Horror Author Jan Stinchcomb #Interview
Jan Stinchcomb Interview
Congratulations on the release of your book The Kelping! I absolutely loved it! Could you please tell readers a little about the story?
The Kelping is a part of the Rewind or Die novella series. It is a story of transformation and body horror, centering on a beautiful and wealthy family in Southern California. You can read the whole thing in one good bathtub soak.
2.If The Kelping were made into a movie, who would play the leads?
Jon Hamm would be perfect for Craig but I don’t think he would agree to the project. I’d like to use Samantha Robinson in the role of Penelope, but she’ll have to wear blue contact lenses. Keanu Reeves is my Dude Pelikan. And Patricia Clarkson would be Mrs. Delmar, of course.
3. Do you consider yourself a feminist writer? If so, what does that phrase mean to you?
First of all, I have been a feminist my entire life, which means I am accustomed to being unpopular. I don’t see how my writing could be anything but feminist. The simplest definition of feminism is something like “working for the social, economic and political equality of women,” and we can expand “women” to mean people living in a female body or identifying as such. In my lifetime this modest goal of equality has been ridiculed and reviled, often by women themselves, as recently as the day of a certain election. In my writing I often describe the experience of living in a female body in an unfriendly world. I tend to have more than my fair share of monster women and troubled mother/child relationships. A feminist writer is someone who challenges gender assumptions and imagines justice.
4. How much of your work is autobiographical?
All of the monster stuff is true! But seriously: when I was younger I thought there was a strict line between fiction and autobiography, but now I see it’s beginning to blur in my own work. Most writers tend to draw from all their life experiences. That said, it’s vexing when readers/critics assume a woman writing in first-person is unable to fictionalize.
5. How would you like to see the horror writing industry evolve in the next ten years?
I want more genre blurring and more underrepresented voices. I want to hear more women talking about their work. I love the way short form is valued in horror writing and hope that will continue. The number of good novellas in horror is a delight.
6. When did your love of writing begin?
I made the fatal choice in seventh grade. My teacher predicted I would become a writer, and I believe she laid a curse on me.
7. Let’s have a little fun. Would you rather spend a summer at Camp Crystal Lake from Friday the 13th, or the cabin from Cabin in the Woods?
I’m a true Gen-X alumna of Camp Crystal Lake.
8. What’s next for you? Any projects you can discuss?
I have three more stories coming out this year, and one of them is in The Horror is Us (Mason Jar Press). I’m finishing a short novel and shopping around a story collection.
9. Where can people find you online?
My website or on Twitter & I’m on GoodReads where I mostly share what I’m reading and try to support indies.
10. Last chance! Anything else you’d like to say?
Trust your instincts always, always
Horror Author Tracy Fahey #Interview
Tracy Fahey Interview
Horror Author Tracy Fahey
1. Gothic fiction. Folk Horror. Young Adult. You do it all! When did you first develop a love for the dark and creepy?
My obsession with the macabre goes back as far as I can remember. I was fascinated by dark folktales in my locality; stories of banshees, the good folk, holy wells, hauntings. My grandmother was a wonderful storyteller, and her tales very much influenced my 2018 New Music For Old Rituals, a collection of contemporary folktales, and especially my 2017 YA novel, The Girl In The Fort.
2. Your 2019 short story ‘The Thing I Did’ received an Honourable Mention by Ellen Datlow in her The Best Horror of Year Volume 11. Congratulations! Can you please tell us a little about the inspiration behind this story?
This is a story that developed from a tiny, tragic article of a domestic accident I read many years ago. I’m obsessed with everyday horrors; the deepest horror we experience is when someone close to us is affected. With this story I also wanted to probe the idea of male grief as something unspoken and overpowering.
3. You have three incredible books published, New Music for Old Rituals (2018), The Unheimlich Manoeuver (2018), and The Girl in the Fort (2017). What tip would you give a newbie writer who wants to, one day, be published?
Read, read, read. Write, write, write. And then, submit, submit, submit.
You learn so much from reading and appreciating and noticing the way others write. You learn hugely by doing – by the act of writing, re-writing, editing. Finally, it’s through submitting and getting feedback that you learn to hone your work – and hopefully get it published in the process.
4. What is your least favorite horror trope?
Probably body torture. I won’t watch it. However, perversely, I am working on a collection of female body horror at the moment – but quiet female body horror. It’s a challenge to write from the body without being explicit and gory.
5. If you could co-author a book with any author, living or dead, who would it be and why?
That’s an interesting question! I’ve co-written before -The Black Room Manuscripts IV which was nominated for a Splatterpunk Award in 2019 was co-edited by myself and J.R Park – we also co-wrote a prologue and epilogue for it. I found it fascinating that although we have very different styles and influences, we write together very effectively. From that I learned that the way to co-author is to respect each other’s work, listen to each other’s criticisms and carve out a way of working that suits both parties. I’d love to work with J.R Park again and with other contemporary horror writers I admire such as Priya Sharma, Georgina Bruce, James Everington and many MANY more.
6. What book(s) are you reading right now?
I generally read a few books at a time – right now I’m finishing Yrsa Sigurdsdottir’s Icelandic noir novel The Reckoning, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s multi-dimensional time-travel This Is How You Lose The Time War, and Sarah Read’s marvelous short story collection, Out of Water.
7. If you weren’t a writer, what job would you have?
I’m a part-time writer, so I already have a full-time job working in an art college, which is rather wonderful- as a Gothic writer I also get to run research projects and teach a class on the Gothic. But apart from that I do have an abiding love for forensic science – I’ve taken a few online classes on forensics, so that’s something else I’m really interested in.
8. What is next for you? Anything in the works?
I’m excited to say that on Friday the 13th of March my publishers, the Sinister Horror Company, will release the deluxe edition of The Unheimlich Manoeuvre with five new stories, two new essays, and story notes on all tales in the collection. They’re also bringing out a chapbook, Unheimlich Manoeuvres In The Dark, a chapbook of this new material, so anyone who’s read and enjoyed the original book can simply buy the additional writing as a stand-alone.
I’m also working on two short story-collections, the body-horror I Spit Myself Out that I’ve mentioned, and a collection on liminality and ‘other’ spaces, provisionally titled In-Between Days.
9. Where can people find you online?
I hang out on Twitter where I tweet about writing, books, the Gothic and esoterica related to medieval monsters, folk traditions and fine art.
10. Thank you so much! This is your chance to say anything that wasn’t asked. Closing thoughts?
First of all, thank you for the interview. It’s been a pleasure to answer these questions. And if any reviewers are interested in advanced reader copies of the deluxe edition of The Unheimlich Manoeuvre or the chapbook, Unheimlich Manoeuvres In The Dark please contact me via my website and I’ll be delighted to send on a copy. I’m also generally available for blogs, interviews or articles on the Gothic, the domestic uncanny, folk horror, body horror or contemporary female horror writing