Category: Interviews

Join me for bagels and iced coffee as I interview Robert P. Ottone for this edition of the Spooky Six Q&A!

Robert P. Ottone is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of The Triangle. His other works include Her Infernal Name & Other Nightmares (an honorable mention in The Best Horror of the Year Volume 13) as well as the suburban folk horror novel, The Vile Thing We Created.

His short stories have appeared in various anthologies as well as online. He’s also the publisher and owner of Spooky House Press, which is committed to publishing stories and novels by authors Robert is a huge fan of, published or unpublished.

After realizing that writing horror can be a therapeutic exercise, Robert began writing in his spare time. Finding inspiration in the writings of Paul Tremblay, Lee Murray, Alan Moore, Linda Addison, John Langan, Robert Aickman and many others, Robert celebrates the past as well as the future of the genre.

When not writing, Robert can be found smoking cigars, drinking cocktails and enjoying quality wine. His all-time favorite bottle is the 2009 Hundred Acre. His favorite cigar is the Gloria Cubana Serie R. In terms of cocktails, nothing tops an Aperol Spritz.

Robert has been fortunate enough to read at many venues, as well as online. He has been interviewed by Steve Talks Books, Brad Proctor, Mike Davis and many other talented individuals in the genre.

His goal is to buy a home nestled in the woods of upstate New York where he can roam the grounds nude, glass of wine in hand, cigar dangling from his lips, puffing away in the gathering gloom of a fall evening, listening intently for the movement of leaves in the thick of the verdant ocean of forest around him.

He can be found online at SpookyHousePress.com or on Twitter/IG: @RobertOttone.

He delights in the creepy and views bagels solely as a cream cheese delivery device.

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Writers and other creatives stand out for a reason and sometimes that can be hard. Sometimes it can be just too much and we become overwhelmed. 

 

“This is for you if you are tired of this society with all its expectations, perfectionism and pressure. Society likes our feelings nice and sanitised.”

Karen Jackson

 

Overwhelmed: And other words you give your power away to is the debut book from Karen Jackson, a rebel with a cause!  Let’s talk to Karen about the power of words.

You can watch the video interview below:

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J.H. Moncrieff is an award-winning author of seventeen dark fiction novels. Her City of Ghosts won the Kindle Book Review Award for Best Horror/Suspense. She’s also the on-air writer expert for three true crime documentary series: Cruise Ship Killers, Sunshine Slayings, and Targeted for Murder. This experience introduced her to screenwriting, and she’s written scripts for Sunshine Slayings and the HBO series Almost Unsolved. An avid traveler and ghost hunter, she’s spent time in the world’s most haunted places in order to write her GhostWriters series.

Moncrieff’s work has been described by reviewers as early Gillian Flynn with a little Ray Bradbury and Stephen King thrown in for good measure. She won Harlequin’s international search for “the next Gillian Flynn,” and her first published novella, The Bear Who Wouldn’t Leave, was featured in Samhain’s Childhood Fears collection and stayed on its horror bestsellers list for over a year. Monsters in Our Wake, a deep-sea thriller with Severed Press, hit the Amazon Horror bestsellers list, beating King’s re-released It to the top spot. Her GhostWriters supernatural suspense series has garnered rave reviews from Kirkus, Blueink, Booklist, and the Midwest Book Review.

Moncrieff began her writing career as a journalist, tracking down snipers and canoeing through crocodile-infested waters. Her articles have appeared in many publications, including Chatelaine, FLARE, Writer’s Digest, and The Globe and Mail.

When not writing, she loves exploring the world’s most haunted places, advocating for animal rights, and summoning her inner ninja in muay thai class. In her so-called spare time, she teaches writing, marketing, public speaking, and advertising classes at her local university. She still accepts select clients for developmental editing and career coaching. If you’re interested in working with her, contact her via https://www.jhmoncrieff.com/services/. To get free ebooks and take part in a chilling “choose you own adventure” story, go to http://bit.ly/MoncrieffLibrary.

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Ai Jiang talks about being a Nebula Finalist

By Angelique Fawns

 

Ai Jiang’s short story “Give Me English” was announced as a Nebula Finalist this March. Her speculative short was published in the 5-6/22 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Jiang is one of six authors in the running for this prestigious award. This Canadian-Chinese writer has been taking the industry by storm with her work appearing in Uncanny, The Dark Magazine, Pseudopod, The Deadlands, and Dark Matter to name a few. Dark Matter magazine says, “Jiang is widely considered to be one of the most exciting young voices in science fiction, fantasy and horror.”

Jiang mixes the literary with speculative elements and I touched base with her to learn more about her amazing achievement.

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I’m definitely “starstuck” about this Spooky Six interviewee, Yawatta Hosby! After all, it’s not only amazing to learn about her skills as a writer and a comic book artist, it’s even more exciting to learn that as part of her outlining process, she also plots out her characters–all the way down to their zodiac signs. Which, as many of you may already know, is definitely Willow Croft’s cup of tea! (How cool would it be to go on an investigation with her to find “the truth IS out there”?)

Yawatta Hosby (she/her) resides in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. She enjoys connecting with other writers through blogging. With a desire to escape every day life, Yawatta creates short stories, novellas, and novels. She’s always had a fascination with psychology, so she likes to focus on the inner-struggles within her characters. Yawatta’s an avid reader, favorite genres: mystery, suspense, horror, and women’s fiction.

Her short stories have been featured in The Write Place At the Write Time online journal (2013), When the Lights Go Out anthology (2015), and Don’t Open the Door anthology (2019).

Since Yawatta Hosby loves drawing too, she decided to try her hand at creating a slice-of-life graphic novel/comic series called Unscripted–the best of both worlds.

Unscripted–sometimes being famous can be a pain in the arse.

In my slice-of-life comic series, Felix wants a private life. Not with her famous parents. Not with Me Cailinis touring. Not with the world dissecting her and Colm’s every move.

Keeping a huge secret, Felix has to decide what she’ll do with her life. Keep feeling stuck. Rebel against management. Run away from it all.

If only Felix’s decision affected her alone…It’s tough being famous, especially when your public persona is scripted.

In the meantime, Yawatta focuses on drawing mini-comics, zines, and comic diaries. Three of her mini-comics have been featured in I Don’t Do Comics, which is an anthology based in Canada. Yawatta also loves reading horror and slice-of-life graphic novels.

In February 2021, Yawatta Hosby created her company called Draw With Yawatta in the hopes of getting people curious about comic diaries. Her comic workshops are a safe place to learn about yourself as you experiment with drawing. A comic diary is just for you. Have fun. Have the courage to put your story down on paper. Have a desire to express yourself through words and drawings.

Yawatta loves drawing in her comic diary because it’s a great way to manage all of her hopes, fears, and quirky ideas in one place. Her comic diary tells her story, and her story has value.

Your stories have value too.

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That Darkened Doorstep The Hive–a place swarming with activity. 

Diane Sismour started The Hive Writing Group with a retreat at her bed and breakfast in January 2020. Five women horror writers, in varying stages of their writing careers, found each other: Diane Sismour and Dianna Patricia Sinovic met at the Bethlehem Writers Group; Jacque Day and Amanda Headlee met Diane at a Pennsylvania Chapter Horror Writers Association meeting; Catherine Jordan found her way to the group through Jacque’s invite at an online writing group. The group continues to gather at Diane’s bed and breakfast for biannual retreats, and they participate in monthly remote meetings. Five different personalities meshed into a group that turned strangers into friends.

Together, they participate in writing workshops, watch masterclasses, and attend physical and remote conferences. One of their finest accomplishments to date is the anthology, That Darkened Doorstep, published on September 2022 by Hellbender Books, an imprint of Sunbury Press. Catherine approached her publisher and received the green light for the project. As editor, she placed a call for submissions. As a hive, the women participated in vetting and working with the writers, while also contributing their own individual stories. What a fabulous way to knit together (with plans for another book to follow). Between all five women, they have a multitude of horror related publications. 

During Women in Horror Month, these accomplished women (Unfortunately, Amanda Headlee was unavailable to participate.) took turns interviewing each other. 

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Kristi Petersen Schoonover from 34 Orchard

By Angelique Fawns

 

All is not dark in the world of Kristi Petersen Schoonover. Though this prolific creator in the world of horror publishes a “literary journal that delights in exploring what haunts us all,” her life has been full of positive happenings. She’s had several short stories of her own recently published, including “Let the Rain Settle It” in Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster, Stories Inspired by Stephen King and “When the Ghost Apples Blossom” in Monstorm: A Charity Anthology of Horror (100 percent of proceeds go to a food bank in the area that Hurricane Ian affected). She’s the editor for an anthology titled Wicked Sick, due to be released in April, for the New England Horror Writers, with a Foreword written by Stephen Mark Rainey. Finally, she’s been commissioned to write the screenplay for the second film in a horror movie franchise. In the Candlewood series, Candlewood: Jerusalem will focus on the urban legends surrounding a drowned town under the lake. 

Kristi Petersen Schoonover is one of those rare editors who takes the time to mentor new writers, and she has been instrumental in helping me sell several of my stories. I’ve submitted many times to her market, and even if she hasn’t bought a story, she has given me hints and edits that helped make them saleable. I’m thrilled to announce I finally wrote a story she accepted, and “The Unidentified Flying Object” will be appearing in a future issue of 34 Orchard. 

I sat down with Schoonover for a catch-up.

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Welcome to the first-ever “Fantastical Five” interview with speculative fiction author P.A. Cornell. Since this is the science fiction version (it also comes in fantasy flavour), we’ve taken our tea out to the far reaches of space!

P.A. Cornell (She/Her) is an award-winning, Chilean-Canadian, speculative fiction author who was raised on a steady diet of books. When she was five years old she learned where all these books were coming from and decided then and there that writing was the path for her. She penned her first speculative story as a third-grade assignment: a science fiction piece about shape-shifting aliens. Over three decades later, she still has this story, which she keeps in her writing desk to remind her of how far she’s come.

Despite her early interest in fiction, her first publications were in non-fiction as a journalist and copy editor in Toronto, Canada. Since 2016, she’s dedicated herself to writing science fiction, fantasy, and horror full time. Her stories have appeared, or are forthcoming, in multiple genre magazines and anthologies, including Flame Tree Press’s Gothic Fantasy series, ZNB Presents, and Apex Magazine, to name a few. Her short story, “Splits,” first published in Cossmass Infinities, went on to win the 2022 Short Works Prize for Fiction. That same year she also published her debut science fiction novella, Lost Cargo, through Mocha Memoirs Press.

An avid collector of joyful moments, when not writing she can be found reading, drinking various varieties of tea in ridiculous quantities, building Lego sets (check out some of her builds on Instagram), hiking, making felt art, and watching movies, among other things. She also enjoys travel and hopes to do more of it in the future.

Cornell is a 2002 graduate of the Odyssey writing workshop, and full member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. She has lived in six cities across two continents but currently lives in Ontario, Canada in a home she shares with her husband, three kids, and two cats. The cats are named after two of her characters: “Jax” and “Rebel.” (Bonus points for anyone able to name the stories they appear in.)

Website: https://www.pacornell.com/
Twitter/Instagram/Facebook: @CornellWriter
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17347884.P_A_Cornell
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/P.-A.-Cornell/author/B074G52MGD?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

All purchase links and information for my novella, Lost Cargo: https://www.pacornell.com/lost-cargo.html.

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