Horror Author Zachary Ashford #Interview
Zachary Ashford Interview
Congratulations on your September 2019 release of The Encampment By The Gorge & Blood Memory! It sounds amazing! What inspired the plot?
Thanks for that. It’s really hard to say there’s some sort of real event that inspired Encampment, the first of the two stories in that one, but I’d originally written a manuscript about a commune of hippies living in a forest. They were working together to create a true functional anarchy when the forest – which was supposed to be National Park – was sold by corrupt politicians who sold it to their own family members for the sake of profit, which isn’t a stretch at all. That story wasn’t horror at all, but later on, I started thinking about different reasons for the breakdown of community and the concept of ‘place’ and I decided to take that same idea of the commune and make it about a group who’ve become corrupted by some sort of demonic/cosmic force. I then reintroduced the idea of ‘place’ again, and looked at the impact of that on some regular Joes. As for Blood Memory¸ that’s a story that was originally published in Dark Moon Digest. When I wrote it, I was watching tonnes of crocodile documentaries, but I was also kind of pissed off about the Australian government’s attitude towards Indigenous communities, and I wanted to tie the two ideas together. I liked the link between this ancient culture and a creature that’s remained fundamentally unchanged for so long. I guess you could probably say that both stories were inspired by the attitudes of awful political parties.
If Encampment was made into a movie, who would you cast as the leads?
You’re talking dreams here, and I’d be incredibly shocked to see it ever happen, but if it did, I’m one of those guys who loves to see unknown actors in movies. I spend most of a movie going, “Who’s that guy? What was he in? What about that chick? Where’ve I seen her before?” So, can I be sly and say I wouldn’t cast anyone who was a ‘name’, but I’d love to be surprised by the casting team?
Having said all that, I do think my first novella, Sole Survivor – which is out in March through Unnerving Magazine – would lend itself to a movie or small series. Part of the initial premise is that it’s a reality show the characters have signed up for. Of course, it all goes awry for them because the producer isn’t interested in a normal Survivor style program. He tells the cast they’re going one place, but stages an emergency landing and has them ‘crash’ into a pre-arranged set where he’ll film them with hidden cameras. Naturally, there are monsters on the island. I think it’d make for a great mockumentary or found footage-style film. As for who would be in it, I don’t know, but Nick Cage is churning out a shitload of awesome genre movies, and I bloody love them all. If someone could convince him to be the disturbed ex-soldier who’s entered himself into the Sole Survivor competition, I’d be the happiest man on earth! God, maybe I need to get him a copy. I think he’d love this story.
What is your horror “brand”? What type of horror do you love to write? (Supernatural? Slashers? Psychological? Ect)
I’ve always been a big fan of the creature feature. I’m not much for your traditional haunted house story, and I’m not sure I have the chops for a gripping psychological horror yet, but I like to think I’ve got what it takes to write a kickass creature feature, or maybe a slasher. Both of the stories you’ve mentioned so far feature monsters, and so do plenty of others I’ve written. I love reading action-packed monster stories, and I want to have fun when I write, so I try to write what I like to read. Bring on the gore, and the gruesome kills. I love that creature features easily lend themselves to humour, but can also be played very straight. Hopefully, it’s a genre I’ll be a lot more prolific in moving forward. I really do enjoy it.
When did you first develop a passion for the horror genre?
I don’t know if there’s a pinpoint moment as such. I’ve always just been attracted to anything with monsters and the supernatural in it. My media tastes gravitated that way early, and at a guess, I’d say, it’d probably be at some point in the 90s when I was getting Monster In My Pocket figures out of cereal packets. I was obsessed with them. I think that led to reading nothing but informative books about myths, folklore, and the various traditional monsters of the supernatural for a while. All that kind of stuff. As I got older, I kind of moved through comics – Nightstalkers and Blade were a big hit with me. Then you throw in the metal stuff, various movies like The Predator, The Thing. Even the Fantasy franchises so many of us get into as kids are loaded with monsters, and it’s this big vortex of awesomeness that leaves you wondering why you’d bother with any other genre. Obviously, Goosebumps and the Point Horror series were big at school. As for novels, Mum always had a shelf full of Stephen King books, and at some point, I read The Dark Half. I was sold. There’s been no turning back ever since.
On your website, you mention that you got your start as a journalist covering heavy metal bands. Do you listen to metal while writing? How does music influence your work, if at all?
Absolutely. Occasionally, I’ll opt for something atmospheric or some white noise to write a key scene. With Sole Survivor, I blasted a lot of ‘thunderstorm over a tropical bay’ tracks during key parts, but I’ll typically have some fast metal playing. As for the way it influences what I write, I think it’s kind of enmeshed into that original love of the genres. I find metal and horror to be this intrinsically linked pairing that complement each other beautifully. It’s something I’ve got a huge love for. I like to have characters who are metalheads, I like to inject little allusions to it in my writing, and I like to use some of its prevalent themes and imagery. I’ve been working on a short lately, and I just sort of realized the other day, that ohhhh, it’s that album! As a result, I have to say that it influences me overtly and subtly. I gave my old editor a copy of Sole Survivor to proofread, and he was like, ‘Yeah, metalheads are gonna love this.’ By the same token, I think Encampment by the Gorge is a very metal story with its monsters and action. If it had a soundtrack, there would definitely be a healthy whack of Revocation in there.
What book(s) are you reading right now?
Right now, I’ve been finding a little trouble getting to read as we’ve been on school holidays (I’m a teacher) and my kids are home, but I’m almost done with Army of Skin by Morgan K Tanner on my Kindle. I’ve just started Wolf Hunt 2 by Jeff Strand on audiobook, and I’m slowly plodding along with David Morrell’s The Totem. I like to have an old paperback handy for trips to the beach or when I’m chilling by the pool, and that’s filling that role at the moment. I’m not super into it, and I’m debating whether I’ve read enough to persevere with or whether I pick up something else. Oh, I’m also cherry-picking stories out of the Corona Book of Horror Stories. I’ve been using that as my beach book, and I’m loving it.
What is one tip you’d like to pass on to aspiring writers?
Read. Read. Practice. Write. Persevere. Take a chance on submitting stuff. I wish I were able to say to my twenty-year-old self that he should just pull his finger out and write. He spent most of his time telling people he was a great writer, and didn’t actually write anything. He was a bit of a stooge, and I’m not sure he had the maturity to actually write anything good, but he got through a Creative Writing degree and did okay before working in other fields of writing. I look back on the time between then and now as a missed opportunity, and I think young or aspiring writers could benefit from the idea of just getting on with it. I see so many young writers on Horror Twitter who are killing it, and I’m insanely jealous that they have the drive to have done that. Be like them. They read, they write, they practice. Do that, and you’ll be fine. Also, and this is important, remember that life is about learning and in the grand scheme of where you could be you suck right now. If you’ve got a mindset to grow and learn, you’ll really prosper. We’ve all seen writers who say things like, “You don’t have to listen to advice. It’s your book, write it how you want…” Don’t be that writer. You give us all a bad name, and you’ll stay awful forever. Take advice. Seek it out. Pay for it if you have the means. Any real field of work has a focus on professional development. That stuff’s important, and writers need to do it too.
What is next for you? Anything in the works?
Yeah, as I mentioned above, Sole Survivor is coming out through Unnerving Magazine’s Rewind or Die line of novellas, and I’m thrilled about that. It’s crazy to me that something I wrote is part of a line that’s fleshed out by so many great writers. I mean, Renee Miller, Philip Fracassi and Stephen Graham Jones are all in the first book – and that’s mental for me. I’ve taught Stephen Graham Jones stories in class, and I could probably stop now and die happy. And that’s without even mentioning other incredible authors like Hailey Piper – and there’s a prolific author for you. I figure if I’m getting stories into the same places she is, I’m doing something right!
The book itself is a tonne of fun. Like, a tonne. I mentioned the spin on the reality television thing earlier. The monsters on the island are my own iteration of Australia’s drop bears, which are a big joke in themselves, but I didn’t make them comedic. In my world, these things are brutal and they’ll rip yours – or Nick Cage’s – face off. There’s also a guy who’s been set up to be the ‘cannibal’ by the production company, and he’s supposed to drug people and drag them off as a way of ‘eliminating’ them from the show. So the characters are left stranded on this island, completely unaware they’re on camera, and they’ve got to survive. It’s loads of fun with loads of big kills.
I have a second novella out on submission, which is in the same kind of creature feature vein. It has a post-apocalyptic home invasion spin, but it’s set in an old disused campsite, and there are these humanoid lizards on the loose as well, so I’m hoping someone picks that up. I’m also about thirty-thousand words into my much more serious dream project right now, but I’ll keep a lid on that one. At the same time, there’s the short I’m working on, and another novella that’ll be another creature feature that plays with home DNA-altering kits.
So, I’m trying to throw plenty at the wall and I’m hoping some will stick.
Where can people find you online?
Thank you so much! This is you chance to say anything that wasn’t asked. Closing thoughts?
No, thank you! I think that covers it. Just thanks a bunch for having me on here. I really appreciate it, and I wish you all the best for the New Year, in writing and in your personal life. I’m really grateful for the space to share my thoughts and hope I’ve provided something you can put to good use.
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