Interview with Horror Author Red Lagoe

Interview with Horror Author Red Lagoe

1.       First, a HUGE CONGRATS on your anthology Nightmare Sky making the Stoker Preliminary Ballot! As a fan of yours (I absolutely loved your Lucid Screams short story collection), I was THRILLED to see your name on that list! We’re going to talk more about that, but first, let’s step back in time. When did you first develop a love of writing?

Thank you, Nico! I was thrilled, too!

Even though I wrote a short story when I was eleven years old (and it was a horror story), I didn’t know I wanted to be a writer. I’m not one of those people who can say, “I’ve always wanted to be a writer.” That wasn’t me. I was the outdoorsy kid. The one playing sports and adventuring alone into the woods behind my house. But I have always had an active imagination. I spent a lot of time as a kid playing make-believe alone in my head. However, I’d play the same scenario over and over for days, changing the scenes, and upping the stakes for the hero. I was creating stories in my head and never writing them down. These imagined scenarios and stories matured with me into my teens and into adulthood, and I locked them away as my little secrets. It wasn’t until my 30s—maybe about a decade ago—that I realized I should start sharing those stories through writing. I fell in love with it as soon as I started.

2.       What sparked your interest in the horror genre?

I grew up on 80’s slashers and Alfred Hitchcock, Tales from the Crypt, and Twilight Zone. When my mom was out, my brothers and I had full control of the VCR, and it was gore, gore, and more gore all night long. However, when I started writing, I didn’t gravitate straight to horror. I wrote and illustrated a children’s book first, and from there I tried writing in other genres, but everything I wrote ventured a little too far into the darkness. Once I realized I was writing horror stories, there was no turning back. Horror is in engrained in my psyche from those countless unsupervised hours in front of that big wooden box of a TV as blood splattered across the screen. It’s locked inside of me, brought on by life’s traumas that had been packed away and ignored for too many years. Writing horror is a release valve on all those feelings and the creativity that’s been bottled up.

3.       Do you have a favorite author and if so, who and why?

The first author that comes to mind is Paul Tremblay. I’ve loved every book of his that I’ve read. The prose, the intensity, the pacing, and all those ambiguous endings make for a storytelling cocktail that I really enjoy reading.

Author Red Lagoe

But there are so many other authors whom I adore, and who inspire me. Sara Tantlinger’s prose is lyrical and dark. V. Castro has a voice that is so real and visceral. Josh Malerman takes creativity to another level. There’s a lot of great authors out there right now and I’m excited that I get to say I know them!

 4.       Okay, let’s focus on your anthology Nightmare Sky. For readers who have yet to experience this beautiful collection, can you tell everyone what this anthology is about and what your inspiration was?

Well… (cracks knuckles)… Astronomy was my first love. Long before writing, long before I loved any human, I loved the sky—I was fascinated by it. I won’t write twelve paragraphs about why, but I am the one always looking up the moment I step outside, about why I have a few telescopes for dabbling in amateur astronomy and sharing views of the sky through public outreach, or why it feels like I am tethered to the sky—it’s my constant in the ever-spinning-out-of-control world. People across the planet, since the dawn of humanity, have been looking to the sky for answers. We look to it for peace, for prayer, for science, for inspiration, for navigation and hope…and we look to it with wonder…and sometimes horror. That’s what I wanted Nightmare Sky to be. That connection we all have to the cosmos. What draws our eyes up? What terrible things lurk in the dark spaces between the pinpricks of light? What monsters creep through the shadows here on earth when we’re distracted by those lights? We are many different people with different stories living under one beautifully nightmarish sky, and I wanted the anthology to show that.

In its pages, there are a variety of subgenres of horror—psychological, apocalyptic, sci-fi…There are ghosts and witches and monsters. But all of the stories are deeply rooted in that human connection to the stars.

5.       What was your reaction to seeing your name on the Stoker Preliminary Ballot? How did you celebrate this awesome achievement?

I was stunned. I know people say things like “I wasn’t expecting it.” But I mean it! There’ve been years past when I opened that list thinking my book or story probably wouldn’t make it, but secretly I was hoping it would. However, this time, I truly 100% didn’t even feel that twinge of hope. I’d accepted it wouldn’t be on the ballot this year. Not because I don’t think it’s on par with those other anthologies—I believe it is—but rather, because it just released in November. The TOC isn’t packed with a lot of familiar names, so it doesn’t sell that well. And it simply hasn’t had the time to make a splash in the community. So, when I was scrolling through, I was looking for my friends’ names. Then I saw Nightmare Sky, and I froze. I read it a couple times, like maybe I’d read it wrong. I was literally shaking (but it was cold in my office, so it might’ve been that, too.)

I shared the news with a few people, made a couple posts, but I’m not celebrating yet. I’ll reserve celebration for the Final Ballot if it makes it that far. We’ll see what happens. There are some epic titles on that list, and I’m so proud to have mine among them. I will say that I was proud of this anthology before it made the list, and I’ll be proud of it still if this is as far as it goes.

6.       Out of the 256 submissions, you selected 28 for this collection. Can you tell us a little bit about the behind the scenes process of being an anthology editor and selecting which pieces got included?

It was a lot of work. I lost so many hours of writing time which were sacrificed to this project, but I’m okay with that because it helped me create something that I think is pretty darn special. Once submissions opened, I tried to keep up with them as they came in, reading several stories a day if I could. I kept three files: Yes, Maybe, Probably Not. After reading each story, I placed it in a file and moved on. But that wasn’t the final decision, because every file in the Maybe and Probably Not section got a second look—maybe not a full read-through, but at least a skim—to be sure I was making the right call. There’s actually one story (I won’t name it) that was originally in the file that would get a rejection, but after giving it a second look, it grew on me, and seeing how it would fit with some of the other stories that made it, it ended up in the acceptance folder. By the time I’d selected all the stories that needed to be in the anthology, I had about 60 stories—120,000 words! Which was far too much, so I had to cut out half of them. That was the hardest part. It was rough. In the end, I chose a variety of stories that touched on different themes, mood and tone. Each story title was written on an index card with the length, the underlying themes, the POV, the tone… and I put them in an order that flowed from one story to another without feeling abrupt. Each selected story had to feel like it stayed true to that central theme of our human connection to the stars. And I did have “Stoker eligible” guidelines in mind when creating this book—the length, the quality, the attention to detail—I wanted to set the bar high, and get as close as I could to that bar with what resources I had.

7.       Is this the first anthology you’ve edited and published? What have you learned from the experience that you wish you had known beforehand?

It is the first anthology I’ve ever edited! That’ so wild, and I’m even more humbled to have made the list because of that. I gained a lot of experience from doing this, and I have zero regrets putting in the work. The open call, the reading, the curating, and editing…that all felt like I had it under control. It was a lot of work, but I was expecting that. Most of what I experienced on the editing side, I think I was well prepared for, aside from thinking I’d have more time for my own writing.

The big surprises came from the publishing side of things, even though I’ve published books before. I made a call to release two months early because I was so ahead of schedule on everything. I figured the authors wouldn’t mind another publishing cred right at the end of 2022. I kicked myself for that because that’s when I ran into roadblocks with printing the paperback which made me fall way behind schedule, I couldn’t even get review copies out before the publication date. However, if I hadn’t pushed it to November, then it wouldn’t have made that preliminary ballot this year! So…I guess it worked out.

8.       Any plans to put out another anthology?

Another anthology is in the works now! I’m taking less of an editor role, and more of a publisher role on this one. It is a Virginia-themed charity anthology that’s kind of a collaboration of efforts between several Virginian authors. We’re just now finalizing the TOC, and announcements will come soon, but it will benefit the 501(c)3 organization, Scares That Care. Other than that, it might not be until 2024 that I’ll consider doing another anthology, just so I can fulfill other obligations.

9.       What else is in store for you? Do you have any writing projects you’re able to share with us?

I am dying to share!! But there’s a couple things I can’t share quite yet. I will say that I’ve got a novel contract signed and the announcement for that should be coming soon. I’ve also been contracted to write a novella (which I’m working on now) that will be part of a project with a couple other phenomenal writers! That news should also be coming soon.  My novella “In Excess of Dark” is currently being pitched. And I have a collection of 4 short stories that will appear in an anthology of collections with authors Sara Tantlinger, Jessica Ann York, and Cory Farrenkopf through Cemetery Gates Media releasing early this year.

10.   Where can readers find you to learn more?

My website www.RedLagoe.com is a good place to start and I can be found across social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok as @RedLagoe.

11.   Finally, thank you so much for joining me! Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?

Thank you for inviting me! I’ll be at Authorcon in Williamsburg at the end of March 2023! So, if you’re there, and I look angry or unapproachable, please don’t be scared. That’s just what my face looks like; on the inside, I’m super nice and want people to come say ‘hello’.

Upcoming Publications: Short Stories!

Here are a few of my upcoming short story publications (the ones I can announce * wink wink *)

Title: “The One Who Came to Save Her” (folk horror)

Publication: HorrorScope: A Zodiac Anthology

Release Date: Feb 20, 2023

Title: “Chrysalis” (menopause horror)

Publication: Ooze: Little Bursts of Body Horror

Publication Date: March 2, 2023

Secret project coming out later this year!

Happy Reading!