Category: Interviews

Ellen Datlow Shares What Giving Us 16 Years Of The Best Horror Is Like!

Ellen Datlow Shares What Giving Us 16 Years Of The Best Horror Is Like!

Ellen Datlow is the World Fantasy Award, Hugo Award and Bram Stoker Award-winning editor and anthologist for the Best Horror of the Year series, and for numerous other horror, fantasy and science fiction collections and series. She is hailed as one of the most influential voices in these genres.  

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An Interview With R. Haven

  Author R. Berry has been writing since the age of 9. He has written several novels and shorts stories. His work explores not only queer themes but also video games, rogues, and even horror recipes! A lot of fun to talk to and read (go check out www.theirritablequeer.com), we discuss writing, life and what makes Berry tick. Berry also discusses his forthcoming book The Other Face of Sympathy coming out September of 2025 with Renaissance Publishing.

      His new novel shows how traumas can turn people into monsters. His trans protagonist, Edward Barrett, discovers various diaries of trauma victims and follows them into darkness. There are trigger warnings listed.

You can watch the interview below:
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Sam Asher and The Cosmic Background Kickstarter

Sam Asher and The Cosmic Background Kickstarter

By Angelique Fawns

Sam Asher writes strange, beautiful, and slightly disturbing prose. (I bought his collection of short stories Really, Shockingly Bad Things at the mass autograph session at World Fantasy Con 2024.) He also runs an e-zine called The Cosmic Background where he bought a story of mine when the magazine first launched, called “The Sentient Sea of Sargassum.”

You can read it here: https://www.thecosmicbackground.com/stories/angelique-fawns-the-sentient-sea-of-sargassum

This is my second time interviewing Asher, and I thought it would be nice to touch base again as he is running a kickstarter. 

Check it out here!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thecosmicbackground/the-cosmic-background-year-two/rewards

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An Interview With Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane On Death Comes at Christmas

Death Comes at Christmas is mystery anthology edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane. It is a wonderful seasonal piece that has everything from locked room mysteries to cozies to real mind benders. It’s an anthology worthy of a good binge read with several cups of hot cocoa (make sure you prepare that cocoa yourself).

 

JG: You both have a big background in horror. Why a mystery anthology? Do you have a genre preference? Why these authors?

MO/PK: As much as we love horror, we also both grew up reading fantasy, SF and crime – and are big fans of the latter. We’ve both written crime fiction before in the past, and of course co-edited the Titan anthology Exit Wounds, featuring Lee Child, Val McDermid and Jeffery Deaver. The Times called that one ‘impressive’ so we must have been doing something right. All of which made us want to dive into another one. The authors we approached had either worked before in this kind of area, or we thought would fit the brief very well. It helps that they’re all superb writers at the top of their game, of course. Each one delivered something unique that just went together as a whole. As for which we prefer, we love them both – and of course the other genres we mentioned too. It’d be hard to choose between them, frankly.

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Angela Yuriko Smith and her Space and Time Kickstarter

Angela Yuriko Smith and her Space and Time Kickstarter

By Angelique Fawns

Space and Time magazine has been publishing speculative fiction for 50 years, and is one of the oldest flagship markets in North America. Angela Yuriko Smith, a two-time Bram Stoker Award Winner, is the publisher of Space and Time and is running a Kickstarter to celebrate five decades of bringing innovation, discovery, and storytelling to the world.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/angela-yuriko-smith/space-and-time-celebrating-50-years-of-speculative-fiction

I was honored to have a story purchased by Smith in the Fall/Winter issue 147 this year called “Gragon and the Neptune Nit Infestation,”  along with a close friend of mine, R.J.K. Lee, who shared the TOC with his tale, “What Devil or Dove Guards the Girl.”

Smith also runs a popular newsletter called Authortunities on Substack where she lists industry news and open calls. Writers can find paid opportunities, contests, awards, workshops, and grants. I’ll confess, I’ve cribbed a few things from her list for my own monthly posts. 

I asked Angela Yuriko Smith a few questions:

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“Magick dictates Destiny”: An Interview with author Paula Cappa

“Magick dictates Destiny”: An Interview with author Paula Cappa

Draakensky, the new novel by author Paula Cappa, is a Gothic dark fantasy with a twist; the twist being magick. While most Gothic novels draw on the supernatural as a source of chills and thrills, Cappa rather explores the supernatural as something tangible, a product of the elemental forces which surround us. 

 

There’s also plenty of chills and thrills throughout the novel. At once a ghost story, a murder mystery, and a romance, Draakensky draws readers into a rich world of magic and sorcery. 

 

I spoke to Paula about the novel via Zoom in November.

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An Interview With D.L. Winchester on Undertaker Books

D.L. Winchester & Undertaker Books

By Angelique Fawns

 

D.L. Winchester is a former mortician and is dedicated to innovative storytelling and the myriad voices that make up the horror genre. He’s penned over 300 obituaries, many short stories, and his own collection called Shadows of Appalachia. 

For the first time, the owner of Horrortree, Stuart Conover, and I are sharing a TOC! We both sold stories to Undertaker Books’ latest anthology, Stories to Take to Your Grave: High Seas Edition.

   Starting January 1st – 31st, Undertaker Books is looking for Carnival of Horror stories. Your prompt is, “Amid the rides and games, in the shadows the bright lights don’t reach, are horrors of all kinds…”

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An Interview With David M Barnett On ‘Withered Hill and More!

I have always had a soft spot for folk horror. I love the modern age still keeping with the Old Ways. So when I got the opportunity to interview David Barnett about his novel Withered Hill, I jumped at it. It turns out the author is as interesting as his novel!

About ‘Withered Hill’:

Inside

A year ago Sophie Wickham stumbled into the isolated Lancashire village of Withered Hill, naked, alone and with no memory of who she is.

Surrounded by a thick ring of woodland, its inhabitants seem to be of another world, drenched in pagan, folklorish traditions.

As Sophie struggles to regain the memories of her life from before, she quickly realises she is a prisoner after multiple failed escape attempts. But is it the locals who keep her trapped, with smiles on their faces, or something else, lurking in the woods?

Outside

In London, Sophie leads a chaotic life, with too many drunken nights, inappropriate men and boring temp jobs. But things take a turn as she starts to be targeted by strange messages warning her that someone, or something, is coming for her.

With no idea who to trust, or where to turn for help, the messages become more insistent and more intimidating, urging Sophie to make her way to a place called Withered Hill…

An utterly bewitching, dual timeline folk horror novel, with a truly devastating twist you have to read to believe.

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