Exploring horror with Luke Walker
Today I am handing over my blog to Luke Walker, horror writer and horror fan. He discusses the nature of writing horror, who his beggest influences are, and where you can read his work.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing?
I'm 33 and have been writing for as long as I can remember. During my early teens, I wrote terrible poetry and the odd short story. As I grew older, I left the angst-ridden poems and focused more on fiction. At 21, I started writing my first book which ended up being complete crap because I made a lot of the typical newbie mistakes (mainly a lack of plot while writing about myself which is always dull to everyone but the writer). Including that one, I've written ten books and am now working on the eleventh. I write predominately horror although I do go into fantasy occasionally. For both, I like to ground them in the real world. I love the contrast and conflict between the supernaturally horrific or fantastic with the things of real life. Give me a tale with demons invading a pub on a Friday night and I'm a happy man.
You are a big horror fan. What about this genre and style interests you?
There's no one answer to this even though it's a question I've asked myself several times. I think it's just a case of some people are designed this way. I'm built to see the darkness inside a story. If there's a deeper reason, I think it's down to the potential for humanity's laudable qualities to be shown in a horror story. When we're up against a supernatural or paranormal threat – in other words, a threat from outside the known world – we have to do whatever it takes to survive. That might mean betrayal or killing. Or it might mean self-sacrifice and bravery.
Who do you consider your biggest influences in literature, and why?
Firstly, Stephen King simply because of his clear love of a good story. King is a writer who knows how powerful a story can be. He knows there's magic in stories and I aim for the same way of thinking when I write. Long term influences range from Neil Gaiman to Clive Barker to Orwell. Over the last year or so, Sarah Pinborough, Kaaron Warren, Tim Lebbon, Joe Hill and Susan Hill have all made a big impression on me.
Can you tell us about some of the work you've written and/or had published?
I've had several short stories published online by Dark Fire Fiction which go from a very short piece about a young boy haunted by things inside mirrors to longer stories I'm particularly fond of. One concerns a small group of men in a backstreet pub in the mid-seventies on a November night who meet a young man who tells them as a fact that Margaret Thatcher will be the next PM. Of course, that's not all he tells them. Another one is a slightly futuristic tale in which legalised murder is the norm but only if the killer has a socially acceptable reason for it. Both were a lot of fun to write.
Like a lot of writers, I have certain areas I return to in fiction. For me, these end up being friendships, pubs, the end of the world in various ways, long-term regrets, ghosts and what happens to 'normal' people when they're faced with all these. And for what it's worth, I don't think there is such a thing as a normal person.
In your own words, can you tell us: what do you think horror is?
Tough one. I think horror is the sensation/feeling/emotion/reaction that comes when we realise the things in life that we take for granted as making sense, the things we think we know, abruptly don't make sense or become unknown. That can be anything from realising you've just entered a part of town that isn't safe or not being able to get hold of a loved on late at night when they should have been home an hour ago…or when a little part of your brain you never have reason to use tells you the sound in the middle of the night isn't someone testing your back door; it's some thing testing your back door.
Horror should get under your skin. It should touch you in a personal way and stay with you because of it. That's what being haunted is, after all. Horror is when the good things stop making sense and there's little to no chance of fixing them.
What are you working on at the minute?
A book about three men who are strangers and who all have different reasons to come to an area of their town reputed to be haunted. It's not long before they discover it is haunted but for reasons they weren't expecting. The ghosts have a reason for being there. Some of them are guardians of an evil that wants to come through to our world. And some of the ghosts want the evil to succeed.
Do you have any tips/advice you want to share with fellow writers?
As basic as it sounds, a writer isn't someone who spends most of their time talking about writing or telling people they have a great idea. A writer will write that great idea; they'll rewrite it and they'll edit it until it's as good as it deserves to be. Anyone can have an idea. A writer will turn that idea into a story. Do that and you're already a step beyond a lot of people. The trick after that is to keep doing it.
The other issue is to read widely. Old classics, contemporary bestsellers and whatever else in between. Always have a book or two on the go.
Where can people read your work and find out more about you?
My blog is at http://getthegirlkillthebaddies.blogspot.com
