The Abyss May Stare Back At You: An interview with neo-noir/horror author Richard Thomas

1) Please tell us about Staring into the Abyss.

It's a collection of dark stories, somewhere between neo-noir (French for "new-black") and horror. The stories are tragic, but there are rays of hope. I like to see how people react to those moments in their lives where there is a tipping point, that inciting incident,beyond the point of no return. I like to see how these characters react to loss, to violence, to pain and suffering. Do they wilt or rise up? Do they seek revenge or collapse under the weight of their own actions.

Kraken Press is a new publisher, but George Cotronis is a globally recognized artist, and that's what originally drew me to him. So I'm lucky to have his cover art on this collection, as well as a free eSingle we're giving away soon of "Transmogrify." He's done an amazing job of putting this together, getting the word out, and so far the reviews are primarily positive. I know that not every story inStaring Into the Abyss will work for every reader—a choose your own adventure, a list of twenty reasons why a man stays, a dark tale of rape, abuse and vengeance—some of those narrative are challenging. But I hope that there is something in here for everyone, and if I can really find a way to connect with each reader, then I will feel like I succeeded. "Maker of Flight," the first story (which won a contest at ChiZine), is one I've read to my children, and they love it, so it's not all doom and gloom.

2) What motivated you to focus on this sort of subject matter?

I've read a lot of interviews with Stephen King, he's somebody I grew up reading, and I really admire him. I've read all of his books. He has talked about how his wife always asked him, and his family too, why he writes such dark stories? Why not something lighter or funny? My mom asks me the same questions, my wife, too. I try. I did just get my MFA and those stories tend to be more literary, very little sex or violence, nobody dies in those tales. Basically, what I'm saying, is that I have a hard time writing anything else. I'm drawn to the darkness, much like the moth is drawn to the flame. Whether it's cathartic to live out these moments, a way to live out my own anger and frustrations without actually acting, I don't know. But I feel we can all learn something from focusing on the negative—we can be glad it wasn't us, we can feel sympathy for someone and vow to reach out to a person in need, or we can promise to be better people ourselves. But I don't think these stories, or the subject matter, are simply entertainment, just blood porn.

3) Are the stories distinguished by style differences in addition to theme differences? If so, could you tell us a bit about that.

Definitely. I alluded to the choose your own adventure story, "Splintered," that ran at PANK. That's a story I've never written before. And the "Twenty Reasons to Stay and One to Leave" story is really just a list of 20 responses, a man answering the questions he hears after a great loss: why are you still here, why do you still love her, why don't you leave? So, as far as style and format, those two are definitely different. "Interview" is another story that breaks my usual format, sprinkling a grocery receipt (or list) throughout the story, so that over time those items add up to something sinister. And "Ten Steps" is basically the ten steps it takes a child to turn into a monster, so the way that is organized, the lack of an explanation, or happy ending, the open ending, that is something I think is compelling.

As for theme, I think most of the stories are tragic, so the theme is primarily about loss, and how to react and deal with that loss. Even the stories that end on an up note, that have that bit of hope and optimism, they are surrounded by the pain that came before it. The only one that probably could be called "funny" is "Stephen King Ate My Brain," and people seem to enjoy that break. I purposefully put it after "Steel Toed-Boots" one of the darkest in the collection.

4) We all love our children, sure, but is there a particular story in the collection that you like more than the others? 

I have my favorites, maybe four or five that I think are really special. But if I had to pick one, it's probably "Twenty Reasons to Stay and One to Leave." I was so thrilled when it was accepted at Metazen, and even more so when it was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It really validated my work, the experiment of the form. I like the echo of the story, the way it doesn't really give you all of the details, you have to build on the skeleton of the story, and fill in some blanks. I dissected it over at LitReactor and I know a teacher in Tennessee, Heather Foster, even taught it in one of her classes, alongside Joyce Carol Oates's classic, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," so that was really an honor.

That story, and maybe "Victimized," the longest story I've ever written. It just added up to what I think is a powerful story, with a twist that I really hope is a punch in the gut.

5) Were any of these stories more difficult for you to write than the others, for whatever reason?

Any of the stories that focus on the loss of a child. It's so hard for me to channel those kinds of thoughts. Maybe that's why "Twenty Reasons to Stay and One to Leave," is one of my favorites, it was so difficult for me to write. Much like my second novel, Disintegration, which my agent is shopping right now. All of that focus on your family dying in front of you, I can remember finishing that book and feeling like I was going to throw up, breaking down and crying, and then taking a deep breath and hopping in the minivan to go see my mother-in-law. It really got to me. Much like some of the stories in this book do. I try to be as honest as I can, and leave it all on the page.

6) What motivates you as a writer? What do you feel the fundamental goal of your fiction is?

I love telling stories. I really live for those moments when my work gets to somebody, when they laugh, or get aroused, or yell at me for scaring them, or tell me I made them cry. I want people to feel something, a powerful emotion, and to do that with just my words, from miles away, it really empowers me to keep writing and entertaining, and maybe even inspire people to be creative, to get out into the world and live their lives, no matter what their hopes and dreams are. I want to touch lives, and then have people react—maybe they go hug their son or daughter, or decide to take a chance on a project, or go back to school, or even just feel a little better about themselves. I use a quote from Nietzsche in describing this book, saying "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster." I'm basically asking people to live a better life, to avoid the demons, to get away from toxic people, so that maybe they can find fulfillment. Kind of funny way to go about it, with this dark fiction—maybe it's reverse psychology or something—these cautionary tales.

7) Please tell us a bit about your other work.

My first novel, Transubstantiate, a neo-noir, speculative thriller came out in 2010, but it's out of print. I'm working on turning it into a YA title, and the experiment is going well, gave it to my agent a few weeks ago. I have another collection out, Herniated Roots, which leans towards crime. I've published over 75 stories, online and print, but really got started when my story "Stillness" (which is in this collection, Staring Into the Abyss) was accepted for Shivers VI alongside Stephen King and Peter Staub. I just got my MFA, so I'm looking for a teaching gig, and in the mean time I'm editing two anthologies, The Lineup (Black Lawrence Press, out in 2014) which is edgy literary fiction by 25 women authors, and Burnt Tongues, with Chuck Palahniuk and Dennis Widmyer, which evolved out of a workshop, and just found a home (out in 2014 as well). I just had two stories accepted that I'm excited about, that aren't out yet, "Garage Sales" in Midwestern Gothic, and "Chrysalis" in Aracadia, two really cool journals that are pretty hard to get into. I'm thrilled to see those in print later this year.

Also, we'll be giving away copies of Staring Into the Abyss at Goodreads, as well as a teaser story, "Transmogrify" as an eSingle, later this month on Amazon. So come find me on Twitter or Facebook to stay in the loop.

8) Where can readers find out more about you?

You can stay up to date, and find all of my published work (both print and online, for sale as well as FREE) at my blog,http://www.whatdoesnotkillme.com. Here are a few other places as well:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wickerkat
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richardgthomas3
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/144164.Richard_Thomas
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Richard-Thomas/e/B0036EYNDC

Richard was the winner of the 2009 “Enter the World of Filaria” contest at ChiZine. He has published over sixty stories online and in print, including the Shivers VI anthology (Cemetery Dance) with Stephen King and Peter Straub, Murky Depths, PANK, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Pear Noir!, Word Riot, 3:AM Magazine, Dogmatika, Vain and Opium. His debut novel Transubstantiate was released in 2010. In his spare time he is a featured book critic at The Nervous Breakdown, as well as a columnist at Lit Reactor. He is represented by Paula Munier at the Talcott Notch agency.

The Slender Man, an Ancient and Modern Evil: An interview with Simon Cox

1) Please tell us about your novella, The Slender Man.

It’s a story about a horror character that was created and developed on an internet forum. It’s the kind of horror that I find scary – isolation, being trapped, and a slowly escalating sense of dread.

2) Please tell us a bit about your lead.

The lead in the story, Adam Bradford, is really just an everyman – I needed him to be almost a blank slate, the kind of person that any reader could identify with, or project themselves onto. Empathy with the protagonist is the thing that makes horror work, I think. That’s also the reason that I wrote it in the first person perspective.

3) Tell us a bit about The Slender Man and how you came across him originally.

I think I was reading a news article online that happened to mention him, and the name just jumped out at me immediately. So I went onto Google and typed it in, got to the knowyourmeme.com page about him, from there I jumped onto the original Something Awful forum thread about him...and then I scared myself silly reading about him. Seriously – I gave myself nightmares when I was writing the book.

4) What do you find so compelling about The Slender Man?

I think really it’s the absence of facial features. That really freaks me out. We do so much with eye contact that I think that not having eyes implies something fundamentally monstrous.

I should say that the “canon” (if there can be one for a character developed by a crowd of people on the internet) has the Slender Man wearing a dark business suit, but personally I didn’t really like that element of the character. I generally try to describe characters as little as possible, in order to let the reader paint the picture in his or her mind, so in my story I mention the eyes as being like shallow scrapings in wax, and the limbs as being long and thin, but beyond that I don’t describe the Slender Man very much at all. That way if you like the “business suit” Slender Man then you can imagine that, and if you don’t then it isn’t mentioned.

5) In a hundred years, do you think authors will be writing about The Slender Man alongside your werewolves, vampires, ghosts, et cetera perhaps in ignorance of his/its origins? Who knows, perhaps we'll end up with Slender Man teen paranormal romance.

Good question. Talking about the future is a tripwire, really, so I won’t be making any firm predictions, but I will say that unless the internet disappears then there will always be a record of the origins of The Slender Man, so I’m not sure that it will ever exist in quite the same way as the creepies that have evolved over the preceding centuries. And if the alternative is a Slender Man teen paranormal romance then maybe it’s for the best.

6) Many concepts in horror have grown organically by building on underlying cultural myths, even if, over the decades they drift considerably from the source material (e.g., vampires). The Slender Man, though, is a very modern concept that is the result of an active attempt at generating a new bit of folklore, and, as such arguably lacks the connection to the history and cultural aspects that amplify the power of other horror creatures. How do you think this affects writing stories about The Slender Man, and did it affect your writing process at all?

I don’t think The Slender Man is necessarily a modern concept; to me he’s just another embodiment of the classic horror theme of a malevolent “unknown watcher”.

I think you’re right that the Slender Man himself lacks the historical and cultural aspects of other horror characters, however, and that does require some effort on the part of the writer. Today a writer can write “vampire” or “werewolf” and the vast majority of people will know what the writer means; a character such as the Slender Man requires greater explanation. But that in itself is a great opportunity for a writer, as there is plenty of white space that you can fill in with details of your own creation.

7) On first blush, one would think people would want to avoid feeling fear and terror, but the audience for horror media proves this isn't the case. What draws people into wanting to feel those dark emotions?

It’s odd, isn’t it? I think that for most of us these days our lives are very safe and, as a result, very boring, so I think that some people seek out horror as a way of accessing a form of “danger”. It’s my suspicion that evolution meant that the cavemen who were scared of things lived long enough to pass on their genes, meaning that a disposition towards fear is a genetic trait in many people...I know that for me the relief of a subsiding fear is almost pleasurable, so perhaps this response is evolutionary, and as a result some people’s genes “reward them” for being scared. Who knows? Certainly not me – I’m just making this up as I go along.

8) Do you intend to revisit The Slender Man in a future work?

I don’t think so. I usually write things that I feel that I have to write, and in this case I had a horror story about The Slender Man bubbling around in my head and trying to get out; now that I’ve written it I don’t feel that urge to write about him any more. Or to put it another way, I’ve written what I wanted to, and I’m not sure what I’d write that I haven’t already.

A few people have commented that they wish it were longer, and the idea of extending it into a full novel did cross my mind, but I don’t know that I’d do that justice – I’d be doing it for other people rather than for myself, so my heart wouldn’t be in it.

9) Please tell us a bit about your other work.

I’ve written a lot of short stories, and many of them have been published, either by me or by others. I tend to enjoy writing short stories because for most of the ideas I have the blaze of inspiration and motivation carries me far enough to get a short out of it but not much further.

I’ve finished one novel that I’m trying to interest agents in, and as of this interview I’m just putting the finishing touches to a second, although there is still the laborious and soul-destroying editing process to go on that one.

You can find out more about all of this kind of thing on my website: www.simonjohncox.com.

Photographic Evil: An interview with paranormal novelist Christopher Savio

1) Please tell us about your book. 

The Daguerreotypist is a book that is much more than your typical paranormal romance. Don’t get me wrong, it has its fare share of romance and has the ability to scare the pants off most any reader. Mostly the book is about what happens when people don’t realize the wonderful things they have in life. Too many times we all wish we had something or someone else. Often we think that our lives are much too boring. After reading The Daguerreotypist, you will be grateful for what you have and hug and kiss your significant other.

2) Please tell us a bit about your main characters.

The antagonist, Isaiah Whitfield, is a loner who wants to change the world by eliminating its sins. He believes that in so doing he can and will bring about the Second Coming. In the 19th century, he bounced around from one job to the next before finding himself in business as a daguerreotypist (photographer). Taking pictures of the rich or other people he loathes drives him wild with frustration. They don’t listen to him and continue their sinning. Due to his anger and failed attempts to get people to change, he devises a crusade to kill the sinners and scare people into changing their lives. His favorite hangout or place to go and people watch is a coffee house around the corner from his 1842 New York City apartment. Here in an attempt at human contact and to spread his message of eradicating sin, he often gets into political and religious debates. To everyone but him, it is blatantly obvious why he has few people who can tolerate his presence.

The protagonist, Rachel, is a beautiful photojournalist who lives in Isaiah’s apartment in the year 2012 with her fiancée Brian. Rachel is outwardly brave, successful and happy. On the inside, she yearns for something else. She needs something a bit more exciting than her safe and loving life with Brian. Once she finds Isaiah’s Daguerreotype in her wall, she finds herself obsessed with him, despite his horrific history. It turns out to be an obsession that may ruin much more than her safe and loving life she has found with Brian.

Brian, Rachel’s fiancée, is a high school history teacher who recently has mustered up the guts to move into New York City with Rachel. He is Rachel’s safety net and rock. Brian is loyal and devoted and is the kind of guy who will stick by here through thick or thin. Given this is partially because he believes himself to be out of her league and endures much more than most men will to stay with his true love.

The Devil, for the most part is only visible or seen by Isaiah. Once he is revealed for what he really is, he appears sporadically through the book to antagonize Isaiah and drive him even madder. The Devil pushes Isaiah to do his bidding, which appears to be solely for his own amusement. As the story unfolds, amusement may not be his sole motive. The reader may have to read the sequel to find out the true evil of the Devil’s true motives.

3) You have a background in, among other things, teaching criminology. How did that inform some of your character development in this novel?

In teaching criminology I have learned much about serial killers and their behavior. (It makes watching shows like Criminal Minds much more interesting.) I have blended that into my character Isaiah Whitfield. The dementia of a serial killer can be seen when the reader is shown his inner most thoughts. The reader will see him acting erratically and desperately. He clearly displays the actions of a paranoid disorganized killer who is fighting for his survival with the Devil biting at his heels. I believe it only adds to frightening and disturbing actions of my antagonist. It may also lend itself to the reader almost feeling sorry for him. Well, maybe for a moment until the reader continues on with the novel.

4) Why do you center certain elements of the plot around an daguerreotype? Have you always had an interest in the history of photography?

One of my favorite scenes in movie history comes from The Dead Poet’s society. When Robin Williams asks his students to listen to the pictures on the wall in order to hear what they are saying. Well, my imagination did not hear “seize the day” it heard something far more sinister or downright odd. It wondered what could happen if the people could come out of their pictures and time travel back and forth between our world and theirs. What would they do? Would we want them here? Those thoughts are what eventually gave me the idea to write The Daguerreotypist.
I have always loved history and looking at old pictures. I often thought of what if the people in them could come out of them. (A vivid imagination I know, but to be a writer you have to be a bit different.) Although, I am not really into photography, I have always been captivated by daguerreotypes and the story of the people in them.

5) Books featuring serial killers, paranormal or otherwise, continue to draw in readers. Why do you think people are so interested in engaging with some of the darkest creatures that can still be called human?

It is a basic human instinct. People say they hate the sight of blood or horrific scenes, yet they slow down at every accident on the highway to get a good look. Although many love to think of sunny days or utopian existences, people can’t get away from their own dark sides. Reading books about it is a safe way to feed that part of themselves,

6) Do you any links to any excerpts you'd like to share?

I would love to do so. My website Scaryreads.com is currently on the fritz. I will post them as soon as I can get word press to get me up and running again. Please stay tuned.

7) Please tell us briefly about your other works.

I currently have one other book, The Beckoning, out on the market. That book is about a young girl of fifteen finding her inner strength and coming of age. Rest assured however that this is not your typical coming of age story. Forced to relocate to a rural Virginia plantation house, my main character Marissa soon finds herself haunted by a demon who is trying to kill her family. All alone, except for her dog Max, Marissa almost falls victim to despair. That is until the ghost of the fifteen-year-old boy who used to inhabit her very room over a hundred years befriends her. Not only does he hold the key to getting rid of the demon, but he also leads her down a path to understanding her family’s mesmerizing yet eerie past that she never knew. Falling in love with the ghost, Zachary, Marissa not only learns about true loves powers, but gains bewildering powers of her own. Can she use these powers to free her family and the souls of her long lost relatives from the demon who is desperately trying to kill her?

I am currently working two other books, the prequel to The Beckoning and another involving vampires and Billy the Kid. I hope to have these two works hitting the market during 2013.

The Daguerreotypist is available for sale at Amazon.

A Cornucopia of Mysterious Creatures: A Review of Carnival of Cryptids

So, last week I interview several of the authors associated with the Kindle All-Stars Carnival of Cryptids anthology, but I hadn't a chance to read through t thoughts on it he entire anthology and give my thoughts on the ARC I received from a representative of the authors. For full disclosure, I am also friends with one of the authors, though I didn't know any of the others until interviewing them last week.

I always approach anthologies with trepidation. If an anthology is remotely worthwhile, it won't be filled with the same sort of story over and over. I typically expect a sort of normal distribution of story quality and interest, whether they are by one author playing around with style or a multi-author affair where the differences in stories often are even more extreme. Accordingly, I usually find a few stories I adore, a few that were okay, and a few that just plain annoyed me. Surprisingly, that didn't happen to me with this anthology.

In Carnival of Cryptids, the unifying concept of the anthology is that each story contains a cryptid in some way. A cryptid is a creature that is alleged to exist yet is not recognized to exist by the general zoological community. Although in the early days of zoology, this applied to a lot of creatures, advances in technology and science over the years have winnowed most cryptids down into a smaller group of legendary monsters. The Loch Ness Monster and Sasquatch/Bigfoot are perhaps two of the most well-known cryptids.

Given the subject matter, it would have been far too easy for the various stories to end up some sort of feeble X-Files clones where various mysterious monsters are encountered in roundabout places doing the sort of spooky-boo things that people often associate with mysterious creatures of legend. It is a testament to the imagination and quality of the anthology writers that, instead, these variety of creatures are approached in radically different types of stories. Indeed, there's no real general style, theme, or approach used. Some stories are rousing tales of action and pure-fun; others are thoughtful meditations on the nature of existence. Even style is played with rather widely, and the anthology is almost worth checking out for the various approaches to writing used alone.

Admittedly, it's hard to love every single story in an anthology, depending one's personal tastes in terms of content and style. That said, this is the first anthology I've read in a while where I didn't dislike any of the stories. I have my personal favorites, but, in general, enjoyed all the stories, albeit for different reasons.

I'll also note that though I have a particular interest in cryptids, I don't actually think that knowledge or previous exposure to the concept or creatures is necessary to enjoy the stories. In fact, several of the stories involve some pretty obscure creatures that aren't as famous as something like the Loch Ness Monsters.

So unless you positively hate the very idea of stories featuring cryptids in some manner, you should check out this anthology.

Carnival of Cryptids is available for purchase at Amazon.

Caging the Yeti: Introducing Simon John Cox

The Kindle All-Stars Carnival of Cryptids interview week continues! The anthology is available from Amazon. Please note that I've only interviewed half or so of the authors, so there are even more cryptids, subgenres, and styles on display in the anthology than I've shown this week.

This will be my last interview, but this weekend I'll be reviewing the anthology.

The Kindle All-Stars are a select group of authors from around the world who donate their work in the name of charity. All profits from Kindle All-Stars anthology are donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Today I'm talking with Simon John Cox, author of the "The Cage" in the anthology. He was born in Tunbridge Wells, England, has a degree in chemistry, a job in marketing, and a black belt in Taekwon-Do, and has been writing fiction for as long as he can remember. He has had various short stories published and is currently focusing on writing novels.

-----

1) Please give a brief blurb about your story.

A ringmaster in a travelling circus is quickly making his fortune from a captive yeti, but when he discovers something shocking about the creature his plans - and his perspective - are thrown into disarray.

2) The Yeti is among the most famous of cryptids. Even people who otherwise have no clue what a cryptid is probably have heard of it. Do you feel this added any pressure to your story depiction that may not have been felt by some of your fellow authors who wrote about cryptids  that are a bit more obscure?

I don't think so - at least, I didn't feel it - as for me the story isn't really about the yeti being a cryptid, it's more about the idea of keeping an intelligent creature in captivity. Rocky isn't really about boxing - it's the same kind of thing. Except that the yeti is a better actor than Sylvester Stallone.

3) One of the interests of this anthology is the varied tones and angles the various authors utilize in their stories. You went for a more philosophical approach. Tell us a bit about why you decided on that course and a story featuring a cryptid either facilitated that or made the task more difficult?

As I alluded to above, what interests me most about the yeti is that it could feasibly be a "missing link" or a near relative of homo sapiens (I have a deep affection for Tintin In Tibet, which also makes that point), and as a result I think the approach wouldn't have worked with most other cryptids. I couldn't see it working with the Mongolian Death Worm, for example.

4) Do you feel your particular setting was critical for the themes you were exploring, or was that more an aesthetic choice on your part?

It was mostly an aesthetic choice, as I just think that something that sets up for one day and then disappears the next is somehow magical and unreal. That said, the circus has traditionally been a place for freaks and sideshow acts, so the yeti seemed to fit nicely into that as well.

5) Please give us a brief overview of your other works.

All of my other works are linked to on my website, www.simonjohncox.com, but the one I'd most like to draw attention to is my novella The Slender Man, which is a horror story based on an internet meme - and what could be more exciting than that?

-----

Thanks, Simon.

Check out www.simonjohncox.com for more from Simon.

The Carnival of Cryptids is available from Amazon.

And The Secret Ingredient Is WHAT!?: A Kindle All-Stars Interview With Matt Posner

The Kindle All-Stars Carnival of Cryptids interview week continues! The anthology has been released earlier than anticipated at Amazon.

The Kindle All-Stars are a select group of authors from around the world who donate their work in the name of charity. All profits from Kindle All-Stars anthology are donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Today, I'mm talking with Mat Posner, who contributed the story "The Paring Knife" to the anthology, a dark satire on modern competitive cooking shows.

1) Please give a brief blurb for your story.

In a mysterious future, underground cooking show The Paring Knife has the flesh of mysterious animals for ingredients. Who will win the contest? Who will be peeled away (and attacked by knife-wielding children)? And will announcer Bruce ever stop insulting his sister?

2) You actually feature, in a way, multiple creatures in your story. How did you decide what to feature?

Mostly, I wanted to use cryptids that wouldn't be represented in other stories. But the one, skunk ape, was a natural for a cooking show because the stench would be a challenge for the chefs to deal with.

3) The cryptids are, in a way, less of a central focus in your story given that it's more a dark satire of competitive cooking shows, and arguably even Food Network's Chopped, in particular. Do you think that not having the cryptids would radical alter the themes of the story, or do you think they are vital for what you're trying to convey?

I think the cryptids are necessary for the reason that Bernard highlighted in his introduction. This show has removed a sense of mystery from the world. The unknown, amazingly fascinating animals are now nothing more than grist for the consumerist mill.

The challenge for a cryptid-based anthology is not to have every story be about a person stalking a cryptid or a cryptid stalking a person. I'm relieved that I was able to come up with something different. If I hadn't been able to, I might not have been able to produce anything for KAS 2.

4) One major stylistic difference between your story and the others in the anthology is rather noticeable, in that you've written it as a television transcript rather than as a conventional short story narrative. Why did you decide to approach your story in this way, and is this an off-shoot your previous stylistic experiments with scripts inserted into narratives featured in some of your previous works?

I didn't think a standard narrative form would work for this story, because although it has characters and conflict, its primary source of drama is the same as shows like Chopped -- who will win? There are subtexts, of course. As far as other writing in this format, there's a chapter written in film script format in my third novel, and I do often think cinematically, although the screenplay is not my native format. I wrote plays as a young child before I wrote fiction. I like to tell a story through dialogue; I always have.

5) Please give us a brief overview of some of your other works.

I've been publishing the School of the Ages series of novels and short stories since 2010, about a magic school in New York City. I'm also the co-author, with that gem of a human being Jess C. Scott, of Teen Guide to Sex and Relationships. Everything is at Amazon; my novels are also for Nook; and Teen Guide is available everywhere in all formats. In India, School of the Ages is available exclusively from Times Group Books.

-----

Thanks, Matt

If you'd like to see more from Mat, please check out his previous interview about his School of Ages series and his website http://schooloftheages.webs.com/.

Carnival of Cryptids is available at Amazon.

Carnival of Cryptids Day 2: The Jungles Are Not a Place For the Arrogant: Introducing Jeff Provine

The Kindle All-Stars Carnival of Cryptids interview week continues! I originally said it would be out on the 1st yesterday, but I've heard it may be available for sale as soon as later today. Again, a reminder:

The Kindle All-Stars are a select group of authors from around the world who donate their work in the name of charity. All profits from Kindle All-Stars anthology are donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

I'm only interviewing four of the authors, so there's even more cool experiments in style and cryptids from a variety of authors in anthology (which, I'll be reviewing this weekend).

Today, I'mm talking with Jeff Provine, who contributed the story "Where is Captain Rook?" to the anthology, a slightly subversive take on the great jungle adventurer genre of old.

Jeff Provine was born May 2, 1984 (thus sharing a birthday with Catherine the Great and The Red Baron), in the wide, open plains of Oklahoma. He grew up a Country Boy on the old family farm, running barefoot through creeks and climbing trees. All the while he seemed to like best making up stories, writing them down as soon as he learned to hold a pencil. Carefree childhood days gave way to education, and Jeff graduated high school with two diplomas: one from the Oklahoma Bible Academy and the other from Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics. In his senior year, he began writing Celestial Voyages: The Moon, which would be published as his first novel at the tender age of 18. Jeff attended the University of Oklahoma, getting a Professional Writing degree (He was going to write anyway, so he might as well study it). Jeff spent a year abroad at the University of Hertfordshire, just north of London, England, and spent several months traveling and writing. He is currently a lecturer in Composition and Mythology and works remodeling his home and writing in every spare moment.

1) Please give a brief blurb for your story.

River-guide Joao Paulo Nativo recalls the story of famed Amazon explorer Captain Rook's final adventure, hunting the elusive giant ground sloth, believed to have been extinct for thousands of years but known to tribes as Mapinguari, the fetid beast.

2) While far from an expert on all legendary beasts, I am genuinely surprised when I run into one I'd never heard anything about before, such as the creature in your story. Why did you decide to feature this creature, and how did you come across the legends concerning it?

I've been fascinated by the mylodon, and its bigger brother the megatherium, ever since first seeing them in the back of one of my dinosaur atlases as a kid. Then I heard a little blurb on the History Channel about a band of conquistadors supposedly fighting one (the natives said arrows just bounce off it; the Spaniards laughed until their own musketballs bounced, too), which pretty much sealed the "awesome cryptid" deal for me. When I heard of a cryptid anthology for charity, I knew exactly which cryptid to feature. Most of my research was online, digging through various cryptid websites, an old Brazilian newspaper article about a rash of Mapinguari attacks on cattle in 1937 (coinciding with a drought), and an online copy of the 1896 Orchid Review that gave descriptions of real-life adventurer and orchid-hunter Charles Fosterman to provide a feel of exploring the Amazon.

3) You've gone for a very classic jungle horror/mystery approach to your creature here. What attracted you about that particular style of engaging with your creature?

What interested me most about the pulpy classic jungle story was that there were actual explorers like Fosterman and Percy Fawcett who saw strange things no one has been able to prove. I was expecting to set my story earlier in the '20s, but once the legend popped up about Mapinguari hating water alongside the drought and the attacks in the 1930s, I had to make it closer to WWII. Why I wanted this time period overall was to give a hint of historical while fairly modern (we still use many of the same handguns developed even before then). The arrows of the natives and the musketballs of the Spaniards supposedly bounced off the creature's hide, which fits the "dermal ossicles" of the mylodon, bits of protective bone grown like armor plates inside the skin. The question I wanted to ask was, what if someone shot it with a .45?

4) Should we parse any of this story with a socio-political subtext, or is that just reaching on my part?

My story's definitely got its share of socio-politics. Originally, I was just going to have leather-jacketed Indiana-Jones types shoot the mylodon and then find out it had magic powers. As the story was rewritten, though, it became clear that it wasn't interesting enough. Instead, I wanted to look at the socio-political situation of Brazil and changed the protagonist to the mixed-race guide who saw the best and worst of living on the edge of civilization. It discussed a good deal of imperialism with the Great White Hunter getting in over his head and then losing it. Perhaps my favorite line in the story is about Mapinguari's powers over the rain to end the drought as well as potentially reaching to Europe to cause a war to bring back the Rubber Boom. Who's really controlling the world then?

5) Please give us a brief overview of some of your other works.

My first major project was Celestial Voyages, a trilogy of steampunk about interplanetary expeditions in 1900 with ant-men dwelling in caverns in the Moon, treelike Venusians who take "knowledge is power" literally, and Martian greys living on a world that has long past its prime. Currently, I'm at work on my webcomic about a magnet school, The Academy, and This Day in Alternate History, a blog taking events of a particular date and twisting them, such as "What if Will Rogers had survived his plane crash?" I've also released an ebook, Dawn on the Infinity, about a fourteen-year-old girl kidnapped by inter-reality pirates with zombies, hackers, vampires, robots, fairies, spaceship battles, and trolls, oh my!

-----

Thanks, Jeff.

If you would like to learn more about Jeff, please check him out http://www.jeffprovine.com/.

The Carnival of Cryptids is now available at Amazon.

Two-Fisted/Six-Gun Alt Reality Meets Lovecraftian Menace: Introducing William Vitka

As a perusal of my old Magical Mondays segments might indicate, I've more than a passing interest in various mysterious monster beasties and their related legends. Thus, I was very excited to hear about the second upcoming Kindle All-Stars Anthology project: Carnival of Cryptids. The anthology is scheduled for release on February 1st.

The Kindle All-Stars are a select group of authors from around the world who donate their work in the name of charity.  All profits from Kindle All-Stars anthology are donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

This week I'll be interviewing four of the Kindle All-Stars who contributed to the Carnival of Cryptids and reviewing the anthology this weekend.

Today, we're starting off with William Vitka, author of "Six Gun Diplomacy" and an NYC-based journalist and author. He's written for CBSnews.com, Stuff Magazine, GameSpy, On Spec Magaine, and The Red Penny Papers.



-----

1) Please tell us about your story. 

A human town is haunted by monstrous natives who dwell in the waters off their shores. Two diplomats arrive in an attempt to establish peace between the species … But it all goes very wrong, very fast.

2) What went into designing the cryptids/monsters featured in your story? Though the tone is obviously quite different, would it be incorrect to say there's a bit of Lovecraftian literary DNA in there, as it were? 

Yeah, you could argue that there's a touch of Lovecraft in all of my fiction. Not in terms of tone, as you noted. Lovecraft was my first introduction to Horror fiction. In fact, I can still remember my old man reading The Colour Out Of Space to my brother and I when we were younger – I think I was 9 or 10. Why he thought this was suitable bed time material, I'll never know. But I'm quite glad he did read it to us.

As for the creature design, it seemed logical because of where and when I wanted to tell the tale. I love huge tentacled beasts (Thanks, Lovecraft). Hence our Kraken. Then I wanted to make things even worse. Hah! The best part is that The Kindle All-Stars lets me get away with all that. I wanted to tell a story not just about monsters, but also about a place and a time. An alternate Galveston felt right. Especially since it was the site of the devastating 1900 hurricane. There are more than a few allusions to the storm and even the founders of the city. Lafitte, for example. The history of Resilient takes its cues from the real history of Galveston … To a certain extent, at least.

3) You have a lot of elements here, horror, steam punk, and alternate universe travel. When you were writing the story was there a particular aspect or element you were more concerned with coming across than the others?

My primary concern with writing is: Does it feel possible? Or at least real within the world you're presenting to the reader? I always want my writing to sound like it's some crazy insanity we're telling each other at a bar. Dialogue, action and characterization are always at the forefront of any story. Elmore Leonard's novels are the best teacher for this. Hell, you can go from writing shit dialogue (which is a goddamn plague in Horror and SciFi) to great if you read enough of Leonard's work.

But as for the particular elements in Six-Gun, no. I wasn't concerned that one would overshadow the other. The only reason I wasn't, I think, is because I tried to make sure all of the characters treated it nonchalantly. Time travel? Sure. Alternate Earths? Okey dokey. Cross-species Squidmen? All in a day's work. Jack, Catarina and The Collective are cogs in a bigger universe. They're in their own stories as well. I've written an entire novel about their past and their rise as heroes. My biggest concern with Six-Gun was that the universe itself stayed intact.

4) Part of the mystique of cryptids, one could argue, has to do with their typically mysterious nature. In your story, you've approached the mystery from a different angle, with the "creatures" far less inscrutable than they might have been in a different type of story. Please tell us a bit about your thought process in that regard. 

'Supernatural' explanations are bullshit. In fact, they're not explanations at all. If you've got a monster, a really great monster, and you end your story with something along the lines of: The monster was a ghost the whole time because at one point 300 years ago a girl was sad and she killed herself but now we're gonna have cake because we found the lost jewels that make her happy again … Then I'm going to be pissed off as a reader. You aren't telling me anything. And you've been lying to me the whole time I've been studying your words. My characters and my monsters always, always have some kind of traceable biology and physiology. If I, as the author, can't actually explain what's going on in my story, then I shouldn't be writing it. Thus: "Six-Gun Diplomacy" adheres to its own internal logic.

5) Jack and Catarina are engaging characters who happen to be visitors to the particular setting of this story. Are they characters you've developed for other works and/or do you intend to use them in other works? 

They're two kids from Brooklyn who had to grow up very fast. I mentioned above that they're the stars of a separate novel. Along with Jack's brother, Caleb Svoboda. All three have appeared in their own short stories. And I found them all engaging. So I said to myself: You've got three humans who are Super Heroes, in a way. You better explain that. Their origin story is called EMERGENCE. The cover is being worked on as we speak!

6) Please give us a brief overview of some of your other works.

My first novel, INFECTED (http://www.amazon.com/Infected-ebook/dp/B00A2WKI7G/), is about what a journalist would do during the apocalypse. So, far, it's gotten 5-stars across the board. Cherie Priest and Jonathan Maberry endorsed it. It's been a thrill, and everyone should just go buy it! THE SPACE WHISKEY DEATH CHRONICLES (http://www.amazon.com/Space-Whiskey-Death-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00AXTOBUS) is a collection of my stories. Several of which feature Jack and Catarina. They're all part of my weird universe building. 

Of course, I have to mention Kindle All-Stars #1 (http://www.amazon.com/Resistance-Front-1-Bernard-Schaffer/dp/1469927098), because that's what started my wild relationship with all the awesome authors involved.
-----

Thanks, William.

If you want to find more from William Vitka, please visit http://vitka.tumblr.com/.

Carnival of  Cryptids is available at Amazon.

The Sins of the Nine Circles of Hell as Inspiration: An interview with award-winning horror/thriller anthologist Connie Corcoran WIilson

 1) Please tell us about your collection.

Hellfire & Damnation II is the second short story collection organized around the framing device of Dante’s “Inferno,” the 9 Circles of Hell, and the crimes or sins punished at each of those levels of Hell. It is 53,000 words long, with illustrations for each story and a “From the Author” section explaining the inspiration for each of the 11 stories. The first collection was 47,000 words, with 15 stories, but it had neither illustrations nor a From the Reader” section

2) What got you interested in writing a collection organized thematically around Dante's "Inferno"?

 I was searching for a unifying device that would allow considerable flexibility of theme, topic and setting. Someone said to me, “Why not use the 7 Deadly Sins?” (My publisher, as I recall). My response was that that had been done. I remember 1968’s Rod Steiger movie “No Way to Treat a Lady” that used the 7 Deadly Sins and the movie “7” with Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow also used it. There also was a film “Zodiac,” (Robert Downey, Jr., 2007) which involved use of the horoscope. So, I was considering many possibilities. Dante’s “Inferno” had not been used as a unifying device, as far as I knew.

Dante’s “Inferno,” which I read as an English Literature major at the University of Iowa, is a well-known classic that had thematic possibilities, especially after I investigated all the crimes and sins that ARE punished at each level of Hell.  I could not think of anyone who had “done” this particular organizational frame before, and isn’t that what writing is about: thinking creatively? When I investigated and realized how much leeway you can  have regarding the crimes or sins punished at the various levels of Hell (i.e., there are many MANY more choices than I have used, as of now, so the beat goes on), I realized that, for me, this was a good answer. The frame allows me to change it up and have a variety of settings and themes as I move forward. [Although a couple of levels----most notably gluttony and heresy---are more difficult to write than others. You have to expand the definition of “gluttony” beyond just eating food to any overuse of a substance, like drugs or alcohol.]

3) In the West, we, in general, are living in a considerably more secular culture than your standard (or not so standard) 14th-century Florentine poet. Do you think the increased secularism of our culture influences the ability of readers to interface with a thematic structure so intimately tied to medieval theology?

Not really. How can anyone in today’s society not “relate” to the theme of violence or suicide (featured at certain levels)?  I’m not trying to rewrite Dante’s Inferno. I’m merely using the various sins or crimes punished at each level as a unifying device to connect stories that might otherwise seem randomly selected. It works for me; I hope it works for the reader.

4) Please tell us a bit about the different story styles in the collection.

In some cases, I wrote from a first-person point of view, including the first story which is depicted on the cover about the “frozen dead guy” of Nederland, Colorado. Other stories are omniscient author or third person.   In one story (“Oxymorons”), I attempted using dialogue to carry the entire story. In others, I did extensive research and secured actual documents for “Letters to LeClaire,” (which was originally written for a museum in the town of LeClaire, Iowa, Buffalo Bill’s birthplace.) just as I did for “A Spark on the Prairie.” The reader is in for a great deal of variety, and it’s the kind of collection I’d like to read, with notes “From the Reader” on what inspired the stories and even illustrations.

5) Do you have a particular favorite among the stories?

I’m very fond of stories that mix humor with the horror. There are 2 or 3 in this collection that have that distinction: “Room Service” and “M.R.M” and “Oxymorons.” I can’t say they are necessarily my “favorites,” because I thought that “The Bureau,” which is a long story at 7,000 words, was intricate enough to merit a 99 cent E-book version all by itself and it went up on Amazon first as a “teaser,” before I was done with the entire collection. Just as you would always have something about each of your children that you really liked about each of them, there is something about each story that I really like. In one of the slower-paced stories, “A Spark on the Prairie,” I like the fact that it is carefully researched. The reader will learn quite a bit about the early treatment of Native Americans by the United States government and the early settlers. (Theme: greed).  I also often strive for surprise endings (think “The Sixth Sense”) and I managed to pull off quite a few of them, which isn’t always easy. And, as usual, I tried to have much of the violence happening off-screen, a la Alfred Hitchcock.

6) Please tell us a bit about some of your other works.

First book: “Training the Teacher as a Champion,” 1989. Scholarly work on teaching for Performance Learning Systems, Inc. of Emerson, New Jersey. Their company Bible.  Then, I put together a book just for my family entitled “Both Sides Now,” which consisted of anything I had ever written that sold, mostly humorous essays and poetry accompanied by some pictures. (2003) I then wrote a sci fi novel (“Out of Time”) and a script based on that sci-fi/thriller/romance that was a winner in a “Writer’s Digest” competition in 2007 and 2008. I wrote a second book of humorous essays entitled “Laughing through Life” (2011) and, also a full-color illustrated children’s book, “The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats,” written for my 3-year-old twin grandchildren at Christmas last year. I got out my 43-year-old scrapbooks and, from the reviews I had written for the Quad City Times between 1970 and 1979, I put together a book of 50 reviews in a retrospective fashion, including all of the ads that ran in the papers at the time (2010). The book was entitled “It Came from the ‘70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now,” and I worked on it for 8 years. It won 5 national awards.  After that nonfiction book, I wrote 3 “PG” volumes containing supposedly true ghost stories told me as I traveled Route 66, entitled “Ghostly Tales of Route 66.” (Vol. I, 2007; Vol. II, 2008; Vol. III, 2009) Then, I moved on to a short story collection entitled “Hellfire & Damnation” (2011) the second of which we are talking about now. I’ve also begun a novel series, which will be either a trilogy or a quartet of books, stemming from a short story within “Hellfire & Damnation” entitled “Living in Hell,” and entitled “The Color of Evil.” The novel came out in January as an E-book and in March as a paperback. It has won an E-Lit Gold Medal, a Silver Feather Award from the Illinois Women’s Press Association and NABE, Pinnacle and ALMA (American Literary Merit Awards) either for complete works or for individual stories within the “H&D” series. One of the 4 books I wrote this year also received an award at the national level from National Women’s Press Association in September. I am concentrating on writing thrillers with suspenseful, horrific content, but more in the Hitchcock mold. I’m not ruling out True Crime or mystery genres, but I like writing the “H&D” series and I’m becoming quite fond of the cast of characters within “The Color of Evil.”

7)  Would you like to share some links to your works?

Readers should check out these links:  www.TheColorOfEvil.com

www.HellfireAndDamnationTheBook.com, www.GhostlyTalesofRoute66.com, www.ItCamefromTheSeventies.com and my own blog www.WeeklyWilson.com.  My main author site is www.ConnieCWilson.com.  

Also, I’d like readers to know that, for the five days leading up to Halloween (October 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31), “Hellfire & Damnation II” is completely FREE as a Kindle download. Tell your friends. And here is an interview (podcast) with New York City radio personality Cyrus A Webb regarding “The Color of Evil”: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/middayconversations/2012/09/12/author-connie-wilson-on-conversations-live

Don't Fear The Snowman? An interview with Tiffany Craig

Today I'm talking with Tiffany Craig, about her horror take on winter.

-----

1) Tell us about your short story.

"Snowmaggedon" is the tale of a small town that, during a bad snowstorm, is suddenly overrun by gigantic snow monsters that eat anything, including humans. The characters in the story are forced to use their wit and ingenuity to battle the creatures as they fight for their town and their lives.

2) Where did you get the idea for this story? Snow can be dangerous, but generally isn't something that people find sinister.

Back in February 2011 we had a tremendous snowstorm here in Missouri, and my brother and sister were let out of school for almost an entire week. We entertained ourselves by roasting marshmallows over a candle and making up scary stories. One of our favorites was about snowmen that came to life and ate people. The story blossomed from there.

3) Is the sinister mundane more unsettling than the obvious horrific monster in your opinion? If so, why?


I think the mundane has always been much scarier than obvious horror. I mean, you can watch a zombie movie and be scared, but there's always comfort in the knowledge that it's not real. On the other hand, when you see a movie about weather in any form, it's a lot scarier because you know it could happen at any time.

4) Stepping away from deadly snow creatures, what frightens you the most?


Spiders, velociraptors and garden gnomes. In that order.

5) What's the most frightening short story you've ever read? Is this related to your greatest fear or something else entirely?


It seems kind of silly, but the most frightening short story I've ever read came from a Scary Stories To Tell Your Friends book. It's about a girl, who's driving home from a dance when a mysterious car starts following her. She freaks out and tries to lose the car, but it's always there, flashing its lights and honking. It turns out the man in the mysterious car was just trying to warn her that there was somebody in her backseat with a knife. I can't remember if the girl dies at the end of the story, but I do know that I always check my backseat before I get into my car.

6) Can you tell us about any of your other work?

In November I published "The Dragons Of Avordshire" on smashwords.com. It's a ballad poem about a young man named Harold Sprack who has to slay forty dragons or he'll lose something very dear to him. The response to this story has been tremendous! Almost the day after it was published I got an email from the artist Richard Svensson. He wanted to illustrate the story for free! I was in absolute shock and literally dancing around the house. I have the first few illustrations now and they are incredible, as soon as the project is done I'm going to republish it on Smashwords.com, but don't worry, it'll still be free!

7) Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas: Is this a Halloween movie or is this a Christmas movie?


Technically, I think it's a Christmas story being told/acted out by Halloween charachters, but I think it's actually a story of finding love and coming to terms with oneself. At the beginning of the film Jack Skellington was tired of being the Pumpkin King and was looking for something new, something different. What he found was a renewed love for his title, world and responsibilities.

-----

Thanks, Tiffany.

You can see more from Tiffany at www.craiganmorebooks.yolasite.com.

You can download "Snowmaggedon" and "The Dragons of Avordshire" for free (or read them online) at Smashwords.

Macabre Poetry: An interview with poet Justin Bienvenue

Tonight I have something a bit different, my first poet interview. It's doubly unusual for me in that the poet, Justin Bienvenue, specializes in poetry about the macabre and horrific. My personal poetry tastes run more toward the 18th- and 19th-century Romantics, but I still find the idea of a poet focusing on horror fascinating.

-----

1) Please tell us about your collection.

The Macabre Masterpiece is a collection of all types and takes on horror. It goes beyond the simple elements of what one could be scared of. Each poem tells an in-depth tale on its subject and either grips, scares or shocks the reader which is in all intended purposes. Each chapter tells of a certain type of horror, but all give that disturbing, gruesome or mysterious aura that makes it so. It’s up and down in terms of scare level. Some have that direct meaning of horror others have a lighter and not friendlier but rather a calmer likeness to it. After all not everyone likes to be totally scared or grossed out. There’s a good amount of both which overall blends in together nicely and gives the book it’s core.

2) What kindled your interest in the darker side of fiction?


I’ve always liked the scary take on writing, but it wasn’t until I really sat down and saw what I had that it interested me. I already had a good share of horror poems I felt I could expand on the topic and it was then that I started seeing more horror books being put out, creepy shows on television, and it really inspired me and made me decide to go into the path of dark horror. Once I had enough material boiling in my brain, I realized it was time to turn to the darkness of fiction if you will, and begin.

3) The public's taste for horror, regardless of the form, seems to wax and wane over the years. Why do you think horror is more popular at some times versus others?


I would say it’s just like any other thing, a trend or phase. Horror is always there, but when someone or something new and innovative regarding it comes out it really catches peoples attention and draws them into it and being totally involved in it. It also depends on what exactly the topic of horror it is, vampires for example have quite a big following which means when they become popular so does the horror genre.

4) Do you have a favorite among the poems?


I have quite a few but I’ll name a favorite for each chapter. “The Rage of Hades" (Hell), “The River of Blood series" (Blood), “Vampires series” (Creatures), “The Portrait of Dorian Gray”(Creepy) and “The Nightwatchman” (Suspense). I like these because they more than most really tell an in-depth tale.

5) Can you share with us why you decided use poetry for your horror work versus prose?


I really only write poetry and I am a big writer of it. Like I said before, I already had some horror poetry so I decided to expand on it but also felt horror poetry would be a good way to go since you really don’t hear much about it. I felt the way I write and my take on horror would come together very nicely, and I believe they do just that.

6) What strengths does poetry offer for horror versus prose? What weaknesses?

Strength-wise I would say you get to take in each line and read beyond what’s being said. It gives you more of an appreciation and anticipates you for each line after. Poetry is mainly written with feeling and there’s no better feeling then being scared. Weakness-wise is the fact that it is poetry. Not everyone is a fan of poetry, which means they may not care for it even if they like horror, but I always say that poetry is just a form to which its written, it still tells a story just in a different way.

7) While many may not instantly associate horror with poetry, there's a long association between poetry and the macabre, including more atmospheric works but less explicit works such as Poe's "The Raven" to some of the moralistic horrific imagery of Hell related in Dante's The Divine Comedy. Do you feel that poetry is currently under-utilized for those interested in producing works of horror?


Absolutely, It’s works like "The Raven" and Dante’s Divine Comedy that make you ask, "What happened?" Where did we go wrong and when did it stop? Poe is one of the, if not the finest, poet of the macabre and yet while he’s known and liked it seems like it stopped with him. People these days seem to go with the obvious clique of let's write a creepy thriller or let's make a movie about it. We’ve seen this done over and over, but yet it's the works of Poe that are some of the best that are in fact poetry. That makes me wonder why don’t we go back to those roots. I feel there needs to be more writers of horror poetry. It's something different for a change, something creative, something that’s really died down and should be revived to add another unique twist on the horror community.

8) Are there any poets who have influenced your work? Are there any authors?


Well continuing on from the last question, Edgar Allen Poe influenced some of the works in the book. I mean if I was going to write macabre who better to be influenced and inspired by then him. In some poems you can see similarities while in others you can’t, but I did get inspiration from him. Also my works are influenced by Shakespeare. This is mainly outside the book, but in the book there are a few Shakespeare-like themes. As for authors, I would have to go with Stephen King. While there aren’t any direct references to King's work in any poem,, but the influence is in there in small ideas and, of course, the gruesome aspects.

-----

Thanks, Justin.

His collection can be purchased at Amazon.

You can hear more from Justin at his website: http://jbienvenue.webs.com/.

Being called disturbing is a compliment: An interview with horror author Todd Russell

Today, I'm talking with Todd Russell about his horror novel Fresh Flesh.
-----

1) Tell us about your book.

Thank you for the interview, much appreciated. Fresh Flesh is about a rich woman who is shipwrecked on a mysterious island and rescued by a man who is not what he seems. It's very fast-paced with numerous twists and turns and contains characters that the reader will be interested in and care about.

2) What was the inspiration for this story?

On inspiration was being fascinated by the island and thinking of someone who could have anything that money can buy being thrust into a place where money is meaningless.

3) This novel was twenty-two years in the making. That's a rather long time. It makes even Jonathan Franzen look speedy. Can you tell us a little bit about the process of creation of the work?

Fresh Flesh is my third completed novel and it's only taken up about two years of actual work time. Yes, it has been 22+ calendar years since the project was first started until it was first published. I started the first draft on November 2, 1988 and finished it in January 1989. It sat for a month and then I reworked it and started sending off query letters to literary agents. I had interest from an agent right away and was very excited.

I signed on with a literary agent and that version of the book made the rounds with the major publishers in 1989. Pretty much after that until 2011, we didn't do anything with the novel. Got a lot of good, helpful feedback from editors and I soldiered on to complete four more novels from 1989-1994.

I kept thinking about the island and characters over the years and in 2011 sat down and wrote a third draft and sent it off to a group of beta readers. After receiving positive feedback I went through it one last time incorporating some of their suggested minor changes and then mailed it to proofreaders. It was also 2011 that I realized the book provided a framework for a series of adventures. Fresh Flesh was originally a standalone novel, like my other six novels, but I saw several other stories and began to make notes for future stories in the series.

For NaNoWriMo 2011 I started working on the first draft of Fresh #2 exactly 23 years later (November 2, 2011) from when I started the first draft of Fresh Flesh. I'm about a third through the first draft as of this interview. Readers shouldn't worry about Fresh #2 taking as long to be published as Fresh Flesh. My plan is to establish a routine publishing books in the Fresh series. What that routine will be isn't clearly defined yet, but I don't want it to be as spread as far apart as one Fresh series book every 22 years. At that rate, I'd be lucky to make the Fresh series a trilogy before death claimed me!

4) Why did you choose to have a female lead?

Because Fresh Flesh would not work with a male as the lead. I don't mean that in any kind of sexist way, but characters fill my stories based on what fits each story best. I want this series to be surprising and unpredictable with many creative twists and turns with characters, settings and plots.

5) In the past, some people have called your work "disturbing". Arguably, that's not such a terrible thing for a horror author. What motivates you to explore the dark corners of the human mind and fear?

I consider "disturbing" a compliment. I'm often trying to invoke strong emotions with my stories. The world is a dark place, but at the same time, I do believe that good triumphs more often over evil. What I don't want to be is an author who always produces predictably happy (or unhappy) endings. That's not very creative, entertaining or, let's face it, realistic. I want readers to get to the end and be surprised and hopefully enlightened by the tale feel like it was well worth their time reading. I want the stories to stay with them and be something they might want to reread another day. And, of course, be eager to read my next story.

6) What frightens you the most?

A lot scares me and these fears work their way into my stories.

From a career standpoint, I am frightened that I won't have enough readers to support writing full time. My dream has always been to sell enough books that I can write full time without financial concerns. I don't need to be the next Stephen King, heck, I just want to do well enough to make a living writing. I realize this is a dream many, many writers have and few are fortunate to achieve. If I don't have enough readers buying my work, I'll have to continue doing other work that takes time away from writing and that is a shame because so many stories I want--need--to tell will never happen.

I do a series on my blog called What Scares Authors and have reserved #666 in the series for myself to delve into my fears in greater detail.

7) A lot of people may live in area with tornado sirens, but most people don't live in areas that have volcanic pyroclastic flow warning sirens. Has Mount Rainer ever entered your mind as a possible story element?

Yes, the mountain is in mind for a future novel I've been noodling for the last six months or so. I'd like to begin writing this book soon. Maybe next after I finish the first draft of Fresh #2, although another novel I started is also calling to me.

-----

Thanks for stopping by, Todd.

Fresh Flesh can be found at Amazon (ebook and print), Smashwords (ebook only), and Barnes and Noble (ebook and print.