As someone who’s been writing for many years, iconic horror and weird fiction author Lisa Tuttle’s influences are pretty well ingrained at this point. But that doesn’t mean she’s not still affected by other writers. In the following email interview about her new short story collection, Riding The Nightmare (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), Tuttle explains how several of these stories were written in response to other people’s tales.
Writer Mo Moshaty isn’t the first person to write about sin, and she won’t be the last. But her collection of sin-related short stories, Love The Sin (paperback, Kindle), does have the distinction of being the first one (as far as I can tell) to collect stories of psychological horror written by a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist. In the following email interview, Moshaty discusses what inspired and influenced this collection.
Sometimes it feels like it’s the end of the world as we know it, and no one feels fine. But while the apocalyptic feeling hanging in the air over us may get oppressive, people still like reading — and seeing, and playing… — stories about the world coming undone. Which is where we find the stories in the new anthology, The First Five Minutes Of The Apocalypse (hardcover, paperback, Kindle); not in the laboratories or halls of government where they started the endtimes, or are trying to stop it, but on the ground, among the people whose lives are directly effected by the impending end. In the following email interview, First Five Minutes editor Brandon Applegate discusses how this short story anthology came together, and why he concentrated on the small side of the big end.
I have long said that short stories are a good way to get to know a fiction writer’s style. Which means it’s time we got to know Dare Segun Falowo, who recently published their first collection of short stories, Caged Ocean Dub: Glints & Stories (paperback, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Dare discusses what inspired and influenced these stories, as well as a way you might want to read them.
For nearly 20 years, Brooklyn’s Akashic Books has published a series of geographically-based anthologies of noir short stories: Buffalo Noir, Belgrade Noir, Boston Noir, Baghdad Noir — and that isn’t even all of the “B”s. For the latest, though, they’re going for an “A” with Austin Noir (hardcover, paperback, Kindle, audiobook), which was edited by Hopeton Hay, Scott Montgomery, and Molly Odintz. In the following email interview, Montgomery discusses this series and his specific installment.
I’m afraid of bees. And wasps. And spiders. And flies give me the willies, while mosquitos get on my nerves. It’s why I may not read the new bug-based short story anthology This World Belongs To Us: An Anthology Of Horror Stories About Bugs (hardcover, paperback, Kindle); I’m too much of a chicken. But if you’re braver than I, might I suggest you first read the following interview with World editor Michael W. Phillips, Jr., so you know what you’re getting yourself into.
When talking about whether the idea for a book is good or not, we usually lay all the blame at the feet of the writer. But like movies, cakes, and cars, books aren’t just made by one person.
It’s something I thought about while doing the following email interview with writer Premee Mohamed about her first short story collection, No One Will Come Back For Us And Other Stories (paperback, Kindle), in which she credits the book’s editor and publisher with making it good as well as possible.
Oftentimes, when there’s a collection of short horror stories about animals killing people, said animals are of the fictional variety. But in assembling the anthology Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories With Bite (paperback, Kindle), editor Deborah Sheldon decided that all of these tales had to feature real-life animals that live in Australia, including (but not limited to) the Quoll, the Goanna, the Blue Ringed Octopus, and the Rainbow Lorikeet. All of whom are pictured below in what I assume are photos found on the corpses of brave nature photographers. In the following email interview, Sheldon discusses what inspired this anthology, including why she went for real-life monsters instead of fictional ones.