Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #20 November 2015 | Page 23
For anyone that hasn’t read them can
you tell us a bit about your books.
I’ve pretty much run the gamut in my book
writing: ranging from horror to history, biographies
to Westerns. I realize I’ve never been completely
committed to one specific genre. I reckon I write what
compels me at the time.
Tell us a bit more about the last book
you wrote.
That was my return to horror after thirty
years away from the genre. A return to my roots, as
it were. The book is called . . . skinned babies and
is probably the most terrifying of the four horror
novels I wrote. My last horror novel was published in
1987 and I moved away from that type of writing to
tackle different literary pursuits. But in recent years
I had this idea for a horror story that kept expanding
in my thoughts. Really what I wanted to do was
write a book that I myself would find frightening. I
am and always was a Monsterkid and as such have
been exposed to a ton of horror movies and spooky
and unsettling stories throughout my almost sixty
years. I consider myself someone not easily scared,
I had to ask myself what could I, under the right
situation, find terrifying. Finally a conversation with
my stepdaughter’s then boyfriend and a listen to a
discussion on EVPs on Coast to Coast AM gave me
the impetus to get to work on the book. However, to
the timid, I do stress that the story has nothing to do
with skinning babies or children. The title is merely a
more explicit way to describe disembodied spirits.
What did you learn about writing whilst
writing the last book you wrote?
Well, I’ve been at this racket for over thirty
years so I don’t know if there’s much I learned
from this specific novel that I hadn’t garnered from
previous books. Maybe one thing is that I was
determined not to start with the horror immediately.
As with my past horror novels, I wanted to build the
scenario and establish and develop the characters . . .
kind of lull the reader in . . . and then hit them with a
whammy. Like Stephen King, I prefer to set my horror
in commonplace surroundings. If the people and the
locale seem real and identifiable, then I think you can
get the reader to believe in the horror that occurs.
Do you have a set writing process, if so
what is it?
I think that depending on one’s circumstance,
a writer should try to put pen to paper every day. If
you’re fortunate enough to be working full-time as a
writer, you should approach your writing like a job
and discipline yourself to devoting a certain number
of hours per day to your work. If you do have to rely
on another means of financial support, you should still
set aside whatever time you can best afford to work at
your craft. Otherwise you can grow lazy and stagnant.
For myself, I am fortunate to work from home and
supplement my nebulous book writing income with
work as an advertising copywriter. The additional
benefit is that if I need a break from either my fiction
or my “day job” assignment, I can switch from one to
the other.
Do you write a lot of short stories?
No. In the beginning I wrote short stories for
various magazines as a way to hone my craft and
segue into writing novels (note to aspiring authors:
doesn’t hurt to have some short stories under your belt
before querying book publishers), but lately I really
haven’t done anything in that format, outside of a true
ghost story that was published last year in paranormal
investigator Joshua P. Warren’s It was a Dark and
Stormy Night.
Do you prefer the long or short form?
How do you feel about Flash Fiction?
Confess I know nothing about Flash Fiction.
But in answer to your question, I much prefer long
form for my stories. Certainly you can run off a short
story much quicker, but I like the novel because
it gives you a better opportunity to flesh out your
characters and allows for much more depth to the plot.
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