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