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‘Cellar Door’ is the second release from Chimera’s Comics and is a collection of darker horror comics inspired by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft’s works and the ‘Twilight Zone’! The concept of the collection is that “in “Cellar Door,” an author retreats to a secluded manor to overcome his writer’s block. There he meets a hungry reader literally foaming at the mouth for his work. What follows are 15 stories the author must “feed” to his reader to keep himself alive.”

 

It is a fun anthology graphic novel in the works that should clock in at roughly 140 pages which is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter and will include 15 works of terror. Initially, a chain of comic shops in the suburbs of Chicago, the company has grown into a publishing house that has caught our eye.

 

Today, we’re sitting down with Carmelo Chimera who is a co-founder of the shops and publishing house!

Stuart Conover (SC): Carmelo, Thanks for sitting down with us today! Could you tell our readers a bit about how the idea for this collection came together?

Carmelo Chimera (CC): Thanks, Stuart. This collection grew out of our first work because we built a pretty large following around “Magnificent.” My friend Ryan Fleharty, who wrote one of the Cellar Door stories, pushed me to spearhead it. And it turned out, in our community were a lot of talented creators with a real passion for horror. So it felt a lot like a bunch of friends sitting around a campfire telling stories until finally, someone wrote it all down.

SC: One of our favorite “Trembling With Fear” contributors, Kevin M. Folliard is part of this project. How did you go about bringing the writers into the project which are attached to it?

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Ruschelle: Thank you for taking the time to chat with us at the Horror Tree!

Marc: It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Ruschelle: Your debut collection, Stories of High Strangeness, has been published by publishing newcomer Copypasta. Many stories we pen evolve from shreds of experiences, albeit fictionalized…well we hope. Where did you gain your inspiration for this collection?

Marc: My inspiration came from just wanting to tell good stories with unusual twists and turns. That is the overriding theme. When you read this collection, you won’t see any overriding theme. It’s not just one thing but ‘rather, a whole bunch of things. It’s, quite simply, a collection of stories. My approach to writing fiction is very organic. I come up with an idea, it rattles around in my head for a while and, if it continues to strike some kind of weird chord with me, I write it.

Ruschelle: You mentioned your early writing repertoire included selling rock musician interviews to magazines and underground newspapers. What was it like interviewing artists on the cutting edge of music in the 1960’s?

Marc: It was a gas! Interviewing an extremely loaded Ozzy Osbourne in his hotel room at 10 in the morning. Flying on The Who’s private touring plane to catch the band in Texas. Sneaking backstage at a concert at my college and walking right up to Cheech & Chong and asking for an interview for the college paper and getting nearly 45 minutes with them. It was still very new and exciting for the musicians and the journalists. I wrote for publications like The Los Angeles Free Press, Zoo World, Phonograph Record Magazine and Rock Around the World. The writers weren’t making a lot of money but, like I said, it was a gas!

Ruschelle: Your experiences sound awesome. You’re a music buff. What gets your creative blood pumping while writing? Does the type of music you listen to influence your writing style?

Marc: I’m probably the world’s oldest metal head. Put on Black Sabbath, Dio, Cirith Ungol. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, If it’s loud, dark and nasty I’m there. I’m also into 60’s psychedelia. If you’re old enough to remember bands like The Electric Prunes, The Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Standells, Love and just about any band out of San Francisco and Los Angeles, you know what I mean. I like movie soundtracks when they go to the dark, progressive side. I like The Exorcist and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly a lot. All that being said, when I write I write in silence. But more often than not the vibe from the music definitely winds up in a lot of my stories.

Ruschelle: Writing fiction is definitely a different monster than writing from a journalistic standpoint. Was there anything you learned or new skills you honed while conquering the fictional beast?

Marc: When you’re dealing with journalism or biographies, there’s an end game, a deadline that is always in your head. When you write fiction, the story is done when it’s done and not before. When I started to write short stories, the main thing I had to learn was get the story to the point where it works for me and then send it out into the world. I’m not a writer who talks about what he’s working on or even shows it to people when it’s done. My criterion has always been when somebody accepts it and publishes it, then the rest of the world can have it.

Ruschelle: If you could actually meet and hang out with the physical embodiment of any one of the characters you created, which one would it be? It’s the dude with the insatiable libido isn’t it? I bet he’d be fun at parties. LOL

Marc: There’s a lot of extreme, dangerous characters in my stories that if I saw them at a party or walking down the street, I would probably run the other way. Without giving too much away, the people in the stories Dose, What’s In A Name and Remember 85 are not the people one would want to spend too much time with. On the other hand, there are characters in the stories The Out Door, This Will Buy Us A Year and The Delicate Hours that I could probably be around for a while. Once you read those stories you’ll get an idea of where my head is at.

Ruschelle: Do you have another book of horror/fantasy/ Sci-Fi in the works?

Marc: I’ve got a few things that I’m playing around with that tend to lean towards horror and fantasy but are not quite ready to go out for consideration. Two chapbooks of poetry, Shakeout on Sex Street and Existential Jibber Jabbar, a full book of poetry, Melancholy Baby and a chapbook of short fiction called Out Of My Mind. I’ll know when it’s time to take a chance with them.

Ruschelle: Was there a defining moment in your life where you knew you wanted to write for a living?

Marc: Probably when I was 13. I was writing short stories, poetry and television scripts by that time. I didn’t know how good I was at that time but I knew I liked the idea of using my imagination to make magic. I also liked the way my byline looked on things. It would be seven years before I had anything published. But I knew the writing life was for me.

Ruschelle: Is there a topic you feel is too taboo to write about?

Marc: I will not do anything bad to children or animals. Otherwise it’s open season.

Ruschelle: As fiction writers and writers of the horror genre, we often write what we fear ourselves. What fears have ignited your writing?

Marc: The six o’clock news has always been a good jumping off point for me. The way humanity behaves on a daily basis has brought up more than one idea and a shudder on occasion. But finally, the fear that drives me is to wake up one day and have my imagination stripped from me. Fear of not having an idea is what, creatively, keeps me one step ahead of the Devil.

Ruschelle: You’ve written over 60 unofficial biographies of celebrities. That’s quite a few lives to get to know. Which artist started it all?

Marc: Way back in the day, I approached a UK publisher of rock music biographies called Omnibus Press about doing one of their rock books. I received a polite letter back informing me that they normally only use UK authors. But the very last line of the letter said that they were in fact contemplating doing a book on The Eagles and would I be interested? I couldn’t say yes fast enough.

Ruschelle: The Eagles = ROCK ICONS! Was there anything you researched for your biographies that surprised a seasoned journalist like you?

Marc: When you’re dealing with Hollywood types nothing really surprises you after a certain point. My only advice to would be stars would be to save your money and don’t believe it will last forever. Because it rarely does. And that goes for authors too.

Ruschelle: Do you feel any ‘real life’ events from your autobiographies may sneak into your next bit of fiction? The names and specifics to be changed to protect the innocent of course.

Marc: If they have, it’s been on a subliminal level. But Icons have made occasional appearances. I used a real NFL team as a cornerstone to a short story entitled Cut Down Daze that was published a while back and I channeled a number of music personalities by name for a horror poem that will be coming out later this year called Night Rider.

Ruschelle: If you could co-write a book with any author who would it be? And let’s make it an attainable goal and let’s keep it in the realm of the living. Seances and invoking the dead never ends well.

Marc: That’s a tough one because all my influences have long since gone to the great beyond. I’m old school. I firmly believe in one writer/one vision.  If I could resurrect the dead we might be here all night. Charles Bukowski, Rod Serling, H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury any and all of the Beats. Those are my literary gods.

Ruschelle: And literary gods they are. We all learn with age and experience. Well we’re supposed to anyway. In regards to writing and the writing experience, what do you wish you knew then that you know now?

Marc: That’s a toughie because we never really stop learning. As it pertains to the business…To be smarter about things like contracts, money, people. I learned that if you’re serious about writing for a living, you stop writing for no pay and exposure early on. I’ve worked for next to nothing but I stopped working for nothing eons ago. I wish I had been a bit braver in the early days, more willing to take chances. As I’ve gotten older I’ve adopted a say yes to just about any offer and let the chips fall where they may. I know I learned quite a bit about the writing business the day an editor pulled a gun on me when I was trying to collect the $20 he owed me. And that was how to duck.

Ruschelle: Learning to duck is never a bad lesson, LOL.  What do you find more challenging, fiction or journalism?

Marc: Both forms have their moments. Journalism can be like a good detective story, tracking down the facts and the people who can shed light on the person you’re writing about. Fiction forces you to stretch your imagination and conceive of ideas, notions and characters and yet have it all make some kind of sense or logic at the end. When I’m writing fiction, my head is in one space. When it’s journalism, it’s in another.

Ruschelle: Rejection is definitely a pill we hate to open our mouths to swallow. Being a seasoned writer do those rejections get any easier? What do you suggest for authors starting out when they receive the dreaded- ‘It’s not you it’s us’ email?

Marc: First realize that rejection is a part of the process. I had a couple of short story submissions kicked back in the last week. You get the twinges the first couple of times but, if you’re intent on a long-term career, you immediately forget about it and send the story someplace else. If you’ve given your best effort, the chances are good your work will find a home.

Ruschelle: Exactly. Eventually writer’s stories find the home they’re meant to have. You’re a New York Times bestselling author. Kudos! Many authors aspire to have those little words swirl around their bios. So, tell us what has that prestigious phrase done for your career?

Marc: My ego was on fire for a few days. It is an emotional and psychological lift like you would not believe. I spent a month picking up The New York Times every Sunday just so I could chart the progress of my book. But eventually reality brings you back to earth. You’ve got deadlines to make, bills to pay, lawns to mow and a dog to walk. But making The New York Times bestseller list is definitely a memory that stays with you forever.

Ruschelle: Since you’re lucky enough to write for a living, you probably have some sort of schedule or ritual. What’s your typical work day like?

Marc: There really is no typical work day for me. It depends on whether I’m on deadline with a biography or at a more leisurely pace with a short story or a poem. But more often then not, I’m up fairly early in the morning, work for 3-4 hours, take a walk for about an hour, then back to work for another 4-5 hours. A good day for me is 1000 words on whatever I’m working on. I once had to write a 50,000 word manuscript in three weeks. Needless to say, I was pulling 15 hour days on that one.

Ruschelle: Is there any one piece of advice you’d like to impart to struggling writers out there who are attempting to embark on writing as a career?

Marc: Write every day. When you’re not writing, read anything you can lay your hands on. It’s cool to go to parties and tell people you’re a writer. But if you’re not serious about it, you’re doomed to fail. Go with your gut at all times. Treat writing as both a creative art and a business but be able to separate the two. You don’t want to be thinking about the business when you’re knee deep in the creative process. And vice versa. Writing for a living is a dream come true.  But you’d better take it seriously and be prepared to walk the walk.

Ruschelle: What can your new found fans look forward to from you in the future?

Marc: The future is now. You can get Stories Of High Strangeness (Copypasta Publishing) on Amazon, Smashwords, Roku, Kobo and Barnes & Noble.com. My latest celebrity biography Renaissance Man: The Lin Manuel Miranda Story (Riverdale Avenue Books) is available through Amazon, Smashwords and a bunch of the usual book selling sites. I have poems in upcoming issues of Disturbed Digest and Night To Day. Then there’s something that I’m currently working on that I’m not at liberty to talk about. Yet.

Ruschelle: Thank you so much for your time and wisdom.

Marc: This was fun. Let’s do it again some time.

Marc Shapiro can be reached through Copypasta Publishing at [email protected].

 

Alyson – Hi Deborah and welcome to the Horror Tree. Can you tell us a little about yourself and what got you started as an author?

Deborah – I live in Melbourne, Australia, and I’ve been a professional writer for over 30 years. As a pre-schooler, I used to draw my stories or act them out with toys. At the age of about 11, I realised I wanted to be a writer. Without writing, I would be lost.

I sold my first piece of writing – a feature article about steroids in bodybuilding – when I started my Bachelor of Arts degree in 1986. After university, I travelled overseas and ended up in London writing for a paper. When I got back to Melbourne, I segued from feature articles to TV writing, and spent four years or so researching, writing and script-editing various Australian television programs. After that, I focused my energies on medical writing, scriptwriting and non-fiction books.

In 2005, I sold my first short story, and soon after began writing fiction in earnest. I shifted from crime fiction to horror in 2014. Since then, my work has been shortlisted for numerous Australian Shadows Awards and Aurealis Awards, long-listed for a Bram Stoker Award, and included in various ‘best of’ anthologies.

 

Alyson – You’ve written across a range of genres, but what is it about writing horror that attracts you?

Deborah – The challenge. Film or TV uses not just the script but visuals, audio and music to achieve jump scares. It’s tough to frighten or creep out someone with just printed words on a page. The horror genre also attracts me because it explores the terrors of being human. Knowing that one random day you will die and rot, and – even worse – the same fate will befall the ones you love is difficult to accept. We have to live in a weird and constant state of denial just to get out of bed every morning.

And lastly, horror writing is cathartic. I can’t tell you how many terrible experiences, memories, anxieties and fears I’ve ‘exorcised’ via my computer keyboard. A psychiatrist reading my horror fiction could have a field day.

 

Alyson – What are your favourite horror films? Do they inspire any of your stories?

Deborah – I have a great love for old Hollywood black-and-white films. The censorship at the time meant that writers and directors couldn’t show violence, sex or gore. With no choice but to rely on story, dialogue, pacing, mood, and lighting, they delivered incredible films that, in my opinion, leave most of today’s horror films in the dust.

A favourite of mine is The Body Snatcher starring Boris Karloff in what was, I think, one of his first roles without prosthetics or heavy makeup. Creepy, atmospheric, chilling; you can’t tear your eyes away from the screen for a second. Another favourite, also produced by Val Lewton, is Cat People. The shoestring budget didn’t allow for special effects, so the ‘werecat’ sequences used sound effects, shadows and suspense. The first time I viewed this film – just a few years ago – I had to watch the scary parts through my fingers like a kid! And of course, Hitchcock’s Psycho is a tour de force that needs no introduction.

And then there are scenes from so many other old films that stay with me: the heroine being led through the sugarcane fields in I Walked with a Zombie; the one unexpected jump-scare in The Thing From Another World that made me yelp and literally jump off the couch in fright; the shadow advancing up the stairs in Nosferatu; and when the heroine is swimming freestyle in The Creature from the Black Lagoon while the creature is a few metres below her, unseen, watching her, matching her stroke for stroke: *shudder* I could go on and on! There are too many more to mention.

My favourite relatively-modern horror film is John Carpenter’s The Thing. Yes, it is intensely gory and shocking, but it’s the script that amazes me. It’s a superbly written and nerve-wracking study of identity, trust, and paranoia. Other favourites: The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Alien, and Aliens. Oh, and let’s not forget Predator. Have I missed any? Probably. Too many to mention.

All horror films inform my writing, but particularly the older ones. A lot can be done with setting, characters and dialogue to provoke goose bumps, and the classic film-makers knew – and often invented – the tricks.

 

Alyson – Can you tell our readers who are your favourite authors?

Deborah – Once again, far too many to mention them all by name!

I’m a voracious reader of short stories, so I’m constantly devouring anthologies and collections, both new and classic, and admiring the skill of the writers. Perhaps one of the best anthologies I’ve ever read is Dead of Night: the best of Midnight Echo magazine. Australia and New Zealand have tremendously talented horror writers, and this anthology is all the proof you’ll ever need. (Please note: I happen to have a story in this one, but that hasn’t skewed my opinion. Purchase a copy and see for yourself.)

Some of my favourite horror novels include The Handmaid’s Tale, The Haunting of Hill House, The Shining, The Life and Loves of a She Devil, The Exorcist, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Silence of the Lambs, Rebecca, and a few hundred others.

 

Alyson – Do you have a particular routine to your writing day? Or a special place you write in?

Deborah – I’m an advocate of the ‘Pavlov’s dog’ method: provoke a response by association. For the past 23 years or so that I’ve lived in this house, I have always written in my study. While the furniture and computer may have been updated a few times, the arrangement stays the same. The window is to my right and the door to my left. From sheer repetition, every time I sit in my chair in front of the keyboard, I’m psychologically ready to write. Just like Pavlov’s dog, salivating to the sound of a bell.

 

Alyson – Do you have a favourite among the books and stories you’ve written?

Deborah – The book or story I’m writing at the moment is always my favourite! I can’t pick any that I prefer over the others. Each piece carries the experience of writing it, the moods I had at the time, the challenges of the subject matter. Each book or story held my full attention and passion during its creation.

 

Alyson – How much research do you do for your projects?

Deborah – It depends on the project. The most research-intensive was my horror novel, Devil Dragon. I had to learn about palaeontology, herpetology, and gun usage; three topics I knew absolutely nothing about. I wanted the story to be as realistic as possible within its fantasy framework, so once I had exhausted my own methods of research, I reached out to professionals. I’m very grateful to the herpetologists and the CEO of the Sporting Shooters’ Association of Australia who offered their time to check my first draft for technical accuracy.

Similarly, for my horror novella, Thylacines, I needed to learn about de-extinction science and somatic cell nuclear transplantation – but just enough to give the story the feel of authenticity. I spent the most time researching the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, to make sure my genetically-modified versions were authentic to a credible degree.

On the other hand, some projects require a different kind of research altogether: a digging into one’s own experiences. My horror novel Contrition, due out mid-year, has two timelines: the present day and the mid-eighties. For the latter, I drew upon memories of my teenage years. In fact, a few people who went to high school with me might even recognise a couple of events, fictionalised and reimagined though they are.

 

Alyson – How does living in Australia, its landscape and people, shape your stories?

Deborah – Being Australian informs my writing in every conceivable way. It shapes my language, my settings, themes, subject matter, characters – the whole shebang! As an Aussie, I feel the only stories I can truthfully write are Aussie stories. As a reader, I love stories that immerse me into a foreign setting, and that’s what I try to achieve in my own fiction.

My novella Thylacines is about the carnivorous Tasmanian tiger, an Australian marsupial hunted to extinction some eighty years ago. I’ve since learned that not many people – including Australians – know of the Tassie tiger. The same thing happened with Devil Dragon, my novel about a gargantuan reptile that roamed Australia during the Mega Fauna age when all animals were giants. (Ducks were as big as ostriches.) A few readers expressed surprise that such a monster had ever existed.

My collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories includes quintessentially Australian animals and myths, such as the cassowary (a huge, cantankerous bird with claws that can disembowel) and the yowie (Australia’s version of Bigfoot or the Yeti). To me, writing Australian stories is a way of bringing fresh material to readers.

I believe that a writer should be a product of their environment. This is what the old adage ‘Write what you know’ means to me: be authentic to your own voice. Writers in the United States are experts at documenting their own culture, in all its beauty and ugliness, and I greatly admire their pride and honesty.

 

Alyson – February is ‘Women in Horror’ month here at Horror Tree and elsewhere of course. Why is ‘Women in Horror’ month important?

Deborah – Go into any bookshop and you’ll find a shelf labelled ‘Women’s Fiction’. What you won’t ever find is a shelf labelled ‘Men’s Fiction’. The expectation still lingers that men write across all genres including horror, crime and action, while women are confined to chick lit and romance. I think that’s why some female writers use pseudonyms or initials to hide their gender – they fear being dismissed.

‘Women in Horror’ month is important because it reminds readers that women can and do write butt-kicking, brutal, gruesome, creepy, hair-raising stories.

I don’t think I’ve experienced sexism within the fiction publishing industry – or if I did, it was too subtle for me to notice. My one memorable experience was an editor who told me, ‘Wow, Deb, you write like a man!’ Generally speaking, publishers just want good stories and solid author platforms – they don’t care about gender. The ‘Women in Horror’ month is one way to help nudge readers in the same direction.

 

Alyson – Writing is a solitary business. How do you interact with other authors?

Deborah – I always have a few projects on the go at once, so I correspond daily with other writers, editors and publishers via email.

I’ve also been a member of various writing groups over the past 10 years or so. I think it’s important to workshop your writing amongst people who are roughly at the same level of proficiency. A fresh pair of eyes can help you polish your prose, and critiquing someone else’s work hones your editing and storytelling skills. Naturally, the workshops involve a lot of chatting and laughing too…

However, most of my workshopping these days is done over the phone. One of my goals this year is to socialise a lot more face-to-face. So, in short, yes, writing is a solitary business!

 

Alyson – Do you have a preference between writing short stories for a collection such as your 2017’s Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories or for writing longer works? Do you plan each project by word length beforehand?

Deborah – I honestly don’t have a preference. I love all types of fiction. The demands of short story writing are very different to those of novel writing. Without the luxury of length, a short story must be incredibly precise and balanced. You need to work hard to achieve an emotional impact within just a few pages. The central challenge of the novel, on the other hand, is to find enough substance in your story to keep it running at top speed right to the end. Beginnings are easy. Endings are easy. It’s that long, daunting middle part that’s tricky.

To stave off boredom and writer’s block, I mix up my projects. For example, I might write half a dozen short stories in a row, then work on a longer-form project like a novella or novel.

Yes, I plan each project by word length beforehand. It’s a hangover from my two decades or so as a scriptwriter and freelance journalist. Typically, a 30-minute script for a TV series is about 22 minutes long, built around two commercial breaks. As a scriptwriter, you can’t get creative with that formula! You have to nail the timing or else the script editors are going to scream – and never hire you again. The same goes for a feature article. The magazine editor allocates pages in advance based on your pitched word length. If you promise an article 5000 words long but submit 10,000 or 2500 words instead, the magazine editor will pass on all your future pitches because you can’t be trusted to deliver.

Some writers have asked me if planning my word length beforehand is restrictive. On the contrary, I find it liberating. One of the core challenges to fiction is figuring out how to pin down your story. Deciding on its length is one way to set parameters.

 

Alyson – You have the bio-horror novella Thylacines out already this year. Do you have other books coming out later in 2018? Can you give us a taster of what to expect please?

Deborah – Oscillate Wildly Press has re-released my petite collection, 300 Degree Days and Other Stories, originally published by the award-winning Ginninderra Press in 2014. I would describe the collection as literary with a melancholic bent. Most stories were previously published in well-respected Australian magazines including Quadrant, Island, [untitled], and Tincture Journal. The back-of-the-book blurb reads:

Sheldon’s stories lift the skin of small, suburban lives to expose the raw nerves beneath. Her writing is intimate, compelling and alarming… – The Short Review UK.

Sometimes, the ties that bind are sharp enough to cut. In these eleven stories, set in contemporary Australian suburbia, Deborah Sheldon examines the darker side of family relationships. Unsettling and incisively written, each story of betrayal, envy, loss or bad blood resonates for a long time after reading.

Mid-year, IFWG Publishing Australia is releasing my horror novel, Contrition. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, so here’s the back-of-the-book blurb:

In her late teens, Meredith Berg-Olsen had had all the makings of a runway model. Now in her late forties, after everything she had been through – including horrors that John could only guess at – she looked bloodless instead of pale, skeletal instead of slender, more dead than alive...

John Penrose has two secrets. One is the flatmate he keeps hidden from the world: his high-school sweetheart, Meredith. His other secret is the reason he feels compelled to look after her.

Contrition is a horror story with noir undertones and an atmosphere of mounting dread.

 

Alyson – What are you working on currently as we speak?

Deborah – I have the bulk of my work schedule roughly mapped out for 2018.

First, a horror short story based on my very recent experience of major abdominal surgery. (Yep, I’m still recovering. Ouch.)

Second, a horror novel with plenty of high-voltage action.

Third, I will again be taking part in the Australasian Horror Writers Association’s mentorship program, which will run for about three months. I will be assigned a mentee who is keen to develop their (horror) writing skills to a professional level. I had a great time being a mentor last year in the program’s inaugural run, and I’m looking forward to meeting my new mentee sometime around mid-year.

Lastly, I have a short play being performed in a festival next month. I enjoy playwriting as a break from prose, so I’ll submit a few scripts to other festivals throughout the year and see what happens.

I occasionally write non-fiction articles, so I might do some of those too.

But my schedule is always flexible. You have to yield to the ebb and flow of your desires. If something demands to be written, you must put aside everything else and write the piece while it’s hot.

 

Alyson – What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Deborah – Focus on the output, not the outcome. By this, I mean focus your energies on writing, not your publication success or failure. Make goals and keep yourself accountable. Setting a minimum word count for the week is a good habit to cultivate. (Mine is 2500 words of a publishable standard, not just first draft.)

Always remember that you are writing for the love of it. Publication, recognition and money may not come for a very long time, if at all. The marketplace is crowded. Thousands of new books are published every day. Rejection rates are high. Don’t focus on these outcomes or you will become discouraged. Concentrate on your output, on improving your writing. Read, read, read. Take it in and learn.

Follow your heart. Write what you want, not what you think the market will buy. Be true to your own voice.

 

Alyson – Where can readers follow you online?

Deborah – My website is the most up-to-date source of information on my writing. Visit http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com to browse my titles. Please sign up for my newsletter! The button is on my homepage. You will receive monthly updates, news and giveaways.

I’m not on Facebook myself, but IFWG Publishing Australia runs a Facebook page on my behalf: https://www.facebook.com/Deborah-Sheldon-936388749723500/

And I love being friended on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3312459.Deborah_Sheldon

If you want to drop me a line, email me at: [email protected]

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my interview. I hope you found it interesting!

Thank you so much for your time, Deborah!

Liz – I’d like to introduce you to author, actor, and all-round nice-guy, Ace Antonio Hall!

Ace, tell us a little bit about your part of the world?

Ace – I live in South Pasadena, California, which is about one of the best places in SoCal an author can live. It’s neighbor, Pasadena, is rumored to had been the first “Beverly Hills”. The people here are great, the Target stores out here have the best popcorn for your buck, and the jogging trails from South Pasadena to San Gabriel are awe-inspiring. I mean, to capture a California sunset in South Pasadena is to hold an angel’s wings with bated breath.

Liz – that certainly paints a picture! What do you enjoy most about writing?

Ace – I love the fact that anything, is possible. A writer has the chance to create worlds, and beyond. Take for example, the way Laurell K. Hamilton created the power of the ardor for her character Anita Blake. How she came up with that idea can be argued over many a margarita, but the fact that it’s so imaginative has to inspire horror, science fiction, and romance novelists, whether on their first manuscript of their twentieth. That power to create, to manipulate a reader’s mind, to scare them, to make them cry, and even better, to put my character through as much turmoil as possible, makes me get up nearly every morning at four a.m. to write. People don’t care how much you know, until they KNOW how much you care! Well, I love, love, love to read, and I love, love, love to write.

I always tell my fellow writers when I’m speaking on panels, “When you get some free time, write. When you get some lazy time, plan. When you get down time, world build. When your time comes, shine!”

Liz – Glad to see another 4am riser! It’s the best time of the day to write, in my opinion. Would you say creativity is in your blood?

Ace – That is something that I’ll let you decide. I have been fortunate to over-the-years to come up with a few ideas that have been very imaginative, and many more that have not been as imaginative.

Liz – You’ve stated, ‘Not only must a writer be an avid reader, but one who reads a ton in their areas of writing’ – can you elaborate on this?

Ace – A very fine teacher, and former literary agent, Denise Dumars, was the first person to look at my horrid first novel, back in 2009. I remember her saying, “Ace, we call this a kitchen-sink novel. It has everything in it except the kitchen sink. But it doesn’t seem like you even read in your genre. It is horror, isn’t it?” she asked. That’s because it had spies, monsters, natural disasters, action, and whatever else I could throw in, as a novice, thinking it would make it better to mix all the genres I loved to read.

Denise gave me the best advice ever, and I started reading horror novels, namely in the undead sub-genre, and what I learned after reading well over fifty novels and short stories, was the tropes, the language, the rules, the voice, different styles, the scares, what was standard, what was over-used, and what was paying homage to that genre so much so, that it became innate in my very being. After about a year of reading only in the genre I wanted to write, was I able to, not only recreate what I’d learned and was inspired by, but create, from my own personal experiences and imagination, only something that I COULD WRITE.

Liz – That’s some good advice I think all of us as authors could take on.

What motivated you to study screenwriting at college?

Ace – When I was maybe, eight or nine years old, I made monster comic books with my artist friend Johnny Bryant, and dreamed of seeing my stories on the big screen. My favorite comics to draw were Godzilla, and I developed my own set of super heroes. I knew that if I’d gotten some formal training, it would better-prepare me for the future. A lot of my friends who are writers never needed that kind of formal training, but can tell you every plot line that Larry Niven has ever written. Me, I wasn’t so good reciting and analyzing an author’s work, but by studying with masters of their craft, I developed better technique that translated into what many of my readers call a “visual style” of writing.

Liz – You’ve had an impressive career in education – you taught middle school English for 10 years, before moving to Los Angeles to take on the role of director of education for the Sylvan Learning Centre – has this experience benefited or influenced your writing?

Ace – I think it has. Being immersed in the psychology of children, their likes, their concerns, their troubles, their tragedies, and their future, molded certain principles and themes in my writing like abandonment, growing up in single-parent homes, or homes with strong matriarchs and weak patriarchs, their language, and their dreams. One of my stories, published by Bard and Sages, called Raising Mary: Frankenstein is about a dying girl with a last wish to have her dead relative, Mary Shelley, raised from the grave. I wouldn’t had harnessed the magic of a young girl’s imagination had I not taught children.

Liz – You then decided to leave your education career behind you in order to pursue writing and acting – was it a hard decision to make?

Ace – Yes, it was! Simply because it was a decision to leave behind a stable 80 grand-a-year job to hustle as a stand-in actor for sometimes 1,500 a week, to sometimes nothing when the show got canceled in a very unstable profession. However, I needed the free time to think, create, develop and polish my craft. Being an English teacher where you take your work home (reading and grading up to 120 student essays/stories), and leading a multi-million-dollar institution as a director at the Sylvan Learning Center was just too demanding and if it weren’t for my dear friend, Jane Eugene, from the iconic British Soul group, Loose Ends, encouraging me to follow my dreams and write, that dark hole of regret that was growing in my soul would have enveloped my entire being by now. I’d be a walking cesspool of bitterness.

Liz – Sometimes you just have to take the chance and trust that the universe has your back.

A TV show named Creature Features captured your attention from a young age – what was it about the show that stood out and how has that influenced your writing?

Ace – Lol. This interview has the best line of questioning I’ve ever had the pleasure of answering! Another great question, Liz. Partly because it proves you’ve shown an interest for your subject and that is probably one of the most flattering things an interviewer can do. (Liz – Why, thank you, Ace!) Yes! Yes! Yes! I loved Creature Features. I was always enamored by the possibilities of putting people in situations where fear drives them into even more danger. The Creature from the Black Lagoon and so many other films that came on that program shaped my warped imagination. Those programs gave me the foundation to scare the heck out of my readers with the fantastical.

Liz – Confessions of Sylva Slasher debuted in 2013, courtesy of Montag Press, what influenced you to write a young adult zombie novel?

Ace – Would you believe me if I told you it started out as a story about a woman trying to overcome breast cancer? How it turned into an eighteen-year-old necromancer fighting just as many as her own personal demons as the monsters of the world, I don’t know. What I can tell you is that Sylva Slasher would never had been born had it not been for Anita Blake, nor Bruce Lee. I wanted to create a female teen Bruce Lee with a twist of horror and that’s who I came up with. The first novel I ever read was Escape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key that featured a female protagonist. That has never gotten out of my system. I guess it didn’t hurt to have crushes on Wonder Woman and Batgirl when I grew up, either. Wasn’t the Wonder Woman film awesome? Gal Gadot is so beautiful, and her acting in the movie was top-rate. What a great film for DC. But as everyone who knows me knows, I’m a huge Spider-Man and Marvel fan. So “Avengers Assemble! “-nuff said.

Liz – Now that is a kick-ass assembly of inspiring characters. Is it true that you believe we have entered the ‘Golden Age of Zombies?’

Ace – Awesome Question, Liz! Yes, just like the Golden Age of Hollywood, which started in 1927 with the Jazz Singer, we are seeing a prolific paradigm shift in zombie theatrical and TV releases. The same way that I credit Christopher Nolan by changing the superhero game in 2005 with Batman Begins by, not making a superhero movie per se, but a dramatic film with the protagonist happening to be a superhero, and thus lifting the genre to a greater cinematic quality, the October 31, 2010 debut of Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard’s The Walking Dead, did the same for the undead genre and brought us into the Golden Age of Zombies. Look at the film World War Z? Clearly, one of the best ever!

I will add though, that Shinji Mikami’s survival horror video game Resident Evil, released by Capcom in 1996, is the catalyst for the zombie craze. He re-birthed the fascinating world that George Romero made famous and infected the young world with, to this day, the scariest video game I ever played. Playing that game was the first time I jumped clear out of my skin and up on the ceiling. I made everyone else in the room who watched me play jump from pure fright, too. Awesome! We are now in an era that the undead films and projects are made with better plots, characters and stories. Hear ye! Hear ye! It is definitely the Golden Era.

Liz – I couldn’t play Resident Evil as a child – far too scary for me, back in the day! You’ve also published a number of short stories, do you have a favourite, and why?

Ace – Yes, I’ve been fortunate to have had a dozen or so stories published in the last year. Many of them you can find on my website at AAntonioHall.com/books. I think my favorite is the one published by Bard and Sages, Society of Misfit Stories, Raising Mary: Frankenstein, because it involved so many emotional elements in the story, as well as fantastical moments. I guarantee that once you meet my character, Dresy Swansea, you’ll see why the story was nominated in 2016 as “Horror Story of the Year” by Preditors and Editors, and was on the Reading List for the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards in 2016-2017.

Liz – You’ve also seen success with your acting, including working as a stand-in for shows such as Son of Zorn, and How to Get Away with Murder. Can you tell us a little about your experiences? How does it feel to see your goals unfolding?

Ace – I always joke that I’ve lived a Forest Gump life in that I been associated with some of the most iconic personas in history: I danced with Madonna in a club called The World, hung out at Michael Jackson’s house because I once gave Rebbie Jackson’s daughter, Yashi, a vocal lesson at their home in Woodland Hills, CA, and was welcome to her son, Austin’s, high school graduation party. Check this out: I was in charge of seating Prince, and welcomed him to B.B. King’s nightclub at the Citywalk when I was a promoter there. I lived with N’Sync’s and Britney Spears’ co-manager, Doug Brown, and got to saw them all the time in the studio.

I managed an artist named Asu the Mike Tightner, who did a few songs with Tupac, and produced an underground video featuring he and 2Pac. I had a father who wrote the lyrics to “So What” by Miles Davis that led me to meet the iconic Cicely Tyson and hear her tell me stories about Miles Davis, and omigod, had one of the most talented actresses in TV and Film today, Viola Davis ask me to be HER Facebook friend. I thought it was a hoax and when I asked her did she friend me, she said, “And I’ve been waiting for you to to friend me!” I ran right to my phone and accepted. Lol. I mean, I got a lap dance from Ashley Graham with her husband sitting right next to me when I stood in for NeYo on Lip Sync Battle for rehearsal, and that was crazy! Yeah, it was definitely mind-blowing to play the talented, smart and absolutely beautiful Vanessa Williams’ boyfriend in Desperate Housewives, but truly, writing is my passion.

Life has dealt me some cool cards, and my life, if anything, has been extremely exciting, but in all honestly, all I really ever wanted was to write entertaining stories good enough that even the great authors of today could nod to, and appreciate.

Liz – You have an impressive portfolio of connections, that’s for sure. But to have a legit friend request from Viola Davis!? I’m beyond fangirling over here… you have no idea, haha! With so much success with both, do you prefer, writing or acting? Why?

Ace – Writing: Because I read to inhale, and I write to exhale. Creating stories is the way I breathe. Writing is why I exist. And I want the world to experience my stories as much and as many times as they possibly can. I want to create worlds that people can delve into and disappear.; stories that stay with my readers forever, and mold the way the see things.

Liz – ‘Because I read to inhale, and I write to exhale.’ – I really like that! Sounds like something I should have pinned to the top of my computer monitor. Do you find the ability to act helps with developing characters in your stories?

Ace – Not my acting, but watching great actors, like Viola Davis, and Alfie Enoch, inspires me to create nuances and emotions in characters that are borne from the struggles of the choices they made with their character’s past. I’ve worked with Damon Wayans, Jr. probably more than fifty times, and it’s always great to see how he approaches his characters. He’s a strong actor and a natural comic. It allows me to think about creating characters that are compelling and entertaining.

Liz – Liz – Damon Wayans, Jr. is hilarious! I came across a little random fact about you and have to ask – how did you come to play the music for New Kid’s on the Block’s remix of ‘Dirty Dawg’? (I’m a massive NKOTB fan from way back! I’m not kidding…I had my wedding to Joey McIntyre mapped out and everything…)

Ace – You are too funny! One of my homies, the legendary Greg Nice, from the hip-hop duo, Nice and Smooth asked me to do the music. We recorded it in D&D Studios on 37^th Street in Manhattan. Again, another iconic musical group that I’ve had the pleasure to be associated with was New Kids on the Block. In hindsight, I wished I’d done more with the track. But Greg was happy with the keyboard parts that I did, and then he added the magic that he always does with his records. To this day, it is the record I made the most money off of, and although I didn’t get credit on the record, everyone who’s anyone knows I did the keys on it. I can’t tell how much of an honor it was, and feel indebted to Greg Nice for asking me to do it. Remember when NKOTB had four albums on the charts at the same time? They were bigger than big, back in the day.

Liz – They certainly were! I’m not ashamed to admit I have an NKOTB playlist on my Spotify…Tell us about the inspiration behind your latest release, Lord of the Flies -Fitness for Writers.

Ace – In 2008, I’d gotten to the point where my waist was an unhealthy 38” and I was up to 210 pounds. After my niece teased me about my “man-boobs”, I decided that enough was enough and started a lifestyle that combined fitness, healthier eating (because I still enjoy peach cobbler, but my diet was consistently HEALTHIER than it had been), detoxing, and better sleeping habits. Eventually, I got my waist down to 29” and my weight to 164 pounds.

After six years of that lifestyle, I’d gotten the rep for being a generally healthy guy, and I was approached by the Editor of Omnium Gatherum to do a fitness workshop for the 2017 StokerCon, back in March 2016. That Halloween at a Horror Writers Association party, she asked me to write a book as a compliment to the workshop. I wasn’t confident that I could pull it off, but went for it, and couldn’t have been happier with the results. I sold out of the book in the first two hours of release, on February 25^th at StokerCon!

Liz – What a brilliant result! You must be so proud! What inspired you to put together the video, 24 Cali Fitness (a music parody of Bruno Mars’ 24k Magic) What was the process like in putting it together?

Ace – A friend of mine, a 16X Jiu Jitsu World Champion, loved Bruno Mars, and infected me with her love of his music. He’s a great artist and a terrific performer. It didn’t take long before I became a big fan of his art. I called up a friend of mine who cast me a few times in theatrical projects that featured the beautiful and talented actress, Shanti Lowry (The Game, Family Time) and asked her to direct it. She pulled in director, Dale Stelly, celebrity choreographer, Jabari Odom (Mariah Carey, Ginuine, Chris Brown), and John (Good Times) Amos’ son, KC Amos, to edit the project. I was blown away at the prospect of working with so many talented professionals of that industry.

The next thing I knew, Jane Eugene from Loose Ends was singing on it, and the original member/songwriter from the Commodores, Dave Cochrane, co-produced it with me. The record got some radio play in Las Vegas on KCEP Power 88 FM. It only got about 1,600 hits total between my website, and the other YouTube versions, so it wasn’t a big hit like all the other 24K Magic parodies, but I had a lot of fun doing it. What many people don’t know is that I had laminectomy back surgery two days after the video shoot, and as much as I wanted to get in tip-top shape for the video couldn’t, because of pre-surgery restrictions. So, my tummy looked “out-of-shape”, but I took it all in as a funny parody, and didn’t mind people laughing at the concept.

The process: Lawdy, Lawdy! There were so many fires I had to put out, being that I was also funding the video myself, and the entire experience probably added more gray hairs on my head, but if I had to do it all again, I would (with someone else’s money, though). It was an amazing experience and I’m so grateful to Amber Schwartz and Shanti Lowry for doing the project. Those two incredible women made the 24 Cali Fitness video special. I’m indebted to them, forever.

Liz – You’ve also recently undertaken your first major radio interview in Los Angeles, which must have been exciting – how did it come about?

Ace – Nice and Smooth was in town doing a few shows, and I hung out with them. The Legendary Holiday was their deejay, and I played the song for him. He loved it! The rest is history. He played the song, a couple of times, and loved it so much, he said he’d put it in rotation. When I was up in Vegas, I gave him a call and he had me come down to the radio station for an exclusive interview. I can NOT tell you the emotional outburst of humility and gratefulness I felt when I was driving in the streets of Las Vegas, listening to the radio and all of a sudden heard my song come on the radio in between a Janet Jackson song and Beyoncé song! It was one of the most memorable moments of the year, next to having Omnium Gatherum release my book, Lord of the Flies: Fitness for Writers! To hear my song on a popular FM radio station was incredible!

Liz – Since you’ve embarked on your writing journey, have you met anyone who has influenced and/or mentored you?

Ace – Two people I credit with mentoring me in the “Write” direction was: Heather Graham, Alexandra Sokoloff and Robert J. Sawyer. Heather was the first author I met, back in 2008, and immediately we clicked. I met her at the WeHo Book Fair, and she told me about HWA. She gave me her email address and was so nice to answer any questions I had, and gave me great advice. I met Robert J. Sawyer on the set of Flash Forward, and we also immediately hit it off. He has been a great influence, and friend.

The Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (GLAWS) president, Tony N. Todaro has probably had the most influence on me through his group. He took me in, elected me Vice-President and offered me the most substantial programs that novice writers need. I learned about the business, met industry professionals, developed marketing tactics, spoke on dozens of writing panels, helped run conferences and crafted my writing all because of his organization, GLAWS.

Liz – What’s next on your busy agenda?

Ace – I just got back this morning (June 26^th) from speaking at a conference at the University of Pacific in Stockton. I love Scott Evans’ writing conference. He does great promotion and the second I step out of the car, am treated like royalty. The people up there know me, and I love that. My panels are always filled, and I always am able to offer help to many writers.

This month, I’m finishing up an untitled horror novel (maybe I’ll call it Feeder), about a young troubled dhampir (half-human, half-vampire) who is investigating a homicide that may be connected to a string of child abductions and becomes personally involved when her own siblings are kidnapped. It isn’t until the ghost of her deceased mother “Feeds” her clues that she begins to gain an advantage on the killer, and get a step closer to saving her younger brother and sister before something happens to them. I’ve already finished the book, and am now in the fourth draft editing the manuscript. My goal is to be done with the novel by September.

Liz – Wow! That sounds fascinating – I can’t wait to read it! Thank you so much for your time!

If you would like to know more about Ace, or check out his work, click on the below links.

 

Download 24 Cali Fitness Free: https://www.aantoniohall.com/links

Lord of the Flies: Fitness for Writers – https://www.amazon.com/Lord-Flies-Ace-Antonio-Hall/dp/0997971754/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494565518&sr=8-1&keywords=fitness+for+writers

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7091539.Ace_Antonio_Hall

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LordoftheFliesFitnessBook/
Twitter https://twitter.com/fitness4writers
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aceantoniohall/
Official Website https://www.instagram.com/aceantoniohall/