 Michael Patrick Hicks is the author of Broken Shells: A Subterranean Horror Novella, Mass Hysteria, an Audiobook Listeners Choice Awards Horror Finalist, and Convergence, an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalist. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers. In addition to his own works of original fiction, he has written for the online publications Audiobook Reviewer and Graphic Novel Reporter, and has previously worked as a freelance journalist and news photographer in Metro Detroit. Michael lives in Michigan with his wife and two children. In between compulsively buying books and adding titles that he does not have time for to his Netflix queue, he is hard at work on his next story. Could you tell the readers a little bit about yourself? Sure! I’m an author of speculative fiction, primarily horror these days, but I’ve also spent a fair bit of time dabbling in science fiction and sci-fi/horror cross-genre stuff. I also work full-time as a desk jockey at a university and am raising two small boys with my wife. If that wasn’t enough, I also review books at www.highfeverbooks.com, which I manage and have a small team of great reviewers contributing to the operations and keeping the site active. What do you like to do when you're not writing? Between work, family, and writing I don’t have a lot of hours left over for “me” time. I always try to squeeze in an hour or two a day for reading, though, either on my lunch break or before bed after the kids are down for the night. If by some miracle we can get the kids to bed early enough and still be awake enough for it, my wife and I might try to watch a movie. Other than the horror genre, what else has been a major influence on your writing? Thrillers, primarily! Besides Stephen King, much of early years a reader consisted of a steady diet of books by Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Barry Eisler, Richard K. Morgan, James Rollins. I think certain aspects of those works helped influence my own writings, particularly in terms of pacing and, I hope, keeping things exciting for the readers. 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? Look, I love horror, and I’ve been reading horror pretty regularly for more than twenty years. I think the broader, general reading public tends hold the genre in disdain, that it’s the black sheep of literature, and that in terms of critics and reviewers, there’s an element of elitism, that they think the genre is somehow beneath them. It’s bullshit, frankly. How do we break past these assumptions? Well, people are unwittingly consuming horror, especially since publishers aren’t currently marketing titles as horror and are instead calling them thrillers or psychological suspense, or some such label. Readers who say, “Oh, I would never read horror,” were lining up for Thomas Harris’s next Hannibal Lecter book! Even more ironic are those who say they wouldn’t read horror and then tell horror writers like myself that we need to read The Bible, arguably one of the oldest horror novels in existence! Thankfully, I think we are in the process of breaking past these assumption, slowly but surely, and people are realizing that horror is a legit drama that can provide just as much escapism as mysteries and science fiction. Horror flicks like IT and Get Out are helping to break through the stigma. Maybe the masses are starting to come around. A lot of good horror movements have arisen as a direct result of the socio/political climate, considering the current state of the world where do you see horror going in the next few years? I think we’ll be dealing with Trumpism, its fallout, and the issues surrounding its rise and (hopefully) eventual defeat for a good long while. We’re in a climate, again, where white supremacy is on the rise and out in the open. And not just out in the open and marching, but marching with the support of the President of the United States who has called these neo-nazis “very fine people.” We’re stripping women of their rights and bodily autonomy, and locking migrant children up in concentration camps where they’re raped, beaten, and left to die. These are the things that a number of my fellow American citizens enthusiastically voted for and wanted, and they’re thrilled that all this is happening. People are more politically divided than ever, which in itself is certainly ripe for examination under the horror microscope. Horror is a natural fit for countercultural movements, and it’s been used to great effect in exploring social issues. I think the fact that we’re living in such a dark period right now with Trump, the resurgence of far-right movements, and their evangelical supporters will make horror a more popular genre for escapism, and might even provide a much needed dose of wish fulfillment. Hopefully we’ll get plenty more diverse voices writing in response to the current state of affairs. I would expect to see a rise in eco-horror, too. The past five years have been the warmest on record, and many of our elected officials refuse to give any kind of a shit about the future of the world and keep trying their best to destroy climate policies and defund and defang agencies like the EPA, all while our planet grows hotter every year. There have been plenty of horror stories about science being misused, like in Jurassic Park or Harry Adam Knight’s Slimer, but we also ignore or deny science at our peril. What are the books and films that helped to define you as an author? Stephen King’s IT was the book that made me want to be a writer, and later, Dennis Lehane’s Darkness, Take My Hand. Films, I’d say John Carpenter’s The Thing and Alien. Those two in particular hit several sweet spots that I think have carried over into various works of mine. What new and upcoming authors do you think we should take notice off? Gabino Iglesias is a star on the rise and his latest, Coyote Songs, is one of the best books I’ve read in years. It’s just absolutely fantastic! Gabino’s been around for a few years now, but he’s just warming up. I expect plenty of great things from him. Keep an eye out, too, on Somer Canon, Tim Meyer, Matt Hayward, Patrick Lacey, and Kristi DeMeester. How would you describe your writing style? It’s definitely imaginative narrative, with occasional dashes of expository writing. I do have a few years of journalism in my background, which was highly expository in nature and required me to remain neutral on subjects. As a fiction writer, I can joyfully shrug off those kind of journalistic responsibilities! My villains are routinely villainous and without the pretensions of maintaining an unbiased viewpoint about them. (Of course, the villains don’t always think they are the villains…) That said, I do still try to stick to the facts when I can and do a lot of homework to set the scenes properly. There’s a fair amount of research that goes into stories like The Resurrectionists and Black Site, even when so much of the narrative is imaginary. Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative that have stayed with you? Positive reviews are always welcome! The ones that have really stuck with me, though, are from my peers in the writing community. There’s a certain pleasure in being acknowledged as an equal, as somebody who does have talent by people with healthy pedigrees behind them. I’m always appreciative of any reader that picks up my books and spends their time with my stories, though, regardless of whether or not they like it. They took a risk on me. Hopefully it pays off for them! I will say, though, that one negative response to my short story Revolver has stuck with me, and likely always will. It wasn’t a formal review, but an e-mail from an irate reader who called me a godless communist. It was my very first piece of hate mail! I still get a good laugh out of that one whenever I think back on it. What aspects of writing to do you find the most difficult? At this point in time, simply finding a solid block of time in which to write is the most difficult thing. I find myself writing in small bursts now, on a mobile app on my phone, during my lunch break or those rare, small moments of quiet when I can knock out a couple hundred words or so if I’m lucky. Is there one subject you would never write about as an author? I don’t think so, but never say never. How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Typically, I just like the way a name sounds. There isn’t any particularly special meaning to the names I use, or at least none that I’m consciously aware of. Writing, is not a static process, how have you developed as a writer over the years? Well, I certainly hope I’ve gotten better! Having good editors have helped break me of some bad habits, or at least become more aware of them, particularly in terms of crutch words like “just.” What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers? Technology has given us a wider range of options in terms of must-haves, so whatever it is that can make it easier for you to write is a must-have. If you’re on the go a lot or just away from your home office frequently, get a writing app for your phone or tablet. Writers no longer have to be tied down to one spot to get the job done. And, of course, read widely. Read everything you can, in and out of your genre. What is the best piece of advice you ever received with regards to your writing? Lose the info dump! My first novel, Convergence, was a sci-fi thriller and in that first daft I bogged it down with a lot of snazzy details on the technology and the near-future that I thought was really cool…but none of it was really relevant to the story and killed any sense of momentum I’d been building. My editor gave me a good ass-kicking on that and rightly so! While it was important for me, as the author, to know this stuff and let it inform the work, the readers didn’t really need to know about it. I’ve grown a lot more conscious of my world-building and recognizing those first draft details that aren’t necessary for the final book. Getting your worked noticed is one of the hardest things for a writer to achieve, how have you tried to approach this subject? Unless you’re incredibly, incredibly lucky, it takes a good bit of time to get your work noticed. You build an audience slowly, but hopefully steadily, by continuing to release new work. The larger a body of work you can produce, the more points of introduction readers have to discover you. You also have to understand that writing is a business, and a part of that is marketing, which isn’t easy. If you can take advantage of things like NetGalley and research reviewers in your genre (and follow their goddamned submission guidelines, for Christ’s sake!), you have a better chance of luring in more readers. Nothing is ever a given, though. You’ve got to continually work at trying to get noticed, and sometimes that just means sitting your ass down and writing new material. 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? Oddly, I think Cara Stone from Revolver is my answer for both, and that’s because there’s an awful lot of me within that character. That short story was a lot of me talking about my view on modern-day politics and dealing with my own depression and running out of any kind of a fuck to give anymore. It was a hard story to write for all the reasons that made it cathartic. It’s angry, brutal, aggressive, and in your face with all of that. That story, and Cara in particular, was me opening up a vein and bleeding onto the page. So, in a lot of ways, Cara is my favorite because she’s the one I can most closely identify with. Of course, that also makes her my least favorite because she’s a character that I recognize as being maybe not the best parts of me. She’s a bit more damaged than I am, suffered far more trauma than I have and in very different ways, but we share some of the same flaws and character defects. What piece of your own work are you most proud of? Again, Revolver. And are there any that you would like to forget about? There are several novels in the trunk, so to speak, that will never, ever see the light of day, to the point that I’m not even sure if the files exist for them anymore. I don’t think there are any stories I would like to forget, but there are definitely a number that neither I nor anyone else will ever read. For those who haven’t read any of your books, which of your books do you think best represents your work and why? I think my latest novella, The Resurrectionists, is probably the best representation of my overall body of work. It’s bloody and gory and has some neat creature stuff about it, but it also has a social conscious, which has become a bit of a motif in my works. It’s also the first in a series, and I’m hoping it’ll help draw readers in and get them wanting more by the time they hit that last page! Do you have a favorite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us? Sadly, nothing springs immediately to mind! I tend not to linger too long on my past works. Once they’re written and released, I kind of forget about them and am too busy working on something new. Can you tell us about your latest book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next? My latest book is the first in a series introducing Salem Hawley. The Resurrectionists is a work of historical cosmic horror and takes place just a few years after the American Revolution. Hawley fought in the war on the side of the colonies and is now a free man living in New York. It’s also a time of very disruptive progress in medicine, and the teaching hospital is employing groups of resurrectionists, which was the name given to body snatchers. They and the medical students would dig up corpses and steal them for study and dissection. After one of Hawley’s close friends discovers that the bodies of his dead wife and child have been stolen, Hawley becomes involved in trying to stop the wave of grave robbing plaguing New York. What he doesn’t know is that the resurrectionists are doing more than just simple grave robbing, and if their occult practices are successful it could spell the end of this new fledgling nation…and the world itself. If you could erase one horror cliché what would be your choice? Cell phones never working in modern-day settings. What was the last great book you read, and what was the last book that disappointed you? I mentioned above Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias – that was definitely the last great book I’ve read! It’s seriously phenomenal stuff! The last book that disappointed me was Soothing the Savage Swamp Beast by Zakary McGaha. It’s got a terrific cover, and McGaha’s a damn good writer, but the story itself wasn’t what I was looking for, unfortunately. What's the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer? Oh god, I have no idea. Let me get back to you on this one… Find out more about Michael and follow him on social media by following the links below Website: http://www.michaelpatrickhicks.com Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Patrick-Hicks/e/B00ILI4XLK BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/michael-patrick-hicks Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeH5856 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authormichaelpatrickhicks/ The Resurrectionists (The Salem Hawley Series Book 1) Having won his emancipation after fighting on the side of the colonies during the American Revolution, Salem Hawley is a free man. Only a handful of years after the end of British rule, Hawley finds himself drawn into a new war unlike anything he has ever seen. New York City is on the cusp of a new revolution as the science of medicine advances, but procuring bodies for study is still illegal. Bands of resurrectionists are stealing corpses from New York cemeteries, and women of the night are disappearing from the streets, only to meet grisly ends elsewhere. After a friend’s family is robbed from their graves, Hawley is compelled to fight back against the wave of exhumations plaguing the Black cemetery. Little does he know, the theft of bodies is key to far darker arts being performed by the resurrectionists. If successful, the work of these occultists could spell the end of the fledgling American Experiment… and the world itself. The Resurrectionists, the first book in the Salem Hawley series, is a novella of historical cosmic horror from the author of Broken Shells and Mass Hysteria.   Comments are closed.
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