The Horror Tree Presents: Author Interview – Kevin Bachar

By Lionel Ray Green

 

Kevin Bachar uses his experiences as an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker to inspire his horror writing. The results so far are two collections, Dread and Creep, firmly entrenched in the top 10 of Amazon’s Horror Anthologies category since their release.

Another short story collection titled Cursed is out April 26, completing his three-book series Nights of Madness.

Bachar is president of Pangolin Pictures where he directs, shoots and writes documentary films.

“If you’ve watched National Geographic, PBS or The Discovery Channel over the years, you’ve seen my work,” he says. “I produce in all genres but specialize in natural history filmmaking. Series like PBS Nature or Shark Week have featured my films. Not bad for a kid from Queens.”

A three-time Emmy Award winner for his work on the National Geographic Explorer series, Bachar thinks his documentary work gives his writing “a real-world feel.”

“I don’t need to hit up Wikipedia for a lot of research,” he says. “I know what it’s like to be on a stakeout with cops or know what a tornado sounds like when it roars into a town, since I’ve filmed those things in real life.”

Bachar agreed to an exclusive email interview with Lionel Ray Green for The Horror Tree about his horror collections, screenplay writing, and future projects.

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Wendy N. Wagner & Living the Nightmare

By Angelique Fawns

Wendy N. Wagner is no stranger to horror and speculative fiction. She’s the editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine and the Managing Senior Editor of Lightspeed.  Hugo-award winning and Locus-award nominated for her editing, she’s also been nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award with her short fiction. Her latest book, Girl in the Creek will be released by Tor Nightfire in 2025. Wagner uses cli-fi cosmic horror to explore the dark side of beautiful places. 

Nightfire teases the storyline with this:

“Deep within the wild Clackamas National Forest, the shadows of looming trees and long-abandoned mines have sheltered hikers and harbored serial killers. Hidden in the forest are ghost towns with deteriorating buildings overrun by glowing fungi and phosphorescent spores that even local experts can’t identify. Not to mention the missing persons posters multiplying around town, many of hikers who never returned.”

I finally managed to track Wendy down on twitter and ask her if she would talk to us. 

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In the desolate hills of Eastern Oklahoma, the residents of Seven Suns are haunted by more than their own personal dramas. Bones crawl from the earth, shape-shifting entities slip into different skins, and a theoretically impossible black cougar roams the countryside. Chase Dearinger intertwines the complicated lives of a pseudo-step-father, a troubled teen, and a reluctant sheriff as their stories come together to face This New Dark.

 

Chase Dearinger is an Oklahoma native who now lives in Kansas with his wife and two daughters. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in magazines around the country, including Bayou, The Southampton Review, Short Story America, and Heavy Feather Review. He currently serves as the Chief Editor of Emerald City, a quarterly online fiction magazine, and directs the Cow Creek Chapbook Prize, an annual poetry chapbook contest. He is a professor of creative writing and literature at Pittsburg State University. This New Dark is his first novel.

 

I sat down with Chase to talk about his writing process, reconciling literary and genre fiction, and the inherent horror of liminal spaces. 

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DarkLit Sails- A Swashbuckling Horror Kickstarter

Zack Rosenberg spills the gold

By Angelique Fawns

Zach Rosenberg is one of the authors in an anthology that promises an exciting journey into uncharted waters. Looking for a read filled with adventure, suspense, and captivating story telling? This pirate anthology is filled with eight standalone tales written by authors of diverse backgrounds and fresh perspectives. 

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darklitpress/darklit-sails-a-swashbuckling-horror-adventure-series

 

“DarkLit Sails isn’t just about entertainment; it’s about empowerment. By supporting our Kickstarter campaign, you’re not only diving into a world of swashbuckling adventure and terrifying encounters, but also championing diversity and inclusivity in literature.”

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Storm Michael Humbert: His Intergalactic Rejects

By Angelique Fawns

 

Storm Michael Humbert is currently running a Kickstarter for his star-studded sci-fi anthology, Intergalactic Rejects: A Calendar of Fools anthology. It features some incredible talent such as Rebecca Moesta, Kevin J. Anderson, Robert J. Sawyer, and Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki. Ever wonder what sort of stories they’ve had rejected? This anthology will give you hope for your own little misfits. It’s earned the coveted Kickstarter “Project We Love”. The campaign runs until Thursday April 19.

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Jennifer Lesh Fleck: Combining rare talent with a rare disability.

By Angelique Fawns

 

Jennifer Lesh Fleck is a horror and poetry author whose dark and imaginative musing are finding homes all over the short speculative writing world. We are in a writing group together called The Fireside Quills, and I recently published one of her stories in my anthology, Peculiar Pets: A Horror Lite Anthology, which you can check out here:

 

angeliquefawns.gumroad.com/l/lncev

 

You can also find Fleck’s stories in The Arcanist, MetaStellar, Radon Journal, If There’s Anyone Left, and Cosmic Horror Monthly. 

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We’re Taking A Trip To ‘Redhead Town’ with award-winning horror author, Deborah Sheldon

by Robyn O’Sullivan

Deborah Sheldon’s latest novella is best described using the Australian vernacular: it’s a ‘pearler’! Although Redhead Town is set in an Australia that doesn’t exist, its depiction of a life-choice that can plummet you into a situation beyond your control is entirely relatable. The raw emotion – anger, guilt, despair – and reactive behaviour of protagonist Mark Murphy are palpable and real. Deborah’s masterly writing holds you in thrall from the first sentence to the last word. It has been my privilege to speak with her about how she created such a realistic and frightening narrative.

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Todd Sanders – ‘Saving the Future’ Fiction

by Angelique Fawns

 

Air and Nothingness Press isn’t afraid to tackle some tough subjects. What happens when our world loses a critical resource? Todd Sanders’ latest anthology “We Are All Thieves of Somebody’s Future” asks that very question. The call allowed for some wild imaginings, looking into the loss of food, trees, oil, dragons, breathable air, or even intangibles like love, happiness or time.

I’m thrilled to be a part of this project with my story, “The Last Drop of Diesel.” The book is now available for pre-order at http://aanpress.com/aanorder.html#thieves.

Other included authors are Matthew Bettelheim, Sonya Carlin, Eric A. Clayton, Rodrigo Culagovski, Storm Humbert, Timothy Johnson, Julia LaFond, Roxane Llanque, Fiona Mossman, M.P. Rosalia, and Rose Skye.

Let’s find out more about this project. 

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