Interview: David Tocher's Chelsea Mourning

Today I welcome David Tocher! David recently had a story, Chelsea Mourning, published in the Evolve 2 anthology put out by the Canadian publisher, Edge. I've asked him here to talk a little about this.


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David, can you tell us a little about the anthology and the process you went through for submission?
In Evolve Two, each author tackles the question, "What will vampires become in the future?" The anthology is divided into three parts: Pre-Apocalypse, Post-Apocalypse, and New World Order. There are no stereotypical vampires with black capes, fangs (or even sparkles!), saying in a Romanian accent, "I vant to suck your blood." Evolve Two breaks vampires down into their original archetype: they are the predator and we are their prey. Among the many scenarios, you have futuristic vampires on Mars, in underground court rooms, and also walking an ozone depleted Earth.
About the submission process, I got into the anthology by pure chance. At Chapters bookstore in Montreal, I noticed a familiar looking woman standing beside me in the horror section. Recognizing her, I said, "Excuse me. Are you Nancy Kilpatrick?" It turns out she was. As we got to talking, she found out I was a writer, and told me I could submit a story idea. If she liked the idea, she'd give me the green light to write it. The rest, as they say, is history. So for me, this all happened because of a chance encounter.


For those who haven't read it, tell a little about your story.


When it comes to writing a good synopsis, some folks "got it" and some folks don't. Paul Goat Allen's "got it," so I'll quote what he said about my story in his review of Evolve Two:


"Chelsea Mourning is a post-apocalyptic tale that follows a survivor of the Scorching – an asteroid strike that essentially destroyed human civilization – as she struggles to survive amidst the ruins of Montreal. "[The city] had become a disemboweled corpse, stone and steel guts scattered amongst the bones of its streets and avenues." Chelsea Mills is an emotionally scarred young woman whose nightmarish past rivals that of her current hellish existence. She's also a telepath – and when she is captured by a colony of vampires, an unlikely redemptive path shows itself…"

The title of your story reminded me of a song by another Canadian artist, Joni Mitchell. Her song Chelsea Morning speaks of a beautiful morning in a light-hearted fashion. Your story is very dark. Was this an intentional and ironic allusion?


First off, I'm a huge Joni Mitchell fan. She's one of my all-time favorite singer/songwriters, so I really can't help myself from alluding to her in my own work. In any story I've written, other Joni fans will find references to her lyrics.

In this story, yes, the ironic allusion was intentional. The contrast between Joni's lighthearted song and my own dark story was meant to underscore the protagonist's desperate situation; as in, "See the lightheartedness and happiness Chelsea wants but can't have?"


A good horror story should be filled with an undertone of emptiness and longing. That's how you tap into your readers' real and subconscious fears. You have to make them squirm in their own fears of loneliness, of having nobody to understand how they've been hurt inside. Once you've set that mood for your readers, assault them with images of violence, demonic creatures, and trauma.

What was the germ of the idea for this tale?

A lot of my stories originate with an image in my head. For awhile, I'd had this image in my mind of a woman hiding in an abandoned building, staring out the window at a devastated earth. Who is she hiding from? What happened to the planet? So, I decided to write the story and find out.

I'm intrigued by any new or different take on vampires, and I enjoyed the more horrific style of those in this story. Please tell us a little about the vampires and what inspired you to create them in this way.

During the first draft, I'd reached the part where Chelsea was in the vampires' lair and then asked, "How do these vampires organize themselves? What is their social structure?" The answer just came to me – bats! So, I studied up on the Desmodus Rotundus and modeled my vampires after them. This connection is hinted at by one of my vampires being named "Desmond."

I chose this because to my knowledge at the time, nobody had done that before. Since writing the story, however, I've discovered Melanie Tem's novel Desmodus, where vampires are humanoid bats with a bat-like social structure. Also, Nancy Kilpatrick's Eternal City handles vampires in the same way. So, even though it has been done before, it hasn't been done often. This means there's much undiscovered territory for approaching the undead in this manner.

Sexual abuse and the victim's compulsion for revenge are important themes in this story. I find this an interesting subject and tend to write a lot about victims of abuse in my own stories. What led you to include this element in your story?


When you get into 'the zone' as a writer, you're not making the characters or the story up. Rather, you're just the channel or conduit for the story. It's truly a magical experience.



I can only describe it as "Chelsea Mills told me she was a victim of sexual abuse, so I took it upon myself to tell her story the best that I could."

The story is set in Montreal after a cataclysmic event. Any particular reason you chose this city for your setting?


No, not really, besides the fact that I live in Montreal and already have a feel for the city and that makes it easier to write about.



You write from the female point of view in this story. Having recently switched to a male POV in some of my work, I found it very liberating. Are there some things that you feel you can say in a female voice that you find harder to express in a male point of view?

Good question. I've never thought of it as more liberating to write from a female point of view. Instead, I do so because it's a challenge and it enables me to grow as a writer. It would be easy for me to write from a male's point of view simply because…I'm a man. To write from the point of view of a woman, I have to step outside myself and force myself to look at the world through the eyes of another gender.


Talk a little about your writing process.


First of all, I hate plotting with a passion. The biggest waste of time is the time wasted getting started. My stories follow a traditional three act structure with your three main plot points:

the inciting incident (the event that sets the story in motion);


plot point one (the character wants something and chooses to do something to obtain his goal);


plot point two (the sudden twist 75% of the way into the story that catapults my character into the final conflict).



I determine what those three things are. Then, I determine who my character is, what motivates him, and what he wants.

Once I have those anchors in place, I just start writing and let everything else fall into place. Most of the time, I have no idea how the story will end or even what will happen next.

What new projects are you working on? Please tell my readers about your other published works.

I'm almost finished the first draft of a horror novel, so if you enjoyed Chelsea Mourning, you might want to keep your eyes opened for this novel in the not too distant future. It tackles many similar themes.

 You can find my short story, Letters from a Dead World, in the Dreamspell Nightmares anthology, published by L&L Dreamspell.

David, thanks for taking the time to join me here today!  You can follow David at his blog: http://davidtocher.blogspot.com/