Enjoy this Author Interview between Author Erik C. Hanson & host Ivana Sanders about his perception of the horror genre, his passion for writing fiction, and his newest release “All Things Deadly: Salem Stories” a collection Halloween themed horror stories!
The Horror Tree Presents- an Interview with Alexandrea Weis
By Ruschelle Dillon
Ruschelle: Alexandrea, welcome to the Horror Tree, where you will find all sorts of fruit, nuts and meat sacks hanging for you to snack on. Watch out for the disgustingly bloody ones. They’re not quite ripe yet. It’s great to have you here. You have a fantastic selection of books out there for your newfound fans to feast from. Many take place in your hometown of New Orleans which has seen more than its fair share of destruction from hurricanes, Ida being the most recent. At the penning of these questions, there are still swaths of Louisiana that are still without electricity and are digging out of Ida’s wrath. Has the devastating weather played a part in inspiring your books? Horrors can beget horrors.
Alexandrea: Honestly, the response in the aftermath has been fantastic compared to what we went through with Katrina. Then we had weeks without running water, power, gasoline, or food. It was a nightmare and very horror worthy. We’ve been fortunate this time. I got my power back in six days. A big THANK YOU to the line men and women who came to restore our electricity. They are a godsend!
Ruschelle: New Orleans has such a rich history. What are some aspects of NOLA that you must include when writing your stories? Conversely, are there nibblets that you find trite or just flat out wrong that you refuse to put in black and white? (I liked the word nibblets. I am also hungry for corn right now…)
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Tais Teng, A Modern Renaissance Man
By Angelique Fawns
Tais Teng is a Dutch writer and prolific creator in several languages and mediums. Not only does he write fantasy fiction, science fiction, hardboiled detective mysteries, and children’s books; but he also illustrates, sculpts, paints, and works as a writing coach. Born Thijs van Ebbenhorst Tengbergen, he found this name a tad long to put on the cover of books (and for English readers to pronounce) so he chose Tais Teng as a pen name. With more than 100 published books and 200 plus short stories, I was fascinated to learn about the multi-faceted career of this talented (and comedic) creator. Spoiler alert. Did you know he created the Ziltpunk movement? Read on to learn more.
AF: You wear a lot of hats in the creative world! Can you tell our readers how you make a living and what your favorite branch of income is?
TT: Well, yes, I wear a veritable Tower of Babel of hats. I am a writer, an illustrator, a writing coach, and a sculptor. Each uses a completely different part of my brain.
Writing comes very close to lucid dreaming to me. If I start a sentence, the words arrive almost as a voice-over, telling me what to type next. Sometimes it switches into the fast-forward mode and I get whole paragraphs or even half a page. I have to type like mad then before all those words fade back into the racial unconsciousness. It feels exactly like a sugar cube dissolving in hot tea.
Almost all things I do are in deep concentration, in hyperfocus. If someone enters the room, I probably won’t notice. Even it is a burgler: as long as he doesn’t take my keyboard, I just go on writing. (more…)
Today we have the quite prolific Pat Cadigan joining us for an interview. Her most recent work, which we’ll be reviewing soon, is handling the novelization of ‘Alien 3: The Unproduced Screenplay’ by William Gibson. As a HUGE fan of the Alien franchise this is something that I am extremely excited about. However, she’s also done a slew of works that I’ve read over the years so am personally a bit excited for this interview. She is responsible for the classic Deadpan Allie series which is must-read in my opinion and also handled both the movie novelization and prequel of the live-action take on ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ which is a manga and anime I’m well-versed in.
Pat, thank you for joining our readers today, I’m absolutely thrilled to have you today! First off, if you could do a quick introduction for those who are unfamiliar with your work? (Our readers are a full mix of the speculative fiction genre and some don’t stray from our namesake of horror.)
PC: Well…I’ve been at this for over forty years. My short fiction includes sf, fantasy, horror, and whatever. My original novels are all hard science fiction, although I’ve also written two nonfiction books—The Making of Lost In Space and The Resurrection of the Mummy (another making-of book for the 1999 version)—as well as a number of tie-ins and novelisations. And I’ve won some awards. 😉
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The Horror Tree Presents – An Interview with Nicholas Bowling
By: Ruschelle Dillon
Ruschelle: I’m here sitting on the thickest branch of the Horror Tree hoping you’re not looking for a new log for the Log Lady from Twin Peaks. This tree is haunted and off limits. Speaking of Twin Peaks, your most recent work, The Follower, which dropped July 20th, 2021 is described as Twin Peaks meets Welcome to Night Vale. Could you give us a little taste of how The Follower conjures both the strange Twin Peaks and Welcome to the Night Vale?
Nicholas: Well. I wasn’t consciously channeling Twin Peaks, but tonally it shares quite a lot, I think. I like to create feeling in my (adult) books where the world just feels a bit out-of-joint – a sense of unease or menace beneath the surface of things that can’t quite be articulated. I like to wrongfoot the reader, too, in terms of tone and genre. I want them to feel unsure of how they should react to a certain scene or character. Absurdity is good for that. It allows you turn something funny into something violent or upsetting very quickly. David Lynch is obviously the master of this, but I think it also comes from my general experience of the world. It’s a very odd place, and people are very odd, and we’re all involved in a kind of group delusion that it’s anything other than that. Normality is a fiction that barely holds together most of the time. Also: The Follower has a peak. But just one.
As for Night Vale – I wasn’t even aware of it until my publisher told me it was in the same neighbourhood as The Follower. But I’ll get on it.
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The Horror Tree Presents- an interview with J. Ashley-Smith
By Ruschelle Dillon
Ruschelle: I’m thrilled to welcome dark horror author J. Ashley-Smith to my scary little branch of the Horror Tree. His newest offering, Ariadne, I Love You, is making herself pretty for her Meerkat Press debut in July. Authors plan their upcoming works ‘coming out’ parties so it gets the recognition it deserves. What do you have planned so your newfound fan can follow the journey?
J. Ashley-Smith: Thank you, Ruschelle. I’m stoked to be here.
Ariadne, I Love You launches on 20 July, and we’ve got a whole bunch of great stuff lined up to celebrate. Meerkat Press has been working tirelessly to arrange a sweet blog tour, and I’ll be stopping by some friendly sites to say hi, answer questions, talk about the book, share a guest post or two, and for certain there will be a playlist in there as well. You can hook into the tour on the Meerkat website.
I’ve got my fingers crossed that there will also be a real, live, in-person book launch at some point in the year as well (Australia only, at this stage).
Today we revisit an interview with Australian author Deborah Sheldon, discussing her start in fiction writing and her love of horror. You can read the full article here.
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