Warren Rochelle's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-cult-of-ocasta"
Mark Allan Gunnells Talks about His New Novel, The Cult of Ocasta
Mark Allan Gunnells, a former student from my Limestone College days back in the late 90s, has become a successful horror writer. He stopped by my website the other day to discuss one of his latest novels, The Cult of Ocasta, just out from Evil Jester Press.
The Cult of Ocasta is a sequel to The Quarry, both centered on the Limestone College campus and the monster lurking in the quarry. What initially inspired this tale? And did the sequel grow out of the original story or was there further inspiration?
The initial inspiration for The Quarry came from growing up in Gaffney and hearing a lot of mysterious stories about the quarry and I started researching it, finding that many of these stories were not true, merely local urban legends. From there the novel was born. When I finished The Quarry, I had no plans to pen a sequel. That book felt complete. When it was published by Evil Jester Press, my editor Pete Giglio is the one that suggested a sequel, planting the idea in my mind. He asked some questions about the ramifications of a connection formed between two characters at the end of the first book, and those questions got my creative juices flowing and they blossomed into the plot for The Cult of Ocasta.
How long did the novel take you to write?
It wasn’t all written at once. I initially started it shortly after the publication of The Quarry back in 2012. I got several chapters in, but then I was offered an unexpected deal to write a novel for JournalStone. That one had a deadline so I put The Cult of Ocasta aside to work on what would become my novel Outcast. Once that one was complete, I did not immediately return to Ocasta because I had the opportunity to collaborate on a project with my friend James Newman, and when we were done, I turned my attention to a novella. I then started a different novel, but partway through that one, I took a break and reread what I’d written on The Cult of Ocasta and I felt myself sucked back into that world. So it was not until the end of 2014 that I returned to the novel. From there I wrote steadily for maybe 6 months to finish it.
Is there a particular sequence or aspect of the novel that is your favorite, perhaps one that was the most fun to write?
I don’t know if I have a favorite sequence, but I really enjoyed popping real people into the book for cameos. There is a scene where the main character, Emilio, is watching an interview on a local news broadcast, and I used the real anchors for the morning news on WYFF 4 here in my area. Since the book takes place mostly on the Limestone College campus, I used some real people I know that work there in the book. I get a kick out of that sort of thing. I also had a lot of fun writing the scene that takes place at an art showing on campus, just because there was a lot going on, and I was able to juggle many different characters and POVs in one sequence, and in a book that could get heavy there was a nice dash of humor in that scene.
Once the first draft was complete, how did you go about finding a home for the novel? What led you to Evil Jester?
For this one, Evil Jester was always my first choice. With most other books, I don’t really know where they’ll end up when I’m writing them, and once they are complete I start looking around for publishers I respect and submitting. However, since this one was a direct sequel to The Quarry which was still in print, I thought it made the most sense to go with the publisher who produced that book. My previous editor Pete was no longer with Evil Jester, having left to pursue his own writing, but I contacted the owner of the press, Charles Day, and let him know I was writing it. As soon as the manuscript was done, I turned it in and waited to see what Charles thought of it. Luckily, he liked the book and we moved forward from there.
The Final Limestone Story, eh? I write that with some regret. What is it about this small not-so-well-known college in a small South Carolina town that has proven such fertile ground for your imagination? You grew up in and around Gaffney, as I recall, and you earned your BA at Limestone, but is there more than this connection? After all, you graduated in the late 90s and you have moved on. What has made this your "postage stamp of Earth"?
For some reason, I’ve always had an affinity for horror stories set on college campuses. There’s something about the atmosphere on a college campus that I think lends itself to horror. All these kids away from home for the first time, getting their first taste of freedom and independence, which can be just as frightening as it is exciting. Also, a college is a community unto itself, part of the larger community but separate from it as well, like its own microcosm. So I felt drawn to tell some stories set on college campuses, and because Limestone is my alma mater (class of 99 baby!) and I am so familiar with the school, it seemed natural to utilize it for my fiction. My very first Limestone story was written for your class my senior year and is even referenced in the new novel. I think the fact that Limestone is so small really was an asset because it contains the action in a way. The one time I used a larger college, Furman University, for a novel, I found I didn’t utilize very much of the campus in the story because it felt a bit unwieldy. I am a bit sad to be saying goodbye to my old stomping grounds in my fiction, but this particular novel just felt like a culmination of a lot of the stories I’ve set there, and so it seemed a fitting place to end this particular saga.
Define horror fiction. What draws you to this genre and has kept you there?
I guess for me horror is fiction that shines light into the darkest places. Not just the evil that lurks out there, but the evil that lurks within. It’s a safe way to explore themes that make us uncomfortable because when we place them within the context of a fictional framework, it makes them more manageable. I feel drawn to the genre because there is a limitlessness to it that is exhilarating. No boundaries, no rules, no taboos. That’s a fun playground to work in.
Ocasta is a Cherokee god, the God of Knowledge, and according to what I read, was good one day, and bad the next. But your Ocasta doesn't seem to have any good days. Why this god and why this interpretation? What drew you to Cherokee mythology?
In the first book, the creature I’d created had no name, but I had established a history with the Cherokee people, so I knew I wanted to get more in depth with that connection in the follow-up. I started researching Cherokee myths and legends, not intending to use a real one but just to get a feel for them. However, when I encountered the legend of Ocasta, I saw how some of the bits and pieces of his story fit in with what I’d already established. My intent was never to suggest the creature is the Ocasta of Native American mythology, as the creature pre-dates the tribe, but that the Cherokee people encountered this creature and then invented the legend to try to make sense of it all. In the legend, it was suggested he could also do good, but I decided to make it so that certain people thought he was bestowing special power on them when he manipulated them, which made it easier to develop my idea of the “cult” of worshippers in this book.
Let's talk about evil. Do you believe that evil in inherent or do we choose it? And why? In Ocasta the cultists (and who their chief was blew me away) seem to have voluntarily chosen this dark, dark god. Could you talk some about this and their choice? The cultists seem like ordinary people, after all.
There certainly seem to be some people who are born without a moral compass, who simply have no sense of guilt or compassion or empathy. However, I believe inside all of us there is the potential for good and bad, and that is a daily choice we have to make. Sometimes the “bad” way is the easiest way, or the one that offers the highest reward when it comes to instant gratification, but choosing a life of compassion and gratitude and kindness is ultimately more rewarding in the long run. As for the cultists in this story…their choice is interesting. A point is made in the book that Christians acknowledge that their God allows suffering, creates natural disasters that kill millions, but they don’t think of Him as an evil Deity. Quite the opposite. So my cultists acknowledge that Ocasta causes suffering, but no more than the Christian God.
I see this is both a love story and a horror story, with the lines between the two more than a little blurred. Emilio loves and loses Norman in the prequel to Ocasta, The Quarry, and now he is faced with possibly losing another whom he loves, Marty. Are there connections between love and horror and if so, what are they? How does one shape and influence the other? Did you plan on the love story or did it just come organically?
Love and horror do sort of go hand in hand in a weird way. For a couple of reasons. One, love is the strongest force out there to combat horror. Conversely, when you are in love there is no greater horror than the idea that you may lose it. Both these threads can be worked effectively into the horror tale. As for the love story in The Cult of Ocasta, I knew going in that I was going to introduce the possibility of a love interest for Emilio but initially it was just to throw an added complication into his already complicated life. I didn’t know when I started how that relationship would develop or where it would eventually wind up. That happened as the story developed, and it was very thrilling to discover the direction it took.
What else do you want to say about The Cult of Ocasta? What is one thing you want your readers to take from this novel?
Ultimately I just want readers to be entertained. I mean, yes, I also want the book to make them think and feel, but as a writer I consider it my primary task to provide a piece of fiction that entertains and engrosses. If that happens, then I feel I’ve done my job well.
What next?
This fall I have a Halloween novella entitled #MakeHalloweenScaryAgain coming out as part of an ebook anthology from Random House’s digital imprint (later to be collected as a Cemetery Dance hardcover). Next year Crystal Lake Publishing will put out my next collection, Book Haven and Other Curiosities. I’m currently working on a vampire novella, to be followed up by a ghost story. I have several other projects in mind, including sequels to a few of my other books, and four non-horror novellas, so I should be busy for a while.
The Cult of Ocasta is a sequel to The Quarry, both centered on the Limestone College campus and the monster lurking in the quarry. What initially inspired this tale? And did the sequel grow out of the original story or was there further inspiration?
The initial inspiration for The Quarry came from growing up in Gaffney and hearing a lot of mysterious stories about the quarry and I started researching it, finding that many of these stories were not true, merely local urban legends. From there the novel was born. When I finished The Quarry, I had no plans to pen a sequel. That book felt complete. When it was published by Evil Jester Press, my editor Pete Giglio is the one that suggested a sequel, planting the idea in my mind. He asked some questions about the ramifications of a connection formed between two characters at the end of the first book, and those questions got my creative juices flowing and they blossomed into the plot for The Cult of Ocasta.
How long did the novel take you to write?
It wasn’t all written at once. I initially started it shortly after the publication of The Quarry back in 2012. I got several chapters in, but then I was offered an unexpected deal to write a novel for JournalStone. That one had a deadline so I put The Cult of Ocasta aside to work on what would become my novel Outcast. Once that one was complete, I did not immediately return to Ocasta because I had the opportunity to collaborate on a project with my friend James Newman, and when we were done, I turned my attention to a novella. I then started a different novel, but partway through that one, I took a break and reread what I’d written on The Cult of Ocasta and I felt myself sucked back into that world. So it was not until the end of 2014 that I returned to the novel. From there I wrote steadily for maybe 6 months to finish it.
Is there a particular sequence or aspect of the novel that is your favorite, perhaps one that was the most fun to write?
I don’t know if I have a favorite sequence, but I really enjoyed popping real people into the book for cameos. There is a scene where the main character, Emilio, is watching an interview on a local news broadcast, and I used the real anchors for the morning news on WYFF 4 here in my area. Since the book takes place mostly on the Limestone College campus, I used some real people I know that work there in the book. I get a kick out of that sort of thing. I also had a lot of fun writing the scene that takes place at an art showing on campus, just because there was a lot going on, and I was able to juggle many different characters and POVs in one sequence, and in a book that could get heavy there was a nice dash of humor in that scene.
Once the first draft was complete, how did you go about finding a home for the novel? What led you to Evil Jester?
For this one, Evil Jester was always my first choice. With most other books, I don’t really know where they’ll end up when I’m writing them, and once they are complete I start looking around for publishers I respect and submitting. However, since this one was a direct sequel to The Quarry which was still in print, I thought it made the most sense to go with the publisher who produced that book. My previous editor Pete was no longer with Evil Jester, having left to pursue his own writing, but I contacted the owner of the press, Charles Day, and let him know I was writing it. As soon as the manuscript was done, I turned it in and waited to see what Charles thought of it. Luckily, he liked the book and we moved forward from there.
The Final Limestone Story, eh? I write that with some regret. What is it about this small not-so-well-known college in a small South Carolina town that has proven such fertile ground for your imagination? You grew up in and around Gaffney, as I recall, and you earned your BA at Limestone, but is there more than this connection? After all, you graduated in the late 90s and you have moved on. What has made this your "postage stamp of Earth"?
For some reason, I’ve always had an affinity for horror stories set on college campuses. There’s something about the atmosphere on a college campus that I think lends itself to horror. All these kids away from home for the first time, getting their first taste of freedom and independence, which can be just as frightening as it is exciting. Also, a college is a community unto itself, part of the larger community but separate from it as well, like its own microcosm. So I felt drawn to tell some stories set on college campuses, and because Limestone is my alma mater (class of 99 baby!) and I am so familiar with the school, it seemed natural to utilize it for my fiction. My very first Limestone story was written for your class my senior year and is even referenced in the new novel. I think the fact that Limestone is so small really was an asset because it contains the action in a way. The one time I used a larger college, Furman University, for a novel, I found I didn’t utilize very much of the campus in the story because it felt a bit unwieldy. I am a bit sad to be saying goodbye to my old stomping grounds in my fiction, but this particular novel just felt like a culmination of a lot of the stories I’ve set there, and so it seemed a fitting place to end this particular saga.
Define horror fiction. What draws you to this genre and has kept you there?
I guess for me horror is fiction that shines light into the darkest places. Not just the evil that lurks out there, but the evil that lurks within. It’s a safe way to explore themes that make us uncomfortable because when we place them within the context of a fictional framework, it makes them more manageable. I feel drawn to the genre because there is a limitlessness to it that is exhilarating. No boundaries, no rules, no taboos. That’s a fun playground to work in.
Ocasta is a Cherokee god, the God of Knowledge, and according to what I read, was good one day, and bad the next. But your Ocasta doesn't seem to have any good days. Why this god and why this interpretation? What drew you to Cherokee mythology?
In the first book, the creature I’d created had no name, but I had established a history with the Cherokee people, so I knew I wanted to get more in depth with that connection in the follow-up. I started researching Cherokee myths and legends, not intending to use a real one but just to get a feel for them. However, when I encountered the legend of Ocasta, I saw how some of the bits and pieces of his story fit in with what I’d already established. My intent was never to suggest the creature is the Ocasta of Native American mythology, as the creature pre-dates the tribe, but that the Cherokee people encountered this creature and then invented the legend to try to make sense of it all. In the legend, it was suggested he could also do good, but I decided to make it so that certain people thought he was bestowing special power on them when he manipulated them, which made it easier to develop my idea of the “cult” of worshippers in this book.
Let's talk about evil. Do you believe that evil in inherent or do we choose it? And why? In Ocasta the cultists (and who their chief was blew me away) seem to have voluntarily chosen this dark, dark god. Could you talk some about this and their choice? The cultists seem like ordinary people, after all.
There certainly seem to be some people who are born without a moral compass, who simply have no sense of guilt or compassion or empathy. However, I believe inside all of us there is the potential for good and bad, and that is a daily choice we have to make. Sometimes the “bad” way is the easiest way, or the one that offers the highest reward when it comes to instant gratification, but choosing a life of compassion and gratitude and kindness is ultimately more rewarding in the long run. As for the cultists in this story…their choice is interesting. A point is made in the book that Christians acknowledge that their God allows suffering, creates natural disasters that kill millions, but they don’t think of Him as an evil Deity. Quite the opposite. So my cultists acknowledge that Ocasta causes suffering, but no more than the Christian God.
I see this is both a love story and a horror story, with the lines between the two more than a little blurred. Emilio loves and loses Norman in the prequel to Ocasta, The Quarry, and now he is faced with possibly losing another whom he loves, Marty. Are there connections between love and horror and if so, what are they? How does one shape and influence the other? Did you plan on the love story or did it just come organically?
Love and horror do sort of go hand in hand in a weird way. For a couple of reasons. One, love is the strongest force out there to combat horror. Conversely, when you are in love there is no greater horror than the idea that you may lose it. Both these threads can be worked effectively into the horror tale. As for the love story in The Cult of Ocasta, I knew going in that I was going to introduce the possibility of a love interest for Emilio but initially it was just to throw an added complication into his already complicated life. I didn’t know when I started how that relationship would develop or where it would eventually wind up. That happened as the story developed, and it was very thrilling to discover the direction it took.
What else do you want to say about The Cult of Ocasta? What is one thing you want your readers to take from this novel?
Ultimately I just want readers to be entertained. I mean, yes, I also want the book to make them think and feel, but as a writer I consider it my primary task to provide a piece of fiction that entertains and engrosses. If that happens, then I feel I’ve done my job well.
What next?
This fall I have a Halloween novella entitled #MakeHalloweenScaryAgain coming out as part of an ebook anthology from Random House’s digital imprint (later to be collected as a Cemetery Dance hardcover). Next year Crystal Lake Publishing will put out my next collection, Book Haven and Other Curiosities. I’m currently working on a vampire novella, to be followed up by a ghost story. I have several other projects in mind, including sequels to a few of my other books, and four non-horror novellas, so I should be busy for a while.
