Interview with Horror Author Roxie Voorhees
Interview with Roxie Voorhees
1. Congratulations on your new splatterpunk western book The Longest Thirst! Can you please tell us a little about it?
Thank you! The Longest Thirst is a splatterwestern that follows Lilly, a young woman of wealthy means in the early 1890s. In the first scene, she kills her father, whom she just discovered isn’t an honorable man, and rescues a Native woman. Her actions are noble and just, but later this comes to bite her in the bud so to speak. It's a sapphic feminist warcry and Lilly is really sick of men’s shit.
2. What inspired this book?
Red Station by Kenzie Jennings was a big influence. I absolutely loved the raw power of the female character.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but I mix my horror with social issues. As a queer autistic genderfluid person, these issues are horrific to me and horror is a safe space to create the stories I love with characters more like me. The biggest issue I have with most westerns is the common social issues with the time, a few other horror westerns I’ve read used the N-word and such. With The Longest Thirst, I wanted a story that could still be genuine to the time and setting while also addressing those problems.
Creating The Painted Cat was my answer, a safe space in the wild frontier where anyone from anywhere was welcomed. Ran by a transwoman, Madame Frenchie, we find a place where women own their bodies and queers and migrants are offered sanctuary. The Painted Cat isn’t real, but places like it were, are. Queers have always been here.
3. Is this your first time writing a western? What drew you to the genre?
It’s likely my one and only, or at least the only I have planned right now. It won’t be the last time I visit Calico though.
This was my first time attempting more extreme horror. The genre allows the raw violence and vulgarity I required to paint how brutal the world is for non-cishet white men. I wrote the first four chapters shortly after reading Red Station, but quickly TLT became a white savior trope and unable to find a solution, I shelved it for two years. Then the ending hit me randomly and in the first two weeks of March 2023, I furiously finished it. The result is something I find tragically honest.
4. This book certainly doesn’t hold back. There’s TWs as well as a raw intensity that grips readers from the first breath-catching page. As an author, what is your process for writing such extreme topics? For example, do you find it taxing on your own mental health to get into the head space necessary to explore these topics?
Author Roxie Voorhees
Great question! The Longest Thirst does have a healthy list of trigger warnings and unfortunately many of them, I have personally experienced. There is a scene in the book where the woman almost dies in Lilly’s arms before they get to Calico and the emotion of that scene comes from my lived experience. In 2018, I found my then 15 yo unresponsive. The words Lilly used are what I remember saying, thinking. I did those exact actions. Prior to this, Lilly sings a lullaby to the woman’s stillborn that I wrote for my oldest son who was kidnapped by his father at 12. Everything I write has pieces of me sprinkled throughout and it is hard. But it's also part of my healing process. For many years, I avoided feeling and became emotionally numb. By writing these traumas, I’m forced to feel and then heal.
5. As a fan of your work, I know all of your writing is beautifully lyrical! How did you develop your unique style and voice?
I’m going to sound like a real jerk and say, it just happened. I enjoy clever narrative—when an author makes you think while you read—read what they aren’t writing, if that makes sense. So I apply that to my writing. I’m fully aware it isn’t for everyone, but Toni Morrison said to write the book you want to read and that’s my only goal.
6. What tips would you have for new writers who are struggling to find their own creative spin on their voice?
Talk the story out loud, even to yourself. Pretend you are telling the story to someone. How would you phrase things, what would be said first. Try it several different ways, then find what feels comfortable to you.
Don’t fake your voice, readers can tell.
Take all the things you enjoy about other authors and apply them to you. Maybe you like short concise sentences instead of long sweeping ones. I like including at least one word I don’t know to each piece, because I enjoy finding those in what I read.
7. Finally, where can readers find more about you?
My website www.roxievoorhees.gay and I’m active on Twitter @theb00kslayer and Instagram @the.book.slayer
