Author: Willow Croft

Before I invited David Watkins into my parlour, I had to (temporarily) relocate all of my spider friends. But don’t worry, no spiders were harmed in the making of this interview (probably to David Watkins’ great chagrin!); in fact, I’ve promised them a fine feast of flies upon their return. Pull up a chair, grab a slice of pizza, and enjoy the interview!

And, mark your reading calendars, because Watkins’ Book Three in the Original series drops November 15, 2024: https://www.amazon.com/Originals-Rage-werewolf-thriller-Book-ebook/dp/B0DJMSTS87. Perfect if you like your horror with a dash of werewolf lore!

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I can only hope that Dan Fields can appreciate a New Mexican spin on enchiladas, as that’s my go-to culinary influence at the present time (red, green, or Christmas chile, Dan?). Enjoy “feasting” on this interview, HT readers!

Dan Fields hails from Houston, Texas, where he lives with his wife and two children. He absconded with a film degree from Northwestern University in 2006, and has worked in a variety of media disciplines including music, photography, video, animation, fiction, criticism and even the odd (very odd) sculpture. In the late 2000s he was frontman of the Chicago chaos-and-blues act Howlin’ Tumbleweeds, and he is a founding member, songwriter and performer for the Lone Star blues, country and rock band Polecat Rodeo (established 2010).

Since 2015, Dan has published over two dozen stories of horror and the weird with Pseudopod, Nocturnal Transmissions, The NoSleep Podcast, Sanitarium Magazine, Grotesque Quarterly, Hellbound Books, Novel Noctule, Cowboy Jamboree Press, Frontier Tales, Improbable Press, Weird Christmas and more. His fiction has been broadcast (or rather podcast) in multiple accents across the English-speaking world, and has also been translated into Russian by the poet Katarina Vorontsova for Darker Magazine.

In July 2020, his story “And Every Living Thing After Its Kind” was anthologized in the 10th edition of the Kendall Hunt college textbook Analyzing Short Stories.

In 2021, he released an original story collection entitled Under Worlds, After Lives, which a reviewer for HorrorNews.net called “an immensely compelling anthology that preys upon your subconscious long after the final pages.”

Dan’s latest work of short fiction, entitled “The Fair Child,” will appear in a future anthology from Fabula Press.

Dan and fellow Harvest Time writer Chris Robinson have also published several collaborative stories, under the joint pseudonym “Lyman Graves,” with the likes of Swamp Ape Review, Grotesque Quarterly, Nocturnal Transmissions, and The Great Void. Red Room Press included Lyman’s story “When The Owls Call” in their anthology Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, Volume 4. A new Lyman tale entitled “So, I Hear You Eat Houses” is scheduled to appear in a forthcoming anthology from Three Ravens Publishing.

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I’m not only excited to interview author Alvar Theo, I’m thrilled to heat up a cup of my favourite chocolate elixir drink from the Kakawa Chocolate House for my “Spooky Six” guest!

Alvar Theo (they/he) is the author of Benothinged, a horror comedy from Haunt Publishing. They started writing at five years old, making Red Dwarf fanfiction in the form of picture books. This was quite possibly before they could even write as they only ever got as far as drawing the pictures. They continued to write off and on but only began to take it seriously as a career path in the last decade or so. They’ve written sketches for podcasts and have a folder full of feature screenplays unlikely to ever see the light of day. Benothinged is their first novel.

They write with a focus on outsiders, generally isolated queer people. Their fiction tends to explore: gender; mental illness; social isolation and poverty, all with a blackly comic undertone.

They hale from the Black Country – Tolkien’s inspiration for Mordor – where they live with a cat and two dogs who take up most of their time.

When they’re not writing or taking care of their pets, they enjoy reading and watching Asian dramas. They’re allegedly learning to speak Thai. Their most expensive hobby is attending conventions where they cosplay and collect pins, art and independent comics. Formerly, their most expensive hobby was collecting tattoos, but a mixture of ill health and running out of space meant they had to give that up. They are immensely proud of the time they got to show writer Al Ewing the Loki: Agent of Asgard tattoos on their calf. It remains one of their all time favourite memories.

They have a degree in Psychology and Creative Writing. They have previously worked as a bookseller, library attendant across various libraries and administrator for trade unions. At the time of writing, they are horrendously unemployed. This is due to a mixture of ill health and shit luck.
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I was very tempted to turn this interview into a recipe-swap event, but the only horrifying thing about that is my tendency to scorch the bottoms of all my pots and pans, and that’s not very interesting, is it?  Read on to learn more about this eminently more interesting author and his new release, which promises to be a perfect read for Halloween night!

Matt Wagner has enjoyed a career in comics for over thirty years.  Born and educated in Pennsylvania, his first published work was a short story that would introduce one of comicdom’s most respected creator-owned characters–the mastermind assassin, GRENDEL. This epic, Eisner Award-winning creation has seen Matt collaborate with a host of the industry’s most significant talents and was recently compiled in a six-volume Omnibus edition that totaled more than 3000 pages.  He’s also renowned for his more personal allegory, MAGE—a contemporary fantasy trilogy that spanned thirty-five years in the making.

Matt has also worked on a variety of established characters.  These include his ground-breaking portrayal of the Batman villain, Two-Face, in the graphic novel FACES, a five-year stint authoring the fan-favorite Vertigo title, SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE, as well as the re-booted DR. MID-NITE mini-series for DC Comics and serving as the regular cover artist on both the Kevin Smith-penned relaunch of GREEN ARROW and a subsequent stint for the monthly BATMAN title.

Known for his character-driven stories and his obvious love of world history and mythologies, Matt has also enjoyed the distinction of being one of the only writer/artists allowed to team his own creation with one of DC’s flagship characters in two successive BATMAN/GRENDEL crossover series.

Matt has also written and drawn several high profile projects for DC including a highly successful, three-issue, prestige series starring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, titled TRINITY and a year-long project comprised of two mini-series that chronicled some of the earliest aspects of Batman’s career in BATMAN & THE MONSTER MEN and BATMAN & THE MAD MONK.

2020 saw the 40^th anniversary of GRENDEL and a special project to commemorate this significant milestone, an expanded and newly redrawn version of the original story arc, GRENDEL: DEVIL BY THE DEED—MASTER’S EDITION.

Some of his other efforts, variously writing or drawing, have included MADAME XANADU for Vertigo, ZORRO, GREEN HORNET: YEAR ONE, THE SHADOW: YEAR ONE, THE SHADOW: THE DEATH OF MARGO LANE and THE SPIRIT RETURNS for Dynamite Entertainment.

Matt also teamed with renowned film-maker Quentin Tarantino to co-write a DJANGO/ZORRO crossover series that was co-published by Dynamite and DC/Vertigo.

He continues to add new stories to the GRENDEL universe with the current DEVIL’S CRUCIBLE—DEFIANCE.  His latest work is collaborating with maestro horror artist Kelley Jones on an ambitious and well-received series of graphic novels unveiling the secret histories of DRACULA.

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I’ve had to brew up both coffee, and tea, for this interview, and not just for my guest interviewee! Mainly to keep me going, as Stephen Barnard is a morning person, and I’ve somehow shifted back into being a night owl, courtesy of my un-day job. Nonetheless, it’s a great interview! Read on to see what terrifying creature is the stuff of Stephen Barnard’s nightmares!

Stephen Barnard (he/him) is a suspense / horror writer from the north west of England. He’s been indie publishing titles for a number of years, and has a wide range of novels and short story collections in the genre. His most recent novels include creepy small town horror ‘Grievers’ Wood’, and modern vampire story ‘No One is Leaving.’

Growing up with King and Koontz novels, he always loved writing horror stories and sent manuscripts to traditional publishers a number of times across the nineties and noughties, but without any success. Career and family then led to a brief hiatus in writing. However, with the advent of eBooks and self and indie publishing, he got the bug again. After a couple of experiments, his first success came with the eBook release of ‘Corner House’ in 2018. He followed that with a short story collection, ‘A Very Bad Year’, after which he didn’t look back.

Many titles later, his newest release, ‘They Didn’t Know’, is out on September 28^th – a suspense novella about a party guest who just doesn’t want to leave. Primarily an eBook release, it will also be available in paperback as part of a double bill with another novella, under the combined title of ‘They’. He’s currently working on another short story collection (this will be his seventh) to be released in the spring.

Stephen has also published YA books, sports non-fiction and a science fantasy trilogy. He’s taught high school English for nearly 30 years and has two sons currently at university. He loves listening to rock music and has never fully grown out of his 90s grunge phase. When he’s not writing, he’s binge-watching horror movies or lamenting about the misfortunes of his favourite football team, Bolton Wanderers. Occasionally he thinks about tidying up. His wife, Sophie, is very understanding.

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