The Spooky Six with Stephen Barnard and Willow Croft

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I’ve had to brew up both coffee, and tea, for this interview, and not just for my guest interviewee! Mainly to keep me going, as Stephen Barnard is a morning person, and I’ve somehow shifted back into being a night owl, courtesy of my un-day job. Nonetheless, it’s a great interview! Read on to see what terrifying creature is the stuff of Stephen Barnard’s nightmares!

Stephen Barnard (he/him) is a suspense / horror writer from the north west of England. He’s been indie publishing titles for a number of years, and has a wide range of novels and short story collections in the genre. His most recent novels include creepy small town horror ‘Grievers’ Wood’, and modern vampire story ‘No One is Leaving.’

Growing up with King and Koontz novels, he always loved writing horror stories and sent manuscripts to traditional publishers a number of times across the nineties and noughties, but without any success. Career and family then led to a brief hiatus in writing. However, with the advent of eBooks and self and indie publishing, he got the bug again. After a couple of experiments, his first success came with the eBook release of ‘Corner House’ in 2018. He followed that with a short story collection, ‘A Very Bad Year’, after which he didn’t look back.

Many titles later, his newest release, ‘They Didn’t Know’, is out on September 28th – a suspense novella about a party guest who just doesn’t want to leave. Primarily an eBook release, it will also be available in paperback as part of a double bill with another novella, under the combined title of ‘They’. He’s currently working on another short story collection (this will be his seventh) to be released in the spring.

Stephen has also published YA books, sports non-fiction and a science fantasy trilogy. He’s taught high school English for nearly 30 years and has two sons currently at university. He loves listening to rock music and has never fully grown out of his 90s grunge phase. When he’s not writing, he’s binge-watching horror movies or lamenting about the misfortunes of his favourite football team, Bolton Wanderers. Occasionally he thinks about tidying up. His wife, Sophie, is very understanding.

LINKS:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/barnardauthor

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Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Stephen-Barnard/author/B07RKWXNKH

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/112944.Stephen_Barnard

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?

Stephen Barnard: Most unusual? If I think about the last few years (because my memory of books read before that is pretty unreliable) I’d have to go with Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s ‘Echo’. I really got swallowed up by the atmosphere he created on the face of a rather frightening mountain, above bottomless, unforgiving crevasses. As for my own work, writing my short story collection ‘Requests from the Dead’ really challenged me in that regard, because I was taking inspiration from readers and their hobbies or professions. So I set one in a call centre, another in a pet superstore, and another in a modern art installation. Not my go-to settings, but I think I made it work.

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?

Stephen Barnard: Well, I’m very much a morning person when it comes to writing. I get up early and get as much as I can done before the house wakes up. So it starts with coffee (strong), and then it probably finishes with a cup of tea… the one I take up to my wife three hours later. It’s not very rock n’ roll, but there it is!

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?

Stephen Barnard: Chaos. That thing you can’t reason with. As a family man that’s the chaos of a hit and run, a home invasion, a phone call at 4am. Scares the hell out of me if I think about it too long… and then I lock the doors and tell my loved ones they’re not allowed to leave for a while. Oh, and geese. Hell, I’m terrified of geese.

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?

Stephen Barnard: Not so much a block of the writing but perhaps good, solid ideas at times. Occasionally, I’ll sit at the computer and think: so what’s next? and not have the answer. The approach then tends to be to pick something I’ve thought about or witnessed/experienced and see if I can turn it into a scene. That might then end up a short story or an episode in a longer piece. I do a lot of what ifs. The story I’m currently writing came from this: what if, in the supermarket, an old man just walked past a mother pushing her shopping trolley with her little kid by her side, and decided to stop and pat the girl’s head three times, saying ‘pat, pat, pat.’ How would the mother react? This one’s also a merger of two moments, because one of my sons, whenever he passes my wife sitting down, pat pat pats her head, much to her annoyance.

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?

Stephen Barnard: A plotter for novels; there’s too many hours and days that get put into it for it to all go horrendously wrong! But for most short stories I’m a pantser. I have an idea and a character and then just see what comes out, similar to how I mentioned in the last question. As for advice, I’m not sure I’m the one to dole that out as I don’t even feel I’m in the industry! I write because I love to, and as other people have come to enjoy it, I love it even more. So I guess that’s it: write because you love it. If you don’t – if you’re doing it under some kind of sufferance because you think it might make you a stack of cash – this is not the career path you’re looking for. (Said as Obi-Wan Kenobi, obviously.)

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?

Stephen Barnard: That’s a tough one, because I hate talking on the telephone. It could be Stephen King and I’d be thinking, God, couldn’t he have just texted me? That’s not me being uppity; it’s mainly because if he did call and say my name I’d stammer and squeak like a baby seal. But once I got over it, that would be a fun one. I mean, how has he not run out of juice yet? The longevity and sheer body of work is insane. As for dead, I think I’d have to go with Mary Shelley. I mean, come on. To write Frankenstein at the age of 21? That’s some feat. But after that high, how do you deal with the fact that other novels follow but they never top that first one? And then what about the life she led? The company she kept? I think she’d have lessons for all of us.

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