As a Dungeons & Dragons fan who was playing the game religiously during the infamous “satanic panic” of the 1980s, I still have a soft spot for my fellow dice throwers, especially when other people think badly of them.
It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to interview writer Stephen S. Schreffler about his sci-fi seasoned horror novel The Bleed (paperback, digital), in which a pair of D&D fans go on the run after some of their mates go M.I.A.
In the following email interview, Schreffler discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as why this singer and guitar player didn’t write it as a rock opera.
To begin, what is The Bleed about, and when and where is it set?
It’s funny that this is the first question because I always find it to be the most difficult to answer. Ask me in an hour, I’ll tell you something different. Maybe it’s just semantics. What’s it about vs. what happens…
The Bleed follows two adolescent boys, Barry and Lich, from a small town in Northern Michigan. Life for these two is what they make of it, and they make do just fine. Playing in a metal band, slinging 20-sided dice, doing alright actually, despite the constant berating at the hands of their high school QB and his goon squad. Just living life. Until the lives of that goon squad are taken one-by-one. Who else but Barry and Lich would be able to commit so heinous an act upon some of the most beloved students among Grafting’s high school? Thing is they didn’t. Right? So yeah, they’re on the run with some other buddies, cops are after them, evil corporation with hidden motives gets involved. Monsters and murders amok. A classic clusterfuck.
It’s about what happens when you’re faced with the worst part of yourself. You now vs the version that’s indulged in every worst decision you could have made along the journey of self-identity. When the monster inside comes to destroy you, it’s about whether you humbly defy.
Where did you get the idea for The Bleed?
I guess I’ll just start at the inciting incident (that’s for you fellow writers out there) that sparked the writing of this novel. I wrote a short story called “Barry And Lich” that was published in an anthology called Human Monsters (a Hugo-nominated anthology, I might add; well done Sadie, Ashley, and Rob). The idea was “prank gone wrong,” I guess. Two boys show up in their Halloween masks at a slumber party they weren’t invited to, with the intention of scaring everyone. But then it just goes south when the power dynamic is flipped.
Rob at Dark Matter Ink, publisher of Human Monsters, hit me up out of the blue asking me if I’d ever thought about novelizing that. I told him no, I hadn’t. But that I would.
So, I thought about how I could make the short story “canon” without making our bad guys the bad guys. And that required some Twilight Zone level of pulp-infused inspiration. Maybe not required, but that’s the well I dipped my ladle into anyway.
For me, the most concentrated pulp can be found in the movies and books I grew up watching and reading. John Carpenter’s movies, The Gate, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday The 13th for the visuals. Classic books like Pet Semetary, Sphere, Lovecraft, and from more recent heavyweights writers like Laird Barron, Paul Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones.
I’m also a big geek about paranormal and cryptid stuff. In my youth, I read Mothman Prophecies by John Keel, dog-eared my encyclopedia on alien abductions and the monsters in America. I listened to “Coast To Coast AM” and heard straight from the mouths of the babes who saw weird things they don’t understand.
This being my first novel, I wanted to cram every single thing I loved into it. Something maybe I’ll cringe over later, but as far as I was concerned? My introduction into the literary world might well be my very own swan song, so I might as well hit every note in the scale on the way in or out.
So, is there a reason you set it in Grafting, Michigan as opposed to a small town in a different state? Or, for that matter, a suburb or a big city?
Yeah, I wanted to write about a setting I was very familiar with. Really just so I could describe things realistically. I knew it had to be somewhere I was from. But growing up, I’d never lived anywhere more than like six years, so where I’m from is a hard place to nail down. I decided it would be an amalgamation of the place where I was at Barry and Lich’s and the place I’ve lived the longest. That would be Northern Michigan for the former and central Oregon for the latter. Grafted those two cities together and there we have it. The town is very much Northern Michigan, and the wilderness is very much central Oregon.
It sounds like The Bleed is a horror story, but one with a little science fiction seasoning.
As far as genre, it makes sense to say “horror / sci-fi.” It’s very much a horror novel, in my opinion. The sci-fi is really just there to fill some gaps with creative liberty. I think generally sci-fi leverages external catalysts where horror is much more personal. That’s my experience and takeaway anyway. And The Bleed is meant to appeal moreso on a personal level. It was certainly written personally.
As you mentioned, The Bleed is your first published novel. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess it’s not the first thing you’ve written. Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on The Bleed but not on anything else you’ve written? Because it kind of reminds me of that Stephen King novella, The Mist.
Yeah, that’s a solid take. Love The Mist. Actually was my gateway to King. I’m not so sure, though, that I can parse what inspired The Bleed specifically from what inspires me generally.
But I will say I never wrote horror until I discovered Stephen Graham Jones. And after I read The Only Good Indians, it was like a lightbulb went off. I recognized how crucial voice is in writing. Above all the theory around three-act structures and inciting incidents and plot beats relative to word counts.
See, I’m very much an oral storyteller among my friends. A campfire storyteller. In reading his stuff, followed by writers like Chuck Wendig, Laird Barron, and Jeremy Robert Johnson I was exposed to the sheer weight of voice in writing. It was huge for me. Having played in bands and toured around since I was fourteen years old, I struggled with how many ways you can make an E-Major chord different from all the other songs that use that same chord. To quote My Morning Jacket, “It’s a voice, and it’s a choice.” I spent more time then embracing the only thing I had to offer to the readers of horror. And that is, telling them a familiar story in my own voice. My own voice, the one thing I have that no one else does. Every guitar player can play an E-Major. Every horror writer can write a slasher. But when I play an E-Major, it hits unlike all the others. Just like when I write a slasher.
So yeah, I won’t be bashful about giving Stephen Graham Jones the credit for switching on that lightbulb. I know when we think about the King of horror, there’s a Stephen we all know. But to me, the Stephen who’s king of horror, that’s Stephen Graham Jones.
What about non-literary influences; was The Bleed influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games? Because along with the movie version of The Mist, it’s also giving me some Stranger Things vibes.
Look, I love Stranger Things. I absolutely will not shy away from some of the clear parallels that can be drawn there. But I think what I loved most about that show was how unapologetically it honored its own inspirations, which draws from the same source material as I. I feel like that show found the Kool-Aid and drank it up. So, I could talk about The Gate, E.T., Nightmare On Elm Street, Outer Limits and Twilight Zone episodes, or the Montauk conspiracy. But that would just be me reading off the ingredients list from that same Kool-Aid packet.
I’ve been a big D&D nerd for much of my adult life. Storytelling is central to the game, and how that story is told by the party, by the characters, is an imperative influence on how I wrote The Bleed. Regardless of what you have planned as a writer, sometimes the characters go and do things that you didn’t expect. And every good DM knows that all you can do is react. Like in my D&D sessions, I wanted the characters of The Bleed to guide the story.
And what about Huxley, your Boston-Frenchie? How did he influence The Bleed?
I love my boy. He laid in his bed snoring beside me while I wrote. He reminded me when it was time for my walk. Pawed at my ankle when neither of us had had dinner. He has no part in the story. But he would alert me with a bark when the abyss showed up and it looked like I might be staring into it.
Huxley
Now, horror stories are often self-contained, but sometimes they’re part of larger sagas. What is The Bleed?
So, first novel, right? Most I’d written in the past was maybe 30k words. I couldn’t go into this thinking about a series. And to be totally honest, when I hear that an otherwise intriguing book is a part of a trilogy or a series, I tend to look away. It just comes down to time. I have a family, which means I don’t have a lot of time to read. And there are a lot of writers and characters and places to read about. I simply do not want to devote the stolen reading time I have to one set of characters, one setting, one problem for too long. I like finishing stand-alone novels and moving onto the next one.
But that’s “reader” me. “Writer” me has very much enjoyed the time I’ve spent with Barry and Lich and Sammy and Randall and Keller and Cleeve, etc. I’m not sure I’m entirely ready to wave them off. I’m confident that this is not the last we’ll see of them or of Grafting. I know exactly what would be next, and it’s actually pretty rad. You wouldn’t believe what happens with Barry after he and Cleeve…well, anyway.
That said, I have a whole other universe of characters and places and problems that I think would really knock off those socks. Hopefully we get to see it all.
We’ve talked a lot about the movies and TV shows that influenced The Bleed. But to flip things around, do you think The Bleed could work as a movie, show, or maybe a game?
I think it’s really dangerous territory to write hoping for film adaptation. Totally different mediums. But I must admit, I’ve daydreamed about seeing the adaptation of my novel on screen, if only so my non-reading friends can enjoy it.
But you called out Stranger Things as a fair comparison. A series. I would be lying if I said the episodic format of a series was not on my mind when I wrote this. I wanted to write for a modern audience, and not just the modern reader. For the modern horror lover. As you read The Bleed, I think you’ll agree with me that a series would suit for adaptation. I really wanted to tell this story through the lens of multiple characters, and as a break for myself and the reader, introduce one-off character POV chapters. I think it’s episodic.
So, if someone wanted to make The Bleed into a movie or show, who would you want them to cast as Barry, Lich, and the other main characters?
Man, that’s a fun question isn’t it. Sometimes, I would try to cast my characters as I visualized scenes. Honestly, I couldn’t cast any of the kids. I think I’m just too old to know who could play a teenager. But for Sheriff Keller, I often thought of Michael Shannon [Man Of Steel].
Speaking of format, you mentioned earlier that you’re a musician. You play guitar in the bands The Chaw and Gold Rey. Did you ever consider writing The Bleed as a concept album?
Music is a very important part of this book. As a musician, the music I listen to while I write is beyond crucial. I have multiple playlists for different scenes, characters, settings, etc. I have a friend who is a musician, and I would often hit him up asking for a specific type of song for a mood or scene. We have put together some songs (instrumental) for this, but that will likely remain between us two. Unless, I suppose, there is demand for it.
So, is there anything else you think people need to know about The Bleed?
I think it’s a good time, reads quick, and won’t ask too much of you.
I personally believe that art does not belong to the artist. As long as a creation remains with its creator, it is incomplete. A song doesn’t exist until you hear it. A story doesn’t exist until you read it.
I wrote this novel for you. And for all the endless hours and edits and stuff like that, it’s not done yet. Not until you’ve read it, as far as you can get. Love or hate it? Still, I owe you my thanks for helping me in finishing The Bleed. I could not have done it without you.
Finally, if someone enjoys The Bleed, what sci-fi seasoned horror novel or novella of someone else’s would you suggest they read next?
If you’re reading this, you’re likely already way ahead of my recs. Read Stephen Graham Jones’ The Only Good Indians and The Ones That Got Away. Read The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron, and John Langan’s The Fisherman. Check out Disappearance At Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay, Jeff VanDermeer’s Annihilation, Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers, and Tommyknockers by Stephen King.
