For this week’s author interview, I’m thrilled to introduce S.A. Mckernan. This dark fantasy author crafts incredibly beautiful and terrifying worlds while doing some real beauty work in front and behind the camera as a makeup artist.

We talked recently about her work as a writer and artist as well as her future plans in the publishing and beauty industries.

A couple icebreakers to start: when did you first decide to become a writer, and who are some of your favorite authors?

I began creative writing in high school when I needed extra credit for my English class. I wrote a short story based off a dream I had, so in a way I was stricken by sudden inspiration and necessity, which are two amazing motivators. After boosting my grade I decided to continue writing. I eased into it because I enjoyed the creative process as well as the creative outlet. One of my biggest inspirations is Anne Rice. Not just because of her stories, but because of her writing style, especially in her earlier works. Of course, there’s J.K. Rowling. Growing up I read a lot of Harry Potter. Mary Stanton is amazing. I adore her Unicorns of Balinor novels. Then there’s Walter Farley, who wrote the Black Stallion. Then there’s Abigail Tartellin who wrote the Golden Boy.

Your novel, The Apex Predator: The Chain, debuted last year. What was the best part about your experience writing the book, and are you currently working on the follow-up?

The best part was when the story/novel finally came together. I loved stitching up the seams of that monster and finally seeing the end result. Apart from the editing (which I did plenty of) I drew the cover artwork and designed the cover as well as the interior formatting.

A sequel is in the works. I don’t have a specific due date, but I’m shooting for completion in mid-late 2016.

Your work leans toward horror and the darker side of life. Have you always been a fan of horror, and what was your earliest experience with the genre?

No, I haven’t always been a fan of horror. My first love was fantasy. It was through video games that I began liking and appreciating horror, especially psychological horror. The first truly frightening video game I ever played, and which still remains a big influence is Silent Hill 2. The protagonist receives a letter from his dead wife who is claiming to be waiting for him in a haunted town called Silent Hill so, of course, he goes in search of her. Along the way he encounters monsters, a handful of people, and most disturbingly various levels of the town. The town transforms into hellish states. Silent Hill is a manifestation of the individual’s psychological state. The monsters that he fights are symbols of various aspects of his torment and personality as are the people that he encounters. The disturbing levels the town transforms into are levels of his emotions, from foggy and empty to bloody and decaying. It’s frightening and fascinating. Since this game I’ve always enjoyed horror. It’s that type of visceral horror I enjoy. But horror has to have a purpose. I don’t write horror for shock value. There’s always a reason for it.

In addition to your writing, you’re also an accomplished makeup artist. Your designs are incredible! How did you get started with makeup art?

Thank you! I started studying makeup because I wanted to apply better makeup on myself. During my studies I developed an obsession with the transformative powers of makeup and beauty. My goal with makeup/beauty is to do more with less. Most of the time the biggest transformations can be made with the smallest touch.

Where would like to see your writing career in five years?

Ideally, I would like to be publishing with traditional publishers. Hopefully I’ll have more novels out as well. I have such minimal expectations it’s really hard to say what I want for the future without sounding arrogant. Right now I’d like to have more novels published and an increase in book sales. That would be super.

Big thanks to S.A. Mckernan for being part of this week’s author interview series. Find her online at Facebook and Twitter, and pick up The Apex Predator: The Chain on Amazon!

Happy reading!

For this week’s author interview, I’m pleased to introduce Benjamin Blake. Benjamin is a fiction writer and poet as well as a photographer of all things strange. His collection, Southpaw Nights, appears on the Horror Writers Association’s 2015 Reading List, and Benjamin has received tons of great reviews on his fantastic dark verse and fiction.

Recently, he and I discussed his inspiration as a writer as well as how weird places and ghosts influence his work.

A couple icebreakers to start: when did you first decide to become a writer, and who are some of your favorite authors?

I have written most of my life in one form or another, but it wasn’t until a stormy autumn night about six years ago, in the basement room I was living in at the time, that I started to pen the first short story I had written since I was a kid. That was when I knew that writing was what I wanted to do for good.

As far as favorite authors go, I absolutely love Ray Bradbury; his prose is so utterly poetic and he fires words at the page like bottle rockets. There is such a fervency in his writing. That really gets me. Also, Charles Bukowski – he never fails to entertain, and hits home truths that most people are afraid to think about, yet alone say. I could go on all day about authors, but others include: Stephen King, J.D. Salinger, Joe Hill and Neil Gaiman.

You work in a variety of artistic mediums, including writing (both fiction and poetry) as well as photography. How is your approach to each different (or similar)?

There’s definitely an undercurrent that runs through them all, which is mood, or feeling, or whatever you want to call it. And that is the genesis for anything that I create. The search for that particular poignancy. I also tend to think very visually, so that naturally crosses over from photography to writing. Fiction is certainly the hardest; poetry and photography can be fleeting snapshots of feeling, and while that can apply to flash fiction, or short stories, the longer prose pieces take a lot more structural precision. I recently finished writing my first novel, and while it shares many creative attributes with poetry and photography, there is definitely a huge side of novel-writing that is not inherent in the other two mediums.

Much of your work leans toward horror and the darker side of life. Have you always been a fan of horror, and what was your earliest experience with the genre?

I have always been deeply in love with horror and the supernatural. It started with Scooby Doo (although I was always angry that the spooks weren’t actually real in the end), and went on to illustrated books about ghosts, and R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps. Though, my first introduction to the ‘adult’ side of the genre, was through the late night horror movies my mother would tape for me on VHS. Children of the Corn led to borrowing Stephen King’s Night Shift from the local public library, to seek out the short story that the movie was based on. I must have been about twelve years old at the time, maybe younger.

I love that on your website, your bio includes the detail that you were born in a hospital that has since been demolished. The hospital where I was born hasn’t been demolished yet, but it is now abandoned (and supposedly very haunted). What do you think it is about abandoned and demolished buildings that keeps writers and readers fascinated?

See, that got me excited just reading that question! [Concerning the supposed haunted hospital], that’s a testament to how true that statement really is. I think it’s a combination of things; the obvious history of an old place, the aesthetics, the excitement of exploration and the unknown, the possibility of seeing something otherworldly, and the classic horror movie setting – you’ve seen it a hundred times before on the screen (or read about it in books), and you get to experience it firsthand. There’s something immensely alluring in all that.

You also mention in your bio that you believe in ghosts. Does the spirit realm often find its way into your work? Any otherworldly personal experiences you care to share?

The spirit realm definitely finds its way into my work on a regular basis. There’s something so beautiful and tragic in the idea of ghosts. It really is a timeless subject, too. Humans have been telling ghost stories since the dawn of time, and will continue to tell them until our end.

When I was a small child, my father worked at a pioneer village. The site was mostly made up of historical buildings that had been moved there. Among these was an old jailhouse (which was originally just a regular house). And I wanted to go see it so bad. After weeks of nagging, my father finally gave in, and took me along. I burst into the building, ran along the hall which led to the cell (pushing past an elderly couple in my excitement), and into the small incarceration room. Where, by all accounts, I screamed my little three year old lungs out, and tore back the way in which I came. My dad let the scenario sit a little while, before eventually asking what it was that had freaked me out so badly. I replied, ‘I saw a man hanging.’

When next at the village, he mentioned the incident to a guy he worked with, who told him that back when the jailhouse was still functioning as a home, a man had hung himself out back from a plum tree.

 Out of your published works, do you have a favorite?

 I definitely have a soft spot for my first poetry collection, A Prayer for Late October. But I’d say my second published work, Southpaw Nights, a collection of prose and poetry, is my actual favorite. It’s my largest published work to date, and I’m immensely proud that it was able to come out in paperback. There are also a couple of stories in there that are among the pieces of mine that I am most happy with.

Big thanks to Benjamin for being part of this week’s author interview series! Find him online at his website and his Facebook page. 

Happy reading!

For this week’s author interview, I’m thrilled to present Rose Blackthorn. Rose is an incredible writer. Her amazing fiction has appeared in many of the top horror and fantasy publications, and as if that’s not enough, she’s a huge supporter of her fellow authors and one of the most approachable writers out there.

Recently, Rose and I discussed her favorite authors, her approach to the craft of writing, and the best way to deal with rejection.

A couple icebreakers to start: when did you first decide to become a writer, and who are some of your favorite authors?

I have been writing since my early teens, and in my twenties I actually wrote several (really bad) novels that I submitted to resounding and universal rejection. So, I guess I can say that I’ve wanted to be a writer for most of my life. But I didn’t start writing short fiction, and getting published, until 2009.

There are so many writers whose work I love. To list just a few (in no particular order) – Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Charles DeLint, Patricia McKillip, Anne McCaffrey, Vonda McIntyre, Jo Clayton, Barbara Hambly, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Nancy Springer, David Eddings, P C Hodgell, Robert Jordan, Ursula LeGuin, and Anne Rice.

What is your typical approach to writing? Do you have a set number of hours you write each day, or do you only write when inspired?

I am a dedicated ‘pantser’. I rarely have more than a basic idea of where a story is going, and I think I’ve outlined maybe two things, ever. I usually start out with either a particular character, or a specific background/place, and build on them.

I do not have set hours to write. I made a goal to write every day during NaNoWriMo, which I was able to accomplish, but I don’t always do so. I guess that means I write when I’m inspired – but luckily, that seems to be fairly often. I write to entertain myself, and so most of the time I really enjoy the time I spend at it.

Since you’ve been in the industry for a number of years, you’ve probably faced some rejections along the line. How do you deal with hearing no, and do you have any advice on coping with rejection for those writers who are just starting out?

I am a very emotional person – I have been known to cry at commercials. So in the beginning, every rejection was personal and a deep wound. In fact, I gave up submitting entirely for several years because of rejections I had received. This was back when I was younger, before I had friends who were authors or editors, and before I realized that rejection is just a part of the business of writing and submitting. I have finally gotten to the point in my life where (most of the time) I am able to simply take rejections in stride. There are still those that really sting, if it’s a story I strongly believe in or a market that I’m dying to break into. But for the most part, I pout for a minute, and then start looking for the next place to submit.

The best advice I could give anyone as far as coping with rejection is this: As hard as it is, try not to take it personally. Taste is subjective, and what one editor or publisher doesn’t like, another might love. If you believe in your writing enough to send it out once, then you can do it again. Make sure you’re researching the market, and be sure you’re sending them something they are actually looking for. If someone says “No”, then find someone else to send it to. If you need to, make edits or revisions to improve the story before you send it back out. But don’t let any one “No” stop you from being a success.

In addition to your incredible fiction, you also write equally fantastic poetry. How is your process different (or similar) for each?

I write fiction with a place, or a character, that I’m drawn to or am curious about. What would this person do in this particular situation? What drives them? What is their goal, and how will they get from point A to point B?

Poetry, however, is always about emotion to me. Regardless of subject matter or style, my poetry always comes from the heart. If I’m feeling happy, or sad, or nostalgic, that’s what goes into a poem. Because of that, I only write poetry when I am really feeling inspired, because it isn’t anything I can force. It comes when it wants to.

Out of your published pieces, do you have a personal favorite?

Hmmm… That’s hard, because really I am quite fond of most of the things I’ve published! If I had to choose, I would narrow it down to these three: “The Olwen of the Wynne,” which was my first fantasy story published in 2010, and includes some of my favorite characters; “Bacon Rapt,” which is a zombie flash piece published in 2012 that I conceived, wrote, and submitted in less than an hour – and which was accepted that same day; and last “Through the Ghostlands” published in 2014 by Grey Matter Press, which I am actually working on expanding into a novella or novel.

You’re consistently releasing such remarkable work. Any upcoming publications we should be looking for?

I have two poems “Arbitration” and “Prescience” appearing in Chiral Mad 3 from Written Backwards which will be released in the spring. My story “Promises, Bliss and Lies” will be in the Fright Mare anthology edited by Billie Sue Mosiman, which will also be coming out in the spring.
“The Bani Protocols” is my first attempt at military/sci fi, and will be included in SNAFU: Hunters coming out from Cohesion Press at the beginning of next year. I am also absolutely thrilled that “Through the Ghostlands” was chosen by fans of Grey Matter Press to appear in DREAD: The Best of Grey Matter Press Vol. 1, which should be released in March 2016.

Big thanks to Rose Blackthorn for being part of this week’s interview. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, and be sure to check out her main site as well as her Amazon Author Page!

Happy reading!

Welcome back! This week’s interview goes in a slightly different direction from our usual programming. Tay Wetherbee is a visual artist currently based in Pittsburgh. However, this post still isn’t straying too far from my usual spotlight on fiction creators since many of Tay’s works take inspiration directly from literature, including the stories of Edgar Allan Poe.

Tay and I met when one of her installations went up at Crazy Mocha in Pittsburgh’s Bloomfield neighborhood, and because I’m the weird girl at coffee shops who talks to random people and hands out her business card at every opportunity, she and I soon connected on Facebook. Recently, we discussed her background as an artist and where she sees her career heading in the future.

A couple icebreakers to start: when did you first decide to become an artist, and who are some of your favorite artists?

I think, for me, I never made a decision to become an artist. I just was. I was born singing, dancing, and drawing. My decision to become a professional artist happened in high school after taking my very first art class. I “lettered” three times over in art that year. In competition, I received the honor of one of my paintings touring the entire state of Texas (where I grew up) for a full year. Then I sold my very first piece for $18,000 at 17 years old. My decision made sense and felt like the right path.

The most influential artists in my life have been Robert Rauschenberg, Dave McKean (who many know as the illustrator for numerous Neil Gaiman books), and my college instructor in mixed media at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Robert Maloney.

Your painting, “Tell Tale,” which is currently on display in Pittsburgh, takes inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Do you often integrate literature or other elements of the horror genre into your artwork?

I actually consistently use text and literature in my artwork. My art degree is in illustration, and while my work is largely considered “fine art,” my love for telling stories through art is still apparent in my work through use of quotes, lyrics, and sheet music, which propel and support what is happening in the images in the foreground. Additionally on a design level, I enjoy juxtaposing graphic elements of text with fluid ink painting.

As for horror-themed literature, I have always been a fan of Edgar Allan Poe and am very much moved by the darker moments of Shakespeare. I plan to create many more pieces that are charged with those kinds of moments.

Which medium is your favorite as a visual artist?

I work in mixed media. This means every medium is within my reach. The most common mediums I work with are India ink, concentrated watercolor, a process called ink transferring, and acrylic paint. My surface of choice is reclaimed wood. I love to show viewers age and distress, like old nail holes in wood surfaces, which can be transformed into something beautiful and thought-provoking. This process is derived from my interest in the Buddhist teaching of Wabi-sabi, the aesthetic of imperfection.

Where would you like to see your art career in five years?

I will be taking commissions, participating in art shows, loving life, and forever creating, back home in Boston.

Out of your works, do you have a personal favorite?

I am partial to this postcard-sized piece I created on a whim in college, of a Ferris wheel, with haunting text torn from an old book. In a body of work that is mostly large scale, it’s the smallest of my works, yet so powerful to me.

Do you have any upcoming exhibitions planned? Any other places where fans will be able to catch your work?

My work can be seen in the upcoming issue of The Hour After Happy Hour Review, and on display at Crazy Mocha Bloomfield in Pittsburgh, PA; Evolver Tattoo, Pittsburgh, PA; and RAW Artists Showcase 2016, Boston MA

Big thanks to Tay Wetherbee for being part of this week’s interview series. Find her at her website and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Happy reading!

Another Wednesday, another awesome author interview! Today is all about writer Travis Coleman. Like previous interviewee Lee A. Forman, Travis is a past competitor in David Wellington’s Fear Project. He is also author of the serial A Wolf in Patchwork Clothing as well as the collection, Escaping Sanity. Recently, Travis and I discussed serialized fiction, favorite authors, and the good old writing process.

A few icebreakers to start: when did you first decide to become a writer, and who are some of your favorite authors?

I first decided to try my hand at writing when I realized that I needed to do something with the ideas that often flooded my head. I talked an idea out with my wife and, after working through some details, I set a goal to write 10,000 words. The goals expanded and the project reached 50,000 words before I knew it.  As far as authors go, I have a list of authors I would like to learn from. R.A. Salvatore, Frank Herbert, Raymond E. Feist, Stephen King, and Brandon Sanderson are all on the list, and each for different reasons.

You are currently underway with your serial, A Wolf in Patchwork Clothing. What initially inspired you to write serialized fiction?

I first wanted to write a serial after reading the book “The Club Dumas” by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. In the book they talk about Alexandre Dumas publishing most of his stories as serials. Even his longest work, The Count of Monte Cristo, was published in weekly installments in a newspaper. I realized that serialized fiction was only really used in television and comics.  Yet I would love nothing more than to see it come alive again, to give people more than the news in newspapers.

What are you aspirations in regards to your serial? How long would you like the finished version to be, and do you envision publishing it in paperback at some point in the future?

My goal for this serial was to try it out and to get a feel for the process.  I planned the story to be between 20,000 and 30,000 words in length. The goal was a create an opportunity to showcase a villain from a novel that I’m editing currently.  The plan for that series of books is to self-publish them in the future. I would most likely put this piece into a paperback for those who prefer to read that way. Also, this story should wrap up right around the end of October, but I will be starting a new serial in January.

You were a competitor in David Wellington’s Fear Project. During that process, what was the most important thing you learned about writing?

The thing I took away from the Fear Project is the importance of editing and proofreading. With a three day period to conceive, write, and then rework the idea as many times as you could, it forced you to make cuts. I lost character description, setting, and some lines which I felt were awesome. But in the end you have to do what’s best for each story.

If forced to choose, which part of the writing process is your favorite: developing characters, crafting description, or establishing mood?

I feel that the most important element to what I write is finding ways to make the character relatable. If you have a character who the reader identifies with, then the book will be read. It’s what keeps you reading in the slow sections. It’s what puts the fear into you when your favorite character is on the verge of death.

Out of your published works, do you have a personal favorite?

The first story I published is still one of my favorites. The story is published in a collection entitled Poe-It which was available through Amazon. After they closed their doors, I had the rights and republished it as the first story in my collection, Escaping Sanity.  The story is titled “The Well” and was inspired by “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe.

Big thanks to Travis Coleman for being part of this week’s author interview series. Find him online at his blog, where you can read his serial and learn more about his work!

Happy reading!