AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Zachary Ashford

Today I interview Australian author Zachary Ashford on his latest novella, The Morass, out now from Crystal Lake Entertainment.

For those who might not know of your works, what does writing horror mean to you?

To me, the writing of horror is tied into my personal issues, my tastes in fiction, and social commentary. I really think that horror is the perfect vehicle for the healthy channelling of outrage and is, along with Dystopian fiction, the genre of catharsis.

I write horror because it’s a genre I love and a genre that makes people feel things. Where else can you blend emotional and emotive prose with monsters and murderers? It’s great!

Congratulations on the release of The Morass, what motivated you to write this story and what can people expect?

Thanks! With The Morass, I wanted to write a simple little novella that was something a straight-up horrorfest to cleanse my palate after being so involved with the characters of a novel. Despite that, there was still some things in the subconscious that I’m sure I was working through. When I look at the fact my human antagonist is a conspiracy-theorist, he believes he’s doing things in the name of religion and so on and so forth, it’s hard not to see it as an allegory for some of the things I was taking issue with in the world over the last couple of years.

More than anything, though, there were a couple of things I really wanted to bring to the fore. With the novel I have coming out, I moved away from the Ozploitation-style of my other novellas, and I really doubled down on that this time. I was also wanted to experiment with what felt right as an extreme horror story for me. The result is something that takes the best parts of Australia’s love affair with vicious horror, creature features, and characters who were in desperate situations.

And then there’s the nature of the Australian wilderness, the landscape, and the horrendous creature that top it all off. So, with regards to what people can expect, balls to the wall Australian horror! If that sounds like something you’d fancy reading, jump onto Kindle Unlimited and give it a squiz!

A lot of your recent fiction seems to revolve around the creature feature – what is it about this sub-genre that appeals to you as a writer?

I think there’s a couple of sides to this discussion. First and foremost, this is the fiction I’ve always grown up loving. That moment in any story when the monster is revealed is always a moment of awe for me. And, sure, sometimes it doesn’t hit, but I want to recreate those moments when it does, and I just kinda think monsters are rad.

Away from that, though, I love the idea of monsters/creature features being this symbolic aspect of character conflict and fear, so I like to have that idea in there too.

Mostly, though, I just love monsters and want to write the kinds of stories I love. And, I mean, show me a story that wouldn’t be better with a monster in it, you know..

You’re also a schoolteacher? Do your students know you write horror? If they don’t what do you think they would think if they did? Is storytelling something you impress upon your students?

Yeah, I teach in high school, which encompasses a range of students from eleven to eighteen, so it varies. Funnily enough, the younger ones are the most enthused, and when they ask if they can read it, I’m always like, “no, and tell your parents that I said it’s for adults!’

The more senior students will ask, and I’ll generally give them the same answer. Some of my books are quite out there. With those guys, I’ll firstly say that I can’t be selling them books, but if they were going to read one, they should pick When the Cicadas Stop Singing, because there’s nothing really inappropriate in there. Otherwise, the questions will be about process, and that’s fine.

The school I teach in follows a curriculum that only focuses on creative writing and storytelling in the middle grades, and that’s always a bunch of fun. I try to give students something they can’t get from a teacher who hasn’t spent a lot of time writing and value-add. In the senior, it more comes down to analysis of texts and to consider the creation of story from an analytical perspective.

Who are your favourite authors and what are you currently reading?

I think like most of us who have been reading horror for a long time, King is the easy answer for favourite. I find it really hard to go past that answer, and while I can list of a tonne of other authors I admire, I’m going to keep it simple. I really think that in future generations, people will be able to look at the way King wrote across the gamut and recognise him in that echelon of untouchable greats in the world of storytelling.

What I’m reading right now is mostly happening on Audiobook as I’m in a writing phase, pretty deep into a manuscript, but I’m pushing through Ross Jeffery’ The Devil’s Pocketbook whenever I get a moment to read. My current audio listen is Max Booth III’s new collection, but I’ll be onto something else within days. My commute is long.

Although a lot of authors hate being asked this question, what advice would you give to other authors just starting out?

Just to write the thing. Forget ego, forget perfection. Remember character, conflict, and emotion. Also, add a monster. Everything’s better with monsters.

What’s next for you?

In the immediate future, my debut novel POLYPHEMUS is out through Darklit in September. Early feedback has been great, and it’s received some killer blurbs from writers I admire.

I’ve another novella on submission – one with a crocodile – so hopefully that.

And finally, I’m halfway through a YA horror manuscript that I’m hoping resonates for people. 

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: J. Ashley-Smith

In this interview, Australian author J. Ashley-Smith discusses his forthcoming collection The Measure of Sorrow, published by Meerkat Press.

For those who might not know of your works, what does writing – and specifically what you write – have to say about you?

I'm always wary about reading too much into what an author may or may not be like, based on their writing. Of course, I fall into that trap all the time myself, wondering what aspects of a book or story are 'made up' and which are taken – or borrowed – from the author's 'real life'. It's a slippery slope, and one I've slithered down the wrong side of on more than one occasion.

In my late teens and early twenties, my good friend and I would sit up late at night, drinking tea, getting stoned, sharing our story ideas with one another. This was back in a time when I thought that making up an idea and discussing it in detail with someone else was about as good as actually writing it (which may go some way towards explaining why my output during that period was minimal in the extreme). Whenever I shared my stories, which were invariably about emotionally twisted people and their poor life choices, my friend would give me this worried look – a kind of, "He doesn't even realise how badly he needs help" kind of look. The kind of look that precedes a concerned friend calling the therapist on your behalf. He had fallen into the trap of assuming my stories were me and – perhaps quite sensibly – assumed I needed looking after.

It's a dangerous trap to fall into, especially with a horror writer. The reality of course being that many writers of dark fiction are hands-down the nicest people walking the face of this planet.

So what might you assume about me from reading a few of my stories?

That I'm a deeply flawed human being in need of electro-shock therapy. That all my relationships are unendurably toxic and I only know terrible people. That I'm crushingly, incurably sad. That I'm afraid of swimming, oceans, seashells, bushfires, bathtubs, old trees, open spaces, toys, telephones, children, uncles, woodlands, black goop, farmyards, farmers, nazis, kelpies, corner shops, time, terraria, siblings, sociopaths, warehouse parties, small-time criminals, and Enid Blyton.

It's a fair cop: I am afraid of almost everything.

The Measure of Sorrow is your debut short story collection – what made you decide it was “time” to put one together and why?

The prevailing wisdom about single-author anthologies is to wait years, until you've got a million and one stories to choose from, before pulling a collection together. Typically that's good advice. Like the first pancake, your first stories are likely to be rough around the edges, a little uncooked in the middle; you likely haven't yet found 'your voice'; you've yet to master this or that technique.

It will have taken years (around nine) from the first word of the earliest story in the collection to its release next month. This is more a product of my laboriously slow writing process than my artful following of sensible advice. There was a point around three years ago where I felt a kind of critical mass forming: a set of stories with a very specific kind of density; not exactly thematically linked, but recognisably from the same gene pool. Around that time I became aware that my new ideas were moving me in a different direction, and I suppose I wanted to compile and release a book that collected those like-minded stories, before my attention and my inspiration left them too far behind.

Once the idea for a collection is there, though, you can't let it go. It has its own gravity and, like a black hole, starts drawing all the light in the known universe towards it. I wrote one story on spec to 'complete' the collection, which had so much mass it ended up as the title novella. And I suppose that's the other important question to ask about a collection: When do you know it's done? The answer for me was, finding and finishing the story that, like Lebowski's rug, "really tied the room together."

What can people expect from The Measure of Sorrow?

Sadness. Strangeness. Heart. Darkness. Flawed characters building fragile islands of meaning to protect themselves from a vast, indifferent universe.

There's madness, pettiness, grief. Crackpot theories about the afterlife. A bushfire ravaged wilderness. A terrible cosmic 'instrument'. Possums, leeches, rats and ants. A possessed corner shop. An eldritch rave scene. The smell of dried meat and old taxidermy. A confabulation of moths. A crackling ball of light in a psychedelic black reef. And the literal embodiment of your most private shame.

It's basically the whole package.

You’ve garnered several awards over the years, including the Shirley Jackson Award – is there a formula for an effective short story?

Probably. But if so I've never worked it out!

If the stories I've written that have later won awards have anything in common, it's that I had to learn from them, directly, how they wanted to be written. One or two came out in a white heat, but then I had to go back and back to make sense of the molten slag left behind, working them over and over to tease out what they were really trying to convey. Others took forever, like a journey along a dark tunnel with no sense of what's lying beyond the end of the torch beam. Some stories you have to just trust in, even though they may seem to be taking you way outside your comfort zone, out to a place that doesn't even make sense to you. You have to have faith that some part of you knows what it's doing, and a willingness to follow wherever it might lead.

However out there the story takes you, though, there is one thing you need to do to ensure it lands: make a promise to the reader at the very beginning, and deliver on that promise by the end. The reader needs to get an early feel for the kind of story you're telling, to put enough trust in you to let go and suspend disbelief. That trust is a big deal. You can mess with the reader like crazy (we love it), be as ambiguous as you like, leave all kinds of threads just dangling. But you can't ever betray that trust. You've got to cross your heart and hope to die and always keep your promises.

Who are your favourite authors and what are you currently reading?

Oh man. I always dread this question. Not only does the list change as frequently as my obsessions, but my brain goes into a kind of stasis as soon as someone asks me. All that's in my head is the infinite dark reaches of space, and a spray of tiny stars, too distant to identify.

Recently, I've been on a bit of a Peter Straub journey. I re-read Ghost Story, then Koko, then the whole of the Blue Rose trilogy. I just love the sensitivity with which he writes: that darkness is shot through with so much compassion. Before that I was obsessed with Patricia Highsmith and read the better part of her vast back catalogue. On a whim, I read (by which I mean listened to) Dickens' Bleak House, and jumped straight out of that and into Our Mutual Friend, I loved it so much.

Having said all this, the writer that blows my mind most consistently is probably Donna Tartt. Every time I finish one of her books, I'm torn between mad flights of inspiration and just giving up the game as a lost cause. She's one of the few contemporary authors who will be remembered alongside the greats of past centuries.

Although a lot of authors hate being asked this question, what advice would you give to other authors just starting out, or who are struggling to find their voice, or struggling with imposter syndrome?

I love this question. As a mentor with both the Horror Writers Association and Australasian Horror Writers Association, I work together with writers at all kinds of stages of their practice. I love having the opportunity to talk about craft, to spend deep time with other people's work, but also to connect over those fears and anxieties that grip anyone exploring their creativity and sharing it with the world.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying, the struggle is real – and it doesn't go away. And you don't want it to! Because the struggle is the thing itself. The journey to find your voice is a life's work. It's not like one day you wake up and go, "Oh, there it is," and every story you write after that has 'your' voice. Though you come closer with every new piece of work, finding that voice is the process of life itself, and it won't be finished till you breathe – and write – your last.

The same is true of impostor syndrome. The deeper I get into my practice (I shy away from the word 'career', as I still feel like a dilettante), the more external validation I receive – a story acceptance, a book in the shops, an award on the shelf – the louder that little doubting voice becomes. The doubts escalate, as does the fear that someday soon everyone will finally figure out what I've been getting away with all this time.

The only way forward is to keep working. To write another story, and another. To keep your attention on your work and to love the process so much it drowns out all that other noise.

Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

Dude, you should have put this question at the beginning! I feel like you've already heard from me enough, and this question demands a whole book of essays and a PhD dissertation.

I’m going to sidestep the question with a shameless plug for Let The Cat In. A couple of years ago, Kaaron Warren, Aaron Dries and I started a podcast to discuss exactly this question. We've met and talked with a whole bunch of interesting authors, editors, and other creatives to riff on objects, inspiration, and those ideas that scratch at the door, miaowing to be let in. If you like listening to horror writers shoot the shit, goof off, and go deep, you should check it out!

What’s next for you?

I finished my first novel last year, and while that's out on submission I'm working my way into the next: a suburban cosmic horror, influenced by the work of one of my favourite authors, John Wyndham. I somehow felt that finishing that first book would make getting to 'The End' of another one quick and easy. Not so much, as it turns out. Still, I'm having fun with it. Enjoying the journey, wherever it may lead.

J. Ashley Smith is a British–Australian author of dark fiction and co-host of the Let The Cat In podcast. His first book, The Attic Tragedy, won the Shirley Jackson Award. Other stories have won the Ditmar Award, Australian Shadows Award and Aurealis Award. He lives with his wife and two sons beneath an ominous mountain in the suburbs of North Canberra, gathering moth dust, tormented by the desolation of telegraph wires. You can find him at spooktapes.net, performing amazing experiments in electronic communication with the dead.

The Measure of Sorrow is now available for pre-order from Meerkat Press: https://smpl.is/6y0jb

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Anthony Ferguson

In this interview, Australian author Anthony Ferguson talks about his forthcoming collection, Rest In Pieces, published by IFWG Publishing.

Can you tell me a bit about your background - what drew you to horror fiction and the desire to write in the genre?

I think I was always subconsciously a fan of the genre, without consciously acknowledging it. Like most things in my life, I came late to writing horror, to writing altogether in fact. I came from a very poor working-class background. English was about the only subject I excelled in, and I enjoyed reading. My mum encouraged me from an early age. I also grew up in a place and an era that was quite violent. I wouldn’t say my high school was toxic, but some days I nearly made it all the way to school before I was beaten up, by the teachers. I left school at fifteen and went into a welding factory. Then one day a few years later I looked out at the spewing smoke stacks of the dark Satanic mills, and exclaimed, “there has to be more to life than this.” I escaped and went backpacking around Europe. I returned and went back to finish high school. I got into university and studied English and Communications. I finished with a Master's degree.

With regard to horror, university English taught me how to write academic papers. In my downtime I found myself reading Stephen King horror story collections. It occurred to me that I had always had an interest in the dark side of life. As a small child I had an invisible friend who lived in the wall (I guess I was lonely and creative). I was always drawn to horror comics, movies and television shows. I loved the original Twilight Zone, The Evil Touch, The Outer Limits, and The Night Stalker. In the days before 24/7 tv and streaming services, I tried to stay up all night for the occasional Friday night Horrorthons on seventies tv.

I began to explore horror and true crime fiction, enjoying the works of Colin Wilson, and collecting books on Jack the Ripper. I began to develop a morbid interest in the twisted psychology of serial killers, and devoured books on the subject. Still, late to everything, it did not occur to me to try and write for publication until I was about 35. The catalyst, was bumping into and working in the same office as James Doig in 1998. He suggested I turn my hand to horror fiction and join the AHWA. I had started writing and publishing true crime articles. I duly joined the AHWA… in 2007. The records show. I have no idea why it took me so long. Probably imposter syndrome.

It took me three years to get my first horror story published in 2001, and at least another three to get the next one accepted. It has been a Hell of a journey since then. So much learning at the feet of my peers. Joining many critique groups, reading, listening, learning, writing, writing and more writing. Draft after draft. Giving and receiving critiques. Learning to accept rejection. I’d say it took me another decade to reach the stage of being a competent horror writer. The key to my moderate level of success is that I never give up. I took a tiny nugget of talent and polished it into one giant turd. I don’t have imposter syndrome anymore. I know I can hold my own now. (I know I’m good. I won an award goddammit!)

Yet, sometimes, as I fast approach my dotage, I look back and think, why horror? Why true crime? As one ex-girlfriend once opined, “Why can’t you write something nice?” Well, because I can’t. This is who I am, always drawn to the left-hand path.

Rest in Pieces is a collection of 15 years of your fiction - is this your first collection? What made you decide to publish it now?

Ha! Well therein lies a tale. After several years of reading and sometimes reviewing the story collections of my peers in the AHWA, all the while getting more and more of my own stories published, I started to ask myself, where’s MY collection? I pondered this thought for a couple of years, as my published works and confidence grew, until in 2021 I determined to do something about it.

I had over fifty stories in print by then. So, I drafted a letter of introduction for myself and my work, and drew up a list of likely publishers to approach. Fortunately, by this stage of my career, I had networked enough to have some good contacts and good advice from colleagues.

IFWG was at the top of my list, and I duly approached them first. It was June 2021. Admittedly, I did so with trepidation. I honestly thought, there’s no way they will accept me, but I have the backup list. I was thrilled when Gerry said YES. Over the moon, honoured. Even though I’m at the age now where delights are few and cynicism starts to reign, getting that acceptance was like Christmas morning as a ten-year-old for me. It is a huge milestone in my life as a horror writer. A great personal achievement ticked off the bucket list.

It is my first collection. IFWG assigned me an editor, and together, Sarah and I went through the best 40 or so stories I subbed. We debated back and forth and whittled it down to the 20 plus in the collection, including four new previously unpublished tales, as per Gerry’s request. It was a two-year process, and the book is due for release on 1 August 2023. 

I might add that there were three stories that didn’t make the cut which I think are quite good, and hopefully, I will pen and publish a good deal more before I’m done.

Where does your horror fiction sit amongst all the other sub-genres out there?

I am the worst person to judge and assess my own work. I am told that my stories are quite visceral. Indeed, it says so on the back cover blurb of my collection. I guess they are. I never set out to write in a particular sub-genre or style, but I guess you could say many of my stories lend toward the sub-genre of brutal horror. Tales of sex, blood, violence and revenge. Perhaps the best fit is psychological horror.

My stories are a product of my background and upbringing, I suppose, but they are not a reflection of my nature. In fact, I think I’m a kind, gentle soul. I just write the nasty stuff that comes out of my imagination. I’m influenced by everything I have read, watched, and experienced, as we all are.

I would add that my stories are also laced with black humour. This factor was pointed out to me by my editor. I have never taken life or myself too seriously, and I learned at an early age to use humour to deflect the harsher side of reality. I have the capacity to see the absurdity of life and the human condition. This comes through in my work.

Who were your early influences in horror fiction?

Stephen King’s books were always widespread and readily accessible. I prefer his short stories to the novels. Bret Easton Ellis specifically for American Psycho, a treatise in psychological horror. Richard Matheson for the quality of his work, and his fellow early Twilight Zone alumni, Charles Beaumont, Buck Houghton and Rod Serling.

Clive Barker for his Books of Blood and the original Hellraiser. Fellow Brit Ramsey Campbell for his titillating sex-based horror and the collection, Scared Stiff. Joe R. Lansdale and Richard Laymon. Colin Wilson for his early novels on serial killers and sex crime.

I keep in mind that I wasn’t one of those kids who voraciously read horror from an early age. My reading tastes were always eclectic. They still are. When I started getting really interested in horror fiction, I tended to pick up large anthologies of short stories, like those edited by Stephen Jones and Ellen Datlow. So, I have never developed a strong liking for a particular writer in the genre.

Since joining the AHWA, I have endeavoured to collect the works, novels and story collections, of many of my peers in the genre. To assess the quality and appreciate the standards I need to meet, and also out of admiration. There are way too many of them to name names.

Finally, to the person who wrote my high school academic reports – now that was a horror story! 

Do you have a particular favourite story or stories in the collection?

I’m one of those people who rarely goes back and re-reads their own work after it’s out there for public consumption. However, I do love blowing my own trumpet.

I have to give a shoutout to Brumation, if only for the fact it won the Best Short Fiction award in the Australian Shadows for 2020. I am very proud of that. Four times nominated for one win. I’ll take that. It’s a cracking little old-school serial killer tale. I actually got the idea from a magazine image my wife showed me of a frozen gator sticking out of a lake in Florida. As soon as I saw it I thought, oh Hell yeah, that’s a horror story asking to be written.

I’m quite fond of my bogan black magic jilted lover tale, Love Thy Neighbour. This one is very tongue-in-cheek and laced with black humour. I’ve always found the Aussie bogan sub-culture ripe for horror and humour pickings. Plus of course, wilful ignorance is a type of evil.

Protégé is another personal favourite from a while back. I don’t think anyone has ever noticed that it is actually a twisted take on the two main characters from When Harry Met Sally. It arose when a friend of mine doing a crime writers course was asked to take an excerpt from a romantic comedy and turn it into a crime story. So, I was inspired to write my own.

I actually re-read my decade-or-so-old zombie tale, With a Whimper, by chance recently, and surprised myself by how bloody funny it was. I was laughing out loud, especially because I secretly knew who the main characters were based on. I amuse myself.

I’ve always been fond of Not Like Us, my Vietnam War epic and a not-so-subtle allegory on racism and misogyny. Exclusive to the collection. I was disappointed nobody ever picked it up. I actually wrote it years ago and it had multiple rejections. I revisited it a year ago and fleshed it out a lot more. I still think it’s a ripper.

Demontia is an ode to my parents in their declining years. They’ve both passed away now, but this story perfectly encapsulates my Dad’s sense of humour and my Mum’s rigid illogical behaviour patterns.

I better stop here before I disappear up my own orifice. I’m proud of this collection. I put a lot of years into these tales.

You also penned a true crime/serial killer book correct? That would have been quite the challenge.

Well, lemme tell ya a story…

Back in the days when I was just a 35-year-old novice, finding my way in the horror world, I had this idea to pen a non-fiction book on Australian serial killers. At the time no such tome existed, so I was confident I was striking while the iron was hot (or the knife was sharp).

I had bought and consumed countless n/f books on serial murder, imbibed the works of Colin Wilson, been enthralled by the psychological insights into the minds of serial murderers throughout the ages. I collected as many tracts as I could on Australian psychos, buoyed by the fact that there weren’t so many to cover, just twenty or so across our colonial history.

After a year of research and drafting, I penned a letter to a certain British publication, one who produced a regular counter-cultural zine, who had previously published some of my articles on murder and other psycho-sexual topics. To my utter delight they said yes.

A contract was duly drawn up, signed, sealed and delivered.

There followed a long, drawn-out couple of years of minimal to non-existent communication, and yes, it transpired the contract wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. For whatever reason, the publisher never followed through on the deal.

In the interim period, a book on Australian serial killers was published. The moment was lost, and I retreated back into the shadows and focussed on pursuing my goals in the horror fiction world.

Many years later, having finally enjoyed some success and acceptance in the horror field, it occurred to me to dig out that manuscript again. I had discovered in my true crime pursuits, that the American publisher, McFarland, had a true crime imprint, Exposit Books, that may well be interested in my work.

An inquiry was thankfully followed by an acceptance, and I readily accepted the opportunity to turn an old failing into a success, a hurt into a healing, an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan… you get the drift.

I resurrected the old corpse of my manuscript. It was interesting to revisit my writings of almost two decades prior. I edited, re-wrote and expanded the original chapters. Added further chapters at the publisher’s request. Sought out image rights and most importantly, re-wrote the introduction with the passing of time, and added a brand-new conclusion.

Thus Murder Down Under was born. That was their choice of title, not mine incidentally. Mine was something along the lines of, That’s Not a Knife…

What's next for you?

Well, old age, deteriorating physical capacity and death probably… oh you mean in terms of writing?

Well, I have a second novel in the works, following up on Protégé, my semi-autobiographical tale on my early working life in the Dark Satanic mills. It was horrible, but nowhere near as bad as I made it out to be. I turned it up a notch or ten. The proposed second novel is called Gap Year, it’s about two British girls with a dark secret, who go backpacking down under and are forced to spend a few months working on a remote farm in outback WA. Yeah, it doesn’t go well, but the girls are the heroes of the tale. However, I am mindful of the way the literary world is turning, and I’m conscious of the possibility of offending sensibilities. So that draft novel is currently with a female editor for some perspective and feedback.

Apart from that, I am writing a heap of new short stories this year. It’s a process I enjoy immensely, even though I spend so much time procrastinating and avoiding the page. When I actually force myself to sit down and write, I get lost in the world of my imagination, a dark and scary, and yet simultaneously comforting place.

In fact, I very recently finished an epic 9500-word short, the longest one I’ve written to date. It’s a cracker. Well, at least I think so anyway. I’m like most writers. Some days I think I’m the best writer in the world, other days I’m sure I’m the worst.

I have two stories coming out this year, so far. One in an anthology that hasn’t been announced yet. One in the awesome Deb Sheldon edited, Killer Creatures Down Under, from IFWG, which will be out as you read this. My story, Bait, is one I’m proud of.

I also have another non-fiction piece coming in Claire Fitzpatrick’s A Vindication of Monsters, later this year.

How can people get a copy of Rest in Pieces?

It’s not due for official release until 1 August. I see it is listed on Amazon, but not in stock yet. However, I do have several author copies on hand. So if anyone wants to PM me, I would be happy to post a copy out.

Also check with the IFWG Publishing website, where promotion of my collection and many other quality works are or will soon be available.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: David-Jack Fletcher

In this interview, Australian author David-Jack Fletcher talks about his forthcoming novel, Raven's Creek, published by Slashic Horror Press.

Can you tell me a little about your background and what first drew you to horror fiction, and the desire to write in the genre?

My background is in academia, specifically in Cultural Studies. I always knew I wanted to be an author, and academia kind of sucked up a decade of my life. When I really wasn’t getting any satisfaction from it, I decided I needed to start rediscovering my love for fiction. So, I started writing short stories to help me get back into it, and I guess people like my stuff, because everything I’ve written so far has been published. I’ve retrained as an editor, and launched my small business, Chainsaw Editing.

Until recently, I thought horror was a newish interest of mine. Then I found an old story I wrote in Year 8, when I was 13 or 14, about a mother who murders her own children (and who then haunt her). So, I think horror has kind of always been in my veins, both to consume, and to write.

What is Raven’s Creek about?

Raven’s Creek has a lot of themes running through it. The main one for me is about humanity—or what makes us monsters—and challenges how we understand morality. I describe it as the bastard love child of Cabin in the Woods and The Island of Doctor Moreau. In terms of plot, it’s about a married couple—Michael and Geoff—in search of their runaway surrogate. They wind up pulling into a motel, only to fall prey to the owners, who have a lot of weird shit going on there. It’s kind of a survive-the-night, body horror, gore fest, with a love story at the centre.

Is this your first novel — can you tell me how the idea for the book came about? Why did you have to write it?

I wrote my first novel when I was about 13, and then two more within a year. However, looking back on those, they are quite funny (and terrible). This is the first full-length novel I am publishing, though. 

The idea for Raven’s Creek came about from a short story submission call—that’s how it started, as a 7000-word story. I wanted to challenge myself to write survival horror, which I hadn’t done before. The more I wrote it, the more I realised the story was bigger than anticipated, and it spiralled into a book. After a few chapters, the characters felt real to me and they had their own stories demanding to be told, so I had to keep writing.

Have you been published before? Where else have you been published?

I’ve had a few short stories published; one through Hellbound, one through Eerie River, and a few other places. My debut novella released in February 2022, titled The Haunting of Harry Peck, and that whole process really got me interested in not just writing, but also publishing. Harry Peck ended up becoming an international bestseller on Amazon that year. 

You’re publishing through your own press, Slashic Horror Press — why did you take that step? Did the idea for the press come first?

I had interest from several publishers, and took a few meetings. However, the co-founder of Slashic Horror and I were already in the process of setting things up. So, I decided to take a plunge and back myself. If I’m going to publish other people, I needed the confidence to first publish myself, and believe in what Slashic Horror stands for, which is queer horror fiction.

Why should people read Raven’s Creek?

I always tell people to read what you want, and horror is so diverse that it can be quite hit and miss. However, I’d say to people if they like strong characters, action-driven plots and a bit of gore, then give it a go. 

Where can people purchase a copy of Raven’s Creek?

Slashic is doing wide distribution, so it’s available anywhere good books are sold, as well as KU. 

What’s next for you with your own writing and Slashic Horror Press?

I’m currently working on a few things, as most authors will say! I’ve got a short story I’m tweaking before I start shopping it around, and a novella titled, The Count, that I am realising needs to be a full novel. I’ve also got a short story collection I am working on, and a list of titles on my white board that I’ve promised myself I will write. 

In terms of Slashic Horror, we’ve signed an author, with a couple more in the midst, so we’ll be starting some social media campaigning around that soon. We’ve had some amazing submissions so far, and because we’re continuously open, we keep getting more and more! We’ll also be opening submissions in July for our first quarterly anthology, as well as looking at doing some conventions in 2024. Lee (the other half of Slashic Horror Press) and I will also be relaunching the podcast he ran a while back, to give readers and authors another platform to hear stories. 

You can follow me on IG, FB, and Twitter: @fletcherhorror

You can follow Slashic Horror on IG, FB, and Twitter: @slashichorrorpress

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Matthew R. Davis

In this interview, Australian author Matthew R. Davis talks about his latest collection, Bites Eyes: 13 Macabre Morsels, out February 28, 2023, from Brain Jar Press.

Why horror fiction?

As Stephen King once said, “Why do you assume I have a choice?” I just always seemed to slant that way, right from early childhood. My first-ever story was about decapitating giant chickens with a sword and by the age of ten the fictional version of me was time-travelling back to the 17th century to confront Elizabeth Bathory. My writing features elements of fantasy, comedy, SF, romance, lit-fic, slipstream and what have you, but the widest seam has always been horror.

What inspired you to put this collection together?

Well, I saw that Brain Jar Press was looking for chapbook collections, so it really was as simple as that! However, I had been keeping a running list of flash fiction, micro fiction, drabbles, poetry etc with an eye to compiling a bumper volume at some point, so I was already primed for this concept. There was a 10k cap, so I assembled twenty stories to suit and submitted the collection to BJP, who accepted it on the condition that they reduce it to thirteen stories in order to best fit their chapbook format.

What can people expect from this collection? What themes do you touch upon?

Oh, there’s all sorts. Unfortunate children, grieving ghosts, undefined entities – surprising pathos, sick jokes, existential horror – groanworthy punchlines, explicit sex and violence, excursions into the surreal… all in about eight thousand words! It’s interesting that children often pop up as leads in my very short fiction, since I don’t usually include them in my other work, and that their stories often include gleefully dark humour. I don’t have much interest in YA or middle-grade fiction apart from sentimental memories from my past, but based on this evidence, I could make a good fist of it.

A lot of your fiction is rooted in the traumas/vices people struggle with – where does this come from?

It’s interesting that you would note this, so it’s probably more obvious than I realised – but yes, my characters are often struggling through life in one way or another, dealing with past traumas and leaning on emotional crutches to cope. I think this strand is becoming more apparent in my recent fiction, though perhaps not so much in Bites Eyes. There is a personal angle to this, of course, although I think I’ve come through life relatively unscathed; the same cannot be said of many people dear to me, and I suspect I use my writing partly as a way to try and understand why horrible things happen, partly as a way to shine a light on the silent heroism of the survivors, and partly because we’re all bearing our own heavy crosses and pretending we don’t (sometimes out of some misguided attempt to avoid politics in fiction, as if that were remotely possible) is contemptibly ignorant. As awareness of people’s struggles grows, so does our artistic response to it, and if that doesn’t include empathy then that creator is probably just a fucking hack. As for the vices, well… many of my characters drink and smoke and toke, but that’s probably down to the same old saw: write what you know.

Naturally, you’d be proud of all the stories in the collection, but is there one that you feel defines the work, or your “voice” as a horror writer?

Not really, no, for the simple reason that flash fiction requires a different discipline to the more involved pieces I prefer to write. In short fiction, I like to stretch out into the novelette range so I can include lots of detail and colour and tell a well-rounded story; the pieces in Bites Eyes don’t have that luxury – they have to get in, make their point, and take a bow. It’s an important skill to harness as a writer and I would recommend all scribes take the time to master it, whether it’s in your usual wheelhouse or not. This discipline can help with longer works – my story “Visitation Rites”, which you accepted for Midnight Echo 17, would normally have grown out to be at least seven thousand words if I’d given myself free reign and would’ve featured a lot more lyrical content, but keeping it at five thousand meant having to be very selective. There was no room for digressions or detailed descriptions, and since I had to cut the comfortable first draft down by eight hundred words, the discipline acquired through writing drabbles helped me to ensure that every single word could justify its presence. Which is not to say that longer works use unjustified words and simply waffle on because they can, more that a novel needs less of its content to be, shall we say, load-bearing sentences, and can install entire chapters as feature walls if the urge takes one. Let me cap off that tortured metaphor by saying that my authorial voice is clearer in my longer works, whether they be novelettes like “Flights of Fractured Angels”, novellas like The Dark Matter of Natasha, or novels like Midnight in the Chapel of Love.

Photo by Red Wallflower Photography

Which authors, living or dead, inspire you?

So, so many! Seriously, there are hundreds and many of them are friends of mine, but let’s list a few and break them into those two categories, shall we? The living authors include Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Laird Barron, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Tamsyn Muir, Alan Moore, Kaaron Warren, Catriona Ward, Dennis Lehane, Neil Gaiman, Philip Fracassi, Kirstyn McDermott, and J. Ashley-Smith. As for dead authors: Richard Laymon, Dennis Etchison, H.P. Lovecraft, Peter Straub, Tanith Lee, Shirley Jackson, Karl Edward Wagner, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Terrance Dicks, Melanie Tem, Robert E. Howard, and William Burroughs.

What’s a recent work you read and enjoyed?

I can’t focus on just one, so please indulge me as I regale you with a list from the last couple of months: in anthologies, Alan Baxter’s Damnation Games and Ellen Datlow’s Screams from the Dark; in collections, The Ghost Sequences by A.C. Wise and Cut to Care by Aaron Dries; in non-fiction, A Haunted History of Invisible Women: True Stories of America’s Ghosts by Leanna Renee Hieber & Andrea Janes and Gothic: An Illustrated History by Roger Luckhurst; and in novels, 36 Streets by T.R. Napper and White Horse by Erika T. Wurth, not forgetting Zachary Ashford’s forthcoming Faustian death metal opus Polyphemus.

What’s in the pipeline for you?

I have a non-fiction book about The Cure coming out this year, or whenever they finally release that bloody new record! I also have stories in the forthcoming anthologies Where the Weird Things Are Vol. 2 (Deadset Press) and Unknown Superheroes vs. the Forces of Darkness (Ghastly Door Press), plus an essay on Mary Shelley in Claire Fitzpatrick’s A Vindication of Monsters (IFWG Publications) – as you’re no doubt aware, Greg! And as usual, I have a ream of short stories, novellas, collections, and such out on submission that will hopefully soon bear rich fruit. I also have approximately eighty ideas clamouring to be written all at once, including a new novel, and other potential projects to sort out.

On a slightly different note, I’ve set myself the goal of writing a new piece of flash fiction every day in February, which is going quite well – the tales are unrelated but stitched together into a kind of mosaic, in the vein of Harlan Ellison’s “From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet” but with days instead of letters. I don’t know what I’ll do with an unwieldy beast like this, but I’m open to suggestions.

Where can people buy a copy of Bites Eyes?

You can buy it direct from the Brain Jar Press shop (www.brainjarpress.com/product/bites-eyes/), which also contains a number of links to other sites where you can order the book.

Links to your website and socials?

I don’t get into this as much as some people do, or as I perhaps should, because I don’t have the time or inclination to fawn for attention and so will probably languish forever in obscurity as a result – but I have a blog at www.matthewrdavisfiction.wordpress.com and you can find me on Facebook.

REVIEW: Flight or Fright, Edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent

***Review first published at New York Journal of Books***

If you’ve ever flown, then you’ll know the fear that can sometimes come with the experience; the unexpected turbulence, unforeseen weather events, the vertigo, the constant possibility that something might go wrong and send the plane plummeting to the ground.

This “fear” is exactly what editors Stephen King and Bev Vincent explore in their anthology, Flight or Fright, and the authors push every conceivable notion of aeronautical terror to their limit. In his introduction to the anthology King himself admits to not being a fan of flying, and presents one of his own experiences to set up the tone for the fiction that follows.

Flight or Fright offers up an interesting mix of classic and new stories with the majority consisting of reprints and two new stories, one by King and the other by his son, Joe Hill.

As a whole, the anthology presents a wide array of scares, ramping up the latent fears air travel can present; the claustrophobia, the sounds the plane’s mechanics makes, the sheer powerlessness that passengers feel when something does go wrong. There are tales of paranoia (Richard Matheson’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”), cosmic terror (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Horror of the Heights”), time travel (E.C. Tubb’s “Lucifer!”), and even a locked room murder in an airplane lavatory (Peter Tremayne’s “Murder in the Air”).

There are several real standouts, including the opening story, E. Michael Lewis’ “Cargo.” The tale offers a nightmarish insight into the aftermath of the Jonestown Massacre from inside the cargo hold of a C-141 troop carrier. The blend of history with the supernatural makes it one of the most memorable stories.

Other memorable entries include “Diablitos” by Cody Goodfellow; the author mixes native Columbian mythology with airborne disease and spins a nasty little apocalyptic tale that will definitely leave a bad taste in the mouth. The

one story that manages to not only be entertaining, but poignant, is Joe Hill’s “You Are Released.” This passenger-hopping tale about an airliner hurtling through the outbreak of World War III is pure nightmare fuel. It’s a vivid exploration of real people, flaws and all, as they contemplate catastrophe.

King’s story, “The Turbulence Expert” proposes that there are special people tasked to help planes survive the phenomenon of “clear air turbulence” using their fear alone. Like many of King’s short stories, it leaves you guessing—and wanting more. The volume ends with a long poem by James Dickey, called “Falling.” Supposedly inspired by the real-life account of a stewardess falling out of a plane, Dickey paints a beautifully haunting picture of what would no doubt be a horrifying demise.

One observation that some readers may find curious is that there are no stories by female authors in the anthology. This certainly isn’t a deal-breaker, but it would have been interesting to have had some tales from a female perspective to add some additional diversity. Having said that, it’s possible that there may have been few stories of this nature written by women for the editors to select from?

According to Bev Vincent’s Afterword, the idea for Fright or Flight was apparently conceived by King on a whim, but it’s clear that each story has been carefully selected. The pair have scoured the globe and found some of the most intriguing tales of high-flying horror, mystery and adventure. Here’s hoping King and Vincent decide to compile a second volume with some fresh content. With such a terrifying theme, the sky’s the limit.

https://www.cemeterydance.com/flight-or-fright.html

REVIEW: Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage

***Review first published at the New York Journal of Books***

“Baby Teeth is a very satisfying read. More psychological thriller than horror, it’s a finely crafted exploration of the breakdown of the family unit . . .”

Zoje Stage’s debut novel Baby Teeth is a deliciously creepy tale that pushes the boundaries of the dysfunctional family into very dark territory.

Set in Pittsburg, PA, the plot revolves around young mother Suzette Jensen, her husband Alex and their mute seven-year-old daughter, Hanna. Hanna’s mutism is a cause of great concern to her mother, who sees it as a sign of her bad parenting, but in reality, it’s a sign of something much darker.

As the very tightly woven tale moves along, jumping between the heads of Suzette and Hanna, Stage’s skill comes to the fore. The author forces you to feel sympathy for Suzette one moment and then judge her the next. With Hanna, you wonder at first if she is just an attention-seeking brat—until the bad things start happening.

There’s a definite creep-factor to Hanna; the girl’s malevolent mind-games becoming increasingly more sophisticated. As a reader, you are constantly second-guessing yourself. Is she acting out, or is she truly evil? There are many parallels in the tale to other novels like The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby, and occasionally it feels like familiar territory, but what sets Baby Teeth apart is that it goes much deeper into the trials of being a parent and childhood mental illness.

The author’s portrayal of Suzette, this fragile, Crohn’s Disease-afflicted, helpless mother, is very precise. Hanna meanwhile, with her Machiavellian schemes, is almost too clever for her own good, but you can’t help but keep turning the pages to see what she does to her mother next.

Stage pits all three in the Jensen family against each other, and it’s intricately detailed with emotion. Although it does seem to take a long time for the father, Alex to come to his senses and see that something is seriously wrong with his daughter, he acts as an anchor point for the reader, the center-point in the see-saw of doubt.

The supernatural elements are minor, with Stage introducing witches and hints of Walpurgis Night into the mix, but still these are intended to keep the reader wondering what is truly going on with Hanna.

The psychological aspects of the story are well-crafted with Stage confirming the reader’s pre-conceptions, lulling us into a false sense of security. Seeds of doubt are the strongest aspects of the author’s plotting. Her prose is also succinct, and delightfully flecked with some truly creepy aspects of Hanna’s persona:

“While it was very easy to think of ways to harm her, it was very hard—even with Marie-Anne’s help—to think of things that wouldn’t immediately give her away. Mommy would see if she pushed her down the stairs, but Hanna didn’t think the fall would do much more than annoy her. She could stab her in the heart while she slept and then carefully wipe her fingerprints off the knife . . .”

As the novel reaches its crescendo, Stage offers a glimmer of hope, with some tender moments between mother, daughter, and father. The reader can’t help but feel pity and sorrow for Hanna when a tough decision looks to split the family up for good. But this is Stage getting to the heart of the story, ramming home just how tragic family dysfunction can be and the costs it can bring to bear. Is the hope real? The ending, although true to Hanna’s devious character, leaves the prospect of up to the reader.

All in all, Baby Teeth is a very satisfying read. More psychological thriller than horror, it’s a finely crafted exploration of the breakdown of the family unit which not only pulls at the heart-strings but threatens to sever them. I look forward to seeing what dark delights Stage conjures up next.

Buy Baby Teeth here - https://www.amazon.com/Baby-Teeth-Novel-Zoje-Stage/dp/1250170753/