the one that fits just right.

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

Writing is work and it’s a craft that demands a lot of practice and a lot of hours. In addition to setting myself up with a fairly consistent routine of reading and writing, I’ve also started to outline these days, which is something that I never did when I was starting out. While I still enjoy writing off the cuff as it were, my schedule these days demands a more rigorous routine in regard to time management, and outlining helps me stay on track and make the most of my time.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
Write for you, not for anyone else. It’s not always easy advice to follow, but I do find myself happier, more productive, and more at ease with my writing when I consider my wants and creative aspirations first.

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 think to some extent that Hysteria will always be my favorite child because she is what unleashed the madness, started the blood flow, and let the demons run wild. Honestly, between you and me, I think there’s a little bit of her in each of my books.
 
The least favorite for me to write to was Jolene from my collection Sheet Music to My Acoustic Nightmare, and it’s not because I didn’t enjoy writing alongside her but rather that that book took a lot out of me emotionally. Because it was half-genre and half-memoir, I chose to relieve some trauma and less-than-delightful memories, so this was an exercise in turning exposure therapy into art.

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

I’m going to have to go with my latest release, The Apocalyptic Mannequin. I think it showcases my strengths as a poet, and the imagery in this one feels more palpable to me when compared to some of my other work.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
I wrote a lot of reverse prayers when working on The Eighth and I love Paimon’s chant before/after his confessions: “Bless me my sins.”

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

My most recent book is The Apocalyptic Mannequin from Raw Dog Screaming Press. It’s a post-apocalyptic poetry collection that straddles the line between science fiction and horror as it works to redefine the definition of body after life and everything as we know it has been taken away.
 
As to future projects, I have a couple irons in the fire. I have some short stories I’m looking to finish up and I’m also looking forward to putting the final touches on a weird fiction novelette titled The Dangers of Surviving a Slit Throat. I’m also working on a non-fiction project and flirting with an idea for a horror comic. What’s sleep, you ask? Sorry, couldn’t tell you. It does sound nice though!

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

That women who embrace their sexuality and independence in any way, shape, or form, are evil sluts who are not only a threat to the general populous but need to be destroyed. I’m not a fan of the damsel-in-distress, dumb blonde, or bad mother trope either.
 
Whew. I guess I clearly have a lot of opinions on this one.
Side bar: If you share these opinions, or want to learn more about them, because hey, education is always a good thing, I recommend reading Dead Blonds and Bad Mothers: Monstrosity, Patriarchy, and the Fear of Female Power by Sady Doyle.

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

I recently read The Witches of New York by Ami McKay, which I absolutely loved and highly recommend to everyone. However, I was pretty disappointed by Stephen King’s Elevation. However, I’m super looking forward to The Institute!

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?
 
Q: What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?
​
A: While I was doing research for my first book, Hysteria, I explored, investigated, and spent the night in a bunch of abandoned and/or out-of-operation prisons, hospitals, and asylums such as: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Hill View Manor, and West Virginia State Penitentiary. In fact, Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum became such a big part of my life then that I almost became a tour guide for them. What can I say? I’m a girl who loves her ghosts!
 

Doomsday is here and the earth is suffering with each breath she takes. Whether it’s from the nuclear meltdown, the wrath of the Four Horsemen, a war with technology, or a consequence of our relationship with the planet, humanity is left buried and hiding, our bones exposed, our hearts beating somewhere in our freshly slit throats.
This is a collection that strips away civilization and throws readers into the lives of its survivors. The poems inside are undelivered letters, tear-soaked whispers, and unanswered prayers. They are every worry you’ve had when your electricity went out, and every pit that grew in your stomach watching the news at night. They are tragedy and trauma, but they are also grief and fear, fear of who—or what—lives inside us once everything is taken away.
These pages hold the teeth of monsters against the faded photographs of family and friends, and here, Wytovich is both plague doctor and midwife, both judge and jury, forever searching through severed limbs and exposed wires as she straddles the line evaluating what’s moral versus what’s necessary to survive.
What’s clear though, is that the world is burning and we don’t remember who we are.
So tell me: who will you become when it’s over?

What They’re Saying -

“Like a doomsday clock fast-forwarding to its final self-destruction, Wytovich’s poetry will give you whiplash as you flip through page after page. The writing here is ugly yet beautiful. It reads like a disease greedily eating up vital organs. The apocalypse has arrived and it couldn’t be more intoxicating!”

—Max Booth III, author of Carnivorous Lunar Activities

“In this hauntingly sensuous new collection of poetry, you’ll long to savor every apocalyptic nightmare you have ever feared. Blooming in the beauty of destruction and the terror of delight, Stephanie M Wytovich’s poems remind us that we feel the world better, love the world better, when we recognize the ephemeral nature of everything achingly alive beyond our mannequin minds. Here, we are captive to our deepest velvet snarls, zombie songs, and radioactive wishes, at the mercy of a neon reaping. Reading this collection is like dancing through Doomsday, intoxicated by the destructive, decadent truth of desire in our very mortality. In these poems, you will find revelry in the ruins of everything you once held dear — and you will love it to the last as you watch the world unravel around you.”

—Saba Syed Razvi, author of Heliophobia and In the Crocodile Gardens

“Beautifully bleak, Stephanie M. Wytovich’s latest collection posits scenarios of the apocalypse and the horrors to come thereafter with language like fragrant hooks in your skin. Vivid, each word a weight on your tongue, these poems taste of metal and ash with a hint of spice, smoke. She reminds us the lucky ones die first, and those who remain must face the horrors of a world painted in blisters and fear. Leave it to Wytovich to show us there’s beauty in the end, just beneath all that peeling, irradiated skin.”

—Todd Keisling, author of Ugly Little Things and Devil’s Creek

“Set in a post-apocalyptic world that at times seems all too near, Wytovich’s poems conjure up frighteningly beautiful and uncomfortably prescient imagery. Populated by a cast of unsettling, compelling characters, this collection is one that stuck with me.”

—Claire C. Holland, author of I Am Not Your Final Girl

“A surreal journey through an apocalyptic wasteland, a world that is terrifyingly reminiscent of our own even as the blare of evacuation alarms drowns out the sizzle of acid rain, smiling mannequins bear witness to a hundred thousand deaths, and “the forest floor grows femurs in the light of a skeletal moon.” Stephanie M. Wytovich’s The Apocalyptic Mannequin is as unsettling as it is lovely, as grotesque as it is exquisite.”

—Christa Carmen, author of Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked

What Is an Extreme Haunting?
Cyndi has been pursued since childhood by a ghostly presence known as the Shadow Man and cannot escape his creative cruelties. 
Emily has been sadistically tormented for years by her violent ex-husband—even after his death.
Both of their persecutors have one thing in common: They send their victims Valentines. 
Both of these women have one thing in common: They are suffering from an extreme haunting, a rare phenomenon that inflicts terrible suffering upon the victim—and it is completely inescapable.
Can noted ghost hunter Professor Douglas Adair and white witch Brenda Wedge help Cyndi and Emily escape this terrible curse? ​

Don lives in Central Pennsylvania with his wife, Laura, five cats and a tortoise. Don is a comic book and horror writer. He has written history books and thousands of articles for local newspapers, magazines and online publications. 

Pick up his new book “Blood from a Tombstone” found at Facebook.com/TombstoneStories and visit his comic book imprint at PinionComics.com and pick up some free horror comic books! 

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
​
DB: I’m an American writer based in New York. I’ve been publishing horror stories for about a decade and a half now. One of my first short stories Across the Darien Gap appeared in Cemetery Dance Magazine back in Issue 54. My work tends to be in the borderlands between genres, though all if it is dark.

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.

DB: I’ll choose the character Francois, from my short story How to Make Love and Not Turn to Stone which appears in my second short story collection The Wish Mechanics from Independent Legions Publishing.  He faces a lot of loss.

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

DB: A lot of my inspiration comes from the natural world. Nature. Animals. Travel. A lifetime of animal and people watching has provided a multitude of inspiration.
Music is also a big influence. In many of my stories music plays a big part. In my short story Music of the Spheres from The Night Marchers, there is a song that might have the power to end the world.

In This Is The Sound of Your Dreams Dying from The Wish Mechanics book the two main characters are obsessed with the supernatural properties of music. Also in the Wish Mechanics is a story called An American Ghost in Zurich which is inspired by songs from the bands The School of Seven Bells and The Smashing Pumpkins.

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?.     

DB: In general, I am not certain breaking past anything is needed. Perhaps it could be more widely known that horror is more than any one thing. Horror is such a broad, general term, inclusive of many kinds of stories.

There are more opportunities now for people to try horror than there has ever been. We are in a time when there is so much horror and so many kinds of horror out there in popular culture. This is an excellent thing.

I’m aware of some horror shows, movies, and books (that while they might not be my taste or preference) that act as a gateway to new comers This is a great thing to see.

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?

DB: The exciting thing is that I have no idea! It is such a great time for horror. I can not predict the heights that it is going to go. Shows like Stranger Things and others have captured the mainstream public’s attention. Film studio A-24 is putting out films like The Witch and Hereditary and Midsommar that bring such a high level of artistry and storytelling. Interest in the work of Stephen King is perhaps at an all time high. And of course, there are so many authors working in Independent and Small Presses who are doing fantastic work.

I think horror will continue to have something for everyone. I look to publishers such as Cemetery Dance and Lethe Press who put out a wide selection of books and stories both from masters of the genre and exciting new comes just starting out. In the UK, Black Static and Black Shuck Books are publishers I look to for outstanding work.

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

DB: As a reader, I find a sense of wonder is often present right there alongside the sense of horror, dread, and those darker elements. My favorite stories are character stories where the human elements take center stage. I love to see the human reactions and human stories as affected by the supernatural. The darkness and supernatural are great catalysts for story.

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

DB: I don’t have a sense that anything is missing. It is an incredible feeling to know that one has a lifetime of reading ahead. My reading list is that long. There is an excitement knowing there is so much great material out there that I have yet to be immersed in.

Some things are more common that others. One “monster” I always wanted to see more of are mummies. I always wondered why the portrayals were soley set in Egypt and seemed to follow the same storylines. This inspired me to put together an anthology of mummy stories set in places all around the world. The book is called Spirits Unwrapped and it is coming in October 2019 from Lethe Press.

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

In film, I’m impressed with Ari Aster’s work.  Hereditary and Midsommar are two I’ve enjoyed greatly. Other recent film favorites of mine are It Follows and The Neon Demon.

Kelly Link and Karen Russell are two authors that I think horror fans will enjoy. They are both successful writers.

Authors such as Joanna Parypinkski, Inna Effress, and Casilda Ferrante are new writers who are doing excellent work. I am excited that I had the opportunity to publish these three authors in the Spirits Unwrapped anthology.

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

DB: Dreams of Dark and Light by Tanith Lee and The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius shepard are two books that are foundational to me.

More recently the work of Robert Aickman and Kelly Link have been influential.

I read Lucius Shepard’s work as a teen. Many of his stories are set in Central America, a place I had not yet been. The stories did more than entertain, they transported me to these far away places. I was able in a way to experience these different places and different cultures. My novel The Serpent’s Shadow from Cemetery Dance Publications is set in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. I hope that the story has the same transporting effect on readers that Lucius Shepard’s writing had on me.

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

DB: I remember one of the first positive reviews. Author and Editor Matthew Cheney reviewed my short story Hurricane Sandrine as part of his review of an issue of the zine Full Unit Hook Up about a decade and a half ago on his blog the Mumpsimus. This review gave me confidence that the slow build and subtle kind of stories I was interested in creating had an audience. For that I am grateful and think I will always remember it. Here is an excerpt from the review.

“The strength of Daniel Braum’s writing is the strength that comes from patience, from a writer trusting his audience with a steady, slow pace that allows details to accumulate in the mind so that the story becomes consistently more vivid until it reaches a conclusion that is profound in its subtlety and restraint.”

-Matthew Cheney from the Mumpsimus


Hurricane Sandrine was reprinted most recently in my short story collection The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales from Cemetery Dance.

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

DB: For me many stories come to life in the editing and re-editing stages, so that is my favorite part. I consider myself a slow writer so getting a story the way I want takes time. Often this can mean postponing other things when I am in the process of writing, especially when writing to a deadline. So I suppose this means I think the time commitment is what I think is the most difficult.

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

DB: I’m not sure that I have a subject I would never write about. I know for certain I am much less interested in writing stories that do not have a supernatural aspect in them ! I am very interested in writing stories that explore the tension as to whether an experience is psychological or supernatural. For stories that have no supernatural experience in them, I don’t see myself writing any of those soon.

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

DB: I’ve become a more confident writer. I’ve also become more educated about and immersed in genre. When I first started out I was not very well read in genre fiction nor did I have much awareness of the histories and current states of the different genres, especially horror. On the one hand I do not think that being learned about genre is a prerequisite for writing genre fiction. However for me, once I did start learning and become aware it did bring me a certain confidence that came with feeling like my work had a “home” and was part of a lineage and tradition of stories. This gave me confidence to keep writing the kinds of stories I wanted to write along with a new level of control and ability.

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

DB: If I must pick one I’ll choose “put in the time”. I mentioned that I am a slow writer. No matter what kind of a writer one is, things take time. It is part of the craft. Stories do not write themselves. Part of the path of success is being there in the chair, writing. This advice might seem deceptively simple, but there are so many aspects to achieving this, and I imagine they differ depending on one’s lifestyles and writing goals.

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

DB: My short story collections The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales and The Wish Mechanics: Tales of the Strange and Fantastic are both excellent places to start. They were both written over a decade and a half and are fine examples of the kind of stories I write.


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

DB: My most recent book is called The Serpent’s Shadow. It is my first novel and it is out now from Cemetery Dance Publications as an E Book. In short you could say it is a cosmic horror coming of age story set in Mexico in the 1980s.

The book is the story of two teenagers, David and Ann Marie who are caught in the middle of a mystical war between Mexicans and Mayans. A mysterious killer known as The White Lady is murdering tourists in the resort town of Cancun. David and Ann Marie find themselves in the crossfire strange and otherworldly happenings related to the White Lady and Sante Muerte, Saint Death.

The book coming out next is my third short story collection which is coming in 2020 from Lethe Press. It is a book of strange tales in the tradition of Robert Aickman.

Pop quiz: What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “horror”?
 
Do you think of monsters? Madmen? Suffering? Disease? Death?
 
The horror genre is fundamentally fixated on the darker side of human experience, on traumatic events, malevolent characters, and terrifying conflicts. But just because it explores negativity, does that mean horror is itself negative? Does that mean the only effect it can have on the world is negative?
 
If you’re a longtime horror reader, you’re probably throwing up your hands right now and saying “Of course not!” Well, Robert and Jen Wilson, the husband-and-wife duo behind independent genre publishing house Nightscape Press, certainly agree with you. That’s why Nightscape Press is currently in the process of assembling Horror for RAICES, an upcoming charitable anthology benefiting the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
 
Horror for RAICES is set to feature stories by Laird Barron, Paul Tremblay, Ramsey Campbell, Gwendolyn Kiste, Billy Martin (formerly Poppy Z. Brite), Livia Llewellyn, Matthew M. Bartlett, Farah Rose Smith, and many more. In the meantime, the Wilsons have set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for RAICES.
 
But you didn’t come here to listen to me give you the details on this promising project, did you? You want to get the information straight from the people putting this thing together. Read on, then, and find out what inspired the creation of Horror for RAICES, when it’s coming out, and how you can get your hands on an early ebook copy.
 
First of all I just wanted to say thanks to both of you for taking the time to talk to us here at The Ginger Nuts of Horror.
 
Robert: Thank you for having us! It's our pleasure.
 
Jen: Hi, we're big fans of GNOH! Thanks for having us.
 
Before we get too deep into things, I was wondering if you would both take a minute to introduce yourselves for any readers who might be unfamiliar with your work. How long have you been involved in the genre fiction community? Can you give a little background on Nightscape Press and where the company is today?
 
Robert: I'm Robert S. Wilson, Co-Editor in Chief of Nightscape Press and editor of anthologies such as Ashes and Entropy, Nox Pareidolia, Blood Type, and others. I also write things when I think nobody's looking.
 
Nightscape Press was originally founded by Jennifer, myself, and Mark C. Scioneaux on the heels of the success of Horror For Good, edited by myself and Mark. Jennifer was actually one half of our beta reading team for that one as well. Nightscape was started in 2012 but I originally became active in the community in 2011. I had been writing for a number of years before that but hadn't yet published anything until that year.
 
Jen:  I'm Jen, Co-Editor in Chief of Nightscape Press and co-editor of Nightscapes: Volume 1. I got involved in the community through Nightscape. We have always had an interest in doing works for charity, but not until our relaunch in 2018 did we develop a model that we think can be successful for not only advocating for our authors but also contributing to charity.
 
We published the first in our line of Charitable Chapbooks in October of last year. That was The Broker of Nightmares by Jon Padgett. The physical edition, upon selling out, raised $1,000 for the ACLU, Jon's chosen charity. The eBook edition, currently available, gives 40% to the ACLU per copy sold. The physical edition of our second Charitable Chapbook, If It Bleeds by Matthew M. Bartlett, also sold out resulting in a $1,000 donation to The Dakin Humane Society. We have five additional Charitable Chapbooks in various stages of production. We also have plans for Charitable Novels and Charitable Collections starting in 2020, and we will continue our "For Good" line of anthologies.
 
One of the big projects Nightscape Press is currently working on is Horror for RAICES, an anthology benefiting the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. What exactly does RAICES do? What made you want to put this anthology together to benefit that organization?
 
Robert: RAICES provides free and low cost legal services to immigrants and refugees in the United States. So, in circumstances where an immigrant escapes a dangerous situation and then enters the US seeking asylum, and, given that the current legal climate for those folks is rather hostile here, RAICES works to advocate legally for them to try and help them accomplish that.
 
I came up with the idea for this anthology because I was sick of feeling like there was nothing I could do about the current crisis at our Southern border. And by that I mean the one in which the US government is traumatizing children by ripping them from their families and putting them in cages. The crisis of morality that our nation, which claims itself a refuge of freedom, is currently struggling with. At this very moment the President of the United States, the "home of the brave" and the "land of the free" is actively working to dehumanize innocent human beings and cutting those same people off from any chance of a better life than the ones they left behind in search of the fulfillment of a promise our forefathers made when founding this nation. There was a time I would have called it a great nation but when you turn your hungry and helpless neighbors away in favor of those who can "stand on their own two feet" and won't "become a public charge" I don't know too many people who would call you great.
 
So, Jen and I started reaching out to authors who we knew would not only be extremely gracious in contributing stories, but who we also knew would bring a level of quality to this project so as to give it a real fighting chance to not only raise money for RAICES, but also make a statement of resistance against the disgusting actions that ICE and the current US administration are perpetrating.
 
How much of the proceeds will go to RAICES? Do you have a goal amount in mind that you’re hoping to make?
 
Jen: All net proceeds.  We have a GoFundMe that gives directly to RAICES with a goal of $10,000. That amount is likely only a drop in the bucket of what they need. So, if we could raise significantly more than that, it would be phenomenal.
 
You’re currently raising money for the book’s publication via GoFundMe. What made you decide to seek crowdfunding for this project? When are you hoping to have the book ready for release? Is the crowdfunding campaign going to have an effect on the release date at all?
 
Robert: Well, the thing about publishing is, even when you put together a project quickly, it can take a long time for money to funnel from distributor to publisher and then to the charity. So we were trying to think of a way to start getting money to RAICES right now and it dawned on me, you know, we don't make any money from these anthologies, so why couldn't we just give eBook copies to people who donate directly to the charity. But then you have this extra burden of having to make people show proof of their donation and having to manage a lot of email conversations in order to pull that off and that's when it hit me. What if we did it on GoFundMe and the money went directly to the charity? I didn't even know for sure that GoFundMe offered that but after researching a similar option with eBay auctions, I searched to see and sure enough, not only can you set it up to give to a charity but RAICES was one of the options we could choose.
 
Jen: We're hoping to publish it by September 15th at the latest, and an early uncorrected eBook edition will go out sooner than that to people who donate $10 or more to the GoFundMe.
 
Despite the quick turnaround, you already have some very big names contributing stories: Paul Tremblay, Laird Barron, Ramsey Campbell, Gwendolyn Kiste, etc. In general, how has the response to this project been from writers in the genre fiction community? How about from readers?
 
Robert: All the writers we reached out to were quick to get us something to consider. They all share in feeling the very real sense of urgency with this cause. For example, Paul Tremblay specifically asked how quickly we could get this book out so it could be raising money for the cause as soon as possible. Laird Barron sent us two stories to choose between. Livia Llewellyn had just finished a story for me for Nox Pareidolia and specifically asked for Jen and I to instead consider it for Horror For RAICES even though the pay would be significantly lower, because she felt that this was more important.
 
Jen: And we have had an amazing response to the GoFundMe by way of both donations and people taking the time to leave comments about the importance of the project and their personal connections to the cause and those who are affected by it.
 
Nightscape Press has always had its roots in charity. Your debut anthology in 2012, Horror for Good, benefiting amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, is that correct? You’ve also published books benefiting such organizations as the ACLU, The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, and The Colorectal Cancer Alliance. Why have these kind of charitable projects remained such a fixture of Nightscape’s output? Why is it important to you to do these kinds of projects?
 
Jen: For me, the opportunity to publish amazing fiction is a great privilege. In our personal lives helping others even in small ways is something we strive to do. So, being able to combine the two makes it that much more fulfilling and allows us the means to hopefully have more of an impact than we would be able to on our own.
 
Especially in light of how much negativity and injustice there is, I think it makes it that much more important to do what we can for others.
 
The publishing industry is a tough business. Even tougher, I imagine, if you’re giving away big chunks of your proceeds to charity. How do you balance the need to make a profit with the desire to help all these different causes? What’s the hardest part? And what is it that ultimately make it worthwhile?
 
Robert: Profit? What is this profit thing of which you speak? Seriously though, while it would be lovely to make a living from publishing, managing to do so as an independent publisher is a rare accomplishment and one likely fraught with at least some level of inevitable instability. It requires a passion for the work you're doing and as such, we are just pleased at this point to be able to afford to break even, when we can, while paying authors and giving to charity.
 
Jen: While the answer to the question to what is the "hardest part" can change from day to day, one thing that often stands out is the desire to be doing more but being limited by resources. That being said, I think stopping to look at some of the things we've helped accomplish with authors and editors, such as raising over $10,000 for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance from sales of Fantasy For Good, it seems that, with the help of some fantastic people, we've managed to light a spark that, with the right resources and support, and by continuing to work with amazing writers with big hearts, could truly catch fire and make some real change in the world.
 
Finally, how can readers best follow developments with Horror for RAICES, and with Nightscape Press in general? Besides donating to the GoFundMe campaign, do you have recommendations for horror fans who want to support your charitable endeavors, or perhaps go about getting involved in charity work themselves?
 
Robert: The best way to keep up with news on Horror For RAICES is to follow the updates on the GoFundMe campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/f/1nzaom7wg0. All author announcements and other big news items related to the anthology are now going there first.
 
As for Nightscape, the best way to keep up with what we're doing is to sign up for our newsletter at  or to follow us on Twitter at or on Facebook at  and on the web in general at www.nightscapepress.pub.
 
Jen: One way that people can support the work that we're doing is via our Patreon at www.patreon.com/nightscapepress.
 
Robert: And of course buying our books is always helpful!
 
Jen: As to how people can get involved with charities— it can be really discouraging when you don't have a lot of financial resources to work with. However, if there is a charity that you are passionate about, I think it's important to go ahead and donate what you can, even if it's as little as $5, when you can and realize that if everyone were to do that it would accumulate into something rather significant.
 
Robert: But if you feel strongly about taking the next step and volunteering or even orchestrating your own project or organization for charity, the best way to go about that is to first take a good hard look at what your skillset is and then do your best to think creatively about how you can use that to accomplish work for others, whether that be by getting down into the trenches of the causes that are most important to you or by raising money to contribute to the needs of those causes.
 
Thank you both again for your time.
 
Jen: Thank you for the opportunity to talk about our company and projects.
 
Robert: Thank you, William. It was our pleasure for sure and very much appreciated!
 

Emilie Knight is a constant writer, and author of her debut Era of Undying. After years of reading fantasy and horror she combines them together into her own dark fantasy writing. Using her BA in Classical Civilizations and fascination in Ancient Greek mythology she blends it well into her fiction. Other then reading in her spare time she plays video games quite often.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Hello, first of, just to get it off my chest, I am very shy. I’m an introvert who lives in a basement duplex apartment with two cats. It’s a good life though, it’s a cozy place with an awesome reading corner, and it’s super easy to clean. I am into all things fantasy and horror related, and love taking walks on nice days.

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

Other then reading, I also play video games. Some of my favourites are Skyrim, Witcher 3, the Sims, even Stardew Valley. I also watch Youtube, and Netflix to pass the time.

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

Fantasy. I found the fantasy genre in high school, shortly after I “discovered” horror too actually. I picked up Eragon by Christopher Paolini and fell in love with magic, dragons, and intense worldbuilding. I grew up with Harry Potter but I was too young to see the art behind the craft then.
 
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?.     

When most people think of horror they think of gore and easy jump scares. Clowns or demons bursting from behind the corner with a loud bang in the music to make you jump. Those are the cheap scares. We need more slowly build stories around people and their minds, really get inside the characters head and understand why they are scared, so we then feel scared for them. We need more physiological terror, rather than simple gory horror.

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’m not really sure, it’s been mainly small monsters, like dolls or single ghosts and demons. But I think, horror coming from more people just being scary people will grow.

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

Harry Potter by J K Rowling, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, and the Broken Empire series by Mark Lawrence (that one opened grimdark for me, and proved you can combine horror and fantasy.)

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

Mark Lawrence, he deserves a bigger audience. Also Christina Henry, her dark blends of classic fairy tales are wonderful.

How would you describe your writing style?

Fast paced. I write in short sprints, so that helps me get to the point when it comes to descriptions or plot points.

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

One reviewer compared my debut novel, Era of Undying, to the Odyssey and Beowulf. I was immensely flattered because I love those ancient classic stories, as well as anything related to Greek Mythology. Those elements still come through in my current novels too.


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

Physical descriptions sometimes, I just was to get on with the story so I tend to forget them until the editing phase.

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

Heavy romance or erotica. There is a romance in my current novel, Dagger and Scythe, but it’s not a heavy handed or steamy romance. It’s about those two getting used to their new relationship, working together, and taking down a god.

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

A little of both, I pick names from words in Ancient Greek based on the meaning of them, and if they fit the characters traits. I make a list of traits, and then pick the best sounding translation. Well, that’s the case for most of them. Dagger and Scythe are named after the weapons they fight with.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years?

I’ve gotten better as grounding my descriptions (even physical appearances), and getting to the point. My characters are a lot more dynamic too, more defined in a way.


What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?   
      
A well developed imagination (also a pen and paper just in case your computer breaks down).

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

Take your time, there’s no rush to get the book out. The story itself needs to take its time to develop while you write it, so enjoy the ride.

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

By interacting with people on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I also have an Amazon Author profile, Goodreads, and Bookbub accounts. Contacting reviewers in general too, it’s intimidating but necessary and really not that scary.

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?

Scythe is probably my favourite so far, she’s bold and ruthless, but insecure at times, especially involving her personal life. I don’t have a least favourite but the hardest is Pen, from Era of Undying. She’s elusive and secretive, even to me sometimes.

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

At the moment it is my current one, Dagger and Scythe. It’s fun, it’s ruthless, and I loved these two characters ever since I thought them up almost a decade ago.
 
And are there any that you would like to forget about?

I would never forget about Era of Undying, but it does need to be tweaked a bit. I’m still proud of it being by first novel, but it needs one more round of edits I think.

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

Dagger and Scythe, they are the gothic and fantasy combination I want to continue on with.

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

It’s morose but one that really sticks in my head from Dagger and Scythe is “silence hung over them like a patient noose.” It’s so quiet and intimidating.
 
Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

My last book, Era of Undying, was also a blast to write, but I finished it too quickly. I love Pen, the Blood Warrior, as a character and person. And I can’t wait to explore more of her story. I’m currently working on something different, though. It’s called Fractured Memories, and is more of a physiological thriller (I hope anyway.)  It’s about a noblewoman, Frona, getting revenge on people who attacked her in an alley by going straight to the king, and another woman, Varga, who works as a prostitute turned assassin in the poorer end of the city. Their stories intertwine, and chaos ensues.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

Cheap jump scares, that I talked about before, but also found footage movies. I just get annoyed when the camera is watching the feet of the person run away rather than focus on the actual scare.

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

The last great book was probably Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (the last in the Broken Empire series). It may have been for the third time, but I still love the final story for Jorg Ancrath. The last one the disappointed me, was a while ago. It was Alice by Christina Henry. I know I mentioned her before and one of my favourites, and she is, but in her dark Alice book the ending was a bit anti climactic.

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

I’m not sure, but it would probably about the craft of storytelling in general. I love talking about the art behind the stories.
 
 

To find out more and to follow Emilie on social media check out the links below 
 
Social Media Links
Goodreads 
Facebook
Twitter
Website
https://www.emilieknight.com/
Amazon Author Page
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/profile
​

D.A. Watson was halfway through a music and media degree at the University of Glasgow when he discovered he was actually better at writing. He unleashed his debut novel, In the Devil's Name, on an unsuspecting public in the summer of 2012, and plans of a career in music education left firmly in the dust, later gained his masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Stirling. 

He has since published two more novels; The Wolves of Langabhat and Cuttin' Heads, plus several prizewinning articles and stories, including Durty Diana, which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in the US in 2016, and the Burns parody Tam O' Shatner, a competition winner at the Falkirk Storytelling Festival, runner up in the Dunedin Burns Poetry Competition in New Zealand, and nominated for the People's Book Prize in 2018. 

"The Christoper Brookmyre of horror. Readers will be very very afraid." 
- Louise Welsh, bestselling author of the Plague Times trilogy

"Ambitious and spectacular."
- Undiscovered Scotland

As an icebreaker here is a light-hearted question to get the ball rolling, with modern horror being more than things that go bump in the night, if we were to look under your beds what monster would we find lurking there?

There’s a fair to even chance you’d find my eight-year-old son skulking there, possibly armed with a lightsabre and looking for misplaced Nerf darts.
 
Horror has always been a genre that has reflected the world we live in, how do you see the horror genre developing with regards to the current state of the world?

Well I know that I personally have a couple of stories in progress that are influenced by the events of the past few years, and have a very apocalyptic eco-horror flavour. With the political climate as it is, I can imagine a lot of writers will be looking at similar themes, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more material akin to The Dead Zone (mental president) and The Death of Grass (environmental disaster). You just need to look at more modern novels like Adam Nevill’s Lost Girl or Stephen and Owen King’s Sleeping Beauties to see how current affairs are reflected in horror.
 
Horror like many other genres always seems to have a foot firmly stuck in the past with regards to style and inspiration, why do you think authors such as Lovecraft, Poe, Shelly and Hill still have such an influence on modern writers, and who do you think of the more recent writers will become the inspirations for style and themes for future generations of writers?  

I think any art form, whether it be painting, music, sculpture, film or literature, always has its greats that produce work that’s so good it simply stands the test of time. For example I personally think music peaked in the late 60’s to early 70’s, what I refer to as the Age of Heroes. When you get people as good at what they do as Jimi Hendrix, Vincent van Gogh, or Edgar Allen Poe, the sheer quality of the output has a timeless factor that might not always be so appreciated in that moment, but that will eventually be recognised as being benchmark quality and go on to influence the people who come after them and who learn from them.

As for modern masters, outside of the obvious pick of Stephen King, I think people will be talking about guys like Adam Nevill, Robert McCammon, Joe R Lansdale and Dan Simmons.

How do you deal with any negative feedback you have received?  

Personally, I’m happy to get any reviews at all! The thing with publishing with indie presses like I’ve done so far is there’s very little if any budget for marketing, meaning you’ve got to take on the bulk of the selling work, and it’s hard to sell the books, and consequently get reviews from people, even friends and family. Add to that the Amazon policy of deleting reviews if they discover it was written by anyone with a connection to you and it’s an absolute drag. It’s great if you can get a review site or book blogger to pick up your story, but that’s a time consuming process which can be just as lengthy as submitting the book to publishers. Plus these types of sites and bloggers a lot of the time have huge to be read piles, and are so snowed under with requests they’re closed to new ones. As for negative feedback, I’ve been in the game long enough to know a troll from someone who honestly read the book and just didn’t dig it, which is fine. I’d much rather receive an honest two star review from someone who knows what they’re talking about and who has something worthwhile to point out than get a 5 star review that says nothing

Another aspect that the modern day horror author has to deal with is the murky waters of fandom, the uproar over the final season of game of Thrones is a prime example of this, and one of the most basic forms of advice for a writer is write about what you know and love, how do you ensure that you get as close to staying true to your writing while at the same time ensuring that the final product is as accessible to your fans as possible?  

I think you can tie yourself in knots if you start writing with the goal of appeasing any set of people, even your own fans. I thought that whole Game of Thrones reaction and the online petition to have it re-written was a real toys oot the pram moment. I believe you just have to write what feels right to yourself, do the story justice above all, and just trust / hope that the folks who liked your previous work will also be into the new one. If they don’t, then fair enough. Far as I’m concerned readers don’t owe writers any loyalty any more than writers are obligated to write what their fans want to read.

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 worry about some of the terminology I was using in the book I have out on submission just now as there’s a large Native American element in it. I had to do a fair bit of Googling to find out what were and weren’t offensive terms, and when it was appropriate to use them and not. Weird thing is I worried the most about referring to Native Americans as Indians, but found out later that’s not really an issue with them. Using terms like ‘squaw’ and ‘brave’ however, which I thought were okay, aren’t as it turns out, and in the book, these were terms used by a character who’s half native himself. Strangely, I worried less about using blatantly racist terms like ‘skins’ and ‘timber niggers’, which were common derogatory names among whites in the 1880s when the book is set. It’s being offensive when I don’t mean to that’s the problem! 

The modern world is scary place, as horror authors do you feel horror is in danger of losing its power to scare when your readership is bombarded with images and stories from real life that are way more scary than anything that you have committed to paper?

Not really. The day I see a report on Sky News about an outbreak of vampirism or a zombie outbreak, then I’ll know the jig is up. Or if Donald Trump’s revealed to be a hostile alien in disguise, conducting some sort of nefarious social experiment, which I’m not 100% convinced is not the case, then maybe I’ll start worrying about my ability to come up with freakier than real life storylines. It’s true though. Life is scarier than any book. Put it this way, I’ve never read anything that’s scared me so bad as when my kid gets sick. 
 
Genre fiction has allowed us to look at the world, do you think writers have an obligation to tackle socio and political topics in their writing, and if so what topics are close to your heart or should you just be concerned with creating a fun read?

I don’t think there’s an obligation. If you want to write about politics and societal problems, fire in, but I don’t think any writer should feel that they have a duty to take on these kinds of things. Like I said before, yeah, I’ve been playing about with a bit of eco-horror based on what I’ve seen on the news, but I’m doing it because it’s interesting to me, it’s fun, and I think there’s an entertaining read there. I’m certainly not doing it because I feel I have any sort of obligation.

David you are Scottish writer whose main body of work is set in and features Scottish characters, how do you feel when you encounter Scottish characters from authors who aren’t Scottish? Why in this more enlightened age does it seem like it is still acceptable to have the cultural representation of groups of people such as the Scots based on the auch aye the noo cliché? 

As long as a character’s believable and their dialogue comes across as genuine, I don’t care where the writer’s from. I think outside of Scotland there’s probably a healthy reluctance to write and even act Scottish characters as the accent’s notoriously tricky to get right, verbally and on the page. I’m sure there’s plenty of really bad ones out there, but luckily I’ve not come across many. That said, I’ve heard very disturbing things about Steve Alten’s locals in his Nessie creature feature The Loch!

I know what you mean though. When there was the big stink about Apu being stereotyped in The Simpsons, who was sticking up for poor Groundskeeper Willie? But I think in a way we kind of like the stereotype. Look at the Tartan Army at any Scotland game and the sea of See You Jimmy hats and kilts. I think we just don’t take ourselves that seriously and mostly see take it in good humour. Plus, in my experience we certainly don’t mind the stereotype when people equate heroic hunky Braveheart and Outlander type characters with your average Scot.

David, in Cuttin’ Heads you have  written about the modern phenomenon of the desire for instant fame, and the willingness to do almost anything to achieve it, and it can be found within the horror fiction community, what are the things that new writers should avoid or take on board to ensure they don’t fall victim to this?

Don’t expect to become famous at all. If you’re writing to become famous, you’re in the wrong game. Measure your expectations I say, prepare for endless rejection and disappointment, and if you keep at it long enough, keep improving, keep writing and sending out your work and you don’t kill or at least cripple yourself with self-doubt, you might, you just might, get a book published. If you’re super super lucky you might even publish one with one of the big publishers instead of a small indie press. Even then, you can throw out any notions about being mobbed in the street by legions of adoring fans. Even Stephen King doesn’t get that. You’re a scribbler, not a rock star.

As author you have crossed genre boundaries with your writing, how do you ensure that you gain new readers, while at the same time maintaining  your fanbase from your previous genre outings? 

I think the only thing you can do as a writer is work on your craft, keep trying to improve as a storyteller, and hope that whatever attracted any fans you already have doesn’t get lost in the process, because different people respond to and like different things. Look at the backlash Bob Dylan faced when he picked up an electric guitar. He lost a lot of fans, but his stories, his lyrics were as good as ever, and they only improved as his career went on.  


To wrap things up before we open up to the questions to the audience, can you tell us about your latest books and what you are working on next?  

That offensive 1880s set western of mine is currently being looked at by a number of publishers, so hopefully that’ll be out sometime this year, and I’m currently well into the first draft of a novel dealing with the witch trials that took place in my home village of Inverkip in the 17th century. There’s also a post office robbery somehow involved in it. And a giant snake. My son’s helping me with some of the ideas on this one. 

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