Tag: Horror Books

Books

Exclusive Interview: “A Gathering Of Weapons” Author Tracy Cross

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date November 5, 2024
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We all have dreams, some grander than others. I wanted to be Jimmy Page but, alas, that job was taken.

For Pee Wee, one of the main characters in Tracy Cross’ historical fiction horror novella Rootwork, the dream is to be, as Cross puts it, “…the greatest conjure woman ever.”

It’s a dream Pee Wee continues to pursue in Cross’ new novella, A Gathering Of Weapons (paperback, Kindle).

In the following email interview, Cross discusses what inspired and influenced this second installment, as well as her plans to conclude Pee Wee’s quest.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “One Hand Screaming: 20 Haunting Years” Author Mark Leslie

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date October 29, 2024
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Twenty years ago, horror author Mark Leslie assembled a collection of his stories and poems he called One Hand Screaming because, as he explains in the following email interview, he wanted, “…an actual book with my name on it.”

Well, now Leslie apparently wants an updated and expanded book with his name on it because he’s releasing One Hand Screaming: 20 Haunting Years (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), which not only adds new stories and poems, but some behind-the-scenes info as well.

In the following email interview, Leslie discusses both the original version of Screaming and this new edition, as well as the alcoholic beverage that pairs well with this book.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Night Terrors” Author A. Lawrence

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date October 17, 2024
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If there’s one thing we all know about ghosts, it’s that physical contact has no effect on them. You can’t wave a ghost away, or shove them out of your house, while threating them with physical violence falls on deaf ears.

Well, unless you’re Shay from A. Lawrence’s Ghost Punch novels. She can punch them. And she will.

In the following email interview, Lawrence talks about this humorous cozy supernatural horror series, and its newest installment, Night Terrors (Kindle).

Books

Exclusive Interview: “American Rapture” Author C.J. Leede

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date October 14, 2024
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They say you should write what you know. But I wonder if the person who came up with that phrase would think about someone writing what they know when also writing about a viral apocalypse.

Well, now they, and you, can find out, courtesy of author C.J. Leede and her new apocalyptic horror novel, American Rapture (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), in which things, and she, get very personal.

To learn how, and why, and other things, check out this email interview.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Last To Leave The Room” Author Caitlin Starling

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date October 9, 2024
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Genre can be a tricky thing, and never let it be said I don’t listen to an author when they tell me a book is one genre or another. Or a couple genres at the same time.

Which brings me to author Caitlin Starling, who, in the following email interview about her horror novel Last To Leave The Room — which is now available in paperback a year after originally being released in hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook — explains that while it has a scientist who may be sinking a city, and there’s an “impossible locked door,” and has some sci-fi flavor, Starling says, “it’s straight up horror to me.”

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Fears: Tales Of Psychological Horror” Editor Ellen Datlow

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date September 9, 2024
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As she says in the following email interview, Ellen Datlow has edited the annual anthology series The Best Horror Of The Year, “…(in one form or another) for 37 years.”

But in that same time, she’s also assembled collections of horror short stories around a theme or type of scare, including Body Shocks: Extreme Tales Of Body Horror, Screams From The Dark: 29 Tales Of Monsters And The Monstrous, and When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired By Shirley Jackson.

Which brings me to her latest thematic anthology, Fears: Tales Of Psychological Horror (paperback, Kindle), which has stories by Joyce Carol Oates, Josh Malerman, Stephen Graham Jones, Priya Sharma, Margo Lanagan, and others.

In the following email interview, Datlow talks about how she defined the term “psychological horror” for this anthology, as well as how she chose the stories to include in it.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Bloody Hel” Writer / Artist Clayton McCormack

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date November 17, 2021
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The idea of mixing fantasy and history is not new. Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and B.P.R.D. comics have been doing it for years, as have the Wolfenstein games, and David Mack’s Dark Arts novels did it as well. But unless I’m mistaken, writer and artist Clayton McCormack is the first to send Vikings into the first World War. As for what the Vikings think of this idea, well, for that you’ll just have to read McCormack’s new graphic novel Bloody Hel (hardcover, digital). In the following email interview about it, McCormack discusses what inspired and influenced this horror / fantasy / history mélange.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “Comfort Me With Apples” Author Catherynne M. Valente

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date November 10, 2021
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It sounds like a cookbook. Maybe by some nice who lives in the suburbs of New England. But it’s not. Instead, Catherynne M. Valente’s new novella Comfort Me With Apples (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook) is actually a romantic horror story. In the following email interview about it, Valente discusses what inspired and influenced this story…but does so in what she implies is an appropriately cryptic way.

Books

Exclusive Interview: “The Strange Thing We Become” Author Eric LaRocca

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date October 7, 2021
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It’s October, and that means it’s time to read some scary stories (though, really, when is it not?). But while writer Eric LaRocca says the ones in his short story collection The Strange Thing We Become And Other Dark Tales (paperback, Kindle) are “mainly horror stories,” he also says in the following email interview that they’re driven by sorrow and grief.