Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

Absolutely! I’m probably my own favourite subject, after all. ;-) I am father of two and have been married to the same beautiful red-headed bane of my existence for the last 18 years. My daughter recently began at the University of Kentucky on a music scholarship and my son, who is still a couple of years away from high school graduation, shows all the signs of following in his big sister’s footsteps. My family is originally from Michigan, but about 8 years ago we transplanted to Kentucky where we still reside near Ft. Knox.

In my spare time, I am the director of operations for a small group of franchise pizzerias located in Michigan. I do a lot of travelling back and forth between the states, and those drives are the times when I do most of my brainstorming and hatching of evil plots. <insert maniacal laugh here>

Born in London to Scottish and Irish parents, Sean spent most of his childhood and teenage years growing up on the move in the likes of Cyprus, Germany, Wales and England as an army brat. With a keen interest in both reading and writing he was diagnosed with the travel and writing bugs very early on in life.

Now, writing, reading and traveling are his main passions in life, but he also loves outdoor sports too from Rugby and Hiking to Tennis and Boxing.

His main inspiration for writing today comes from living in such a beautiful, Gothic, hauntingly, awe inspiring city such as Edinburgh. This place has given Sean so much amazing inspiration to write the more time he spends here.

At this moment he is writing another two books, one is about a young man working in a dead end job and going nowhere in life, who discovers that he has a terminal brain cancer and decides to just go out with a bang. The other book is about his recent back packing adventure through Eastern Europe.

Karen Heard lives in London (UK) and writes dark fiction in a range of genres, including gothic, ghost and mystery stories. Whatever genre she writes in, all her stories have one thing in common: they are all dark. Don't expect many happy endings or pleasant characters from her, for there is something dark lurking in the shadows of her imagination that makes itself known in each tale that escapes her mind.

Karen had a degree in Creative Writing and has worked for the past ten years in the magazine publishing industry.

Check out her website or follow her on Twitter @misheardfiction 

John Shupeck is a horror writer originally raised in...well, just about every area of Pittsburgh, PA and its outlying suburbs you could imagine: trailer parks, projects, downtown metropolitan area, in the country, in the gutter, in a palace made of chocolate...You get the picture.

At a diminutive 5'5 inches, Shupeck's first professional foray into story-telling was one of the most unlikely. At age 18, he began training to become a professional wrestler at the FNW Wrestling Academy in Plum, PA. After graduating, he went on to enjoy a very non-lucrative career in that, along with performing as a hip-hop artist under the alias “Whyt Bred” (No, I am not making that up). After getting bored with these ventures, he decided to try something he'd never done before: Write a novel. Somehow, some way, what came to be known as “Red Town Lost” was published by Dave Barnett of Necro Publications, and Shupeck hasn't looked back since, having written and published another novel, 12 Nights of Sorry, along with a henceforth unpublished book of short stories, and a new novel, currently in the works.

He is now currently enrolled in the Biblical Life Institute in Freeport, PA, pursuing a path to become a pastor in the Free Methodist Church.

Independent writer/editor William J. Grabowski is the author of 2 books and over 200 short stories, articles, interviews and reviews. Recent work (with John Kluge) is on Forbes.com, and in the National Public Radio-associated WIRELESS magazine. His 5-year stint as contributing editor with World Fantasy Award-winning THE HORROR SHOW earned him a nomination from SPWAO as best nonfiction writer. Currently he reviews books for UK print and eZine BEWARE THE DARK; is preparing a nonfiction book, BLACK LIGHT: PERSPECTIVES ON MYSTERIOUS PHENOMENA, for release in early 2014—as well as a darkly comic novella, JOHNNY FLASH (look for it on Smashwords in February). He enjoys Punk, dark music, and hot chiles.

Robert Stava is a writer who now lives in the lower Hudson Valley just north of NYC, apparently not far from that half-imaginary village he sets so many of his stories in, Wyvern Falls. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, he grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York State and after going to college for Fine Arts wound up making his career in advertising at Y&R and J. Walter Thompson in NYC. He went on to become a multimedia Art Director and later as Creative Director ran the 3d Media Group at Arup, an international U.K-based design and engineering company before catapulting into the wild world of writing horror fiction and design.

His first novel "At Van Eyckmann's Request" was published in 2012.

He is also author and designer of "Combat Recon: 5th Air Force Images from the SW Pacific 1943-45" (Schiffer Publishing, 2007), a historical account based around his great uncle's service as a combat photographer during WWII.

His most recent novel 'The Feast of Saint Anne' has found its way into the hands of such eminent authors as T.C. Boyle and Ann Rice and has also been previewed by acclaimed novelist & screenwriter Michael Marshall Smith who commented: "I loved it...as if I was being pulled into a Ray Bradbury or something like BOY'S LIFE."

Hello folks, it's a great pleasure and an honour to present to you an interview with Marc Pastor.  Marc's latest novel Barcelona Shadows, published by Pushkin Press  has been receiving rave reviews since it's publication.  

Described by The Independent  as 

"A horrific yet riveting piece of Catalan Gothic that is as gruesome as it is gripping" 

Barcelona Shadows is a triumph of a novel 

Marc Pastor studied criminology and crime policy, and works as a crime-scene investigator in Barcelona. He is the author of four novels: Montecristo, Barcelona Shadows, awarded the Crims de Tinta prize in 2008, L'any de la plaga and Bioko. Richly atmospheric, his work spans a range of genres, from Sci Fi to Gothic via the adventure novel. Barcelona Shadows is first book published in English.

K. Trap Jones is an award winning demented horror author of novels and short stories that appear within various anthologies. With a sadistic inspiration from Dante Alighieri and Edgar Allan Poe, he has a temptation towards narrative folklore, classic literary works and obscure segments within society.
His novel THE SINNER (Blood Bound Books, 2012) won the Royal Palm Literary Award. His splatterpunk novella, THE DRUNKEN EXORCIST has been released by Necro Publications. His narrative horror short story collection, THE CROSSROADS is available from Hazardous Press.
He is also a member of the Horror Writer's Association and can be found lurking around Tampa, Florida.

By getting Working Stiffs published at 28, Lucy Leitner accomplished her rather dubious goal of being on the same career timeline as Hunter Thompson. She loves movies about phone booth time travel and bands with an unnecessary amount of X’s in their names. Known by many aliases, she has parlayed the dollars she won betting on hockey games into an impressive collection of groceries.

Raised in Arlington, VA, she adopted Pittsburgh as her hometown when she arrived in 2001 to attend the University of Pittsburgh. She earned a masters degree in journalism from Point Park University in 2010. She has been published as a reporter for two local newspapers, a film critic for an underground punk blog, an SEO blogger, and a creative essayist in a worldwide anthology. She has also sold two as-of-yet-unproduced horror screenplays and runs Hollyburgh blog in which she covers the burgeoning Pittsburgh film scene. She also paints and designs things.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I am anonymous, which I find so utterly comfortable. I have every intention of writing what should not be written, for the sake of horror. I intend to take readers into parts of their own psyches which they deny even exist. That’s all that really matters about me.

Do you prefer the term Horror, Weird Fiction or Dark Fiction?

I prefer horror. Although, “horrorotica” seems appropriate for my current book.

Who are some of your favourite authors?

I am a fan H.  P. Lovecraft, since childhood. Lovecraft has inspired as many writers as Einstein has physicists. Then I discovered Philip K. Dick, the paranoid prophet. His writing is so brilliant that it cannot be singly labelled as science fiction. Henry Miller wrote such brilliant, perverse prose, that I felt like I was reading noble pornography. He made the most degenerate sex acts sound poetic. These are the writers that inspired me most in my youth.

What are you reading now?

Right now I’m writing and working to promote my book, The Harlot Goddess. I haven’t had any time to read. But the last great book I read was World War Z. Before that was House of Leaves.

How would you describe your writing style?

It’s very descriptive. It may also require a little dictionary usage, as I have a great love for archaic words. I just feel that some words are too beautiful to be allowed to die out from our lexicon. When it comes to sex in my writing, nothing is tabu and everything warrants noble prose. The Harlot Goddess has passages of perverse sexual acts and violence that come off sounding like a Valentine’s message from a well-read criminal degenerate.

Describe a typical day spent writing. Do you have any unusual writing habits?

I write on scraps of paper I keep in my pocket. I write and rewrite passages over and over until they sound right. I write until the rhythm and flow of every sentence is conducive to the idea it illustrates. Every sentence is a formula that conjures and summons demons and visions and feverish nightmares. I write my sentences the way an alchemist hides secrets in his symbols.

What’s your favourite food?

Guinness Extra Stout nourishes my very soul.

What’s your favourite album?

I am currently obsessed with “Rom 5:12” by black metal gods Marduk. It’s an older one of their albums, but musically it’s just outstanding. Lyrically it is ingenious. I have to say that the lyrics in “Rom 5:12” are every bit as inspirational to a writer like me as Lovecraft or Miller.

What’s the most important lesson you have learned about writing?

Never give up. Write and write and write, no matter what. I went years without any encouragement in my writing. But, I wrote and I got better, and I found my niche. I never gave up, and now I have a confidence in my work that I never had before. 

Fame and fortune, or respect?

Respect, if not literary infamy.

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

The Harlot Goddess has throughout its many pages bits and pieces that could themselves be fleshed out into entire novels. There is one piece in particular that describes how the venom of the Harlot Goddess replaces your soul and turns you into a sadistic predator. You become a nightcreature with a profound understanding of the erotica of suffering. Those several pages and the prose therein are some of my favorite work.

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

The Harlot Goddess is the story of Lilith, the first woman and first wife of Adam. It is a story of black magik, violent sex and the root of all evil.

When Lilith is condemned for enslaving her husband in a web of black magik and perverse sex, she becomes something far worse. The sorceress is cunning, and uses her punishment to her advantage.

She mothers her hundred daughters into being. These are her succubi, which she sets loose upon the nightside of the Earth. Her hundred daughters roam the night and visit men in their sleep. They roam in prides of three, following the scent of sleep and dreams. What becomes of a man visited by her daughters? You’ll have to read The Harlot Goddess to find out.

For further insight into the book, visit:

http://www.damnationbooks.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/N-Onym/151494598376571

http://scribenonymus.tumblr.com/

http://n0nym.wordpress.com/

 

My next book will be something entirely different. The subject matter is still mythological, but the prose and style are something entirely different from The Harlot Goddess. The themes, however, are still meant to erode your belief systems and cherished dogmas.