An Interview With Kevin J. Kennedy

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Kevin J. Kennedy has been very busy over the years both publishing and writing. Some of his more popular ones are The Horror Collection (this currently has 20 books for you to choose from). In August he contributed to Creatures of the Night (Dark Tide 17) which was published by Crystal Lake. You can find his books and collections anywhere books are sold.

JG: I was so excited to see that you brought back the two werewolves from Elena! I am a werewolf girl at heart and I really loved those two! Are you planning on using the vampires and werewolves together in the future?
KJK: I might. I really enjoyed writing these characters, and it was great bringing the characters back from the Elena story. I’m working on other things at the moment, but I would like to do something else in this world. I might even cross them over with my Halloween Land stuff at some point.

JG: Why choose vampires for a short story collection with these authors (Simon and Gord)? Will you be working together again?
KJK: We knocked around a few ideas and vampires was the one we settled on. From memory, it was Gord that had an idea that he wanted to write, and Simon and I were both happy to do something with vampires. I had recently written a vampire short for a Vampire anthology that I released and it was a lot of fun. It was about a team of vampire hunters, but this time I wanted to do it from the vampires point of view. We all agreed that there should be more vicious vampire stories out there, so we each done our thing.

JG: I know you run a publishing company on top of all your writing. How do you find the balance? It can’t be easy!
KJK: It’s not. I often find myself putting writing aside to work on the anthologies. They are time consuming but they seem to be well received so it’s worth it. I do keep trying to focus more on writing but so far, I haven’t been able to make it my main focus.

JG: What got you into writing? What would you be doing if you weren’t in the writing business? What is your proudest moment in your writing career?
KJK:I literally just seen an advert on Facebook looking for short horror stories, and I decided to write one. I had always read horror. It was accepted and I just kept sending stories into publishers until I decided I wanted to do my own anthology, and everything has grown from there.

JG: What book does everyone need to read at least once in their life? Why?
KJK: That’s a tough one. I’m going to say Edward Lee’s City Infernal. It’s on of my favourite books set in Hell. His imagination on what it would be like is unparalleled. It’s a fun wild ride, and so many of his other books link back to it. It’s not his most extreme book, but the imagery is fantastic.

JG: What is one fun fact about you?
KJK: Um… I met Dacre Stoker, and learned loads of stuff about Dracula and Bram Stoker that I was unaware of. I’ve met so few horror authors, living in Scotland, so that was pretty cool.

JG: You seem to always have something being released. Dare I ask what you have coming out next (I’m guessing several somethings, lol)?
KJK: Apart from my novella, Perspective in Creatures of the Night: Vicious Vampire Tales, I have a new anthology called Splatterpunk Dreams releasing a few weeks later. It’s book 20 in my The Horror Collection series. After that, I am finishing up a new novella called The Clown, which is a prequel to Halloween Land. It’s much more brutal. I am aiming to having it out for early October. Around the same time, I will be releasing Collected Christmas Horror Shorts 4. It’s pretty finished, but it’s a little early in the year to release a Christmas book.

JG: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me! I look forward to reading more of your work!

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