Author Interview: Eden Royce

You should be jealous. So, so jealous. Because not only did a get a review copy of Eden Royce's Spook Lights, I also snagged an interview. Before I post the interview, let me tell you Spook Lights is so so awesome, and spooky and wonderful, and filled with Southern Fried Goodness. Buy this book, I swear you will not be disappointed.
Okay. Fan Girl moment over *fans self*. Here is the interview:
  If I wanted to dig deeper into gothic horror, what movies or books would you recommend?
I’d say find a copy of the TV series “American Gothic” with Gary Cole.  I’m still mad it lasted only one season. Sooo good. And it’s set in a fictional town in South Carolina.  Can’t say that about many shows. 
Author's Note: I remember "American Gothic." I so had a crush on Gary Cole after that show. 
For Southern Gothic horror with a touch of mystery, I’d read Season by Jewel Parker Rhodes. It’s about the great-great granddaughter of Marie Laveau, New Orleans’ most famous voodooienne. 
Going back a bit, I’d recommend Daphne Du Maurier’s work.  She wrote the novelette, “The Birds” that Alfred Hitchcock turned into the movie. I love her short story “The Blue Lenses”, although she is probably most known for writing the classic novel Rebecca, which has also been turned into a movie full of Gothic goodness. 
What inspired you to write gothic horror?
I don’t think I set out to write Gothic horror, it’s simply what emerged when I started writing dark fiction.  I don’t typically read or watch horror with enormous amounts of blood spilling. My first experience with horror was old black and white classic movies—the ones starring Bela Lugosi, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and the like—and I loved them.  I found them fascinating with their creepy elegance, foreboding castles, and misty moors. At that time, I loved Poe, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde, and the like but I hadn’t found many examples of horror by African-American writers.
When I started writing, I set my stories in my hometown—Charleston, South Carolina—because it’s where I felt the characters could be themselves. When I conceived each story, the setting came simultaneously. In Southern Gothic, the settings are as much a part of the tale as the characters are. Since then, I’ve written about different cultures and different parts of the world, but I always come back to the American South because I have so many intriguing characters who need a voice. (And they’re the ones that have been rolling around in my head the longest.) Southern accents can be seen as shorthand for ignorance in books and in film—I’d love for that to change.
Did you write the stories over one long writing session, or were the stories written in chunks over years?
Some of the stories go back to 2011 and were published with presses that are now defunct. (So sad to say that.) I polished them up before including those tales in Spook Lights. About half of them are new, unpublished stories. Most of the stories took me a few weeks of actual writing time to create, as I sometimes move from one to another in order to keep up momentum if I get stuck on an element of the tale.
One of the stories I wrote in one frantic afternoon, then set it aside for editing a week later.  Strangely enough, I had a best-selling author read it and it was one of his favorites.
The first story in Spook Lights almost didn’t get written.  I signed up for a challenge to write a story based on a prompt and the prompt was not what I expected—alchemy, blinding sound, severed art.  Yikes! I had no idea what to do with that combination of “must haves”. But I figured it out and “The Watered Soul” was the result.
The stories featured beautifully crafted characters that were all black. I'm ashamed to admit this, but at one point I thought, "Wow. If she'd used pale skinned mainstream characters, she'd probably have a broader audience." So were you ever tempted to make Spook Lights less diverse?
I wasn’t. Many of the stories of the South don’t include people of color as the point of view characters and I wanted Spook Lights to do that. A few of the stories use Gullah, a language I grew up with. Gullah is a blend of English and African languages spoken by the first slaves to be brought to the coasts of the Carolinas and Georgia. It’s dying out now, as many people feel it is just uneducated speech, and refuse to acknowledge its value, or the fact it is a recognized language, with its own grammatical rules and structure.
As a writer, I don’t tend to use great detail in physical descriptions for my characters because I want their situations to be relatable to people outside of barriers like color.  I do use minor details to give a sketch of the person, but I want readers to place themselves in the guise of the characters while reading as I feel it deepens the experience of the story.
What I’d love to see is people taking away something from these characters, being impacted by them—whether they’re rooting for them to fail or succeed—regardless of age, economic background, gender, or race.
What makes a good writer?
Good writers have the ability to stay true to their version of the story, even faced with the possibility that no one will read it or understand it. Sometimes this can take time to cultivate. A good writer also needs persistence to stick with a project until the end. Anyone who has gone through the full process of publishing knows it takes rewrites and edits to the point where you may be sick of seeing the manuscript before it hits the shelves.
A good writer also learns to see the story from the perspective of the reader. Incredibly difficult to do at times, especially when you as the writer love the story you’re telling. But it’s an essential skill and worth the time it takes to learn it.
What makes a good reader?
An open mind.  For fiction reading, a good reader is willing to suspend his or her disbelief.  You have to be willing to go with the author’s vision of the story, which is not always what makes logical sense in “the real world”. This holds true especially for speculative fiction—horror, fantasy, science fiction, and the like. I find it disheartening when I hear a reader say, “I just didn’t believe that could happen.” Speculative fiction should open a reader to possibilities.
As children, we are encouraged to imagine and to dream.  We shouldn’t lose that when we become adults. Reading is escapism. Enjoy it and experience the new, the strange, the fascinating.
What are you reading right now?
I always read several things at a time.  Right now, I’m reading Unhallowed Gravesby African horror author Nuzo Onoh, a collection of tales about the dead taking their revenge.  It’s steeped in African culture and is truly chilling.
I’m also reading an old favorite of mine, Pearl by Tabitha King. (She is the wife of Stephen King, but this is no horror novel.) It’s the last book in a beautifully crafted trilogy: An independent black woman inherits a house in a small Maine town, and turns the place on its ear. She wants to lead a quiet life, but things don’t work out that way. I love how King is able to create sympathetic characters and put them through physical and emotional turmoil.  
I’ve just finished The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I love a gritty detective novel. Of course, the books above are in addition to what I’m Beta reading for friends and family. The to-read pile is getting out of control.  *laughs*

Eden Royce is descended from women who practiced root, a type of conjure magic in her native Charleston, South Carolina. She currently lives in Kent, The Garden of England, with her husband and a maniacal black cat named Samurai.
Eden has been praised for bringing “a refreshing perspective to the table that paranormal lovers are sure to enjoy.” (B.D. Bruns, author of The Gothic Shift). When she’s not writing, she’s walking on cliff tops, watching quiz shows or perfecting her signature dish for Masterchef. Learn more about Eden’s brand of horror at darkgeisha.wordpress.com and at www.edenroyce.com.