Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 20

5 Questions for Sonora Taylor

[image error]I interviewed Sonora Taylor last year about her book The Crow’s Gift. She returned the favor by inviting me to stop by her blog to talk about 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, as well as my Alondra stories. We met through the clandestine Ladies of Horror Facebook group.

Sonora Taylor is the author of four books, including Without Condition and The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales. Taylor’s work frequently appears in The Sirens Call. Her work has also appeared in Mercurial Stories, Tales to Terrify, and the Ladies of Horror fiction podcast. Her third short story collection, Little Paranoias, will be out October 22, 2019. She lives in Arlington, Virginia, with her husband.

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Is it a knock on the door, or a gust of wind? A trick of the light, or someone who’ll see what you’ve done?

Little Paranoias: Stories features twenty tales of the little things that drive our deepest fears. It tells the stories of terror and sorrow, lust at the end of the world and death as an unwanted second chance. It dives into the darkest corners of the minds of men, women, and children. It wanders into the forest and touches every corner of the capital. Everyone has something to fear — after all, it’s those little paranoias that drive our day-to-day.

Did something in the real world inspire Little Paranoias: Stories?

Most of the stories were inspired by pictures or writing prompts I saw online. A couple, however, were inspired by things I saw in the real world. “The Note on the Door” is based on an actual door I saw daily on my way to work. It was a glass door attached to a house that was otherwise under construction. I squinted for a bit to see what it said, couldn’t read it, then walked off. But as I kept walking, I started to think up a story around someone seeing a note on a door and not being able to stop thinking about its contents. It culminated into a very short story, one that I find effectively sinister.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

Oh gee — I always have a hard time picking a scene for this one! I have many, and especially so in a collection of short stories, where I have a favorite scene in each story. So, favorite scene 1 of 20 is… Just kidding.

If I had to pick one, I’d probably pick Penny Pinkerton’s story in “Weary Bones.” “Weary Bones” cuts between a primary character named Brandon and a cast of different women as they all react in different ways to a serum that promises a second life. The story focuses on death and grief — a barrel of laughs, I know. But Penny Pinkerton’s story was genuinely a laugh to write. I wrote it in tribute to the pulpier stories and movies I enjoy: stories that are a bit seedy, with people to match. I mean, her name is Penny Pinkerton! I can still see her blonde coif and neon pink lingerie. It was a fun passage to write.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

Little Paranoias: Stories is a compilation of stories I’ve written over the past year. Several of the pieces — mostly the flash pieces — were written for Nina D’Arcangela’s monthly  picture prompt challenge on her blog, Spreading the Writer’s Word. Others were responses to calls for submissions. Some were rejected, and I chose to revise them and publish them myself, which gave me more freedom in terms of word count and style. “Hearts are Just ‘Likes’” was previously published in Camden Park Press’s award-winning anthology Quoth the Raven: A Contemporary Reimagining of the Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Some of the Little Paranoias pieces were also published in slightly different form in The Sirens Call, a bimonthly eZine, and in Mercurial Stories.

So it is a compilation of previously published stories combined with brand new, never-before-published pieces. My first two short story collections were four stories apiece, and none of those were published before. It’s exciting to release a collection that compiles stories I’ve published elsewhere — it feels like the next step in my writing journey.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

The enthusiasm for the cover reveal. I was really touched to see so many people sharing the cover and extending their congratulations on the upcoming collection. I hope they like the stories just as much.

What do you have planned next?

Right now I’m working on my third novel, tentatively called Seeing Things. It’s based on an idea I’ve had for a couple years now, where a 13-year-old girl discovers she can see the dead but, unfortunately, none of them want to talk to her. She’s left wondering why she has this gift if the dead seem to actively avoid her, which leads to her wondering why they’re avoiding her. The answers begin coming into focus when she goes to visit her uncle for the summer.

I’ve also started writing down ideas and a rough table of contents for my next short story collection: Someone to Share My Nightmares: Love Stories, which will focus on romantic horror.

See what Sonora has been up to by checking out her website at https://sonorawrites.com

You can see all her books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2maReUO

Or order a copy of Little Paranoias: Stories here: https://amzn.to/2mdTri6. It comes out tomorrow!

5 Questions for Roxanne Rhoads

[image error]Although we share a last name and both grew up in Michigan, Roxanne Rhoads and I are not related.  I’m not even sure we’ve met, although we are both fascinated by cemetery, history, and ghosts.  All that means is that I am dying to get my hands on her newest book.

Roxanne Rhoads is an author, book publicist, mixed media crafter, and lover of all things spooky. She is the owner of Bewitching Book Tours, a virtual book tour and social media marketing company, and she runs a blog called A Bewitching Guide to All Things Halloween. Roxanne’s sells handcrafted jewelry, art, and home decor through The Bewitching Cauldron on Etsy.

Her newest book is Haunted Flint, cowritten with Joe Schipani:

Sinister Secrets in Flint’s History

Home to ancient burial grounds, unsolved murders, economic depression, and a water crisis, Flint emits an unholy energy rife with ghostly encounters.

Colonel Thomas Stockton’s ever-vigilant ghost keeps a watchful eye over his family home at Spring Grove, where guests occasionally hear the thump of his heavy boots.

Restless spirits long separated from their graves lurk among the ancient stones in Avondale Cemetery.

Carriage maker W.A. Paterson’s spirit continuously wanders the halls of the Dryden Building, while something sinister and unnamed resides in a Knob Hill mansion waiting to prey on impressionable young men.

Join authors Roxanne Rhoads and Joe Schipani on a chilling tour of Flint’s most haunted locations.

[image error]Did something in the real world inspire Haunted Flint?

I have always had an interest in all things spooky: ghost stories, haunted places, Halloween. Ghosts, spirits, magic…I think that’s always just been “normal” in my life.  Maybe it started after my dad passed away when I was 4. Strange things would happen and my mom would attribute them to his spirit trying to reach us. She’s always spoken of the “other” as if it were normal. My psychic aunt, weird stories, witches: these were my norm.

I have always loved the spookier things in life from Scooby-Doo, The Munsters, and The Addams Family when I was little to The Lost Boys, Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Craft, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula when I was a teen, to the plethora of creepy, spooky options in books, television, and movies that exist now.

But I think the ghostly elements tied to history really connected when I started researching the house I live in — it was my grandmother’s — the history of where a piece of it came from, why I might have so many ghosts in one small house. It connected me, my family, and Flint history in ways I didn’t expect.

What is your favorite story in the book?

One of my favorite locations in the book is the Stockton House. It is such a gorgeous place and has so much spirit activity. Every week there’s a new story someone tells me — something weird that happened to them — or I have a new experience of my own.

The most interesting chapter is the one connected to my own house. I learned so much about the old Amusement Park in Flint Park and about my own family history. It’s amazing what you can learn when you take the time to listen to your elders.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

Research, research, research followed by compiling all the research into a timeline, creating readable chapters out of all the history and tales of hauntings, and then condensing it to stay within the required word count of the publisher.

My co-author Joe compiled tons of historical data on locations: when they were built, weird things that happened. I compiled ghost stories and filled in missing puzzle pieces throughout the historical timeline. It was very much like being a detective, trying to connect dots and timelines to create a book where everything had a thread tying it all together. Flint is such a unique place that the thread turned into a tapestry.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

Community support. We have been blown away by the Flint community and their interest in our book. Our release party was a huge success and we sell out at all of our signings. It is incredible. We never expected this.

What do you have planned next?

We are currently collecting more haunting stories and branching out to gather ghost stories from not just Flint, but from all over Genesee County (Grand Blanc, Fenton, Linden, Swartz Creek, Clio, Montrose, Mt Morris, Flushing, etc.). If all goes well, we’ll have another book in the works. If you have a Michigan ghost story you’d like to share, please use this form: https://forms.gle/ACk7CHDDmF62PT2t7

Pick up your copy of Haunted Flint from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2ls3FeC

Keep up to date on ghost tours and other events at https://www.facebook.com/HauntedFlint/.

 

5 Questions for Jonathan Fortin

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I met Jonathan Fortin through the San Francisco Writers Coffeehouse, when it met at the Borderlands Cafe.  He was really serious about writing. It’s fascinating to see all his experimentation and hard work starting to pay off. I think we’re going to be hearing a lot from him.

Officially, Jonathan Fortin is the author of Lilitu: The Memoirs of a Succubus (coming December 2019 from Crystal Lake Publishing), Requiem In Frost (Horroraddicts.net), and Nightmarescape (Mocha Memoirs Press). An unashamed lover of spooky Gothic stories, Jonathan was named the “Next Great Horror Writer” in 2017 by HorrorAddicts.net. He attended the Clarion Writing Program in 2012, one year after graduating summa cum laude from San Francisco State University’s Creative Writing program. When not writing, Jonathan enjoys voice acting, dressing like a Victorian gentleman, and indulging in all things odd and macabre in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can follow him online at www.jonathanfortin.com or on Twitter @Jonathan_Fortin.

His new book Requiem In Frost comes out this month:

Fourteen-year-old Ingrid is certain that her new house is haunted. It’s old, spooky, and located deep in the frostbitten woods of Norway. Oh, and there’s also the fact that she and her mother are kept awake at night by the screams of a deceased former occupant—extreme metal musician Skansi Oppegård.

Hoping to exorcise Skansi’s ghost, Ingrid investigates the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death. But as Ingrid uncovers Skansi’s story, she finds herself targeted by forces beyond her understanding…and metal may prove to be the only weapon she has.

Did something in the real world inspire Requiem In Frost?

Requiem in Frost is a horror-comedy about a girl in Norway who moves into a house haunted by the ghost of a murdered black metal musician. While I’ve never lived in a haunted house, the story does reflect my own journey as a frustrated young teen who discovered black metal at a time when I didn’t know it was possible for me to like music. It also is very much inspired by the genre’s horrific history, which has no shortage of murder involved.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

There’s a part where Ingrid, the main character, is drawn out onto the thin ice covering the lake behind her new home, and finds something not-so-friendly waiting for her. It’s a fun, spooky scene. I’m also fond of a few brief moments in the story that hint at Norse mythology playing a role, including a glimpse of Naglfar, the fabled ship made out of the nails of the dead.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

[image error]I wrote the first draft of this story as part of HorrorAddicts.net’s Next Great Horror Writer Contest. The challenge was to write a music-themed short story under 5,000 words and we only had a few weeks to do it. I’d had the idea for this story floating in my head for a little while, so I was really excited for the chance to work on it. The first draft ended up being longer than 5,000 words, so cutting it down was half the battle. I had some friends take a look, edited it a bit, and sent it out in time. I didn’t win that challenge (that honor went to Naching T. Kassa), but I did win the contest as a whole. Emerian Rich (the publisher and hostess) selected it to be published as an ebook under her HorrorAddicts HorrorBytes imprint. I was given the opportunity to make the story a bit longer, so I edited it and added more scenes to flesh out the characters and world a bit more. Then I got edits back from Emerian and Naching (who is now working for HorrorAddicts) and edited it once again. So, it was initially written all at once, and but had lots of little changes over time.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

This is my first time doing a blog tour, so I’ve been really excited to connect with author friends! It’s warmed my heart to know that others are so down to trade blogs/interviews. I also loved having the opportunity to read the story in early October. I’m an actor/voice actor as well as a writer, and I adore doing live readings.

What do you have planned next?

My first published novel, Lilitu: The Memoirs of a Succubus, is launching in December, and I can’t wait. Also, on October 31st my Clarion class (the Awkward Robots) is putting out The Indigo Volume, a charity anthology to support the Clarion foundation. I have a new short story in there called Directions to the Hollow of Souls. You can find that one here: https://gumroad.com/l/indigovol

I’m also tinkering with a few novel projects, including the next book in the Lilitu saga and an all-new book.



I recommend you pick up Requiem in Frost for yourself: https://amzn.to/2On5cPg



You can check out Jonathan’s books at Amazon: https://amzn.to/2QgYYmM.



His homepage on the web is www.jonathanfortin.com

Or check out what he’s reading on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jonathanfortin 

Frank Langella’s Dracula

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I discovered the novel of Dracula when I was 10. I was one of those kids who loved to watch black and white horror movies on TV on Saturday afternoons. One day my mom, a former English teacher who was soon to be a school librarian, pointed out to me that the monsters that I loved had, for the most part, originated as characters in books. There was no going back.

By the time I was in high school, I’d read Dracula several times. I’d seen the Lugosi movies, of course, and Christopher Lee, and everything else that I could find on TV. And then there was going to be a Dracula movie in the theaters!

I was very excited about seeing Frank Langella’s Dracula. The idea of visiting the Count’s castle on the big screen was a huge draw, but seeing the count as a young man was also appealing. I made a date with a girlfriend and we were ready to go…

And my mom said no. The movie was rated R. She thought it would be too sexy for a 16 year old. I was crushed.

I’d forgotten all this — the anticipation and the embarrassment — until I rediscovered the movie on Prime.

Wow, it is not the best movie rendition of the novel I love. It makes some weird revisions as a way to shorten the story to a marketable length: Lucy becomes the heroine of the tale. Now she is Dr. Seward’s daughter, who helps him in the asylum. She’s also engaged to Jonathan Harker. Mina becomes Dr. Van Helsing’s nervous daughter, the first to be preyed upon and killed by Dracula.

Carfax Abbey is no longer in London, but now the asylum’s neighbor in Yorkshire. The Whitby graveyard scenes remain. I’d love to know if they were really filmed in Whitby, or if it’s a set overlooking the sea. The credits say it was filmed on location on Cornwall, which would put the shipwreck and graveyard on the wrong coast. Either way, the steep graveyard with its jumble of markers makes a convincing setting for the exhumation of Mina’s grave (not a crypt, as in the novel) and the daylight beheading of her corpse.

The sets of Dracula’s Abbey looked very familiar, so I wasn’t surprised to see the movie had been made at Shepperton Studios, home of the Hammer Horror movies.

All of the actors in the movie have different accents. I mean, if you’re going to cast Donald Pleasance as Seward, why not just set the movie in America? Only Lawrence Olivier seemed to take things seriously, flogging his exaggerated Dutch accent for all he was worth.

Some the dialog was lifted straight from the novel, which made the changes all the more glaring. Although the movie makes a point of establishing that there are no wolves in England (other than the one that jumped from the shipwreck in the beginning of the film), wolves howl outside Carfax.

Dracula says, “Listen to them, the children of the night. What sad music they make.”

Lucy asks, “Do you think it’s sad?”

“So lonely,” Dracula answers.

Huh.

Langella is sexy as Dracula, despite his distractingly American accent. He’s clearly having a great time in the role. He’s not particularly scary, but he’s got the smoldering thing down.

For an R-rated film, there’s no nudity and very little blood, even when Dracula opens the vein on his chest and baptises Lucy as a vampire. There is a long scene of full clothed bodies lying atop each other inside a swirl of smoky red laser light, but this was made in the 70s.

Really, the best part of the movie is John Williams’ sweeping score, orchestrated by the London Symphony. That holds up better than anything else in the movie.

5 Questions for Trilby Plants

[image error]It feels like I’ve known Trilby Plants forever.  She was a member of the writers group that taught me to write back in the misty days of the 1980s. I had the pleasure of publishing a true ghost story by her in Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues and one of her lovely essays on Cemetery Travel: https://cemeterytravel.com/2016/09/16/deaths-garden-history-lives-like-ghosts/.

Trilby Plants wrote her first story when she was ten. It won a blue ribbon at the Montana State Fair. She’s been writing stories ever since. Plants’ first book, Gatekeeper, is a dark fantasy about giant spiders and evil wizards. Why? Because she is fascinated by Magic, and spiders are her worst nightmare. Chaos, a sequel to Gatekeeper, came out in August. Trilby is the co-author of Double Danger, a romantic suspense novel.  She also writes children’s books — not scary ones, she points out. A proud member of the South Carolina Writers Association, Plants lives in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, where she writes, knits, and creates video book trailers and animated book covers.

Chaos synopsis:

[image error]Arden McEwan journeys with her brother Kerrick Malone through a dolmen gateway from Alsium, a world of Magic, to save friends from the evil Nadra, who is bent on destroying all the worlds. But her brother is injured and returns to Alsium. Alone, with no one to help her, Arden is not strong enough to prevail. She faces spider creatures who transform humans into something other, a far worse thing than death. Arden thought she and Kerrick had saved Earth from Nadra’s clutches. She is wrong. Now Nadra is back as an eight-legged spider horror from the darkest pits of Magic, bent on tearing down the World Gates to invade Earth and convert people into spider-slaves. Without Kerrick to help her, Arden is not sure she can stop Nadra.

Arden meets Ennit Bryce, a tabloid journalist who claims his mother died more than a century and a half ago. He seems to know more about her than she thinks he should.

Far-seers have predicted she will find help. She must decide: Face the scourge and her own doom — or trust a stranger.

Did something in the real world inspire Chaos?

In the mid-90s, a friend told me about a dream she had: A woman on a horse materialized in a thunderstorm, carrying a bundle. An idea sprang full-blown in my mind. I told my friend I knew the woman’s name and what she was carrying. She’d come from another world with something in the bundle that might result in the saving of all the worlds. That idea became the book Gatekeeper, which was finally published in the early 2000s. There is magic, other worlds, and a villain named Nadra, who controls giant spiders and wants to rule all the worlds.

Here are the opening lines:

“Blue light exploded on the rocky hilltop, and thunder roared through the forest. A woman on horseback appeared in the flash where only darkness and wind-driven rain were an instant before. Her name was Lyriel, and the world she left was far away. The horse staggered, then sidestepped, gathering itself to lunge. Lyriel held the reins taut and tucked her hair into the hood of a cloak. She put a hand on the bundle under her cloak.”

You can get Gatekeeper for free here: https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/Nn6E9

Gatekeeper always haunted me to write a follow-up book. It took me fifteen years, but the sequel, Chaos, is finally out. It’s available in print and Kindle on Amazon [see the link below] and will eventually be available in eBook on other platforms.

What is your favorite scene in Chaos?

There are two scenes I really like.

In the beginning, the heroine Arden arrives on Earth to save friends from a Magic storm sent by Nadra, a disgraced Magic practitioner. Far-seers have told Arden her friends must be saved. Torn between duty and friendship, she risks her life to rescue them from a power that could destroy Earth and all the other worlds, knowing she may have made herself and them more vulnerable.

I also like the scene later in the book when Arden knows she cannot defeat the evil Nadra. She entertains the idea of accepting Old Magic, the power of Unmaking, so she can win. Old Magic corrupts all who embrace it and Arden knows she will be sacrificing herself in order to defeat Nadra. In anger, poised to welcome the corrupting Magic, she gathers enough energy to destroy a town.

There is a character in the first book named Dax Navarian, who helped Lyriel in her quest to save the Earth and other worlds. His character begged for closure, so he came to life in the last chapter of Chaos.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

I first did a ton of research on Down East Maine, because it had been so long since I had written Gatekeeper. I discovered the storyline for Chaos required that I do many revisions to the first book. I spent a few months reworking Gatekeeper, then wrote a complete draft of Chaos, then went back and did another draft of Gatekeeper. I decided to give the revised first book away, hoping for more sales for the second.

I write every day, although not always on the same project. For some reason, Chaos was a difficult journey. The story taps into ideas of predetermination and free will. Wiser heads than Arden’s have foreseen future paths, but just like in real life, every choice she makes alters the timeline. The far-seers have told her she will find help from an unexpected source, but she must choose to accept it or not. Through Arden’s character, I faced what lengths I would go to in order to protect the ones I love.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of Chaos?

While working on the book, I found that help is everywhere in the community of writers. I belong to a wonderful support group, a local chapter of the South Carolina Writers Association and a small group of other writers who provide wonderful critiques and friendship.

What do you have planned next?

Over the course of the past year, I’ve concentrated on short stories and have written a dozen. One flash fiction piece was published in flashfictionmagazine.com and one I’m especially proud of appeared by The Petigru Review 2018. I’m honored and humbled that it was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. It’s an old story I resurrected called “Retirement.” You can find it here: https://thepetigrureview.com/2018/07/09/retirement/

I’m currently working on a paranormal about a woman who inherits a house along with its sordid past and its ghosts, and a fantasy about a woman who must come to grips with a power she does not want in a society where magic is unwelcome. My children’s picture book, Hubert Little’s Great Wish, is about to be released. It’s about being happy with yourself.

Find out more about Trilby’s work at  www.TrilbyPlants.com

Her Amazon page is: https://amzn.to/309EO2v

Or order a copy of Chaos at: https://amzn.to/2LAwRKN

The 1st reading of October

I’ll be at the Main Branch of the San Mateo Public Library (55 W 3rd Ave, San Mateo, California) on Wednesday night to read a spooky story and start the season off right.

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Joining me will be Emerian Rich, Jonathan Fortin, Trinity Adler, Laurel Anne Hill, R.L. Merrill, Mercy Hollow, and Tales for the Camp Fire contributors E.M. Markoff, Ben Monroe, and Sumiko Saulson.

We’ll have Camp Fire books for sale, along with oddities and collectibles like the Haunted Mansion Project books.

Hope you can come.

5 Questions for L.S. Johnson

I’ve interviewed L.S. Johnson before, but that was before I got a chance to read her brilliant story collection called Vacui Magia.  (My Goodreads review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2954975503. TLDR: Angela Carter+Clive Barker+Neil Gaiman.)  She’s also got a story in the Tales for the Camp Fire anthology that I edited earlier this year.

L.S. Johnson is the author of the queer gothic novellas Harkworth Hall and Leviathan, described by one reader as “Lovecraft meets Austen.” She’s also published over 30 horror and dark fantasy stories. Her first collection, Vacui Magia, won the North Street Book Prize and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Her new collection, Rare Birds, came out last week.

Her description of it:

The eight short stories in this collection look at the ties that bind and the transformations they provoke. Whether bound by love, blood, or violent circumstance, the characters in these tales are fundamentally altered by those closest to them…and not always for the better.

Two mothers become entwined in revenge against a violent man, with unexpected consequences. A roving gang of sirens finds themselves challenged from without and within. In a last, desperate act of love, a young surgeon goes under the knife. And in a distant territory, a mother and daughter struggle to survive—but the aid they summon is far more dangerous.

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Did real-world events inspire the stories in Rare Birds?

I’m always drawing from life, and lived experience, when I write. But certainly all my work of the past several years has been fuelled in large part by watching misogyny and hate become increasingly visible and virulent in American society. It’s always been there, but as the Internet has developed, it feels like all this poison is coming to the surface. Rare Birds is primarily a book about relationships, but it’s also about how the larger social context, so often violent and misogynistic, twists and distorts relationships. How the terms that social context sets can pit us against each other, or force us down angry, violent paths, when in another context those same relationships could be healthy, supportive, and caring.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

Ugh, I’m not one to compare stories to children but this does feel like being asked to pick a favorite kid. I have several scenes that I’m proud of, several lines that still make me choke up or laugh aloud. But if nothing else, I will be forever proud that I put this out into the world:

“I understood, then, that this was what was meant by grace, how in the midst of so much wrong there could be something that was beautiful and right.”

As writers, we not only reflect reality, we can in a sense shape it: we affect how readers see the world around them, how they interpret events and each other. I write horror, I write of people doing terrible things to each other, but my hope is that by doing so, readers will be better able to recognize the lights in the darkness.

What was your writing process like as you wrote these stories?

You know, this book and my previous collection, Vacui Magia, together represent a huge pivot in my life. I had quit writing for years, quit it utterly; I avoided writing so much as a blog post, because I felt so burned after my MFA. And then I started developing insomnia. I was working a stressful publishing job at the time, the kind of job where you’re checking emails in bed and proofreading on vacation … and I found myself waking up at 3 am, writing scenes in my head. Witches and vampires and monsters, crazy settings, just all these words, and none of it the polished realism I had aspired to in grad school. My doctor finally pushed me to apply for a sabbatical. I got three months off, and I just wrote. All day, every day, I was having 6k, 10k days on a regular basis. And there are pieces of that time in these stories, along with so many other moments: quitting that job and the subsequent years of financial difficulty, my mother being diagnosed with cancer, my own struggle with infertility, pets dying, family dying, the crushing blow of the 2016 election…it’s all in there. And through it all, I kept writing, often in the cracks of my day. It had gone from being a punishing, unachievable art form to something that kept me sane.

Looking back at it all now? These two collections feel like embarking.

What is the best thing that’s happened during your promotion of the book?

Well, I’m still in pre-release as I write this. [Editor’s note: the book came out last week, after LS submitted the interview and before I could publish it.] Once again, life is crazy, so I’m not talking up the book as much as I should. But I had my sabbatical in 2012, and now, seven years later, I have readers who are eager for something I wrote—they’re emailing me, they’re pre-ordering, they’re asking about signed copies. Writing generally feels like trying to navigate an unknown forest, but every now and then you get a moment where you can see how far you’ve come. This has been one of those times, and I am feeling all sorts of gratitude right now.

What do you have planned next?

I am knee-deep in the revision mines for two projects: my third gothic novella, The Painter’s Widow, and my first novel, Prima Materia. Both are thankfully set in the 18th century, so there’s a bit of overlap…but it’s also typical of me to go from writing first-person novellas to a 130k multi-POV behemoth. Tempered expectations is something I’m still struggling to incorporate into my process.

5 Questions for H. E. Roulo

[image error]I met H. E. Roulo the first year I went to BayCon, way back in 2015.  The Horror Addicts Guide to Life had just come out and the two of us had pieces in it, which we read at a panel at the convention. She impressed me with just how smart she is.

H.E. Roulo is a Pacific Northwest fiction writer whose stories have appeared in several dozen magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, including Fantasy’s special Women Destroy Fantasy issue and twice in Nature. She’s the first annual winner of the HorrorAddicts.net Wicked Women Writers Challenge, was Best in Blood, which is given to an author whose episode on HorrorAddicts.net gets the most downloads for the season. She went on to be a guest judge for The Next Great Horror Writer contest. Her short stories have been published in several dozen magazines, anthologies and podcasts. Her first novel, Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome, was published in 2015.  The sequel, Plague Master: Rebel Infection, is out now.

Synopsis of Plague Master: Rebel Infection:

Trevor is hailed as a hero for returning with a vaccine for the zombie infection. His celebrity also makes him a dangerous threat to the powerful Founders of his home world. Revolution is in the air, and Trevor is caught in the middle.

Despite his home world’s troubles, a message from a Plague Master forces Trevor to seek reinforcements on other worlds. He hunts for the woman he left behind, and an answer to why the vaccine is failing.

He and his friends must fight in space stations and worlds overtaken with infected to discover the terrible truth about his cure.

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Did something in the real world inspire the Plague Master series?

Thankfully, I have no firsthand experience with zombies or infection. The idea for the first book, Plague Master: Sanctuary Dome, started as an audio drama for the Omega Road Chronicles. Necropolis Studios selected it and made a full-cast production you can find online at http://necropolisstudioprod.com/orc.html.

Next, I turned the idea into a short for the Live and Let Undead anthology and that sold right away. At that point, it seemed a no-brainer to expand the world I’d come to love. I already had Samantha, who is searching for her brother’s murderer. For the novel, I added the story of Trevor, a teenager from a downtrodden planet. He wants to fight against the zombies swarming his world, but opportunity is scarce. He’s working as zombie-bait for the local militia when the girl he likes becomes infected. They get sent to the Sanctuary Dome, a punishment that’s actually a big improvement, but he’s not infected and is trying to save everyone, even his home world, from this disease.

The new book, Plague Master: Rebel Infection, deals with the aftermath of returning home, because he now knows just how bad his home world is, and the mystery of why the zombie cure stops working.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

It’s funny because the scenes that are fun to plan and convince me to go ahead with the book don’t usually end up as my favorites, just because they don’t surprise me. Action sequences are enjoyable, like when our heroes fight their way through a space station or in underwater tunnels, but my favorites always end up being the quiet scenes between friends. You learn so much about characters and what they’re thinking. Their relationships are, ultimately, what matter.

When I was searching for excerpts to share during my blog tour, I had to be careful because the most satisfying scenes are the ones with big reveals!

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

I’m a plotter. At this point, I have a pretty firm writing process where I know the beginning, ending, a few key plot twists, and action scenes in between. Then I throw the ideas into chapters and plan what comes in between so I can make sure there’s a nice balance.

The key for getting the book done was I committed to 2,000 words a day, five days a week. I can’t always do that, but it’s a good goal.

 What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

My teenage daughter really got into this series, and she made SIMS characters to match the ones in my book. It was amazing to see another person’s interpretation of the characters in my head. I loved that, so I asked her to put some of them up on my blog. [For example: http://www.fracturedhorizonnovel.com/2015/05/25/introducing-sparklyjemzs-corner/ and http://www.heatherroulo.com/2015/06/08/sparklyjemz-corner-kristin/]

What do you have planned next?

There’s a final book in the trilogy that I’ve planned since the beginning, tentatively titled Plague Master: Apocalypse Plague. I’m also working on an urban fantasy book and might see about releasing a dark humor superhero novella where the main character is a villain.

Pick up your own copy of Plague Master: Rebel Infection from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2KPmp1L

For more information about Heather’s work, visit heatherroulo.com or follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/heroulo/ or on twitter at @hroulo.

See all her books at https://amzn.to/2L5Ti94

5 Questions for Gene O’Neill

[image error]I met Gene many years ago at one of the first Morbid Curiosity open mics I hosted at a World Horror Convention. We’ve run into each other again and again at horror events over the years. This spring, I had the honor of including one of his short stories in Tales For the Camp Fire: An Anthology Benefiting Wildfire Relief.

Gene has seen about 200 of his stories and novellas published, several of which have been reprinted in France, Spain, and Russia. Some of these stories have been collected in Ghost Spirits, Computers & World Machines, The Grand Struggle, In Dark Corners, Dance of the Blue Lady, The Hitchhiking Effect, Lethal Birds, and Frozen Shadows & Other Chilling Stories. He has seen six novels published. Gene has been a Stoker finalist twelve times. In 2010 Taste of Tenderloin won the haunted house for collection; in 2012 “The Blue Heron” won for Long Fiction. A series of two novels in The White Plague Chronicles will come out in 2019—The Sarawak Virus followed by Beyond Pandemic. Also out in 2019 will be Entangled Soul, a collaborative novella written with Chris Marrs. Recently, Gene finished “The Beast with Two Backs,” a novella with a strong Maya background.

Gene lives in the Napa Valley with his wife, Kay. He has two grown children: Gavin, who lives in Oakland, and Kaydee, who lives in Carlsbad and rides herd on his two g-kids, Fiona and TJ. When he isn’t writing or visiting g-kids, Gene likes to read good fiction or watch sports—all of them, especially boxing.

Gene’s new book is Deathflash: Book 3 in the series The Crime Files of Katy Green

[image error]Young Billy Williams has been elevated to status of Shepherd of the Flock—leader of a zealous religious cult—and granted gift of the Deathflash, the ability to see the soul as it departs its mortal form at demise. Billy is also given an ancient knife-like talon and “commanded to do the Lord’s work,” which he does fanatically, slaying drug addicts in San Francisco who are poisoning their bodies with heroin.

Retired police detectives Katy Green and Johnny Cato find themselves drawn into the grim case of the murdered underclass, whom no one seems to care about until the brother of one victim comes forward with his incredible suspicions… So begins a journey of addiction, tracking a killer through the dope dens and seedy rehab houses of the Tenderloin district. As time passes, junkies begin to die faster and faster for Billy Williams has given himself entirely to his own addiction: the rush of viewing the Deathflash.

Did something in the real world inspire Deathflash? 

Maybe fifteen years ago, I read a translated copy of some obscure Russian experiments. They were taking photos of the radiation leaving the body at the moment of death. Amazingly, they said that the radiation was 100 times that considered normal in a body. What was that flash? Even a non-religious person thinks: It’s the soul. I never found a replication here in this country of those experiments, because of ethical issues. But I had a neat story premise.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

Of course I love the initial scene where the boy, the new Shepherd, first sees the death flash. The following two descriptions of the flash are awesome, too.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

My writing process is always similar. I pretty much have the premise, title, main character’s name, and an ending before I start a project. Then I write every morning, six days a week, until I finish the project. I spend most of the morning going back and revising before adding something new—usually 500 words or so. Of course, this makes me a much slower writer than my contemporaries.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

Eric Guignard, the publisher of Dark Moon Books, is a good promoter. He already has two important signings lined up for Deathflash: Sept 8th at Dark Delicacies in Burbank, California, and at a date and time to be determined at a prominent bookstore in Berkeley. I always enjoy meeting old fans or new folks at signings.

What do you have planned next?

I’ve finished a two-book series, The White Plague, and it’s in to JaSunni. They will hopefully bring out the first, The Sarawak Virus, by this Fall, and the second, Beyond Pandemic, a little later. I think this series, based on a high premise, is written as well and as compelling as my well-received four-book series, The Cal Wild Chronicles, available from Written Backwards Press.

Pick up your own copy of Deathflash: https://amzn.to/2lwuBtx

You can check out all of Gene’s books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2ly9TJP

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My Panel History

I’ve been appearing on panels at conventions since my first World Horror Convention in 2000, when I was on a panel with Michael J. Straczynski. I’ve never pulled all those panels together — and this will probably be of no interest to anyone but me — but as I pitch panels to conventions, I often wonder what exactly I’ve been on before. So I’m pulling that information together.

I’ve only been keeping track of panels and their descriptions since I started attending my local Bay Area conventions in 2016.  Since then, I’ve been on 25 panels. So there’s a lot to keep track of!

Anyway, this is going to be a work in progress.  At least I’ve finally made a start.

2019 Convention Panels:

FogCon:

Debut Author Lessons 

Friday, March 8, 2019 at 3pm

I joined Vylar Kaftan, Tina LeCount Myers, and Tyler Hayes to talk what we learned — or wish we’d known — as beginning writers.

How do you sign books? What’s the etiquette when talking to bookstores? Join our panel of authors, some brand new, others with several books behind them, as they discuss the things every debut author needs to know, from signing contracts to signing books.

Down to Earth: The Future of Green Burial

Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 9 am

Moderated by M. Kennedy, with E.M. Markoff, Terry Weyna, and me.

“We’re not detached from Earth. We turn *into* earth.” Inspired by Becky Chambers’ Record of a Spaceborn Few, this panel is a discussion of death customs in science fiction and an introduction to existing environmentally conscious burial methods. How can human decay be a catalyst for helping forests flourish, or repopulate coral reefs, or nurture a family garden? What resources exist for people like Kip, who want to care for the bodies of loved ones without prior formal education? Readers inspired by the work of Caretakers like Chambers’ Eyas may be interested to learn that several organizations in the Bay Area not only specialize in providing green burials, home funerals, and death midwifery, they actively seek to train volunteers to provide this care for their own communities.

2018 Convention Panels:

BayCon:

Fan Fiction: A Stepping Stone or a Waste of Time?

Saturday, May 26, 2018 at 10 am

Moderated by Denise Tanaka, with me and David Coronado.

Cassandra Clare, author of the Mortal Instruments series, started building her fan base by writing serious Harry Potter fan fiction. The novel Fifty Shades of Gray started out as Twilight fan fiction. The panel will discuss and debate the pros and cons of writing unauthorized media tie-in fiction. Can a beginning writer gain any worthwhile skills in plotting, dialogue, or narrative exposition by writing in an established franchise?

On Beyond Rey

Sunday May 27, 2018 at 11:30 am

I moderated, with Carrie Sessarego and Denise Tanaka.

Now that women are central to the new Star Wars movies (other than Solo), what are some more female-centered projects that should come to the big screen? Bonus points for older works that should be rediscovered.

Master Class:  Getting Out of the Slush Pile

Sunday May 27, 2018 at 5:30 pm

Emerian Rich and I talked about all we’ve learned about how to pitch, how to submit, and how to behave so you’re invited to submit again.

Fiction Set in or around the Bay Area

Monday May 28, 2018 at 11:30 AM

Moderated by Chad Peterman, with Fred Wiehe, Jennifer McGaffey, Katharine Kerr, and me.

Come talk about your favorite hometown books and maybe get some new ideas for your reading list.

WorldCon:

What Turns People on to Horror?

Thursday, August 16, 2018 at 3 pm

San Jose Convention Center

E.M. Markoff moderated, with Fred Wiehe, Scott Sigler, Richard Kadrey, me, and LS Johnson.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. Roller coasters and skydiving, horror movies and dark fiction, mythology and folklore: what scares us and why are we drawn to it? Members of the Bay Area chapter of the Horror Writers Association share their first experiences with horror and discuss how their fears inspire their work. Audience members are encouraged to share their own experiences.

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2017 Convention Panels:

FogCon:

Social Media for Writers and Authors

Friday, March 10 at 3 pm

I moderated a well-attended panel about the variety of social media available to help writers connect with readers.  Joining me were Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Valerie Frankel, Phyllis Holliday, and Heather Rose Jones.

Pitches, Presentations and Proposals: making your point without resorting to kidnapping your boss

Saturday, March 11 at 4:30 pm

I participated in a panel moderated by Karen Brenchley, with Marie Metivier-DeMasters and Alfred Nash. We each brought different skills to the topic, from pitching panel topics to selling books, articles, and columns. The highlight was when we threw open the second half of the panel and let the audience pitch their books to us. Not only was it fascinating, it felt like we were being extremely useful.

BayCon:

Girls Will Be Girls

Saturday, May 27 at 4 pm

Why are so many YA dystopias centered on young women? What about this particular genre is so appealing to (or inclusive of) young women and what does it say about our society? I moderated, with Teresea Edgerton, Margaret McGaffey Fisk, Linden Tarr, and Carrie Sessarego participating as panelists.

Women Of Horror

Sunday, May 28 at 11:30 am

Emerian Rich of HorrorAddicts.net led a discussion between me and Pat MacEwen about the stereotypes, expectations, and discrimination involved with writing in this mostly man-dominated genre.

Dystopian Space Opera from Ancillary Justice to Rogue One

Sunday, May 28 at 1 pm

I moderated again, with Juliette Wade, Douglas Berry, Andrew Clark, and Chuck Serface as panelists. What is it about galactic empires that turns the future into a dystopia? We’ll discussed fiction, television, and film and tried to figure out what form of galactic government would make everyone happy.

Harry Potter and Dystopian Fantasy

Sunday, May 28 at 4 pm

The final panel I moderated, with Jean Batt, Colin Fisk, and Linden Tarr participating, looked at dystopia in fantasy. What’s a main character to do when the government (whether the Ministry of Magic or the Empire of Melnibone, the Head of the White Council or rightful King of Westeros) will use magic and lies to keep the populace in line?

The Dreaded Outline

Monday, May 29 at 10 am

Technique discussion about outlining and other pre-work that helps keep writers motivated to the finish line. Tip-focused rather than memoir, it really highlighted all the different ways writers do the advance work (or in my case, outline once I get stuck in the middle). Moderated by Margaret McGaffey Fisk, with me, Jay Hartlove, Maya Kathryn Bohnhoff, and J. L. Doty.

2016 Convention Panels:

FogCon:

From Caterpillar to Butterfly

Friday, March 11 at 4:30–5:45 pm

With Jamie L. Henderson, Ashley Christina, Theresa Mecklenborg, Colleen T. O’Rourke, and me.

We talked about strange biologies on earth and how those could inspired aliens. Everyone else was a scientist, so I got to hold down the literary end of the conversation. And I got to talk about how octopi inspired Vezali in the Templar books.

WisCon:

Genre Blending

Friday, May 27 at 9-10:15 pm

Moderator: Rebecca Holden

Panelists: Alex Jennings, Justine Larbalestier, Loren Rhoads, Kristine Smith, Brooke Wonders

Whether it’s a steampunk fairytale or an end of the world love story between science and magic or a Hong Kong-style revenge space opera, stories are spilling over the edges of genre.

Living into Dying

Sunday, May 29, 1-2:15 pm

Moderator: R. Elena Tabachnick

Participants: Kate Carey, Loren Rhoads, and Nadia Hutton

In this panel we will discuss how to live with death: the challenges of dying, the gifts we receive from it, and the stories that get us through.

WorldCon:

[image error]Where’s Rey? Female Characters and Merchandise

Friday, August 19 at 4 – 5 pm

Kansas City Convention Center

With Leo d’Entremont, Jenifer Boles, and Loren Rhoads

Unfortunately, it is all too common for female characters to be left out of promotional material. We discuss the reasons for, the implications of, and possible solutions to this.

Convolution:

When does Fanfic become Pro Work?

Friday, September 30 at 3 – 4:30 pm

With Loren Rhoads (moderator), Shael Hawman, and Valerie Estelle Frankel

Classic Scary Stories: Shelley, Poe, and others

Friday, September 30 at 5 – 6:30 pm

With Chuck Serface (moderator), Tyler Hayes, Loren Rhoads, and Sarah Stegall

Looking back on some of the classics of literary monster-makers and scary storytellers.

[image error]The Monsters of Star Wars

Friday, September 30 at 8 – 9:30 pm

With Stacy Meyn (moderator), Loren Rhoads, Drew Morris, JC Arkham, and Jean Batt

Some of them live in pits. Some of them have vast underwater cities. Some of them will keep you warm through a cold Hoth night.

Devilishly Daring: Demonic Monsters

Saturday, October 1 at noon – 1:30 pm

With Laurel Anne Hill (moderator), Chuck Serface, Loren Rhoads, Emerian Rich, and J. L. (Jim) Doty

We’ll discuss the devils, demons, succubi, and lords of the underworld that feature in our genre fiction.

Authors: Going to That Dark Place

Saturday, October 1 at 3 – 4:30 pm

With Fred Wiehe (moderator), Loren Rhoads, Melissa Snark, Deborah J. Ross, Margaret McGaffey Fisk, and Anne Bishop

If you want the monstrous element to be truly horrifying, you sometimes have to dig to a dark place to write it believably.

[image error]Meet HorrorAddicts.net!

Sunday, October 2 at 10 – 11:30 am

With Emerian Rich (moderator), Loren Rhoads, Laurel Anne Hill, and Sumiko Saulson

Chat with the authors who comprise HorrorAddicts.net and find out their monster favorites!

The Monster is the Hero

Sunday, October 2 at 2 – 3:30 pm

With Ric Bretschneider (moderator), Jay Hartlove, Chad Peterman, and Loren Rhoads

Panel discussion of our favorite bits in which the monstrous element ends up being the hero and Man is the enemy.