Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Sergio is an eccentric, wannabe writer, who somehow managed to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Studies and Psychology. In spite of his academic endeavors, he secretly aspires to be the Wizard of Oz, or Batman (actually, mostly Batman). Sadly, none of these dreams have come true for him yet. Recently, he self-published a horror novella titled Don't Steal from the Devil, which somehow found its way into the Top 100 Horror section of Amazon UK, and Death Throes Webzine showcased his gruesome short story The Crucifix Killings. During the day, he works as a freelance journalist and copywriter for the music industry. His website is: www.sergiopereira.co.za. 

One of the best things about having a horror fiction review site is discovering new and exciting authors, and based on Ken's Novel Of A Feather, Ken is going to be one of the horror authors to watch out for.   

Ken Goldman, former Philadelphia teacher of English and Film Studies, is an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association. He has homes on the Main Line in Pennsylvania and at the Jersey shore depending upon his mood and his need for a tan. His stories have appeared in almost 700 independent press publications in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Australia with over thirty due for publication in 2014. Since 1993 Ken's tales have received seven honorable mentions in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, and he has won an obscene number of contests for real money.

He has written five books : three books of short stories : You Had  Me AT  Arrgh!! : Five Uneasy Pieces by  Ken Goldman, Donny Doesn't Live Here Anymore,  Star Crossed   and a novella, Desiree,

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I’m a Sussex-maid, now living in North Staffordshire with my husband, Peter Coleborn (Mr Alchemy Press). I write short fiction, much of which are inspired by my obsession with folklore; around forty stories have made it in print to date. I have several full length books out in various forms but none in print under this name so far. I have reviewed books for various places including websites and magazines such as Piper at the Gates of Fantasy, the BFS and Starburst. I have also been involved in some Dr Who scripting. I’m also a Reiki Master and Meditational Healer.

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

I don’t write in any one specific area, but if pushed, then a mix of weird/dark/contemporary fantasy/horror. My stories are often supernatural with a bias toward traditional folklore, by which I mean the kind of local legends that are handed down. The legends of silent pools that crop up throughout the UK; the many black hounds; or else tales of mystery, monsters, ghosts and the Good Neighbours. But as my short fiction has appeared mainly in horror anthologies it would seem to lean in that direction. I will read and enjoy most things, but I am not over keen on angst and/or gore-fests.

Who are some of your favourite authors?

Favourite authors change with my mood so I would not like to single any one of them out. Books that I enjoyed from 2013?  Lou Morgan and Alison Littlewood stand out.

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

Does re-reading count? I read a lot of 19th and early 20th century fiction and have just re-read Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons – always a big favourite. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman remains a huge influence. Disappointing fiction? A controversial choice, perhaps, but Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

How would you describe your writing style?

Another tough question to answer for myself, so I have just asked Peter – and he says, quote: “Idiosyncratic, and occasionally obtuse, but never in a bad way. i.e. Jan invariably  approaches her fiction from an unexpected perspective.” Unquote.

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

Positive: ‘Leinster Gardens’, which appeared in The 13 Ghosts of Christmas. Walt Hicks said, in HellBound Times, “descriptive prose and subtle shades of character perfectly accentuate this spooky paen to Dickens." I was well chuffed!

Negative: A well known editor with a major publishing house once told me that I punctuated with a machine gun. She’s not wrong. Struggling with dyslexia as I do, punctuation is especially hard work. Fortunately for me Peter is my beta reader and editor.

What’s your favourite food?

Chocolate.

Who would be on the soundtrack to your life story?

Jethro Tull, Maddy Prior, Richard Thompson... there are many more and varied acts, but folk music, especially folk rock, will always be my default setting.

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

Never include any subject if you don’t know the facts – because there’ll always someone out there who does...

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

That I’m never satisfied with anything I’ve written. I just hit deadlines, at which time the tweaking must end!

How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?

Essentially I am writing the same types of fiction that I always have, but how has that writing evolved? Hopefully I have got better; better at putting my thoughts into words; better at conveying atmosphere and emotion; better at telling a story.  So, short answer, I am evolving into a better writer than when I started out.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received from another author?

Write to the end before you think about editing. And, read books ... lots of books.

Who is your favourite character from your book and why?

The series of books I am working on now has a character called Tara of whom I am very fond. She is cynical and impatient, and has authority issues. I can empathise...

How about your least favourite character? What makes them less appealing to you?

It is hard for to really ‘dislike’ any character that I’ve created. Even the nastiest creature is written with sneaking regard – if not open glee! There are less appealing characters of course but it doesn’t follow that I like them any less than the ‘good-guy’. It’s usually more a case of winners vs. losers.

Fame, fortune, or respect?

All three options have their attraction :-)

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

I am proud of almost all my fiction for differing reasons, but as ‘Otterburn’ – published in Estronomicon e-mag - was short listed for a BFS short fiction award it will probably be the most mentioned.

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

There have been a few short stores out recently in anthologies. ‘Black Hound of Newgate’ in The Bestiarum Vocabulum (Western Legends) and ‘Bone Wary’ in A-Z Cities of Death (Static Movement) to name but two.

My last book to come out was wearing my editors’ hat for The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic which I co-edited with the inimitable Jen Barber. We now have a Volume 2 in planning, so watch the Alchemy Press site for guidelines.

I have a shared-world novel for Fringe Works in planning, and have a series of novels of my own that I hope to roll out very soon – watch my own web/blog for details on those.

What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do?

“Can we buy the film rights.”

For more info on Jan and her work please follow these links 

Website: http://janedwardsblog.wordpress.com/

Blog: http://janedwardsblog.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jan.coleborn.edwards

Twitter: @jancoledwards

Lnkedin: uk.linkedin.com/pub/jan-edwards/31/b5a/972

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B009BAA3R0

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Guy Adams lives in Spain, surrounded by rescue animals. Some of them are his family. He spent over ten years working as a professional actor and comedian. He has pretended to be Ernest Hemingway, Hitler, Sherlock Holmes and writhed about in his underpants simulating sex with a woman dressed as a horse. Acting is an unusual thing to do with one's time.

Eventually he decided he'd quite like to eat regularly. Switching careers he became a full-time writer.

Nobody said he was clever. 

Against all odds he managed to stay busy and since then he has written over twenty books. From bestselling humour title THE RULES OF MODERN POLICING (1973 Edition) to novels for BBC Books' TORCHWOOD range and brand new adventures for Sherlock Holmes in THE BREATH OF GOD and THE ARMY OF DR MOREAU.
He is the author of THE WORLD HOUSE novels, the DEADBEAT series and the weird westerns THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE INFERNAL and ONCE UPON A TIME IN HELL. 

He also writes comics, including THE ENGINE from Madefire, the creator-owned GOLDTIGER and the forthcoming ULYSSES SWEET: MANIAC FOR HIRE from 2000AD.
THE CLOWN SERVICE, his new series from Del Rey UK mixes espionage with horror and fantasy. Because he's never met a genre he didn't like. He isn't a spy. But he is a boy, so naturally he's always dreamed of being one. 

Matt Shaw was born, quite by accident (his mother tripped, he shot out) September 30th 1980 in Winchester hospital where he was immediately placed on the baby ward and EBay. Some twelve years later (wandering the corridors of the hospital and playing with road kill when he was on day release), the listing closed and he remained unsold, he was booted out of the hospital to start his life as a writer and hobbit - beginning with writing screenplays and short stories for his own amusement before finally getting published when he was twenty-seven years and forty-five seconds old.

Once Published weekly in a lad's magazine with his photography work, Matt Shaw is also a published author and cartoonist. Has to be said, can be a bit of a flirt and definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, somewhat of a klutz.

It was at the tender age of 7 that an interconnection of cells and organs called Mike Robinson (then Mikey) penned, or pencilled, his first story. Called Aliens In My Backyard!, it went on to become a runaway bestseller, topping international charts (or maybe that just happened in his imagination, too).

Although he has since worked as an independent videogame producer and cinematographer, writing has always been the focal point of his creative life, although to him the phrase "creative life" sounds a tad redundant. His first professional sale, a short story entitled "The Hand of Spudd", appeared in Storyteller Magazine when he was 19. Since then, his work has appeared in a dozen magazines, anthologies and podcasts. In 2006, he was one of five guys comprising GLAWS, the Greater L.A. Writers Society, which has since become the second largest writers' group in Southern California. He's the editor of "Literary Landscapes", the society's publication. See more at: www.glaws.org

"Skunk Ape Semester", his debut novel, was released early 2012 by Solstice Publishing and was a Finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. His follow-up, the supernatural mystery novel "The Green-Eyed Monster", debuted October 2012 from Curiosity Quills Press. His existential horror novel "The Prince of Earth" is also available.

Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?

I’ve been a horror fan since childhood (loved watching The Blob and The Tingler and reading Poe). In junior high, I read Stoker’s Dracula, discovered Dark Shadows on TV, and decided this was definitely my genre. Sold my first story at 17, and have since appeared in several magazines and anthologies, including DAW’s Time of the Vampires, Norilana Press’ Under the Rose, Cold Fusion Media’s Arcane II, and Diabolic Publications’ Dying to Live, among others.

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

Horror, though what I write might be more appropriately called “dark fantasy” or even “horror light.”

Who are some of your favourite authors?

Richard Matheson, Connie Willis, Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. LeGuin, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Edgar Allan Poe.

What are you reading now?

Blackout by Connie Willis; Matheson Uncollected by Richard Matheson.

How would you describe your writing style?

Intense. Weird. Quirky.

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

Outline, write, revise, rewrite, repeat. I write everything in longhand – in a real notebook with a spiral binding – first, then do final drafts on the computer. In WordPerfect. I detest MS Word!

What’s your favourite food?

One word. Chocolate.

What’s your favourite album?

The Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin.

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

Practice. Believe in yourself. Practice more. Send it out. Send it out again. Persevere.

Fame and fortune, or respect?

Well, respect, of course. Fame I can definitely do without, though I certainly wouldn’t mind trying fortune on for size.

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

Probably “Walking Tour” in the DAW anthology Time of the Vampires.

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

My two most recent appearances: “Nightcrawlers” in Arcane II, Cold Fusion Media; and “Turning Worms” in Dying to Live, Diabolic Publications. Working on: more stories to submit to more anthologies and magazines. I’m like those pesky poltergeist critters: you just never know where I might turn up next.

As you know the aim of this website is to introduce you all to what what in my opinion is some of best horror authors out there.  It was  Ghostwatch legend Stephen Volk who brought Russell Mardell to my attention.  Russell was looking for outlets for his new novel Bleeker Hill, a dystopian horror novel set in a near future UK.  By the time I had read the first few chapters of this excellent novel I knew I had to do a full indepth interview with Russell.  

Russell  Mardell is a novelist, playwright, producer and sometime director based in the south west of England.

His first published book was Silent Bombs Falling on Green Grass a collection of twelve weird and wonderful short stories centered around the town of Mewlish Lull. His follow up Stone Bleeding is a dark dystopian satire of reality TV and celebrity culture. Most recently he has published Bleeker Hill a dystopian horror.

Russell has also written for the British stage with the plays Cool Blokes: Decent Suits, and its sequel Suits 2: Back From the Cleaners performed at the Salisbury Playhouse, and The Seventeenth Valentine and Freestate playing at The White Bear Theatre in London.

Having studied film production in London he has written and directed a couple of short films, and continues to develop a number of screenplays.

Today's participant in this ingoing series of rapid fire author interviews is Jennifer L. Barnes.  Jennifer lives in Southern Indiana with her patient husband and perhaps the world's most ungraceful cat. She was raised with wolves by a crazy biologist Shawnee Medicine Man so being normal was never an option for her. With a fascination for things that go Bump in the Night since she was a small child, she turns this towards her writing, else she'd go insane. Her preferred genre is Urban Fantasy and has already had several stories published by Pill Hill Press and Norgus Press. Due to her love of 80's movies and comic books, she describes her works as "Big Dumb Fun" with sharp, witty dialogue and page turning action.