Hello Phil, some people know of you as one of the best legs in horror, and as the Grand Infidel Master Slomanite,  for those who don’t know you, just who is Phil Sloman? 
 
Firstly, thanks for having me over, Jim. Having a proper chin wag with you over at Ginger Nuts has been something I’ve been wanting to do for ages.
 
So, who am I? Good question and one I ask myself on a daily basis! In essence, a bloke with a love of horror who likes to get his thoughts about life down in story format. I tend to write what I guess could be termed dark psychological fiction or psychological horror. I’m not really too concerned about the definition of it, but what I do try and do is tease out what makes us tick, what are the peculiarities of our personalities which will drive us to the horrendous when pushed in a certain way.
 
Beyond writing, I guess curry wrangler combined with a very sensible taste in confectionary and the awareness that it needs no interaction with any coffee related substances. I would add in nice bloke trying to do some good in the world but that sounds like a really bad dating profile!

Your latest collection Broken on the Inside (read our review of it here) has just been released by Black Shuck Books.  How did you get involved with them?
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I’ve known Steve Shaw, founder of Black Shuck Books, for a few years now, generally when we’ve been at a convention or book launch of some kind and alcohol has been involved. So our relationship was more friendship than professional up until FantasyCon last year in Peterborough.
 
I was at the Awards Banquet waiting to hear if I had won the Best Newcomer award for my novella Becoming David. I didn’t win but I’m still so proud to have been shortlisted. Anyway, Steve came up to me asking about my plans for the future. I mentioned I was thinking of pulling a collection together and possibly self-publishing and he stopped me there, told me he’d read Becoming David, loved it and had come over to ask me to be part of his Black Shuck Shadows series where he has published stellar names like Paul Kane, Joseph D’Lacey, Gary Fry and Thana Niveau.
 
Obviously I jumped at the opportunity given that Black Shuck are doing some amazing things at the moment and we sorted things out from there. The great thing was I had the concept of what I wanted to do with the collection already plotted out in my head so it was wonderful to know Steve would take care of all the publishing aspects plus he has a great fan base for the books he puts out and rightly so. A pleasure to work with.

The collection is a mix of new and reprinted short stories, how did you decide on which stories to include, and did you have a running order in mind for the collection? 

I had a read through my back catalogue to see what I wanted to include. I had the collection title and concept there from the start so it made it a lot easier to think of what to include. I also had the cover concept as well. Something involving Matryoshka, those Russian stacking dolls, and a cracked skull and possibly a teardrop on one of the dolls’ faces. Steve took that initial idea, ran with it and then some for the final design and I love what he’s done!
 
Anyway, back to the stories. I wanted to pick some old and new stuff and particularly work I knew had resonated with readers previously. Nothing worse than putting something out there you’re not convinced readers will enjoy. All the reprinted stories included have had at least someone previously point to them as their favourite in whichever anthology they’ve appeared in (and not just from my mates telling me that either!). There’s a couple of other stories I considered putting in but overall I’m very happy with what’s there.
 
In terms of running order, I wanted to open with a new story and I wanted it to be a strong one. The other thing for me was it had to set out the theme for the collection from the get go, looking at the issues we all carry with us in one way or another. And in the opening story Kira is quite literally carrying her problem within her in the form of malfunctioning nanotechnology and the physical and mental problems that brings with it.
 
There was a lot of hard work went into that short story - Broken on the Inside which shares its title with that of the collection - but I think that work has paid off given the reaction from some early reviews I have had. Kira’s tale has a bleak ending (without spoiling things too much, my tales rarely have a happy outcome) so I needed something marginally lighter to follow. So something with anthropomorphic food seemed just right by way of Discomfort Food. I remember reading from it at EdgeLit a few years back with laughter in the right places even though the tale becomes bleaker as it progresses.
 
The Man Who Fed the Foxes and There Was An Old Man come next but could possibly change places with not too much issue although they are both very different tales. And then the closer.
 
Now I think all the stories in Broken on the Inside have more than earned their place but I wanted to go out with a bang, something to make the reader question what they had just read. Ross Warren of Dark Minds Press was really kind to allow me to reprint Virtually Famous from Imposter Syndrome given that it hasn’t been out a year yet. That story has had some great feedback and there’s a lot of love out there for the culmination of what I think of as one of the more mind-bending pieces I’ve ever written.

One of the stories is what I like to call your infamous story The Man Who Fed the Foxes.  It’s a story that has always stuck in head, can you tell us about the genesis of the story and for those who haven’t had the pleasure of reading it, what you aimed to achieve with it? 

So I live in down in Kent with my wife and our two boys. One of the things we do as a family is go down the allotment together; my wife to garden and the boys and I to check out the slow-worms, frogs and other wildlife.
 
Now being out in the countryside we get a lot of foxes around and about. At the time of writing The Man Who Fed the Foxes we were getting repeat visits from a mange-ridden fox in our garden, springing out of the trees at the back where we had some raised beds for veg and salad and where the compost bins were. All aspects play a part in the story.
 
Somewhere along the lines I started pondering about why a fox might come to visit and tied it up with the mental disintegration of our protagonist Paul.
 
In terms of achieving what I wanted, as a writer, yes I think I have but I guess it’s down to the readers to let me know if I did or not. One of the things I’ve tried to do, and I do it with all my work, is lace in a bit of social commentary through my stories. Rachel Gladstone, for example, is as much a villain of the piece as anyone else, the well-meaning snooper who is more interested in picking at the bones of Paul’s failures than helping a neighbour get back on their feet.

The anthology has a theme, as the name suggests, of being broken on the inside, it’s a theme that I find is common to a lot of your work.  Is their a reason as to why your fiction tends to have a deep psychological core to them? 

They say writers put a little bit of themselves into their work and I’d say that was pretty accurate here. I struggle with the world quite a bit. Externally I have this outgoing, confident, happy persona but internally I’m fractured, trying to make sense of things which I’m not sure were ever meant to make sense.  I suspect we all are to one degree or another. Perhaps like a moth to a flame it’s that purpose of trying to understand what is going on which draws me to write these kind of stories but also to read them by other writers.
 
There’s also an aspect of writing the things which scare you personally and for me it’s humans and the darkness in their minds. Monsters are all well and good, and there have been some great creations over time, yet it’s always humans and the things they are capable of which I’m drawn to. And not even in the sense of someone chasing you with a massive knife, even though that kind of imagery features in some of my work. It’s the drip, drip, drip of the hateful word, the constant belittling of others, the one-upmanship which occurs as people try to score points off each other.  As someone who has been bullied both at school and work in that insidious mental way you recognise how debilitating it can be.
 
I guess that’s why I gravitate to innocuous stuff online like our great Coffee Cream War – don’t tell the Slomanites I said it was innocuous – and making jokes about delays in getting served curry. It’s an escape from daily life and I think that, in a similar way, writing the stuff I do is a way of me coping with all this anger and hate in the world.

Even though you say you are not really interested in writing about traditional monsters, there must be one that you would like to write about, if you were invited to submit to a monsters only anthology which monster would you choose to write about and what Slomatastic twist would you give to it?

Slomantastic! Love it! I shall be using that somewhere, for sure.
 
What would I write? I did get asked to do that once and chose nightmares as the monster so what does that tell you! Aside from that I’ve written a couple of stories to date with more traditional monsters in.
 
There’s a story of mine in Black Room Manuscripts 3 from the Sinister Horror Company (great guys to work with) called Gifts. It’s a folk horror tale to a degree but it’s also about the relationship between the husband and wife in the tale. Anyway, there’s these Critter-esque furball creatures in the story (all teeth, squat, lots of fur and claws) who leave gifts of dead animals for the family. Except they want something else in return. Something which threatens the heart of the family.
 
Plus I’ve written ghost dogs in a recent charity anthology as I figured if you can have ghost humans then why not ghost dogs.
 
I guess if I had to go for a traditional monster then it would have to be a working of Frankenstein in some way. In a similar vein, I like the route taken by Clive Barker where the monster can be as much the victim as the villain.

Do you have a favourite story in the collection? 

I’ve a soft spot for There Was An Old Man. While I think Broken on the Inside and Virtually Famous are the strongest stories, I like the insanity on display in this story and the way our clean living old man is forced into hermitising – is that a word, hmmm, let’s go with it – into hermitising himself and the things he has to endure to survive and achieve his goal. I also remember Chris Hall reviewing it over at DLS Reviews as part of an anthology. Chris said some really nice things about the story which spurred me on at a point when I was thinking of calling it a day with trying to get into this writing malarkey.

Looking at your career so far you have contributed to some, shall we say odd themed anthologies, there was one dedicated to Potatoes, then in almost perfect idea for a sequel one called Chip Shop of Horrors.  What goes through your mind when you see a call for a themed anthology with such an obscure and potentially limiting theme? 

I see them as a challenge. How can you take something and twist it in a way someone else would not expect? Before I started submitting to anthologies I used to take part in a 100 word flash fiction challenge run by the wonderful Lily Childs who is a great writer and one I would encourage others to read. Lily’s challenge to us was to write a 100 word horror piece each week using three words, drawn at random, and placing them somewhere within the text. That really gets you thinking. It’s like trying to solve a complicated puzzle. And I think it’s served me well both in nurturing ideas, asking the ‘what if’ question, as well as in paring down my own writing to the essential language.
 
In my opinion, a good writer can craft a story about anything. The prompt is just that, a prompt. And often in these cases the prompt will inspire you to stories you didn’t know you wanted to tell even if that prompt is simply a humble potato.

Can you tell us about the stories in these collections?  

So, The Banshee’s Egg, my tale in Potatoes, was one of my first forays into the world of anthologies and I was blown away when my story was selected as the opening piece. The proposition itself was an interesting one, write a short story based around the theme of a potato. Now the Banshee’s Egg was the potato, the thing I needed to craft my story around. Our protagonist, a superstitious woman in the Scottish islands, heals a sick child. The cheapskate father of the child gives her a potato as payment but tells her it is in reality a Banshee’s Egg which she must protect and, in so doing, it will keep her from harm (or something along those lines – it’s a good few years since I wrote it so my memory is fading!). Of course the real story is not about the potato but about bullying and retribution.
 
Similarly with Chip Shop of Horrors, the takeaway business is simply a tool to tell a story. From somewhere the phrase comfort food popped into my head, eating to make yourself feel better, but I wondered if there was such a thing as Discomfort Food (the title of my story). That got me pondering about what would happen if your food spoke to you and the reason why. As you’ll know, Jim, it wasn’t a pretty ending!

Talking of themed anthologies you will have a story coming out in Anthony Cowin’s In Dogs We Trust anthology .  It’s an interesting concept, how much freedom did you have with your entry to fit in with the Planet of Apes with dogs concept from the editor?

I had loads of freedom. I was thrilled when Anthony approached me to be in the anthology and especially for such a good cause. His simple instruction was ‘write me something scary involving dogs’. Now the problem with this is you’re suddenly given too much freedom and 101 ideas flash through your head
 
As I alluded to earlier, I decided to write a story about a ghost dog because I didn’t really think it had been done before though I am sure more learned folks than me will point out examples where it has been Anyway, there had to be a reason for the dog to be dead and for it to want revenge; it’s a horror story, it had to be a tale of revenge! This took me to the murky world of dog-fighting.
 
Writing about dog-fighting was a tricky one as I wanted to highlight the barbaric nature of this vile sport, and I use the term sport in the loosest sense, without showing violence against the dogs especially with the charity being Birmingham Dogs Home. I think I got the balance about right but will wait to see what the readers think. In Dogs We Trust launches at EdgeLit in July for anyway who is heading that way and wants to grab a copy.

In a world ruled by dogs what role would you see yourself fulfilling?

Obedient servant to our canine masters!

There has been a number of complaints and concerns voiced in recent months about charity anthologies, with regards to writers giving away their stories for free and that the resulting anthologies are substandard, what’s your response to this? 

Honestly, I think people have more important things to complain about. As long as the anthology is managed appropriately, and by that I mean that the monies from it go to the intended charity and not the pocket of the publisher, then that is the most important thing. If the writer wants to be paid for their story then there are plenty of markets out there if they don’t want to feature in the charity anthology.
 
I personally see it as donating to a charity in the same vein as someone donating a prize for a charity raffle or auction and it’s my choice to give up my time to pull that donation together. In terms of quality, when I write for charity anthologies, and I have done a few now, then I try to write something to the same standard I would if I was being paid for it. There’s two reasons for this. The first is that the better the stories are then you’d hope it would shift more books and make more money and the second, in a selfish way, is I don’t want to have poor quality work out there with my name on it.

Last year saw the publication of your novella Becoming David (read our review of it here), which made it into my top five books of the year.  It’s not an easy read but it is a compelling look into the world of a sociopath and their subsequent breakdown when their actions finally catch up with them.  Are you concerned that your actions in the great Coffee Cream War will catch up with you?
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Haha! That made me snort my drink! I love this rivalry thing we have going on and honestly can’t remember where it started. All I do know though is that I am happy for my actions to be recognised and celebrated when the Slomanites finally win this sad yet righteous crusade. Onward, brothers and sisters!

But seriously the book, for want of a better term, contained a number of brave choices.  Firstly the lead character is devoid of any saving graces, he is totally unlikeable,  what challenges did you face in making sure that the readers cared about him despite having nothing for the reader to empathize with?  Secondly you made the character gay, were you ever concerned about having a right nasty piece of work serial killer also being gay, and did you ever wonder if you would be accused of writing a character from a perspective that you couldn’t fully understand?

I love characters without any saving graces. I’ve mentioned this before in interviews but people like Merricat in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle and David Hanlin in David Pinner’s Ritual are not exactly the pleasantest of human beings yet they are so wonderfully constructed. I wrote a list of my favourite of these types of stories over at Kendall Reviews if people want to check it out. If you can make the characters interesting then people will want to read them. And you only have to look at the true crimes market and the people buying books about real life serial killers to see the fascination people have with those types of people. Perhaps surprisingly I do, however, shy away from reading those real life pieces personally as I’m not sure I want to celebrate their acts even though my own writing may make that stance somewhat hypocritical.
 
Anyway, so how did I make people care about Richard? It was never a conscious decision to make people care about him per se, but more a thought of how can I get people to want to read to the end and I think the whole basis of Becoming David achieves this. What if a bad guy developed a conscience? What if he could find redemption? And I think it’s that which engages the reader, the fighting between David and Richard, the way Richard’s haunting by his one-time lover forces him to decide which path to take either to redemption or something else.
 
I guess any concern I had in having a gay serial killer was that I didn’t want to write something clichéd as it has been done so often before and I also wanted the character to feel real. And while Richard is gay his sexuality isn’t the defining part of his character in the same way David’s sexuality doesn’t define him or other characters are defined by theirs. The bigger concern for me is that I fall into a trap where there is zero diversity in my characters and that I simply write identikit versions of myself; it’s not how the world works. You have to reflect reality and embrace the differences that exist in the world.
 
Did I wonder if I would be accused of writing a character from a perspective I couldn’t possibly understand? I’ve a degree of perspective, the usual of having a load of gay mates throughout my life and people I’ve worked with plus my mother is a lesbian. I’ve also kissed a couple of blokes in my youth but it didn’t set any fires alight. However, in saying all that, none of those experiences can come close to giving me the lived experience of being gay and having that personal perspective. So I did a simple thing. I wrote Richard and David as Richard and David. I was conscious of trying to get the characters right as gay men but I was more conscious of them as humans first with their sexuality as part of a wider melting pot. Did I get it right? I hope so. No one has said so either way. And if I did get it wrong then I’d be happy for people to tell me so I get it right next time.
 
I guess the flip of this is I’ve no experience of being a serial killer but no one’s questioned that either!

Will we be seeing any more novellas from you?  And how about a novel?

I’ve a novella length story out later this year from Western Legends Publishing. It’s a French folk horror piece Dean Drinkel asked me to write. When Dean asked me I thought ‘Crap, I don’t know how to write folk horror, let alone French folk horror’. It was only after a while it dawned on me that I needed to essentially write a French Hammer style piece and from there La Vacation was born. La Vacation tells the story of Frank and Elizabeth, a couple in their fifties on their first holiday abroad staying at a gîte in southern France back in the 80s. While the story focuses on their abode and the local villagers (witchcraft and superstition abound) the story is really about Frank and Elizabeth.
 
Aside from that, I am currently working on perhaps the angriest thing I have written as well as one of the most complex. There’s lots of trying to tie multiple plot points together mixed with sleight of hand. Current working title is Stanley Sebastian Solomon and I’m around 14,000 words in. The basis of the story is a young man in a halfway house where he is staying having been released on probation. As the story unfolds we find out about him, his past and also meet the other residents of the house. I was in a bad place personally when I started the story last year and I think that’s why I describe it as angry; a lot of angst and frustration with the world can definitely be seen on the page! In saying that, the words I have down read well, although it’s like chipping away at granite with a toothbrush at times to get the right words, and I reckon it will be finished in the next month or so. Then I need to find a paying home for it!
 
In terms of novels, I have a couple of ideas for a novel and think this is where I will need to focus my attentions if I am ever to change this writing lark from being more of a hobby and into a paying career. And alongside that I need to give serious consideration to getting an agent to steer me through the complex world of publishing!

As a writer you are very active within the community, actively promoting other writers and you are almost part of the fixtures and fittings at every genre convention in the UK.  As a fan of the genre what do you get from having such an active role to play in it? 

The people! It’s all about the people. There are so many amazing and wonderful folk out there and it’s a pleasure to share time with them but also to read their writing and get recommendations from them. I know many have said it before me but I truly believe we are in a golden age of horror looking at the quality from the both indie presses and the mainstream too. And it helps that the majority of folks I meet are really friendly and welcoming.
 
The other thing is a sense of belonging. I can’t stress that enough. It can sometimes feel awkward to talk to non-genre folks about a love of watching, reading and writing horror though this may be a personal hang-up. Yet when I’m at conventions or book launches it seems the most natural thing to discuss what you’ve been consuming or working on. I always come away inspired to write more when I come back from any genre-related events.
 
Plus lots of books! Whenever I come back from a convention my wife keeps reminding me to buy more shelves next time I go as I return laden down with more stuff for my ever growing TBR pile.

I’ve seen some writers say there is no community there is only the genre (I call nonsense on that), as with a lot of us your lasting friendships within the genre have started off with social media, do you think the bond you have with people such as Mark West, James Everington, and Ross Warren would have happened without social media, or do you think you would still have “found each other through your appearances at places such as Fcon?

Completely agree with you about the community bit and that one does exist. I see people coming together all the time to help each other out whether it is writing related or something to do with health or family.
 
I think social media was how James, Mark, Ross and others, including your good self, found each other but our friendships have all been cemented in meeting up at conventions and a shared love for books and writing. Would we have found each other without social media? I’m not sure. I know that I would probably not be writing, or at least actively being published, were it not for the online world. One of my oldest and dearest friends, Dion Winton-Polak who many will know for his Fine-Toothed Comb editing business, asked me and a few others to do a book podcast a few years back. From there I started interviewing authors in the genre and realised I fancied giving writing a crack again having shelved it a decade or so previously. So a hat tip to Dion.
 
Equally, I’ve met loads of folks at British Fantasy Society events, EdgeLit and FantasyCon who I would never have met online so I think it works both ways. And I would always encourage new writers to get along to these conventions and nights out. It’s not going to mean you’re going to get published but you will meet some great folks with similar interests to you and learn so much along the way.

What’s your favourite memory of Fcon?

Beyond sitting in the bar and chatting with my mates, you mean?

I think your book has to be up there. The planning it took to get it all together in the first place. And where you mentioned community before, that was a great example of community. So many amazing authors putting themselves out to say thanks for what you’ve done in promoting the genre. Plus your reaction was wonderful.
 
Another highlight would be appearing on a panel last year with Mark West, James Everington, Nina Allan and Ramsey Campbell which was chaired by Helen Armfield. The title was Horror: Mastery and Apprenticeship and I definitely felt an apprentice in amongst such legends! The room was packed with writers and readers alike. And that moment you look at the front row and see someone like Adam Nevill sitting there listening. I think sharing that panel with Mark and James as such good friends was the cherry on the cake.


But the best memory would have to be launching Becoming David in Scarborough alongside Mark and James again plus Stephen Bacon and Marie O’Regan who were all launching their own Hersham Horror titles with Peter Mark May orchestrating proceedings. That weird feeling of people not only buying my book but asking for a signature. Weird but great!

The genre is always in a constant state of flux, where do you see the horror genre going in the next few years? 

I think that’s hard to define as there are so many aspects to the genre. There’s a whole bizarro and extreme side of the genre I have little to no idea about and there’s also the more paranormal romance aspect which is massive and yet I delve into minimally.
 
I think advances in technology will change the things we write about and I think this is shown through the love of things like Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror pieces. I know my writing has definitely embraced that more.
 
But I also think we will see a lot more politically charged pieces of horror coming out (and horror has always had a political voice). There is an angry world out there and our writing can give voice to it. Plus I think that further barriers are being broken in terms of diversity and that can only be good in giving us a greater variety of voices and quality writing.
 
My big worry though is that whenever you go into any traditional book shops you have to search for the horror section. And I’m not sure if this is going to change. Perhaps it doesn’t matter given the ease at which you can download or order a book online. But it does concern me that we see so much great quality horror on TV and at the cinema yet horror books aren’t getting a similar profile even given the quality of work out there.

What writers should we be paying attention to right now?

We both have a love of Chris Kelso. Man, that bloke is amazing and I know he made your number one book of the year a couple of years ago for Unger House Radicals.
 
Though she has been around a few years, a newish writer to me is Viola di Grado, an Italian writer, whose work I discovered walking through Waterstones in Covent Garden earlier this year. The book was Hollow Heart which tells the tale of a suicide victim and her subsequent experiences of being dead. Some of the writing in it is exquisite! The reason I picked it up was that I loved the cover first then read the blurb which is why I always think people need to take time over their covers.
 
Priya Sharma is amazing and everyone should be reading her. I was lucky enough to be one of the judges at the BFS Awards for Best Short Story the year her story Fabulous Beasts won and it was up against some stiff competition!
 
And I keep seeing Charlotte Bond’s work appearing in all the right places. Loved her story The Lies We Tell in Great British Horror 2 and I noted she is in Johnny Mains’ Best British Horror 2018 so keep an eye out for her.

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

I’m currently reading Graeme Reynolds’ High Moor. I bought it a few years back at EdgeLit but it’s remained on my TBR pile for a while. Should have picked it up sooner. A really good werewolf story which just rattles along. I’ve about 80 pages to go so let’s see if he nails the landing! Hearing praise from others, I’m pretty sure he will.
 
Otherwise, I loved Laura Mauro’s Naming the Bones which was out last year. I’m expecting that to pick up awards this year and I should have named Laura in folks to look out for earlier.
 
Plus Rikki Ducornet’s Netsuke was a welcome discovery having been recommended by Georgina Bruce (Georgina is another name to add to that folks to look out for list!). A grimy tale about an egotistical controlling psychiatrist. Short but excellent book.
 
And the unstoppable force which is Sarah Pinborough needs a mention for Behind Her Eyes which I think just about everyone was praising last year! Great book for those who haven’t read it yet.
 
In terms of disappointment, I’m possibly going to upset a few people here but Spiral by Koji Suzuki was a bit of a letdown. While the writing itself is great, I couldn’t buy into some of the explanations for what was happening so the ending fell flat for me. I suspect I’m in the minority here though given the amazing sales and positive reviews!

What are your plans for the future in terms of your writing? 

I have a few anthologies I’m involved in over the coming year with most of them already signed off. One of my highlights this year was getting accepted into the Alchemy Press Book of Horrors alongside some legends in the genre! Prepare to see me getting star-struck when it is launched at FantasyCon.
 
Beyond that, I guess my future writing all goes back to getting that novel written and seeking an agent. I think I am at that stage now where I need to push on with my writing career otherwise it will only ever be a hobby around my day job. The dream, like so many other people, is to be able to write full time which means a lot of hard work ahead of me and then some! If any more seasoned pros would like to offer me any advice then I would gladly welcome it.

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

I really like the opening line to Virtually Famous: ‘He’d died a thousand times today and would die a thousand more.’
 
Plus the scene in the kitchen of There Was An Old Man when he sits down with the steak and the string. I quite like how that played out.
 
Aside from that I like a few of the more subtle word plays. I’m not sure anyone has ever picked up on the dual meaning of Becoming David as a book title. I also have a story called Dust in the recently released Holding on by our Fingertips from Grimbold Books. It’s a sad story about an old couple on the cusp of the apocalypse which looks at what happens if you aren’t aware of your surroundings. Having the opening and closing words as dust made me smile though I doubt anyone will notice, or care, but me!

It’s been fantastic to finally sit down and have a chat with a dear, dear friend if the readers of this interview would like find out more about you where should they look?

It’s been great to catch up, mate. Always fantastic when we get to do so. And I’m looking forward to seeing you in person at FantasyCon rather than this long distance natter so we can sit down over a beer or two and talk books, films and life!

For anyone wanting to find out more I’m generally flitting around on Facebook or Twitter plus have an under-utilised blog which I keep having to remind myself to update!
 
Thanks for having me over, Jim!
 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/phil.sloman.77
Twitter: @phil_sloman
Blog: http://insearchofperdition.blogspot.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phil-Sloman/e/B00TIUH9UW

​Terence Hannum is a Baltimore based visual artist, musician, and writer. His death-metal coming of age novella Beneath the Remains was published in 2016 and his recent novella All Internal is available this April from Dynatox Ministries. His stories have appeared in Terraform (Motherboard/Vice), Lamplight, Turn to Ash, and the Sci-Phi Journal. (www.terencehannum.com)


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

My name is Terence Hannum and I am a visual artist, musician and writer. I play in the bands Locrian, on Relapse Records, and The Holy Circle. I make minimal art that uses obsolescent cassette tapes and I write weird, speculative and horror fiction.

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

I make music and visual art, so I always have projects going or collaborations.. I also DJ horror soundtracks on the radio show Dead Air, and write a column of the same name for the newsletter of the Horror Writers Association that features a different soundtrack every month that I write about. Other than that I spend a lot of time with my family.

Other than the  horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
A lot of science-fiction like JG Ballard, Samuel Delaney, William Gibson but also writers in the New Narrative tradition like Dennis Cooper, Kathy Acker and Kevin Killian.


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 as a genre it’s an interesting time, I think the audience is there, there’s a lot of horror and better horror. What I think helps break past these assumptions is perhaps when horror retains its ability to use itself as a genre to assert larger issues. People accept certain things when they read genre fiction, and can maybe think about something they would not have before.

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 what is brilliant about the genre is that it allows a suspension of reality, and within that framework writers can insert content that can address issues that maybe an audience hearing a politician drone on would not be so open to. I think the horror I am most interested in is going to deal with environmental issues, racial disparity and class. There’s probably a nexus in there too between all of it.

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

Books are kind of all over the place JG Ballard’s “The Crystal World”, Dennis Cooper “My Loose Thread”, Don DeLillo’s “White Noise”, Samuel Delaney’s “Dhalgren”, Shirley Jackson “The Haunting of Hill House”, Jeremias Gotthelf’s “The Black Spider”, Margaret Atwood “Oryx and Crake”, I could go on. As far as films Dawn of the Dead, Stalker, The Descent, The Last House on Dead End Street, Forbidden World, The Innocents, The Vanishing, Gummo, Shivers. I could go on, I like things a bit off the beaten path that are more concerned with atmosphere.

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

I really liked Jason Willamson of the Sleaford Mods book he did for Amphetamine Sulphate. Paul Curran, Kathryn Born, her “The Blue Kind” was really potent. Also Jeremy Bushnell has two great books you should grab that are totally weird.

How would you describe your writing style?

I owe a lot to the surrealists, so strange juxtapositions, dreams, time slippages, they all are a part of what I write. I spend a lot of time describing things.

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

Sure. My favorite is from the Baltimore City Paper when they reviewed my novella “Beneath the Remains” and compared it to Carl Hiassen and Gummo. I enjoyed that.

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

Trying to get it published.  It’s the worst.

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

No, it all depends on the story. I tend to find things I would never be personally interested in or involved in exciting. I like being a tourist sometimes.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
Names change a lot, I try and not let it get to obvious and avoid easy symbolism. I often start with a character name and change it maybe two or three times.

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

Research and outlining, I realize it helps to plan a lot more.

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

A notebook. I started carrying one for years, just something that fits in my pocket and I can write in with notes, outlines, and ideas. It’s helpful to go back to what the original kernel of the idea was sometimes, or see it evolve.

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

To read, to read a lot, to read things that aren’t what you normally write. Get away from genres. It helps a lot.

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
For me there can be some cross over with music, it has given me a small audience and a way that someone who interviewed me for music may be interested and have a venue for a literary thing. It helps. I also just think of how to find other angles to your work, rather than just literary areas. Sometimes you’ll be surprised who may be into what you pitch them. Oh and have good pitches, I learned a lot from being in a band and watching press kits get made. It makes sense.

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?

I really liked writing Galen in “Beneath the Remains”, he was the main character whose death-metal obsessed brother goes missing. It was fun to go back to the 1990s and place a teenager there. However, I really struggled with the character Anita in “All Internal” when this alien consciousness takes over her mind, I wanted to balance the entities cruelty against the violence, and disdain – to make sure it meant something, and wasn’t just gratuitous.
 
What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
Probably “All Internal”, I feel a sense of clarity with it.

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

Not really. Most of the pieces get kind of edited and honed into shape over time before they get published.

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

Well probably my most recent novella “All Internal” that uses certain tropes of body horror and manipulates point of view and timeline.

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

From All Internal - “I do not know how it happened, but I know it happened. I know I woke up, I emerged into the morning fully aware as if nothing had happened. Not stunned into this submerged existence. But awake, really awake. Fully. I can move, so I move, first my hand and then my arm.
I jump out of the bed. Ignore the smell of the decaying apartment and quickly toss on the dirty clothes piled on the floor. A pair of old jeans, a pink t-shirt from Gap. Whatever. I can feel my insides heave. I pull on my sneakers. I can feel the repulsion inside of me. I crack open the door and stare inside the apartment hallway now contorted into some organic cave or hive. Hive - that is it - insect like.

I run. I grab my keys and phone and I run. I run through the hallway, past the form of a standing man.
Get the fuck out of my house!”

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
“All Internal” is the recent novella that is coming out on Dynatox Ministries and is about the mind-body problem as told through a parasitic entity that inhabits a cam girl dragging her body through the amateur porn industry, replicating the male stars.
 
My next novel is “Lower Heaven” and it is about religion and surveillance in the suburbs and follows a small family surrounded by security cameras, car alarms, the father runs a Quality Assurance, the mother is a debt collector, is it’s about the false security and privilege, guns and a sentient surveillance blimp that the father grows spiritually attached to.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

Other people’s monsters. I just don’t get why there are whole replications of other creatures and characters in different contexts – not to say it can’t work. I just feel like a lot of the heavy lifting got done for you.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
I just finished “I” by Wolfgang Hilbig and it really blew me away, it was so paranoid, and dark. It felt almost Kafka-esque but in Communist-East Germany. It’s brilliant. I really thought there was a lot of potential with Keegan Goodman’s “The Tennessee Highway Death Chant” but it would really repeat, and start over, and it got a bit monotonous as a formatting decision.

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

Why the novella?
 
Because I like it. It’s the perfect length to say something and it is relatively easy for a reader to digest.

                Be sure to check in tomorrow for our review of All Internal 

Caleb Wilson is a writer of weird fiction and designer of weird games.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Sure! I live in the American Midwest -- Illinois -- in a college town that feels small and large at the same time. I work at a public library, so I'm always surrounded by books. Before that, I worked in a number of different bookstores, so I was always surrounded by books then. My house is full of bookshelves, but also more books than fit on the bookshelves. Books are one of my favorite things.

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

Apart from books, I love games, of many kinds: board games, card games, videogames. So when I'm not writing I play a lot of games, and I design them too. I've published some text-based computer games, and created a few board games for local competitions and for fun.

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

Weird literary fiction, writers like Samuel Beckett and Thomas Bernhard. Bernhard in particular has a very addictive style, so after I read him I always write like him for a while. I read a lot of fantasy too, and I've taken inspiration from authors who mix fantasy and horror, like Michael Shea and Clark Ashton Smith. Interactive Fiction, which I write and play, has also influenced my fiction writing in weird ways: I really like writing descriptions of rooms, places, and evocative inanimate objects, probably because that's what I started with in those games.


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 that like "fantasy", "horror" is broad enough to include almost anything. It doesn't really give you any information about whether it's going to scare you or scar you or make you laugh/cringe/shiver, and I think that's a good thing. By weaving in all kinds of other elements, we just broaden the horizons of 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?

Good question, and it would be nice if I knew! Dystopias have already been popular for a while, so it would be great to figure out what the next big popular thing is going to be ahead of time. In general, stories of resistance are always appreciated. I don't mind happy endings, either.

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

Kelly Link, Stranger Things Happen, which showed me that there aren't really rules for or limits on what fantasy fiction can be. Flash Gordon, which I'd usually rather watch than Star Wars, and which reminded me of the joy that comes from the right combinations of color, sound, and silliness. The stories of Jack Vance, which combine a wild imagination with a love of words.

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

Farah Rose Smith. Her book The Almanac of Dust is out now, and Eviscerator comes out in July. Her writing reminds me of my favorite decadent authors, with really great imagery and beautiful phrases.

How would you describe your writing style?

Ornate alternating with blunt. Dark humor. I write a lot about seething, hostile environments, and I write a lot of monsters.

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

Someone once wrote in a review that they weren't sure what country I was from, but what I was describing wasn't civilized behavior. I think that has to be a compliment, right?

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

Realistic dialogue, and moving stories ahead in a smooth and controlled way. Probably part of why I like writing computer games: the story is distributed across the player's actions, and to some extent the order of events is up to them, so I'm a little bit off the hook!

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

I don't write extreme violence (compared to other horror writers, anyway!) I prefer clammy, subdued weirdness.

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

I love naming characters when its easy and hate it when its hard. For me it's easy about 75% of the time. I choose based on meaning, sound, and sometimes just random syllables that appeal to me. I often look up words in ancient languages and then blend them together a bit, or change a letter or two in a normal name.

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

I finish more projects these days. Learning how to do that was a big deal for me. I've also gotten better at seeing how writers I enjoy perform their magic, and figuring out how to use the same tricks in my own writing.

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

I think the only indispensable tool is time: everything else you can work around. And even five minutes chunks of time can be stitched together, if nothing else. (Though for me, writing in two-hour-long chunks is the most efficient.)

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

Finish things. Make yourself finish things by having markets in mind to send them to from the start. Don't ever stop reading, and reading new things.

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

It's been a very slow process for me. These days I'm trying out the social media thing, trying to be "fun" and "engaging" online, which doesn't come naturally to me, at least with people who aren't already my friends.

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?

I really liked writing for my pair of sword and sorcery characters, Charops the Strategist and Ichneumon the Weird. (They're in a story called "Bow Down Before the Snail King!", published in Swords v. Cthulhu.) I enjoy their sour humor and refusal to give up in the face of disaster, though it might not do them much good. There are plenty of characters I didn't end up liking writing about, and their fate has been that I never finished writing their stories, and so they don't actually exist.

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

Polymer, my novella with Eraserhead Press, and Cannonfire Concerto, a text-based computer game I wrote for Choice of Games.

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

Not really. There are some old pieces floating around, which are probably embarrassing in certain ways, but they've got some good lines, too, so I don't mind.

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

Again, I'd go with Polymer. It ties together a lot of my loves and obsessions, and I think manages to not feel like anything else I've read.

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

"Like all of us except for sociopaths or actors, Liero had always been slave to the expressions that moved the surface of his skin." That's from Polymer.

Can you tell us about what you are working on next?

Right now I'm working on a dark fantasy/cosmic horror novella. It's about a city experiencing a very strange invasion, and it has a peculiar narrator. But that's all I really want to say about it for now!

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

How about "guy rescues helpless girl in peril". Other than that, I sort of love horror clichés. Almost anything can be used interestingly, given the surrounding context.

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

I just finished reading Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann, a "great book" in the old classic sense. I can hardly imagine writing something so detailed and knowledgeable: it's 500+ pages of dense, thoughtful, solid information. I can't remember the last book that disappointed me, because I've gotten very good at searching out books I'm fairly sure to like! With a huge reading pile of books like that, I hardly ever finish something I'm not enjoying, and if I don't finish it, I don't really consider it disappointing, just not for me.

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

Question: What are some of your favorite monsters?

Answer: The Beast from Over the Garden Wall (a miniseries that aired on Cartoon Network.) It's mysterious for most of the story, manifesting mostly as creepy operatic singing in a cold forest, and when it finally appears, there's a great tragic and faintly horrible misunderstanding about the way it operates and has been operating that I find really delicious.

The hyena from Jesse Bullington's The Enterprise of Death. It's a monster who speaks with a human voice to get you to come closer so it can eat you. Imperfect simulacra are creepy anyway, and the hyena is the perfect monster for the Dark Ages, where the world has so little light that you can't see three feet into the night to know for sure what sounds so friendly, just a bit disoriented.

The slake moths from Perdido Street Station. China Mieville has one of those megawatt imaginations and the slake moths are one of his most horrifying creations. They're these sort of huge demonic vaguely moth-like things covered with hypnotic swirling patterns that will make you docile if you so much as glance at them, and then they eat your personality and volition, leaving just a still-breathing empty shell.

 
I'm a meteorologist with the United States government. I began writing in February 2014 and published my first novel, Storberry, in August of the same year.
 
I live with my wife, our two children, and three dogs in Upstate New York.


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
 
For as long as I can remember, I've loved music and horror. My musical tastes are pretty eclectic – I listen to everything from Tool to old REM to The Sex Pistols and Enya. My Spotify playlists would make most people label me as insane.
 
I grew up with the old Universal monster movies, graduated to the Hammer films, then came of age during the slasher craze of the late-70s and early-80s. John Carpenter's Halloween probably influenced me as much as any movie from my youth.

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

Besides spending time with my wife, Terri, I hit the gym four to five times per week, and during the warm season I love to bike and watch college lacrosse. My wife and I both love Renaissance fairs – one of the northeast's best fairs resides in Sterling NY, about a two hour drive from our home – and we're confirmed ice cream nuts.

Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
Over the last decade I probably read more fantasy than horror, and I'm a big fan of Patrick Rothfuss, JK Rowling, and Terry Brooks. Nobody creates characters as well as Rowling, and Rothfuss is a master storyteller.

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 suppose, to the general public, the term “horror” conjures images of monsters, killers, demons, and blood, and to be perfectly honest, those themes predominate my storytelling. But horror can be “quiet,” as well. Think Straub and Poe. My story, “One Autumn in Kane Grove,” can be defined as quiet and a tad ethereal. Among more recent writers, Chad Lutzke writes intelligent, quiet horror.
 
But I see no reason to break public assumptions. Every horror fans gets something different from the sub-genres they prefer.

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?
 
Various stages in our political history have inspired golden ages in horror, including the legendary Godzilla franchise, which was borne out of atomic bomb fears and the destruction of Japanese cities.
 
The 1970s were a terrible economic period: excess unemployment, runaway inflation, stratospheric interest rates, and neither the democrats or republicans had answers in the United States. And out rolled horror classics such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, Jaws, Halloween, and many more.
 
Now we have the most toxic political climate of my lifetime. It seems no one can agree on anything, and the media is replete with extremists screaming at one another. It's enough to make you lose faith in humanity.
 
Where will this lead? I sincerely hope creatives won't write to the political climate to too high a degree, as horror also serves as an escape for many of us, but I wouldn't be surprised if bleak, apocalyptic horror themes dominate the next several years.

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

Black Christmas (1974) is the most frightening movie I've ever watched, and in my opinion it is the greatest slasher in horror history. I credit Black Christmas, along with Halloween, for giving me a lifelong love of horror.
 
Jack Ketchum's Hide and Seek greatly affected my storytelling, as did Richard Laymon's Night in the Lonesome October and The Traveling Vampire Show. I love all three books and reread them at least every few years, and I believe my terse writing style was most influenced by Ketchum and Laymon.

What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off?
 
Matthew Brockmeyer's “Kind Nepenthe” rocked me back on my heels. Very bleak and inventive. I'm keeping an eye on Brockmeyer.
 
He's hardly a new commodity, but Paul Tremblay is knocking the ball out of the park with his storytelling. “Head Full of Ghosts” is one of the best horror novels of the last decade.

How would you describe your writing style?
 
My emotional state upon initiating a new writing project drives my writing style. Sometimes I am quite hopeful and Koontz-like, other times somber and horrific. Quilt is an example of the latter.

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

I try not to look too closely at reviews, as the Internet tends to be a very negative place. Certainly I appreciate the positive reviews I've received from readers, but I pay closest attention to my peers and mentors. The kind words Brian Keene wrote about my novel, “Crawlspace,” will stay with me forever.
 
What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult?
 
Believe it or not, kill and stalk scenes are very difficult for me to write, and this is coming from someone who leaves a lot of blood and body parts in his wake. I most enjoy character building and conversation, and find those scenes and chapters to be the easiest to write. Kill scenes require so much attention to detail and pacing. It usually takes me several drafts before I feel good about those scenes.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
Never say never, but I have a soft spot for children and would have a hard time murdering a child. For that matter, it would hurt me deeply to kill a dog, too.
 
My wife is a breast cancer survivor, and I've lost friends and family to that disease. Although I've referred to cancer in a few or my works, I don't think I could bring myself to write about someone dying of cancer or a similar disease.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
Both, though I try not to go overboard with meaning. Too many names with obvious meanings appear tedious to readers.

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

I suppose every novel I've enjoyed over the last several years has influenced my style in some small way, though the development is probably too gradual to be noticeable.
 
I owe the most gratitude to my editors, Jack Musci and Chad Lutzke, for building my prose and keeping me on point with my plots.

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?
 
A 26-hour day is a must. But since we can't have that, I recommend a quality piece of writing software compatible with multiple platforms. My personal favorite is Scrivener, which runs on my PC, iPad, and iPhone. Perfect if you are standing in line at the store and feel inspired to crank out a quick paragraph. Seriously, I've done this.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing?
 
Chad Lutzke bashed me with a mallet until I agreed to trust my readers and “show” instead of “tell.”

Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?
 
Oh, dear. If someone figures out how to get noticed, I hope they tell me.
 
I do low-level advertising through Amazon and Bookbub, and I'm pretty active on Twitter and Facebook. Otherwise, I churn out new books with the hope of expanding my small reader base.
 
I've begun submitting to anthologies, as well, and I'll appear at Scares That Care in August.

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?
 
I can't say I have a least favorite character to write, but my favorite was Becca from “The Face of Midnight.” Here was a girl who had nothing but found an incredibly inventive way to survive and stay off the streets. I have to tread carefully here, lest I appear unsympathetic to the homeless, who I care deeply for. But Becca's freedom was intoxicating. I would like to write about her again soon.

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
The early feedback I received on Quilt is that it surpassed Crawlspace, but Quilt is a novella, whereas Crawlspace is a full novel. I love Crawlspace's characters, and the plot is truly unique. I suppose it remains my favorite.

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

No. I'm proud of every story I've written, but my suspense-horror novel, “Severity,” bombed at the proverbial box office. Those who read it gave Severity strong reviews, but not many people discovered that book.
 
For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your  books do you think best represents your work and why?
 
Crawlspace, The Face of Midnight, and Quilt best represent my style and themes. I'm unabashed about being a back-to-basics horror writer. I rarely get cerebral. My goal is that you enjoy my stories the way you would a late-night horror flick while munching popcorn. I believe all three are frightening, and inventive in their own way, and many readers have told me the stories stuck with them and even provoked a few nightmares.

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
Remember Severity, the book nobody read?
“The silence was all wrong, like the sound the night makes when a shadow passes by.”
That line came to me and immediately provoked a smile. Simple and effective.

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?
 
My last story, “Murray's Pier,” is a post-apocalyptic tale that focuses on two young people trying to survive while living in an ocean-side amusement park. “Murray's Pier” is easily the most emotional story I've ever written. The storyline surprised a lot of people. The story was submitted to an anthology and is unavailable in print, but you can read it on Patreon.
 
I'm currently working on “Camp Slasher,” an homage to the backwoods slashers of the early-80s. The early chapters are available as works-in-progress on Patreon, and I hope to have the novel published before August.

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

The worst cliché in horror is that of the female victim, who must ostensibly be rescued by the heroic male.  I'd like to see that cliché skewered with a machete.

What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you?
 
The last great book I read was “Widow's Point,” by Richard and Billy Chizmar. Brilliant, old school ghost horror with a found footage twist. I loved it so much I read it in one sitting. I also got too much Florida sun and ended up with a burn. Thanks, Richard and Billy.
 
I don't like to be negative about other people's books, so instead I'll use this public forum to complain that Patrick Rothfuss still hasn't published book three in the Kingkiller trilogy. Hey, Patrick. While we're alive, okay?

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

Would you like a free ice cream cone? Why, yes. Yes, I would.

James Sabata is an award-winning filmmaker and author. Since graduating with a MA-Creative Writing from the University of South Dakota, James has published over twenty short stories and two novels. His novel ZER0: Lancaster's Greatest Supervillain, shows how bad things can get when the supervillain controls the media and convinces everyone he's the good guy.  His upcoming novel Fat Camp features overweight teenage boys stalked down by a machete-wielding maniac.  One teen has to overcome his own self-hatred to find the courage to save himself and his friends. Filled with allusions to the Slasher movies of yesteryear, Fat Camp delivers horror, humor, and a little slice of nostalgia for anyone who grew up at least somewhat afraid of the dark. James is a father of four, residing in Phoenix, AZ. 

James has also written a guest review of The Creepypasta Comic which you can read here 
Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I've been publishing horror stories and other short stories since 2010.  I've sold the rights to six short films, four of which won awards at various film festivals, the other two are in pre-production.  I published my first non-horror novel in February, ZER0: Lancaster's Greatest Supervillain. My latest novel, Fat Camp is basically a horcrux holding my soul.  It's a combination of my insecurities growing up overweight mixed with my fear a serial killer will murder me while I'm on the toilet with a small dash of my never ending ability to surprise myself with what I'm actually capable of accomplishing in life.

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

I live in Phoenix, AZ, so I spend a lot of time in the pool, especially this time of year.  I go to a lot of movies. If you want to be a successful writer, you need to read voraciously.  If you want to make films, you need watch films.  My wife would argue that I do not watch films, so much as I dissect every aspect of their writing and overanalyze minute details.  That's true about my interactions in my daily life as well. My favorite activity is just meeting new people and listening to their stories. You never know what you'll learn or where that information will lead you.

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

Other humans, in general. I spend a lot of time wondering, "Why the hell do humans do these things?" and that exploration of motivation and looking for answers fuels my writing.  Music is always a big influence.  I usually have a sound track to my work in progress.  When I wrote my upcoming novel FAT CAMP, I listened to Fozzy's "Judas" and "Painless" back to back whenever I wrote a kill scene.  That's not unusual for me. I try to listen to things that either describe my character's motivation or things I think that character would listen to. It helps me live in the scene and bring it to life on paper.

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 have heard a lot of people's voice change when they go from "Oh, wow, you're a writer!" to "Horror? Why?"  There's a connotation that horror is unimportant or childish; that it's what people do if they can't write "real" stuff.  I usually fight this by asking people what they do like and point out that horror is in everything.  It's in every genre.  The entire plot of a romantic comedy is lost without the terror of being alone or the horror of losing the person you've fallen in love with.  A drama needs the terror of death or hardships.  I also think people think horror fits nicely in one definition. They don't like blood or gore, so they hate horror, but Dr. Who has no blood or gore and it's one of the greatest horror programs of all time.  Horror is such a broad genre and each subcategory is so complex. I think education of those subcategories might help.  At the end of the day, I think people like what they like and bash what they don't. I don't think we'll convince everyone, so the answer in my own life is to embrace the people willing to learn and help them find something they love in horror world.

A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years?

Ironically, this is the entire premise of the panel I'm doing at Phoenix Comic Fest May 24 with Dr. Rebekah McKendry (Blumhouse), Donald Guillory, and horror author Vincent V. Cava.  I think horror will continue to shift, as it has been, to a more reality-based setting; much like how the most recent season of American Horror Story ditched the supernatural and it was actually more terror inducing.  I think the way people attack one another "anonymously" online and how easy it actually is to track someone online will be a juxtaposition that gets explored nonstop. Technology has repeated caught up to the imaginations of horror writers and each generation is forced to push it further.  I think we will start to see the counter push, showing us what happens if society has to deal with losing that technology, after growing dependent on it.

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

Books - Misery. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.  Weird Tales. Anything by Ray Bradbury. Comics like Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Tales of the Unexpected. 
Films - Pretty much any slasher film.  I remember Texas Chainsaw Massacre terrifying me as a child who shouldn't have been watching it. Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. Pretty much any random slasher at Blockbuster with a great cover or anything on HBO late at night on a weekend.  Silence of the Lambs really kicked it up, as I learned how terrible humans could be and that the monster could look like me.   Also television shows like Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, Outer Limits, and Tales from the Dark Side. 

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

I'm a huge fan of Christopher Coake. He wrote my favorite short story of all time, "Knitter." Vincent V. Cava has some awesome stuff going on.  He helped bring back the horror comics I loved as a child in his team up with Mr. Creepy Pasta for their comic. I really like VE Schuab's take on superpowers and the undead in her Villains series.  John FD Taff never fails to blow me away.  Josh Malerman recently dropped Unbury Carol and his books are a master class in writing atmosphere, so people should check him out.
 
I think writers would do well to stop thinking solely in terms of print.  There are so many amazing podcasts or YouTube shows or people making their own web comics, five-minute video shorts, or even how some people use social media to tell horror stories.  It's fascinating.  One of the joys of horror is that it can't be contained or defined fully, so I love that it can't be contained to a single form of media.  I also love that horror relies on senses a lot more than some genres, so the ability to manipulate the audience on multiple levels that other forms of media allow really impresses me.

How would you describe your writing style?

Chatty. Informal.  I write the way I speak.  Choppy sentences. Ellipses. Each individual thought is a sentence. That is the language my brain speaks to me, so it's what hits the paper.  I try to use words almost anyone can understand. I don't need people getting ripped out of my story to go look up words, even if they're only clicking a button on their Kindle. That minute might have killed the whole thing for them.  I'm never afraid to drop some profanity. I have a hard time believing that someone would be chased by a machete wielding maniac and yell, "Oh Gosh! Darn you to Heck!" when they're stabbed. 

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

I recently received a rejection that read, "I cannot use this story, as it doesn't fit the audience we currently have, but I want you to know that I'll be thinking about this story for a long time. You ruined my breakfast. Thank you."  I printed it, because I love that rejection so much. 

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

Marketing.  100%.  Writing is easy.  Brainstorming, outlining, pacing, characterizations, all of that comes with practice and insistence.  Marketing is a whole other world. NO ONE becomes a writer in order to spend their time trying to sell their books.  They do it because they miss that step in the understanding of the process.  Writers write.  Many hate editing (I'm not one of them. I live for editing).  But EVERYONE hates marketing. If you somehow get it down to a science and you're making a good living at this, the first thing a writer often does is hire someone else to deal with the marketing aspect.

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

I haven't found one so far.  I tend to write a lot about women who find their power and fight back against the world.  In that vein, I've covered rape, incestuous rape, and domestic violence.  Unfortunately, for every terrible concept I lay out on paper, I see something worse in the news, so if there's a subject I won't touch, I don't know about it yet. With that said, each thing would have to fit the story. It would have to serve a purpose.  I don't write anything for shock value and I don't make things gory to make them gory.

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

My writing basically appears to me in my head like a movie I'm watching, so a lot of times, people have names attached to them already.  Or, at least, that's how the main characters work.  Most of them don't have deeper meanings.  My upcoming novel, Fat Camp was a little different. I ran a Kickstarter to fund it and one of the rewards levels allowed people to name a character (with some provisions) and decide whether that character lived or died.  I have very rarely used names that had a deeper meaning.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? 

I think it's almost an evolution in the fact that I don't really see it slowly shifting as I grow. One day you look back and realize how far you've come, but I don't really notice it as it occurs.  I used to half-joke that I wrote screenplays because I was terrible at description and only had to write, "Large house".  At some point, I came to see setting as a character of its own accord and I learned to control it better. Now I get more compliments on descriptions of rooms than my tight plotting.  Reading certain writers really helped with it as well, particularly Josh Malerman who is one of the best in developing settings and atmosphere in horror.  I think the biggest development was coming to understand that "writer" means a lot more than "storyteller." It means editor, marketing guru, publisher (if you go indie), convention panel presenter, and constant networking/relationship builder.  The best part is each one of those pieces is constantly evolving, so I have to adjust to them and learn more each day.
 
What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?     
    
Empathy and an undying desire to learn at all times.  Without empathy, you cannot create characters that are unlike yourself. You can't make a believable group of characters who have different motivations, feelings, and reactions.  And the desire to learn is an absolute must. If you're not willing to learn new things, your settings will be flat, your characters will be uninteresting, and you'll never be able to write anything you haven't personally experienced. 

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

Bram Stoker Award Winning editor Doug Murano gave me the best advice I've ever received.  "Ass in chair."  That's it. Three words.  But what it means is get your butt to the writing desk every single day and make that cursor dance.  You aren't a writer by thinking about writing.  The other motto I live my life by is "If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If it's not, you'll find an excuse."  That literally hangs in my office near my computer.  You have writer's block?  You can't write today? You can't make this scene work?  Well, if it's important to you to finish, you will.  Otherwise, keep finding excuses to not finish.

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

I've gotten a lot better at it the last year, but I wish I could go back in time and tell myself what I know now.  The biggest obstacle I faced is I thought no one would care.  I didn't want to tell them what I was writing, because they might think I'm weird or maybe it doesn't sound as good as it does to me.  I just didn't tell people about it.  Guess how well that worked out?  Then I started celebrating my accomplishments.  When I'd sell a short story, I'd link to the anthology on my social media accounts.  What's weird is that I don't know when it changed. At some point, I stopped worrying about what people think about my writing and I just beat them over the head with it.  I post links to my Kickstarter or my anthologies or my new novel CONSTANTLY on my social media.  If my friends get sick of it, maybe I need better friends.  I don't know about anyone else, but I'm sharing my friends' works.  I'm trying to get people to notice them.  I'll tell people what I loved in a friend's last book.  To me, your friends and family should be the biggest supporters of your work. Outside of them, I stopped expecting a no.  I write sites and ask if they'd be interested in reviewing my novel or post links to my short films on my Twitter account. 

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

I am most proud of an unpublished piece of work exploring Capgras Delusions, a rare form of schizophrenia (also witnessed in some traumatic brain injury cases and sometimes dementia). It's a psychological condition that prompts a person to believe that loved ones have been replaced by identical duplicates of themselves.  Extreme cases of Capgras Syndrome have ended with the brutal, horrific murder of the loved one.  In 2014 in New Orleans, a man decapitated his disabled son, believing the child had been replaced with a CPR dummy.  Another man killed his father, believing Dad was a robot.  He cut into him to find the batteries inside but found nothing.  Horrible things like that.  So, my next novel explores this subject.  I wrote the screenplay version a few years ago and that is the project I'm most proud of, but it's a story that's never left me and I feel it wants to be a novel, so that's where I'm going with it.

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

I try not to forget any writing project I've ever undertaken, because I tend to learn more from my failures than from my successes.  I would like to forget some of the terrible poetry I wrote cute girls in high school.  I'm sure they'd like to forget it as well.

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

Fat Camp, which comes out Friday, July 13, 2018, represents my work and my life.  It's humor. It's horror. It's all of the insecurities I grew up with as a severely overweight teenage boy in love with a cheerleader.  The voice is so true. When the main character degrades himself even when he's doing well, that's me.  That's how my brain works.  But Fat Camp represents my overall passion for horror that makes motivational and psychological sense.  The Killer's motivation is very true to life.  Each character has a reason he is at the camp to begin with, something different they want out of it. They're all there to lose weight, but that's the physical aspect of the true motivations.  I'm also one of those people who is horribly inappropriate at terrible times.  I make jokes at funerals to keep my friends from crying.  I love word play and innuendo, and sometimes sound like a fifteen-year-old boy instead of a forty-year-old man, so I think Fat Camp really showcases my work as well as my actual personality.

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

My favorite line is from an unpublished screenplay I wrote called Scattered.  It's basically the story of 20-something-year-old stealing his dead father's ashes and going on a road trip to scatter them, as he promised his father... but the ghost of his dad comes along for the ride, telling him stories about why places were important to him or how they shaped his life.  There's a flashback to when the Dad was alive and he's first diagnosed with cancer.  The main character has a voice over explaining the meaning of the diagnosis:
 
"Stage 4 - T3N2M1. It really is a countdown. It means your life clock is ticking so fucking loudly you can literally feel it in your chest. Stage 4 - The final stage. Over forty percent of people are already at Stage 4 when they find out they have lung cancer.  T3 - The T scale is in reference to the size of the tumor. T3 means it's fucking big. N2 - The N scale states where tumors have invaded the lymph nodes, how heavily they've invaded, and how far it's spread. N2 means the tumors hit a lot of lymph nodes, but not ones that are far away. Yet. M1 means the cancer metastasized to other organs.  Stage 4, T3N2M1 means you are royally fucked."

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

My last book is not horror. It's a superhero fiction novel, as I mentioned earlier. I wrote it so that my kids would have something I wrote that they were old enough to read. My next two projects are short films with the Head Feathers Only production company in Minneapolis.  My next novel will be the Capgras Delusion.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

Medicine cabinet mirrors.  It's so overdone.  We get it. It's a mirror that moves and we can get a jump scare out of it.  Then people flipped it so it would be a quick scare, but it's not a threat. It's a normal person there to throw us off.  Then sometimes we get the empty medicine cabinet mirror gag, where NO ONE is there, but then they get stabbed from another camera angle.  I hate it. Do away with the medicine cabinets.  No more!

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

The last great book I read was the horror anthology Behold: Oddities, Curiosities, and Undefinable Wonders, which won the Stoker for best Anthology this year.  Every single story in it sang.  The author list is spectacular, but the writing inside makes you forget to care who wrote it.  Each story takes you in a different direction and there was nothing in it I'd completely seen before.
The last book I was disappointed with was AJ Finn's The Woman in the Mirror. It felt like a cliched rip off of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, with an ending stolen from another film. The main character works really hard to make sure she's always a victim and reminds us every couple pages that she's drunk or high.  It just really wore on me.  I finished it, but I was greatly disappointed in the endeavor.

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

Is there any difference between holding your completed book in your hand and watching one of your short films?
There's an absolute difference. They're both fantastic but in completely opposite ways.  When I create a novel, I go through the full process alone.  I live with the characters, record their voices, build their worlds, tell their stories.  I work with small press publishers and complete almost all the marketing myself. Aside from beta readers and their feedback, a novel is 100% me.  A short film is interesting because when things go exactly as I saw them in my mind, it's weird to see outside of my head.  In our short film This Stays With The House, Lauren Kincaid did an amazing job and brought her character to life EXACTLY as I saw her in my head, right down to the cadence of her voice.  It scared me to be honest.  When things don't go according to how I envisioned them, I'm reminded it's a team effort and what I'm seeing is the result of a collaboration of many brains working to make something that they each believe in. 
 
The other question I'd like to have asked is, "Can I option your book for a movie?" I'm pretty sure the answer would be yes.
 

Where can we find you online?
Website: http://JamesSabata.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JamesSabataAuthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/JamesSabata
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8516263/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7522067.James_Sabata
FAT CAMP PRESALE: http://JamesSabata.com/fatcamp

Award winning author of more than twenty five books, the majority of which are horror and thrillers. Nicknamed the danish king of horror. His work has been filmed, ‘Kat’ (2001) and ‘Finale’ (2018), made into radio plays and translated into English, German, Spanish, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish. ‘Finale’ is his fifth novel published in English.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I am a Danish writer. 50 years old, living in Copenhagen with my wife and two teenage sons. My debut was back in 1995. I was able to quit my job the next year and have been making a living as a writer ever since. Some years ago I had four of my thriller noir novels published in English, however now I feel it’s time to get some of my darker, grittier, gorier, creepier and scarier books out there in English as well.
 
What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I like to travel. Go and see the world. Living in a cold and rainy place, I do prefer to visit sunnier climates. My travels seem to inspire some of my work along the way.

Other than the  horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing?
 
Old noir stuff like Horace McCoy or Ira Levin — who despite his brilliant novel ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ really wasn’t a horror writer. The indie rock scene has also been an important influence, at least when I was younger.

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 am not sure we should try to break them. I understand that most of them are misunderstood and often negative, still, some of the genre’s strength comes from being unaccepted and frown upon. In my view, horror (like comedy) needs to be somewhat taboo-breaking or at least up there challenging good taste and the norms of society to really work. It can’t be safe and polite.
 
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?
 
Horror has been around for centuries, always changing, always dividing, always exploring new medias as well as going back and picking up old forgotten sub genres.
 
Looking at the world today, with Trump being what he is, the EU dismantling old European states and democracies, anger and despair seeming to build everywhere, so much tension, so many people feeling powerless and abandoned by their leaders, one would think there were plenty to inspire for any kinds of movements, horror or not, and I both long for it to happen and fear it as well. The world is at a very scary place these years, I think.
 
However, I do see, artists and writers try to play into this field, I just don’t see them finding common ground there. You could say that the never-ending row of superhero-movies are playing into the field of people feeling powerless and abandoned. But only to feed on it, not aiming for change.
 
I haven’t got a clue where horror will be going or if it will challenge the state of the world. I don’t see it happening within the established scene as its all about the money but then again there has always been a strong indie scene for horror and what ever we will see coming in the future, it has to come from the more daring independent producers or publishers.

What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author?
 
Too many to mention. And at the same time, I feel a need to redefine myself over and over again. I have been doing this for a long time. Still, Stephen King’s ‘Pet Semartary’, Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, Jack Ketchum’s ‘The Girl Next Door’, Ira Levin’s ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, Richard Laymon’s ‘The Woods Are Dark’, and movies like ‘Jaws’, ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘The Orphange’, ‘Psycho’, ‘Seven’ and many many others.

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

The Danish writer Michael Kamp has just released a few books in English, I believe. He’s something special. Not many authors manage to be both funny and scary at the same point but he does. Check him out.
 
How would you describe your writing style?

Short and effective, I guess. Minimalistic and cinematic. Scary and heartfelt.

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you?
 
Oh my, the first one. It was February the 14th 1995. I had actually forgotten that this was my big day. The day of my debut. I went to work as usual but getting there I was told that there was a review in Politiken (a large Danish newspaper, considered the most important paper when it came to literature in Denmark) and my debut was ripped to pieces. Reading that, I understood that I was a failure and my book rubbish. I would never make it. A few hours later, however, my editor called and told me that there were several reviews in other papers praising the book and my debut. The book was later filmed and ended up as the beginning of a long and productive career. But I will never forget that first review.

What aspects of writing do you find the most difficult?

Being an introvert, like many writers are, the publicity of the business is not my favorite part. I do it. I have to. And for the most part it is fun and everything but it’s by far the most difficult part of my life. Being out there, being the center of attention.
 
Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?

Never is a dangerous word. Ten years ago, I would have sworn that I’d never do torture horror (some say torture porn — but porn and horror aim differently so I can’t use that word about a horror sub-genre). Then suddenly, I got this idea about two young women working at a isolated gas station being set up by an online snuff show, and I wouldn’t have anything to do with that idea, until I had to face it: It was no longer something I’d never do, it had become a challenge. Did I dare to? So, I wrote it, and it was awarded Best Danish Horror Novel of the Year, an upcoming film is based upon the novel and it has just been published in English and German. The latter by the Random House imprint Heyne Verlag.
 
So today, I don’t think there’s much I’d say I’d never write about. It all comes down to having the right idea, the right angle at the subject, and then it’s all art.

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
Names are tricky. I tend to forget names. Both in real life and when I write. At the same time I can spend hours, sometimes days, searching for the right name for a given character. I have even used Google Translate to create strange-sounding names. I can get desperate like that.
 
Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? 

Getting older, becoming a father, a husband, experiencing life, love, death, becoming more mature, evolving as we all do in life, have changed what I write and how I write it and even how I see myself as a writer. The me of the 90s couldn’t write the books, I write today, however the me of today can’t write the books I did back then, either.
 
I have become more self-confident over the years, more focussed and more disciplined. I get up in the morning, I write. I do not debate a lot, I do not waste a lot of time arguing or trying to explain myself or my work. I do my shit, knowing some will hate, some will love it, but as long as I know I do my best, and I always do, then it’s really out of my hands.
 
What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?         

Imagination.

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

‘Work gives work’. It wasn't an advice anyone gave me. In fact I believe it was an advice I read somewhere a long time ago that the actor Jane Fonda had gotten from her dad, going into the film industry. It goes for writers as well. New opportunities arise from the stuff you’ve already done, not from the shit you never finished. So finish it and move on.
 
Getting your work noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject?

I have tried almost every approach you can think of. As I said earlier, I have been doing this a long time. I am not sure about what have worked and what haven’t. It’s hard to tell. It’s very rare that you do something and then bang! your books sell like crazy. On the other hand, miracles do happen, and books tend to have a life of their own once they are out there and I’m not sure that any of the luck I’ve had along the way was due to anything I did, other than writing the book in the first place.
 
I always try to do something. To reach out to my readers, new and old. I try to be honest and friendly. But you’ll never know. I guess, my approach today is to keep on going, never give up.
 
At lot of it is about timing. At some points in your career you can do all the right things without any effect at all and then when the right momentum arrives you can’t do much wrong it just all comes around.
 
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?

That’s a tough question. I been thinking about it for more than a day now. It’s hard to pick, impossible actually, so I going to cheat and choose some of the characters from my new book in English ‘Finale’ as, to be honest, that’s the book I’m here to talk about. I could easily have chosen characters from most of my other books. But here you go:
 
I will choose the two leading characters in ‘Finale’, Agnes and Belinda, as my favorite characters. Not one of them, but both of them, because what I really enjoyed about them was playing them up against one another. Agnes is a student at the university. She’s a caring intellectual, well-meaning and good-mannered. Belinda is the opposite. She’s a few years younger, up for trouble, uneducated and reckless. They don’t get along but they have to. In the beginning only in order to work the nightshift a the gas station but later on, when the night turns into the most terrifying nightmare, they have to overcome their differences in order to survive. They have to evolve and fast.
 
The one character from the book that I favor the least must be Belinda’s lowlife boyfriend, Christoffer. He’s an immature and selfish thug, using Belinda without any concern for her well-being at all. I guess, maybe, some day he’ll become more mature and change his ways but at this point in his life where we meet him in this story, he’s just bad news.

What piece of your own work are you most proud of?
 
 At tough question again. But I guess, I’ll go with the novel ‘Ø’ or in English ‘Island’. It’s not out in English yet but it’s been translated and will be published in English in 2019, I hope.

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

 There are a few of my early novels, written by a much younger me, that I’m not sure I’ll ever publish in English. I can say that much. Still, there are readers that love them so maybe I should just shut up and accept that a younger me did his best back then?
 

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

Maybe ‘The Whispering of the Flies’, to be published in English later this year (2018). It’s a mix of thriller and supernatural horror which seem to be my playground. It’s the younger me at his best, I guess. Or maybe I should choose ‘Island’ that I mentioned before as this novel may be the older me at my best. I don’t know.

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

Maybe the first line from the noir thriller ‘In the Shadow of Sadd’. Published in English a few years ago.
 
“There is always a unique atmosphere in the car when you drive through the City with a dead body in the back.”
 
I like it as an opening line. It kind of captures both genre, location and the dark humor of the book in one sentence. As a reader, I have a weakness for great opening lines. They are harder to do than you’d think.

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

I keep my work in Danish out of this and focus on my English books.
 
My new book is called ‘Finale’. It’s the novel behind the upcoming terrifying Danish motion picture of the same name. It’s a short novel, some may call it a novella, in the tradition of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘Hostel’ and ‘Saw’.
 
Belinda and Agnes are working the nightshift at the gas station by the highway. It’s a big night as Denmark is playing the world cup finale and everybody will sitting at home watching the game. So, the two women expect very few costumers. But no costumers means no witnesses. They have been chosen for a totally different show.
 
If everything goes as planned, I will publish my next book in English later this year as I mentioned before. It’s called ‘The Whispering of the Flies’. It’s something like ‘Seven’ meets ‘Sinister’. This supernatural thriller novel takes you around some of Copenhagen’s best known sites as its demonic tale unfolds. It’s the summer of 1999. During a seemingly never-ending heatwave, Copenhagen has seen a tremendous rise in the numbers of flies in the city. Two police detectives are working a strange case, the victims killed in the most gruesome and unimaginable ways. They soon come to realize, this isn’t the work of a serial killer. This is much worse.
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

The part where someone sees something bad and pukes. I get it, I can’t stand the sight of blood myself, I once fainted at the veterinarian but still. Stop it. Get over it. It becomes mechanical—like oh look blood, somebody has to get sick or else the audience wont understand that this is really gory. I mean, hey, I want books or movies to make me feel something, I don’t want to sit and watch the characters feel something. It’s like watching a comedian laughing of his own jokes.

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

The last great book must be ‘Stillhouse Lake’ by Rachel Caine. It’s a thriller, not horror, but it’s a great read.
 
I hate to give thumbs down to other writer’s work. That’s not my job.
 
What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?  And what would be the answer?

Can I please give you a million dollars?
 
The answer would be: Hell, yeah. 
​

How did you first get into book design?
​
I sort of fell into the industry.  I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember, and I originally wanted to draw for Marvel Comics. . Author Adam Cesare was one of the first folks to draw me into the cover artist profession.  See what I did there?  Draw?  Anyway, he approached me online after I had drawn a poster for fun for a then new facebook friend whom he was also friends with.
 
Going to the annual Scares that Care convention is what cemented the idea of being a cover designer for me.  I got to meet a ton of fantastic authors, some who I had read, others that were completely undiscovered to me, and became good friends with them over the years. 
 
In my first year, I saw that many small press horror books were lacking a unique touch.  I felt that they weren’t doing a good enough job at representing the fantastic works found within them.  So, I set about changing that, and business has been good.

Would you say you have particular style or does it vary between projects?

I’m told my style is recognizable,  but I like to offer varying styles dependent on what the author or publisher is looking for to draw attention to their book.  I’ve done cartoonish looking work, gritty realism, and heavy photoshopped images. For the “Kaiju Revisited” series I did for Jacob Haddon and Apokrupha Books, I kept to an animated theme that I wanted to invoke 80’s Saturday Morning Cartoons in the style.  I particularly enjoyed drawing the big monster on Author Jessica Mchugh’s book, “Home Birth”
 
I absolutely enjoy doing heavily inked black and white illustration, and that’s what people recognize the most of my work  Mostly that ends up in interior art, like my signature pages for the “Clicker Forever: A tribute to J.F Gonzalez” Collector’s Edition from Thunderstorm Books and “T.V Dinners from Hell”, by Author Amber Fallon.

What’s your preferred medium to work with?

I mostly work digitally.  It’s a more affordable medium for folks, and it's much easier to communicate back and forth with authors and publishers as I design.  It also saves on shipping.

And what’s your process from initial concept to final proof?

The first thing I like to do is speak with the author and see what they’re visualizing in their head for a cover.  Some folks know what they want, and I want to make sure I visually communicate that in the best way for them.  I like to send progress reports as I work to show the author or publisher how I’m progressing.  I usually sketch out a mess of an image and send it, and I’m not entirely sure people can make sense of it right away, but it works for me.
 
Once I get the green light on the design, I begin doing line work to build form and make sense of the mess I doodled.  Depending on the style called for, I may then fill the lines with color and do shading, or start blocking out colors and do a painter-style.  I tend to use reference images if something needs to look a specific way, but for the most part, I draw everything from off the top of my head.


What specific challenges or constraints do you face in designing a book cover, as opposed to a poster, an album cover, or other print design platforms?

The biggest challenge I face with book covers is conveying what the author is trying to tell you in his or her book all in one little image.  Someone might be writing a book about killer slugs that take over your brain and make you feel intense pain whenever any part of you is touched.  How do you make that into a cover, at least, a cover that makes you want to read the book?
 
My job is to grab your attention when you’re perusing the book aisle, or browsing online.  I need you to want to find out more about “Slug Touch".  I’m going to use this as the title.  Sorry.  The go-to obviously would be to draw a nasty slug beast crawling on the ground.  But, you’ve probably seen that already.  Probably more than once.  So I’m not going to go that route with my design.  I instead focus on something simple or abstract.  I might try to use nerve clusters from the human body in a unique way. There are lots of possibilities. 

 
Today we are absolutely delighted to feature a brand-new interview with one of the giants of the genre Mr Graham Masterson. Although Graham has been writing horror since the 1970s this interview focusses entirely upon his new novel GHOST VIRUS which we also highly recommend. This terrific page-turner concerns two detectives investigating a grisly series of murders in south London which we soon realise has supernatural origins. To read more about GHOST VIRUS make sure you check out our full review by clicking here 
 
GNoH: There are some exceptionally graphic kill scenes in GHOST VIRUS, many of which could teach the younger generation of ‘Extreme’ horror writers a thing or two about nailing a kill scene hard onto the page. An eye-wateringly nasty example that springs to mind would be the guy who gets his arms and legs ripped off on Streatham Common. In comparison to some of your other novels how does GHOST VIRUS rank when it comes to sheer bloody violence? You surely can’t have written many bloodier than this? Aren’t you mellowing with age?!?
 
GM: Rather than mellowing, I am seeing more and more clearly the vulnerability of the human body and the utter callousness of those who destroy it for sadistic pleasure, for political gain, for religious fanaticism or simply out of carelessness. Human life seems to have little or no value these days, in spite of the sickly outpourings of sentimentality when somebody famous (or notorious) passes away. I wanted to show clearly in GHOST VIRUS how little regard we have for the lives of others but how desperately we cling to our own.
 
GNoH: On one level the supernatural element of the plot is completely outlandish (but wicked fun), however, the police procedural element of the book is very believable. How much of your crime writing skills from that aspect of your work have you integrated into those parts of the book?
 
GM: My new series of crime novels about Detective Superintendent Katie Maguire are all set in Cork, in the Republic of Ireland, and the procedure and structure (and problems) of An Garda Síochána are somewhat different from the British police. However, there are some similarities in the culture, especially in their attitudes towards female officers, and I know several Met officers of varying ranks. But the story is a story, and although I think it is essential to make the police investigation believable, it isn’t necessary to make it too authentic, otherwise it would be unbearably tedious, as most police procedure is in real life.
 
GNoH: I am a Scotsman in exile, who has lived in Streatham and South London for nearly twenty years, your geography of Tooting and the local area was remarkably accurate. Do you live in the area or was this all done through Google Maps, if it’s the latter it’s an amazingly convincing job…
 
GM: I know Tooting well, because I met a very pretty (British) girl when I was visiting my father who was an Army officer in Singapore, and after a few months she came back to the UK to study at what was then the teacher training college in Welham Road, Tooting. We dated for a while, and we were even talking about marriage, even though we were only 19. Not having a car in those days, we went for a lot of walks around Tooting and its parks and so I got to know the area intimately. I paid it a few visits before writing GHOST VIRUS just to see how much it had changed over the years. But I still have sentimental feelings about it. (She married an RAF officer eventually, much to the relief of her parents!)
 
GNoH: Without giving too many spoilers, the escalation in the final 20% of the novel is totally mental and Tooting takes a real shellacking, when you were writing GHOST VIRUS did you ever consider taking the plot on a rampage beyond Tooting into the wider areas of London?
 
GM: I considered making the geographic scope of the novel wider, but in the end, I thought it would over-complicate the plot and mean that the two main protagonists would not have the same control over the ghastly goings-on.
 
GNoH: One of the things I liked most about the book was the fine line you created between the characters absolutely refusing (who can blame them?) to believe the supernatural events going on, to the awful dawning that no matter how outlandish it sounded, it was real. When you were writing this did it cross your mind that it might all be a bit too ridiculous? There were some REALLY horrible scenes, little nine-year-old Mindy puking up her dog, poor little Sprout, was only one of many, but it all gelled together nicely…
 
GM: All supernatural novels are ridiculous, but the test is whether you can make the ridiculous feel believable, at least for as long as the reader is reading the book. My very first horror novel THE MANITOU was about a Native American shaman being reborn after three hundred years in a white woman’s neck, and I don’t think you can get much more ridiculous than that. ‘A foetus? In her neck?’ says Tony Curtis, in the movie. Bizarre events are happening in the world every day, so I think that readers are prepared to have their disbelief stretched quite a long way. From time to time I have deliberately written stories that take disgustingness to the very limit, because I am testing my own writing skill. Anything really revolting must be very well written. The most notorious example was my story ERIC THE PIE about a cannibalistic young boy, which led to the banning by WH Smith of the fledgling horror magazine Frighteners. Then there was SEPSIS, and most recently CHEESEBOY, about a disgruntled Traveller boy who traps a woman in an abandoned fridge.
 
GNoH: The plot eludes the supernatural goings on may be based on stories from Lithuania or perhaps folk tales from Pakistan? Was this the case, or did you just dream it all up? Possessed clothing is not something you come across everyday even in horror fiction… 
 
GM: The spark for GHOST VIRUS came when two ideas collided. One was Nikolai Gogol’s short story THE OVERCOAT, about an overcoat which comes to life to take revenge on the downtrodden clerk from whom it was stolen, and who eventually died. The other was the charity shop which is managed by my friend Dawn Harris (who is also the author of the creepy novel DIVINER). I looked at all the second-hand clothes in her shop and wondered if the souls of their deceased owners might still be haunting them. I brought in Lithuania because the details of the second-hand clothes being stolen and sent back to Lithuania for remodelling is completely true and accurate, and all the folk tales from Pakistan are authentic.
 
GNoH: An army of possessed hoodies marching down Tooting High Road, massacres people all over the place was a sight to behold. When you were in the development stages of this book was this always in your end game and did it at any stage sound too daft? I thought it was totally brilliant when the poor saps were drafted in from Sutton police just to be killed off also…
 
GM: I didn’t have that final apocalyptic scene in mind when I first started writing it, but gradually I came to realise that there would have to be a full-scale confrontation between the protagonists and the evil force that caused clothes to come to life.
 
GNoH: Although it’s bone-crunchingly violent GHOST VIRUS also has its fair shares of good old-fashioned chills and white-knuckle moments, I’m thinking of when the clothes start moving on their own for chills, or the terrifying scene when the car DC Pardoe’s car (with his daughter inside) is under siege for white knuckle moments. Could you give us any insight on how you paced this novel when you were writing it? I started it on Friday and finished it on Saturday, so I think you got it spot on.
 
GM: All novels (and especially horror novels) must have variety and pace in the way they are put together.  Excessively violent scenes have no real impact unless the background and the characters are believable, and it is important to have creepy moments when there is an inexplicable threat rather than a full-frontal massacre. All the same, it is essential to keep up the momentum, so that the reader is always agog to know what is going to happen next.
 
GNoH: DC Jerry Pardoe and DS Jamila Patel made a very good team; do you have any plan to bring them back for any further supernatural assaults in London?
 
GM: Yes, I do, because there are so many interesting social issues that they could deal with – Jerry being white and Jamila being Pakistani – apart from a plethora of mythological threats from both British and Pakistani cultures.
 
GNoH: You’ve written a lot of crime in recent years, is GHOST VIRUS a sign that we can expect to see more horror from you in the next few years?
 
GM: I started writing the Katie Maguire novels (a) because we were living in Ireland at the time and I wanted to write stories with an Irish background; and (b) because horror had taken something of a nosedive in the late 1990s and publishers weren’t so keen on it. Now of course a new generation of readers has grown up and they are huge horror enthusiasts, so I will definitely be writing more horror. Mind you, I don’t hold back on the horror when I’m writing the crime novels, because a non-supernatural killing is just as grisly as a supernatural one.
 
GNoH: Graham Masterton it is always a pleasure to feature you on the Ginger Nuts of Horror and we wish you all the best with GHOST VIRUS. Thank you for answering our questions so thoroughly. If you read this book folks, you will never wear your favourite cardigan again!
 
Tony Jones
 

To celebrate the launch of his new collection of short stories author C.M. Saunders makes two stops at Ginger Nuts of Horror, here with his Five Minutes with interview and with an excellent entry in our Childhood Fears column. 

​C.M. Saunders is a freelance writer and editor from Wales. His fiction and non-fiction has appeared in over 70 magazines, ezines and anthologies worldwide, including Loaded, Maxim, Record Collector, Fortean Times, Fantastic Horror, Trigger Warning, Liquid imagination, Crimson Streets and the Literary Hatchet. His books have been both traditionally and independently published, the most recent being Human Waste and X3, his third collection of short fiction, both of which are available now on Deviant Dolls Publications. 


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I started writing fiction back in the small press boom of the late nineties. I had a few short stories published early-on, but drifted out of it for a few years because it’s very time-consuming and non-fiction generally pays better. I’m not all about the money, but I had a shit job in a factory then and needed every penny I could get. Eight or nine years ago, when I was working as an English teacher in China, I had some time on my hands and gradually got back into it. If you saw Chinese TV, you’d want to do something else as well. Since then, I’ve knocked out half a dozen novels and novellas and had over thirty short stories published in various places.

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

I play snooker, very badly, and sit in pubs drinking craft beer and reading The Times newspaper. I’m also a big sports fan. I particularly appreciate MMA, rugby, basketball and football. I’m a Cardiff City supporter, in case you were wondering. 

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

Travel. I’ve been in perpetual motion for years. There’s a quote attributed to St Augustus that goes, “The world is a book, and if you don’t travel you only read one page.”

It’s true. For the first twenty-odd years of my life I was stuck in a little corner of south Wales. It was like living in a bubble. The isolation gets to you. Wales is a beautiful country, but since the mines and steelworks closed it’s very economically depressed. There’s a lot of poverty and crime. I’ve moved 14 or 15 times in as many years, lived in three countries and visited over a dozen more. Every new place I go is like a new world. I’ve only ever been robbed twice. Once was outside a little café in the arse end of Rotterdam, and the other time was three miles from my home in Wales, which just about says it all. 

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?

To me, ‘horror’ is a very loose term, and a very personal one. It means different things to different people. Personally, I prefer the term ‘dark fiction,’ to describe my own writing because although some of my work would struggle to be called ‘horror,’ it’s usually dark.  

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?

Great question. We seem to have been stuck in the dystopian/post-apocalyptic quagmire for some time now, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Why would it? There is a growing concern that every day brings us one step closer to it. I only hope that when it finally comes we get proper aliens or zombies, and don’t all just blow each other up. 

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

I’ve been re-visiting some classic horror films on my blog, and watching them again through a contemporary lens, so to speak, is an interesting exercise. An American Werewolf in London was fucking terrifying any way you slice it, no wonder it damaged me so much when I was ten. Ditto the Evil Dead. When I was a kid I wanted to be Carl Kolchak so I could combine my two passions – writing and the paranormal. Book-wise, I would love to emulate Richard Laymon’s Body Rides. It’s genius. Also, anything by Stephen King, but I know everyone says that. I love how he makes his characters come to life, and how he can make the most mundane things interesting. About 80% of Dolan’s Cadillac is about a dude digging a hole in the desert.     

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

I do a lot of reviewing for various people, so I am lucky enough to be exposed to a lot of new authors. Off the top of my head, Renee Miller has done well recently and Amy Cross is just getting better and better. The only problem with her is she writes books faster than I can read them. It’s insane. I guess you are already aware of Josh Malerman, J Daniel Stone, Rich Hawkins, Duncan Ralston and Jason Arnopp. There are some talented British writers just breaking through; Mark Nye, Matt Hickman, Mark McGahan, and Simon Farrant, to name just a few. 

How would you describe your writing style?

A reviewer once pointed out that ‘a thread of sardonic humour’ runs through most of my fiction, and I agree with that. I’d never even noticed it until it was pointed out. I worked on newsstand magazines for five years, and that taught me to keep it tight and be very economical with my words. They are a luxury, not a right, and should be used sparingly. 

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

My favourite review ever was one for ‘Out of Time’ that said: “Christian Saunders writes with a mirthful charisma and unveils a brutally astute understanding of humanity's dark side that places him firmly in the footsteps of the modern horror greats.”

I ignore the negative ones. 

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

Would it be a cop-out to say the ‘selling books’ part? However good you are, it’s not enough for indie writers to just be writers. You also have to be your own publicist, accountant, and personal assistant. It’s very time-consuming. Other than that, being original is pretty difficult. I’m one of those cynics who believes that even though you can put your own individual mark on things, everything has been done before.

Is there one subject you would never write about as an author?
 
I don’t believe in being controversial just for the sake of it. Yes, writing is art and art should challenge convention sometimes, but a lot of writers seem to go out of their way to offend people. Maybe they think they are being edgy. I don’t know, in most cases it just comes across as contrived. For the sake of decency, I don’t write about things like animal abuse and paedophilia. Nobody wants to read about that.

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 bit of both. I often name characters after people I know or admire, more as a kind of inside joke than anything else. There are a lot of pop punk musicians and ex- Cardiff City footballers floating around in my books.

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

I’ve been writing professionally for five or six years now, and in that time especially I think I’ve improved a lot. You can’t do something for eight or ten hours a day for six years and NOT get better at it. Certainly the technical aspects like grammar and punctuation has improved. I think these days I get to the point faster. Waffling on too much in the mistaken belief that readers are digging what you are waffling on about is a rookie error. Why spend ten sentences saying something you can just as easily say in one?     

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

A decent computer or Mac fitted with a good word processing program (Word or OpenOffice), a well-stocked library, a willingness to learn, an open mind and a refusal to quit. Anything else is superfluous.         

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

I don’t know if this constitutes advice, but an editor I worked on a magazine with once told me to give him diamonds, not turds. Because you can’t polish turds. You can try, but it’ll still be a turd. I took that to mean don’t be sloppy. Check facts and don’t make any silly mistakes in your writing that someone else then has to pick up.

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

It’s no secret that we all operate in a crowded market. These days, anyone can be a writer. There are good and bad aspects to that. The biggest minus is that there’s no quality control on Amazon. I’ve seen writers do all kinds of things to try to stand out from the crowd. I can see how some of it might work, while some is just cringeworthy. Me, I’m old school. I think connecting with readers on a personal level is very important. I reply to every message I get. Even the Filipino women who want to marry me and the Nigerian princes who want to give me $18 billion in exchange for my bank details. 

I’m part of a small collective of writers called the Deviant Dolls who share and cross-promote each other’s work. In theory, it’s a sure-fire success, but obviously it doesn’t work quite so well in practice. There are always passengers who want to get out more than they are prepared to put in. 

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?

I think my favourite would either be Dale in Sker House, because he’s me at twenty years of age, Jerry from Apartment 14F, because he’s me at thirty, or the survivalist Dan Pallister from Human Waste. Just because he’s crazy as fuck and I hope he isn’t me at fifty. 

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

My 2016 novel Sker House. It’s partly a historical novel based on fact, but incorporates a lot of Welsh legends and folklore. It’s probably my most meaningful and substantial piece of work.

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

No. I’ve written my share of rubbish, but in my mind even my worst story serves a purpose, if only to bridge a gap between A and B. Writing is a constant learning curve, and to exclude certain parts of the journey would be akin to denying some harsh truths about yourself.  

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

I try to balance that sardonic humour with a general unease which sometimes crosses over into out-and-out horror. I think I achieved that with Human Waste and shorts like The Devil & Jim Rosenthal (to be found in the anthology DOA and my first collection, X) and ‘Til Death do us Part (Morpheus Tales and my third collection, X3).

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

Certainly. This is from apartment 14F: An Oriental Ghost Story:

Then she did a most unexpected thing. She raised Jerry's palm to her mouth, and licked at it hungrily, greedily. He could feel the hot, moist roughness of her tongue probing at every contour of his hand, over his outstretched palm and between his fingers. 
The old woman moaned. It was either a moan of confirmation, or a moan of pleasure. It was impossible to tell for sure, but the moan seemed to have almost sexual overtones. Even from a distance of a couple of feet, Jerry could smell the sickly, stench of her breath. It smelled like sour milk.
He wanted to scream, pull his hand out of this crazy hag's reach and run away. Somewhere where she would never find him. The wetness of her tongue against his skin felt so unnatural, so intrinsically wrong, that it made his skin crawl until goose pimples peppered his flesh, despite the clammy humidity of the late autumn afternoon. Occasionally, his palm would brush against one of the few remaining teeth standing sentinel in her gums like tombstones in a forgotten graveyard. Each time it did so, it gave him a start like a mild electric shock. 

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

My latest book is a collection of short fiction called X3. As the title suggests, it’s the third volume and mainly covers the period between 2011-2014. Most of the stories have been published before in various places, but I always include one or two surprises. Next up, I’m re-releasing one of my novellas, Dead of Night. The publishing rights have finally reverted back to me, so I put it out the way I always intended. I’m aiming for an autumn release. 

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

I think technology has revolutionized everything, including the way we view horror. Stranded on a remote stretch of road or lost in the woods? Use your GPS. Don’t know how to banish a demon or exorcise someone? Google it. Being chased through the back country by a band of hungry cannibals or stalked by a deranged serial killer? Call the police. Therefore, the horror cliché I would like to erase would be not being able to get a signal. 

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

The last great book I read was either The Ritual by Adam Nevill, or Friend from the Internet by Amy Cross. Both are great. The biggest disappointment was a non-fiction book called Last Man Off. It was marketed as one of the great survival-at-sea stories. The first half of the book is about fishing, then the boat sinks, the survivors are in a raft for a few hours, then they get rescued. It was all a bit anti-climactic.  

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

Great question. This has nothing to do with writing but I wish people would ask me about sport more. In particular footy and MMA. Cardiff City were my tip for promotion from the Championship at the beginning of the season when they were 18-1. Don’t you wish you’d listened to me now? What’s that? Who will be the next big thing in MMA? That’s easy. Despite being in a stacked division, Darren Till has the world at his feet. Also, I’m backing Brett Johns to do well. And I’m not just saying that because he’s Welsh. Thirty-odd fights and not a single loss between them. They both have incredible desire, and they always find a way to win.   

​George Billions is a writer whose work litters the Internet under various pseudonyms. He's written everything from fake product reviews to unqualified fitness advice, steamy romance novels to straight-up keyword spam. These days he's trying to put out the kind of stuff he enjoys reading and writing. His most recent is a crime noir / weird horror novel called Buying Illegal Bugs with Bitcoin. It's about a small-time drug dealer who buys a mysterious insect off the darknet, and all the terrible things that happen as a result.


Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?


When I was a little kid, I tapped out stories on an Apple IIe. I fell in and out of writing as I got older and had older people stuff to worry about. A few years ago I became a writer-for-hire, mostly doing boring web copy. Somebody hired me to ghostwrite a sci-fi novella and I started thinking, hey, I should be writing my own stories. Once I fell down the rabbit hole of indie fiction people were putting out on Amazon, I knew the world was ready for George Billions. I'm pretty sure we're entering a new golden age of pulp fiction. I want to be a part of it.


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

I'm really into pro-wrestling. It's got drama, over-the-top characters, and the spectacle of simulated violence. I like the kayfabe - the idea that it's all real and we're going to act like it. These are all things I love about the books I read, plus acrobatics and feats of strength. And I get to yell the whole time. As with books, my tastes lean increasingly toward the indies. Black Label Pro is the local promotion where I live, and I get pumped about every show.


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


Crime stories are a lot of fun. I like thrillers when they can still surprise me, and I'm crazy about pulpy noir stuff. Characters with serious flaws, living on the margins of society, violating laws and social norms, are my favorite kind to read about. They're my favorite kind to write, too.
 
A friend once told me I collect weirdos. I know some genuine characters who naturally generate story ideas whenever they're around. They've definitely been a major influence on 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 think horror, in a broad sense, is all about the thrill of discomfort. Good horror will make us feel some combination of fear, disgust, and excitement. The best examples produce both mental and physical responses.
 
As far as moving past assumptions, I'm not sure we need to. People who don't like horror will assume it's all vampires, werewolves, and serial killers. People who do like it already know there's a wide spectrum of horrific things to read about.


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?

One of the most terrifying books I've ever read, Prelude to the Massacre by Stan Miller, is not even strictly a horror novel. It's a dark noir story about some extreme right-wing racists who get radicalized to the point of wanting to commit mass murder. Miller nails the mindset. I went to school with a lot of people with tamer but similar perspectives, and have seen the same ideas reverberating through echo chambers around the Internet. Extreme ideologies and mass killings are a match made in hell. They're also a fact of life at this point and prime fodder for the horror mill.
 

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

One of my fourth-grade teachers introduced me to H.P. Lovecraft, corrupting my young mind forever. I'll forever have a love of unspeakable cosmic horror, secret death cults, and inbred, backwoods weirdos. He's always been an inspiration in terms of the horrors I create.
 
His writing style, though, is something I've always found tedious. It's hard enough to get through as a grown man. I have no idea how I read it as a child. I prefer easy-flowing, conversational writing, like Bukowski, Vonnegut, or Palahniuk. They tell stories on paper like they'd tell them in real life. I try to do the same thing.
 
Rosemary's Baby, the book and the movie, is my go-to masterclass in the art of slow-burning dread. Something is terribly wrong. We're not sure what it is, but it's going to get a lot worse before it's over. I'll always strive to pull that feeling off half as well as Levin did.
 

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

Nathan Ballingrud and William Pauley III are a couple of my favorites. I like the realness of their characters combined with the weird, otherworldly terror they experience.
 

How would you describe your writing style?


Concise. I'm less interested in masturbating to my collection of ten-dollar words than I am in telling an engaging story. I'm also a natural smart-ass with a dark sense of humor, which comes across in my work. I don't set out intending to be funny. It just comes out that way. On the other hand, I've had readers who didn't think my work was humorous at all, but liked it anyway.


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

Several people compared Buying Illegal Bugs with Bitcoin to David Cronenberg movies. I thought that was cool as hell. It wasn't intentional on my part, but I definitely take it as a compliment. The Fly freaked me out as a kid.
 

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

Deciding what idea I'm going to flesh out into a whole book is tough. There are so many seeds floating through my head, waiting to be germinated. I also have a lot of trouble balancing paid writing with the stuff I want to write.
 

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


I had a gig for a couple years churning out pornstar biographies for one of the big video sites. If you've looked at naked people on the Internet, you've probably seen it. One of the actresses on my list didn't have much info in any of the databases I had access to, so I turned to Google. I found a long article about her. It turned out she was a drug addict and prostitute with an abusive pimp who basically forced her into porn. He later murdered her. Of course, this isn't what people want to read when they've got the lotion and tissues out, so I just rambled for a couple paragraphs about her unstoppable libido and impressive breast size.

I can't think of anything I could write in a story that would make me feel as gross and dirty as that still makes me feel.
 

How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
 
I don't think too hard about character names. It's usually the first thing that pops into my head. Last names are harder and generally not even necessary, so I tend to skip them. I gave the lead in my newest book the last name Samsa, a reference to Gregor Samsa in Kafka's Metamorphosis. Both stories are about bugs.



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


Writing web content has taught me to write tight paragraphs made of short sentences. It's easy to read when your attention span is addled by information overload, as mine is. My editor for the porn bios was more of a grammar hard-ass than you'd expect on such a gig, and helped me fix a lot of my writing weaknesses.


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


Writing is pretty self-contained. Perseverance will get you so much further than any particular writing implement or outlining app.
 

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


Read a lot of books.


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

So far, I've just gone the free route. I ask for reviews around the Internet and sometimes do free ebook download days. Making friends with people who have similar tastes on Goodreads is probably the most effective thing I've done. It's also a lot of fun and helps me find new books to read.
 

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?

The unreliable narrator of Fidget Spinners Destroyed My Family is a mean, unreasonable, narcissistic drunk and generally all-around terrible person. Maybe it says something about me that she was so much fun to write.
 
The main antagonist in Buying Illegal Bugs with Bitcoin is also a nasty person, but less fun to write. His dialogue is amalgamated from all the racist shit I heard growing up as a mysteriously ethnic dude in a rural White ghetto. I wanted readers to feel the same discomfort I did while writing him.
 

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


Buying Illegal Bugs with Bitcoin represents decades of evolution as a writer, and emcompasses some of my favorite elements in fiction: weird horror, bugs, criminal situations that spiral rapidly out of control, eccentric characters, and a smart-ass slacker as the narrator. I couldn't be happier with how it all came together.
 

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


I must have forgotten them already.


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

Again, it's got to be Illegal Bugs. It's the purest distillation of the voice I've been developing and the themes I've been touching on for years.
 

Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?
 
I have so many darlings. Here's a snippet from Illegal Bugs. Our bug-loving hero has just escaped a close encounter with a couple maniacs, and is riding the bus home. A young punk rocker next to him pulls out a switchblade to carve something into the seat.
 
Teddy nudged me before he got off. “Later, man,” he said, throwing up devil horns with both fists. Then he switched hand gestures, giving the bus driver dual middle fingers as he went down the stairs.
 
I looked over at the fresco the budding Michelangelo had donated to the city.
 
“Holy shit.”
 
Gouged deep into the plastic and crawling around the anarchy sign was some kind of centipede thing. It had a skull for a head and a huge penis ejaculating toward the top of the seat, just like in nature. A human head was squeezed in its fanged jaws, the previous owner spurting blood from a jagged neck hole. His hands were up as if trying to feel for his missing cranium.

The illustration was crude and the details minimal, but I couldn’t help noticing the victim was wearing a zip-up hoodie. It reminded me of the one I had on.


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


Before Illegal Bugs, I wrote Fidget Spinners Destroyed My Family. The book's genre is still a nebulous thing. It's been called a horror novella, a psycho-drama, a dark comedy, and a memoir. I maintain that it's a real-life cautionary tale about a trend that peaked around the same time I published it.
 
I have a few ideas I'm kicking around for my next one. It will probably involve petty criminals unwittingly meddling with diabolical forces beyond their comprehension.
 
 
If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice?

People can write whatever they want, but I'm not going to read a book with the words "abandoned psychiatric hospital" in the synopsis.


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


Oh, that's tough. I read so many great ones. Die Empty, by Kirk Jones, was one of my favorite horror novels to come out in the last year. It's a dark and hilarious meditation on consumerism, middle age, and death, written in a transparent second-person POV that I've never seen before.
 
I give up on books I'm not enjoying, so I'm not disappointed often. Maybe Disappearance at Devil's Rock. It's a good book, but Tremblay set the bar really fucking high for himself with A Head Full of Ghosts.
 

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


Is this a true story? Yes.