The Spooky Six with Dan Fields and Willow Croft

I can only hope that Dan Fields can appreciate a New Mexican spin on enchiladas, as that’s my go-to culinary influence at the present time (red, green, or Christmas chile, Dan?). Enjoy “feasting” on this interview, HT readers!

Dan Fields hails from Houston, Texas, where he lives with his wife and two children. He absconded with a film degree from Northwestern University in 2006, and has worked in a variety of media disciplines including music, photography, video, animation, fiction, criticism and even the odd (very odd) sculpture. In the late 2000s he was frontman of the Chicago chaos-and-blues act Howlin’ Tumbleweeds, and he is a founding member, songwriter and performer for the Lone Star blues, country and rock band Polecat Rodeo (established 2010).

Since 2015, Dan has published over two dozen stories of horror and the weird with Pseudopod, Nocturnal Transmissions, The NoSleep Podcast, Sanitarium Magazine, Grotesque Quarterly, Hellbound Books, Novel Noctule, Cowboy Jamboree Press, Frontier Tales, Improbable Press, Weird Christmas and more. His fiction has been broadcast (or rather podcast) in multiple accents across the English-speaking world, and has also been translated into Russian by the poet Katarina Vorontsova for Darker Magazine.

In July 2020, his story “And Every Living Thing After Its Kind” was anthologized in the 10th edition of the Kendall Hunt college textbook Analyzing Short Stories.

In 2021, he released an original story collection entitled Under Worlds, After Lives, which a reviewer for HorrorNews.net called “an immensely compelling anthology that preys upon your subconscious long after the final pages.”

Dan’s latest work of short fiction, entitled “The Fair Child,” will appear in a future anthology from Fabula Press.

Dan and fellow Harvest Time writer Chris Robinson have also published several collaborative stories, under the joint pseudonym “Lyman Graves,” with the likes of Swamp Ape Review, Grotesque Quarterly, Nocturnal Transmissions, and The Great Void. Red Room Press included Lyman’s story “When The Owls Call” in their anthology Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, Volume 4. A new Lyman tale entitled “So, I Hear You Eat Houses” is scheduled to appear in a forthcoming anthology from Three Ravens Publishing.

Links:

Author website: https://www.danfieldswrites.com/

Amazon author site: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07633FZXC

Goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17548278.Dan_Fields

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dan.fields.948

IG / Twitter   @DanFieldsWrites

https://www.instagram.com/danfieldswrites/

https://x.com/DanFieldsWrites

“Do Not Resuscitate” by Nocturnal Transmissions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqIGJZEjFRI

“Vanity, Vanity” on Pseudopod

https://pseudopod.org/2021/09/11/pseudopod-774-vanity-vanity

“Stew, Britannia!” (Lyman Graves) by Nocturnal Transmissions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeuHOicGr-I

Willow Croft: “Hey, look at that derelict Victorian mansion . . . let’s go explore it!” What’s the most unusual setting you’ve read about in a horror/thriller book, or included in your own creative works?

Dan Fields: Up front, I have to say the setting that surprised and impressed me most recently was in the French horror film “The Deep House.” I’d never have bet on the premise of a haunted house romp at the bottom of a lake, but it’s wonderfully original, it looked amazing and it scared the hell out of me.

As for literature, the most original “setting” I can call to mind is in Clive Barker’s “The Body Politic.” It’s been a while, but as I remember the story, a worker’s hands become sentient and stage their own Marxist revolt with the human body as their venue. Barker has a supreme talent for playing with a reader’s expectations of time and dimensional space. Look at The Hellbound Heart, Cabal, Weaveworld  or “In The Hills, The Cities.” Those are just a few of the big hitters.

My weirdest story, “Do Not Resuscitate,” takes place mainly in a hospital storage closet. Don’t miss that one. I can’t claim that Harvest Time breaks new ground in terms of horror geography, but I hope and trust we’ve done something new to shock and delight lovers of the dark rural heartland.

Willow Croft: “It was a dark and stormy night . . .” What are your go-to comfort foods, drinks, or other ways to wind down after a long day (or night) of writing?

Dan Fields: I wouldn’t say no to a Dark & Stormy right now, but I suppose that’s more of a summer cocktail. I’m an all-weather Guinness drinker, and the rest of the time you can’t go wrong bringing me strong black coffee.

I love cooking at home with my family when I’m not writing. We’re into hearty Gulf Coast family-style fare – enchiladas, gumbo, chili, red beans and rice – plus a range of Italian favorites to make my wife’s people proud.

Willow Croft: “Did you hear that noise?” Everyone, even us horror/suspense writers, have our night terrors. What is it that frightens you the most?

Dan Fields: The idea of vanishing without a trace, or contemplating what could have happened to someone who vanishes without a trace, has always terrified me. I’m also a touch claustrophobic, so you can guess why I don’t explore many caves.

A moment that consistently “gets” me in horror stories or movies (and always brings me back for more) is “Oh no. That thing I saw in the corner of the room isn’t really dead or inanimate, which means it’s been watching me all this time”. Surprise reanimations truly frighten me.

Willow Croft: “I’m sure it was nothing. But I’ll just go outside and check, anyway. Alone. With no weapons.” Have you ever gotten writers’ block? If so, how do you combat it? Do you have certain rituals or practices that help get you into the writing (or creating) mindset?

Dan Fields: After my first little publishing hot streak, I got hung up on a couple of long stories that tapped my imagination and patience out. Around the same time, work and family life became extra demanding for a while, and my low reserves of energy dipped me into a long, difficult writer’s block. This was around 2022, when I don’t think many people were feeling like their usual carefree selves. It wasn’t even fun to think about new ideas, and I fell out of love with all my partially completed work. Deciding to pick up Harvest Time again, after a long hiatus, played a major part in shocking me out of that slump.

I believe the only cure for writer’s block is exercise – not physical exercise, but maintaining a regular creative routine. Set your own terms and rules, but be strict once you’ve set them. When you break your personal writing discipline (for me it has to be daily), you’ll fall rapidly out of shape. It really does operate the same way as working out. Keep in shape and you’ll stay in shape. Give yourself too many breaks, and it will take a lot of extra work to get back in step. If you’ve recently started again and you’re struggling, make yourself stick to it. You’re doing fine, and it will be better again soon.

Willow Croft: “Don’t go into the basement!” Are you an impulsive pantser or a plotter with outlines galore? What other writing/industry advice would you share with your fellow writers & creators?

Dan Fields: I’m a big outliner. I’d love to be more spontaneous, and I can improvise, but I’m more comfortable doing so on a small scale inside my own rigidly set framework. I research like crazy, occasionally as a stalling tactic if I feel lazy about starting, but most often because I’m anxious to sound authentic and credible when I write outside my life experience.

I’ve changed or discarded more than one planned ending, but I do the majority of my writing with a fixed endpoint in mind. I can get insufferably fussy about having cleverly parallel first lines and last lines, because I love seeing them in other people’s work.

Willow Croft: “Ring ring!” It’s the middle of the night and the phone mysteriously rings. Which notable writer, or person from history, would be on the other end of the line?

Dan Fields: This would have to be Mark Twain, to cover all bases – a hugely notable public and historical figure, a fascinating life, sensitive, dark, well-traveled, famously not boring, a storyteller whose talent and work I admire tremendously. Also speaks English. I think we could hang. I’d let him do most of the talking.