Extreme Horror Group Read #7 - April 2024 - Ryan Harding > Likes and Comments
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Oooh, this sounds great and it's on Hoopla! :) Welcome Ryan!
Hey all, I will be here in about a week for this collection of splatterpunk goodness. I've read some great reviews!
Thank you all for having me! I've been looking forward to this!
This will be awesome! Ryan, are you willing to reveal the genesis of some of these stories? Or which is your favorite one?
Except, after we’ve read all the stories!
Netanella wrote: "This will be awesome! Ryan, are you willing to reveal the genesis of some of these stories? Or which is your favorite one?
Except, after we’ve read all the stories!"
Definitely! There are notes about them all at the end of the book, too, which may answer some questions, but I'm glad to talk about them all!
Ryan, are you going to do any more Agent Orange books? Those are pretty fun and I wouldn’t mind that at all
Ed,Oh yes, there will be more Agent Orange for sure. We have been talking about the 3rd book for a while but have each just had a slew of personal setbacks. There is a rough outline, though, and we are close to starting it. This one will take place in Sandalwood in 1996. We have ideas for at least 5 books but could definitely go beyond that. It's a world we've talked about a lot and there is much to explore. I appreciate your interest!
Ryan, can you tell us what drew you to the extreme side of horror and who were your influences?
Clive Barker was one of the first horror authors I read, so that element was also part of it. I had discovered Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho at an impressionable age as well. I enjoyed gory horror films like Dawn of the Dead, Dead Alive/Braindead, The Evil Dead, etc, so those sensibilities laid a lot of the groundwork. I got into Splatterpunk literally from just overhearing someone in a used bookstore recommend John Skipp & Craig Spector to a friend. I grabbed one or two of their books and was an instant fan. Once full-blown extreme horror emerged in the late 90s from Necro Publications with Edward Lee in particular spearheading the movement, I was instantly taken in by the possibilities. It was beyond what seemed so subversive in the Splatterpunk era, and it was something I wanted to try myself. What I'd written was violent, but more on the Splatterpunk end of the spectrum. I was influenced by Skipp, Spector, Edward Lee, Jack Ketchum, Clive Barker, Joe R Lansdale (The Nightrunners), Bentley Little, Rex Miller, Bret Easton Ellis, Kathe Koja, Richard Laymon, etc. Of course I was reading David J Schow too, and his anthology Silver Scream was pivotal, along with Skipp & Spector's Book of the Dead 1 & 2. I like the extreme horror canvas. Not everything I do fits comfortably in the genre but I enjoy working in it. When I started writing it in the late 90s, not that many people were doing it. It's pretty mind-blowing that nowadays we're so far removed from that with hundreds or thousands of extreme horror authors and generations of fans who don't always know the works once taken for granted as the extreme horror foundations like Header, The Bighead, Off Season, The Girl Next Door, etc.
Greetings All!I just now finished a book I was reading from my other book club. I just purchased this book and I’ll start reading it immediately.
I finished reading your book of short stories last night and I have my fingers crossed for Transcendental Mutilations doing well at the Splatterpunk Awards in August. This was my first blush with your work Ryan. I am truly impressed. I will be posting a positive review Sunday. Also I usually do not have questions to authors, but I have a couple for you. In your award winning story Angel Killer, I was confused by the scorch marks on the wall with appearance of reddish wings. Did the nemesis receive divine intervention or was that a curve ball? I loved that story and it actually did make me want to take an anti-nausea pill (and that NEVER happened before. Finally I loved the information you provided at the end about the stories.Thank you so much for your time and thoughtfulness.
Welcome and thank you, Char! And thank you for your comments, Pisces! I think you can interpret the appearance at the end of "Angelbait" as a series of tortured events for Tilda that ultimately spare her, but at a great cost that's probably not worth paying. What the entity unleashed in that basement alternately vaporized and reduced Otis (and Simon) to blood and ash, so Otis's vaporization throws his blood across Tilda and the wall to either side of her like wings.. (There's a little joke where the male captive mentions RoboCop and how Simon is never going to be reduced to pieces like the toxic waste guy in the movie--but that's exactly how the story ends). Thank you again for your thoughts and for reading the book. I am happy you enjoyed it!
Hey Ryan, I finished this book the other day and I'm still thinking about some of the stories - well done!!!!You mentioned in the notes that you had a specific songs in mind for Divine Red and Temple of Amduscias. What are you listening to these days, and does it continue to influence your writing?
I would happily pay cold hard cash for novella length expansions of both of those stories :)
You also mention that you write short stories to a deadline. What is your process like? Do you find inspiration from characters, and then figure out what they do - or do you start with a plot, or a specific image/moment and build around that?
And finally, do you know if there is anywhere I can buy an epub of Genital Grinder?
Hi Cheng - Thank you for the comments! I still listen to a steady diet of death metal, black metal, grindcore, etc. I try to revisit old favorites while attempting to keep up with new releases. Latest purchases were newest albums by Necrophobic, Darkthrone, Deicide, Benighted, and My Dying Bride. I also started tracking down the Frozen Dawn albums, as I enjoy bands playing in the Dissection and Necrophobic veins. I am always on the look-out for next-level speed, which a recent blind buy on Arborescence of Wrath served well. There are so many bands I listen to at a given time...Antaeus, Carcass, Aura Noir, Revenge, Lost Soul, Vader, God Dethroned, Diabolic, Impiety, etc.I still drop in a few allusions here and there, and titles like Reincarnage and Down There have their origins in music. I can still write to music but like many others, I'm more apt to at least start with soundtracks while I'm writing until I feel fairly settled in. It Follows, Under the Skin, the alternate soundtrack to Sinister, The Fog, Friday the 13th, and Blair Witch are a few.
I think more with Amduscias is a possibility someday, so we will see. My novella The Profile in the Call Me Hoop antho involves the killer in TOA, although only his deeds are seen in crime scenes.
Stories come about in different ways for me. I jot down concepts that occur to me. Sometimes I'm thinking about a character and I can see how they would be right for one of those concepts. Ideally there's some sort of highlight I am working toward.
The Genital Grinder ebook should just be on Amazon here -- https://www.amazon.com/Genital-Grinde... You specified epub so hopefully that works since I think that's the Kindle default.
Thanks again for the questions and comments!
Grab your copy at the link below and please help me welcome to HA…Ryan Harding!
https://www.amazon.com/Transcendental...