Help author Ronald Kelly send his daughter far, far away

Southern horror writer (and quintessential Southern gentleman) Ronald Kelly is trying to send his daughter away. And who could blame him? At just 14 years of age, Reilly Kelly has an opportunity that many will never get – she has the chance to spend three weeks this summer touring France, Italy, Switzerland and Australia as part of a People to People Student Ambassadors trip. These trips are expensive, and Ronald is a hard-working dude who nonetheless needs a little help to make his daughter’s dream trip a reality. He’s already offering a special edition (suitable for framing) short-short story called “Beneath the Bed” for sale as a way to raise funds, and now – with some help from the many friends that good guys like Ronald collect in the horror industry – he’s got an amazing auction going on at eBay featuring signed books by some of the genre’s absolute best.

Click on over, take a look at the list and tell me there’s not something there you want. Signed books by Joe Lansdale, Ray Garton, Jonathan Maberry, Nancy Collins, and Brian Keene, limited editions from a host of specialty publishers, and much more. The auctions run throughout this week, and Kelly is planning to add even more goodies to the list, so check early and check often!

Good luck to Ronald and Reilly, and thanks to everyone who’s able to help!

Trailer for ‘The Twelve’ sets dark tone for sequel

It’s been out for almost a month, but this just caught my eye – the trailer for The Twelve, Justin Cronin’s highly-anticipated sequel to The Passage:

I love it – it’s haunting and evocative, and maintains the secrets and surprises Cronin has in store while still making me anticipate the book. Remember when movie trailers did that without giving away huge plot twists? (I’m looking at you, Cabin in the Woods.)

So, what do you think? Are you looking forward to The Twelve? Does this trailer sway your opinion one way or the other? What are some book trailers that have caught your eye in the past?

Expanded ‘Crystal Lake Memories’ ready to stalk ‘n slash your e-reader

I snagged a copy of Peter Bracke’s massive hardcover retrospective Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th when it came out in 2005, and I still don’t think I’ve read it all. Not that it’s not compelling material; it’s probably one of the best making-of/retrospectives I’ve ever come across, and from a franchise I have a deep affinity for to boot. There’s just SO MUCH STUFF in there. Plus, I like to read the sections on the individual films in conjunction with watching the movie itself, so there are some sections I’ve been through a couple of times (The Final Chapter) and some I haven’t touched yet (Jason Takes Manhattan).

Now, thanks to Dread Central and a host of other sites, I understand that there’s a new version – an EXPANDED electronic version – on the horizon. And it’s coming out next week, appropriately enough, on Friday, April 13.

For this edition, Bracke is adding in stuff that had to be cut from the hardcover release, as well as material from new interviews he’s conducted in the years since the book’s initial release. The press release linked above doesn’t give specifics as to who these new interviews are with, but it does promise (in perfect exploitation move fashion) “key Friday the 13th alumni…many who break their silence for the first time!” (Exclamation point mine.) Also things like “Bigger and bloodier than ever…!” (Exclamation point, again, is mine.)

Cool. I’m sold. I’m going to miss out on some of the new stuff, though, because my Kindle Touch isn’t going to support the Enhanced Edition, which will include more stills, video, and interactive elements, but that’s okay. The new interviews and other material, plus the portability of it (Crystal Lake Memories is a BIG book) are attractive enough. With the plethora of good-to-great making-of books being released these days, it’s exciting to think of the possibilities, and I’m sort of proud that one of our humble little slasher film franchises is leading the way.

You can find more information about the new electronic versions of Crystal Lake Memories on this Facebook page. I’ve yet to see prices, but hopefully with the release date so close that will be available soon.

2011 Bram Stoker Award winners announced

The Horror Writers Association held its 25th annual World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, this past weekend. As always, the centerpiece of the WHC was the announcement of the organizations Bram Stoker Award winners. This year’s list included a mix of old and new names, celebrating a strong year for the genre. Congratulations to all the winners – and a jealous tip of the hat to those lucky enough to attend the convention.

Here are your winners!

Superior Achievement in a NOVEL
Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney (Pinnacle Books)

Superior Achievement in a FIRST NOVEL
Isis Unbound by Allyson Bird (Dark Regions Press)

Superior Achievement in a YOUNG ADULT NOVEL (tie)
> The Screaming Season by Nancy Holder (Razorbill)
> Dust and Decay by Jonathan Maberry (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Superior Achievement in a GRAPHIC NOVEL
Neonomicon by Alan Moore (Avatar Press)

Superior Achievement in LONG FICTION
“The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine” by Peter Straub (Conjunctions: 56)

Superior Achievement in SHORT FICTION
“Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” by Stephen King (The Atlantic Magazine, May 2011)

Superior Achievement in a SCREENPLAY
American Horror Story, episode #12: “Afterbirth” by Jessica Sharzer (20th Century Fox Television)

Superior Achievement in a FICTION COLLECTION
The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)

Superior Achievement in an ANTHOLOGY
Demons: Encounters with the Devil and his Minions, Fallen Angels and the Possessed edited by John Skipp (Black Dog and Leventhal)

Superior Achievement in NON-FICTION
Stephen King: A Literary Companion by Rocky Wood (McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers)

Superior Achievement in a POETRY COLLECTION
How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend by Linda Addison (Necon Ebooks)

In addition to these categories, the HWA awarded the “Vampire Novel of the Century” accolade to Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. Rick Hautala and Joe R. Lansdale received Lifetime Achievement Awards, and Specialty Press Awards went to Derrick Hussey of Hippocampus Press and Roy Robbins of Bad Moon Books.

As usually is the case with awards, there is debate over the true merits of the Stokers: do they resonate with the public and generate more sales for the winners? Are they won by those with the most (voting) friends and the best campaigns? I can’t answer those, but I can say that awards bestowed by peers usually have a special place in the heart of the winners, whether they care to admit it or not. If nothing else, the above list serves as a good rundown of quality work in the genre, an excellent starting point for those looking for something new and unique for their bookshelves. Support the authors, support the small presses, and support your local bookstores. The names listed above all serve as a nice place to start.

Interview: Lee Thompson

In a short publishing history that dates back only to 2010, Lee Thompson has amassed a large collection of acceptance letters and heaps of praise from peers like Tom Piccirilli and Brian Keene. He’s also laid the foundation for a massive mythology all his own, the Division Mythos, a huge, expansive story arc that remains tightly focused on character. It’s quite an ambitious undertaking for a “new” writer (Thompson may have only been publishing for two years, but he’s written for far longer than that, collecting “enough rejections to break an elephant’s back”), but Thompson is undaunted. The author was kind enough to take a break from world-building to share a few words with October Country.

OC: You’ve got a lot of stuff on the horizon, so let’s start with the five books coming from publisher Darkfuse/Delirium. What’s the attraction of working so closely with them? What advantages do they give you as an author?

Lee: Thanks for the opportunity, Blu.

The attraction in working with Darkfuse/Delirium is that they have published a bunch of writers I respect, so I get to have some pride in myself, which is rare. (Laughs)

The advantages this publisher gives is that he thinks I’m destined to go really far, which feeds the fire I already have burning. I didn’t want to let myself down to begin with, and now I don’t want to let him or the readers down. And I get to have a hand in everything from jacket blurb to cover concept. I get to see my work in hardcover, paperback and digital. I’m a luddite. I don’t want to sell exclusively digital. I love physical books. They’re comfort food for the senses and soul.

Shane Ryan Staley, the publisher, is always willing to talk on the phone, he keeps me in the loop with what’s going on, he’s professional, delivers beautiful product, sends royalty statements and payments on time, and cares about finding the best work. I’d been writing for eight years before I started selling work. It took me that long to even gather enough skill to be a decent writer. I’m glad I didn’t give up and I’m glad Shane saw something special in the work. He’s incredibly supportive.

Tell us a little about the books themselves, and when we’ll be seeing them.

There are three novel trilogies and a few novellas.

The Red Piccirilli Trilogy (Before Leonora Wakes, Within This Garden Weeping, and Collected Songs of Sonnelion) is set back in the sixties and has to do with this kid who finds out he has incredible power, but with power comes immense responsibility and soul-testing trials.

I’m afraid he’s broken by the end of his trilogy, but he has a chance to redeem himself in the John McDonnell/Michael Johnston trilogy (Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children, The Dampness of Mourning, and The Patron Saint of Infinite Sorrow).

In the second trilogy  Red is an old man, has spent his life running a little hardware store and he always wears these black velvet gloves because of what happened when he was a child. But his nephew John needs his help. In the first book of the second trilogy (Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children) Red demonstrates a little of the power he has near the end. He grapples with it more and ends up using some of his power in The Dampness of Mourning. And he’s going to let loose, even if it kills him, in the third McDonnell/Johnston novel.

These books are savage in places and tender in others. I think I like the later stories more because the characters are reaching for their destinies and growing despite all they’ve been through and all they’ve barely overcome.

The final trilogy, Ravaged Gods, consists of Proserpine’s Story, Lord of the Damaged, and Violent Races. It’s a take on the antagonists’ journeys, which are very complex and in a world of their own. There is a mixture of Greek and Roman mythology, Voodoo, arcane magic and as many monsters as there are heroes.

The tie-in novellas (Iron Butterflies Rust, Down Here in the Dark, As I Embrace My Jagged Edges, She Collects Grave Nectar) are about Frank Gunn, Boaz, and Michael Johnston, who are all important characters, and chosen, though they won’t know why they’re chosen until the end of the third McDonnell/Johnston novel The Patron Saint of Infinite Sorrow. And more will be revealed in the Ravaged Gods trilogy where these gods and demons (Proserpine, Legion, Gravesend, Deal, Boom Stick, Death Mask, Jassen, Dream, Wisdom, Death, etc.) tell their side of the story.

As of next month  seven of them will be released: Before Leonora Wakes, Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children, Iron Butterflies Rust, As I Embrace My Jagged Edges, Down Here in the Dark, and The Dampness of Mourning, plus the serial novel Collected Songs of Sonnelion. And hopefully we’ll see the second Red Piccirilli book, Within This Garden Weeping, sell soon and that will complete the first 8 books. Then we’re cooking because people can read them right in order!

You’re building up what you call the “Division Mythos,” which you’ve said will consist of 13 books and 12 short stories. Tell us a little about the story you’re trying to tell here.

Well, let’s start with some definitions of division:

An army unit large enough to sustain combat; one of the portions into which something is regarded as divided and which together constitute a whole; the act or process of dividing; an administrative unit in government or business; discord that splits a group; a league ranked by quality; (biology) a group of organisms forming a subdivision of a larger category; (botany) taxonomic unit of plants corresponding to a phylum; a unit of the United States Air Force usually comprising two or more wings; an arithmetic operation that is the inverse of multiplication; the quotient of two numbers is computed; the act of partitioning; separation…

Division is what I see constantly and it’s the meta-theme of every theme. I see division in every precious second.

The characters are divided within themselves. Reality and dreamscape are entwined yet separate.

Each character is torn between what they want to do, what they feel obligated to do, what they think they should do. There’s a healthy dose of reality mixed in. A lot of times the people are the true monsters. And a lot of times they’re not. It depends what they’re fighting for, and why.

Is this something that you’ve planned all along, or has it grown organically through your work? In other words, did you start out to develop this over-arching mythology, or did it just grow out of the stories you were telling?

I had no idea it was part of a bigger story at first. Not until I’d written Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children (the first John McDonnell novel) and Before Leonora Wakes (the first Red Piccirilli novel). I didn’t even realize at first that Red in the McDonnell novel was the same boy from Before Leonora Wakes, and John’s uncle. But once I came to that conclusion, I saw that there was a lot of ground to explore. I knew that Red had sworn off ever using the strange powers he had for his entire adult life, and I wanted to find out why, and I wanted to find out who Proserpine and her brood were, what they wanted.

Then when I wrote the Boaz and Frank Gunn novellas I had dreams of those two there with my other protagonists to face these creatures (Legion, Gravesend and Deal) that none of them stood a chance against by themselves.

And these rich and intricate back stories came to me when brainstorming in a notepad. I said, “Oh Christ, how am I ever going to be able to tackle this?”

Then I said screw it and just tackled it with a lot more note taking to figure out what it “appeared” everybody wanted and what they really wanted. Sometimes some of the characters don’t even know.

By saying it will consist of 13 books and 12 short stories, does that mean there is a concrete beginning and end, or could it bleed over into your other work? Will it eventually tie all your stuff together (like Stephen King’s Dark Tower books) or is it its own, separate entity?

There is definitely a concrete beginning with Before Leonora Wakes and definitely a concrete ending with the last book Violent Races. Here’s a list of the books in order:

#1: Before Leonora Wakes (Novel- out now digitally, coming in paperback later this year)
#2: Within This Garden Weeping (Novella- under consideration)
#3: Collected Songs of Sonnelion (Novel- current project. A chapter going up every week on Darkfuse)
#4: Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children (Novel- out now in hardcover, paperback and digital)
#5: As I Embrace My Jagged Edges (Novella- out now digitally, will be out later in a Division story collection)
#6: Iron Butterflies Rust (Novella- out now in hardcover and digital)
#7:  The Dampness of Mourning (Novel- out now in hardcover and digital, with paperback forthcoming)
#8: Down Here in the Dark (Novella- coming out mid-April in hardcover and digital)
#9: The Patron Saint of Infinite Sorrow (Novel- Unwritten, but I have notes on it)
#10: She Collects Grave Nectar (Novella- unwritten, have notes on it too)
#11: Proserpine’s Story (Novel- unwritten, got it all in my head)
#12: Lord of the Damaged (Novel- unwritten, but anxious to write this one)
#13: Violent Races (Novel- unwritten, and I don’t know how I’ll feel when this huge story ends so it’s best not to think about it)

What were your inspirations in building the Division Mythos?

At first I didn’t have any. I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of it. Then I got to thinking it’d be a lot of fun for me and readers. I love John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series and Gary Braunbeck’s Cedar Hills stories.  And with this massive story and all of these characters I get to tip my hat to all of my favorite writers with various techniques and themes that I found resonated with me in their work: William Faulkner, Clive Barker, Tom Piccirilli, Douglas Clegg, John Connolly, Dennis Lehane, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Gary Braunbeck, Lee Thomas, Brian Hodge, Peter Straub…

You’re currently publishing a serial novel, Collected Songs of Sonnelion, on the Darkfuse website. Are you simply parceling out parts of a book you’ve already written, or are you posting chapters there as you finish them? If it’s the latter, is it a scary feeling knowing that you’re making public parts of a book that’s not yet finished?

Totally writing this as we go, and I send a chapter to my readers Shaun, Kevin and Jen as soon as I finish them. It’s not a scary feeling though. I’ve written so much stuff in the last two years that I have complete and unshakable confidence the story will come out about 90% of what I envision it, and I have my sights set high. I usually write quickly. Most of the work comes with brainstorming for a couple days on exactly what each scene is about – what the character feels, thinks, hears, sees, wants, doesn’t want. And I look for those areas where a left turn is going to drive them toward a pivotal moment where nothing can ever be the same for them again. That’s it. I write toward the pivotal moments. Huh. I never realized that before.

How did the idea to do this come about, and how’s it working out so far?

Well, it’s working great. Of course I know things about the storyline that nobody else knows, like how each book is going to build upon the last until we hit this massive crescendo.

It was definitely a “connecting the dots” thing. Seeing that these characters were at war with themselves and the world around them, then throw in some crazy and mysterious supernatural stuff that mirrors the protagonist’s pain and the whole story kind of blossomed.

I’m a huge note taker though. And I think I’ve trained myself to ignore the first idea that pops in my head and look for the Unique and the True.

Looking back over your bibliography so far, what’s your favorite thing that you’ve written?

Ah! That’s tough, and I know I’m supposed to say I can’t pick between my babies, but I’m weird and I can pick favorites.

Short story: Either “Beneath the Weeping Willow” or “The River,” both of which are Division stories.

Novellas: When We Join Jesus in Hell or  Down Here in the Dark.

Novels: The serial novel Collected Songs of Sonnelion, because it’ll actually be early in the Division series (#3 out of 13) and set a ton of ground work, plus it ties in so much with all the other novels.

Are there any of your works that you wish you could take back and take another crack at? If so, why, and what would you do differently?

Yes! There is one. I submitted a Frank Gunn story (“This Final December Day”) to Apex  and Jason Sizemore said it wasn’t right for them but he’d love to buy it for their imprint The Zombie Feed. It was a 5,000 word story that should have been a lot longer. I’m going to expand it one day. When I can write better and have less of a crack addiction.

Interview: Sarah Langan

Sarah Langan is the award-winning author of three acclaimed novels, a number of short stories and, most recently, the audio play “Is This Seat Taken?” She’s currently finishing up her fourth novel and first screenplay among several other projects, but took a few minutes from her busy schedule to answer some questions for us. Audrey’s Door, her most recent novel, is considered a classic here in October Country, so it’s a real thrill to have her with us today.

OC: Horror is a genre that has long been dominated by the male voice – have you encountered any particular barriers as a woman writing horror, or is it your experience that gender doesn’t matter as long as the talent is there?

SL: Gender is irrelevant. The people to whom it matters are not typically successful.

Who are some of the female genre writers that have been mentors/heroes of yours?

I like Liz Hand both personally and professionally. The same with Tess Gerritsen. They’re generous and warm people who work hard and write smart. Kelly Link’s first collection, Stranger Things Happen, changed the way I write fiction.

Who do you feel were the women that have been instrumental in making this genre more accessible to female writers?

It wasn’t accessible? I think women who don’t like the horror label, or consider it lowbrow, aren’t going to read fiction in that genre. It makes no difference whether its brilliant or crap, and no one is going to convince them otherwise.

Horror right now is popular because as a nation, we’re dragging our own corpse behind us like dead weight. For instance, Billy Crystal hosting the Academy Awards? Seriously? We’re at war, we’re in debt, we’ve given up on the environment, and nobody’s employed. And for some stupid reason, we’ve divided ourselves into democrats and republicans, while the crooks have a ball, stealing everything they can carry.

Tell us a little bit about your approach to writing. Do you do a lot of rewrites? Do you outline?

I rewrite about fifty times, which is crazy. By the time I’m done I can recite my novels from memory. You might not like what I’ve written, but it was almost never an accident.

No outlines – I let the story take me where it wants to go. This is not an approach that makes sense, but it works for me.

Do you have a preference between writing short stories and writing novels? If so, why?

I love them both. But I really, really love novels. Why fall in love twenty times a year? It’s so hard on the heart.

When you get an idea, do you know right away “This is a novel” or “this is a short story,” or do you just start writing and see where it takes you?

Short stories tend to have a narrow scope. I write them in a week or less. Novels, well, they’re the known universe. It’s never hard to tell the difference.

You recently wrote a radio play, “Is This Seat Taken?” for a project called “Tales from Beyond the Pale.” Had you worked in that format before? How different was it from writing prose?

It’s all fiction, so in that way, I knew what I was doing. On the other hand, it was totally new. I’d never done script work before. I handed it in as a Word document, which got a laugh from Larry, the producer. It’s a lot like writing a short story, only plot is the most important aspect of the work – not character. I loved the experience, and because of it, wrote my first screenplay, which is about finished.

Your last novel, Audrey’s Door, was highly regarded as a breath of fresh air in the “haunted house” subgenre. Are there any other horror staples you’d like to take on?

I love all those sub-genres – zombies, werewolves, witches, vampires, aliens. They’re tons of fun and I’d take them all on. Ghosts, however, are my favorite. They have less rules, and readers don’t know what to expect – they’re thrown off balance.

What projects do you have coming in the near future?

By September, I’ll have finished my novel Empty Houses, my screenplay Glen Cove, and a collection of short stories. I’ve also got a YA novel I’d like to finish, but that’s down the road.

Interview: Mary SanGiovanni

Mary SanGiovanni has been writing fiction for over a decade. She has a Masters degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pittsburgh, where she studied under Gary Braunbeck and Tom Monteleone, two longtime favorites here in October Country. Like all writers, she’s juggling a number of projects, but was kind enough to take a little time to talk with us about her craft and career.

OC: Horror is a genre that has long been dominated by the male voice – have you encountered any particular barriers as a woman writing horror, or is it your experience that gender doesn’t matter as long as the talent is there?

MSG: I think the situation for women writers has improved in the decade or so that I’ve been writing. Initially, women were up against the mistaken belief that all horror written by them is really troped-up romance, that it isn’t scary, that it has no guts, etc. There was also something of the casting couch attitude to publishing women. However, The majority of my experience has been that fellow writers, editors, publishers, and agents truly recognize us not just as capable, talented, women writers, but as capable, talented writers, period.

Who are some of the female genre writers that have been mentors/heroes of yours?

Linda Addison, Sarah Langan, Melanie Tem, Beth Massie, Yvonne Navarro. I’m sure I’m forgetting others. I like and admire a lot of women in this genre, both as writers and as people, but these women’s works are both beautiful and terrifying. They have persisted with grace and talent and have really helped establish women as viable producers of quality frightening fiction. I also have immense respect for Ellen Datlow, who has produced many, many volumes of incredible quality fiction and is a talented editor with discerning taste. Ellen has never seen sex as a factor in picking out quality fiction, and I respect that.

Who do you feel were the women that have been instrumental in making this genre more accessible to female writers?

Ellen Datlow, as I mentioned above. I think her history of award-winning anthologies of top horror fiction (and prior to that, science fiction in some of that genre’s top magazines) have always acknowledged women, and the genre’s respect for her led folks to read more widely. I also think Poppy Z Brite made great strides for women writing horror during the splatterpunk movement and beyond, when so much of the genre was dominated in all subfields by men. More recently, Monica O’Rourke, Kelli Owen, Sarah Pinborough, Rhodi Hawk, Alex Sokoloff and the women I mentioned above (Linda, Sarah, Beth, Yvonne, Melanie) have consistently proven that they produce horror which is accessible and enjoyable to both sexes, and their work has gone a long way, in my opinion, toward dispelling silly notions that women can’t (or don’t) write horror. We do. I think our approach may be different, our style may sometimes be different, and what we have to say, our themes and messages, are also often different. But I think as creatures steeped in and relying heavily on instinct and emotion, there is a natural feel for writing horror, which, as a genre, is fueled by instinct and reaction to primal emotion. many women write distinctly layered and complex horror fiction.

Tell us a little bit about your approach to writing. Do you have certain times or places where you prefer to work?

I have recently been writing full time as a result of losing my job last October, and I have learned to develop a schedule which works for me and helps me produce more content on a regular basis. I generally write for a few hours in the afternoon, take a break around dinner, then write again at night until I go to bed. In doing this, and really sticking to it, I’ve increased my daily word count from 500 words to about 4-5000 words a day. And I almost always work in my bedroom, on my bed.

Do you use outlines, or do you just make it up as you go along?

I actually just told someone earlier this evening that I used to hate outlines, and only did them because to sell on spec, agents/publishers usually want a synopsis and the first three chapters. However, I’ve found that when writing under a deadline, having at least notes, even if they’re only one sentence about each section of each chapter, really helps when I get stuck. Under deadline, there’s no time for writing block.

 I read in a previous interview with you that you often search for visual inspiration for your stories – can you give us an example of a visual that inspired you, and what story or book did it lead to?

I absolutely love David Ho’s work, and a picture in his Block Series (I believe it’s called “Looking Inward”) ended up inspiring a short story which appears in the limited edition hard cover version of Thrall called “The Days After the World Went Away.” As it turns out, David Ho did the covers for the new Hollower Trilogy, and it was seeing his cover for The Triumvirate that inspired the direction in which the book goes.

Thunderstorm Books is re-releasing the first two books in your “Hollower” series, The Hollower and Found You, later this year, along with a third in the series, The Triumvirate. Bring us up to speed on the series, and tell us how the new book fits in. Is this a trilogy, or will the series continue?

This is a trilogy — just these three books — and they’re being offered as a collection. The first book, The Hollower, which is available now, introduces a Hollower and the human prey being victimized by it. In Found You, a more powerful kind of Hollower seeks vengeance on the survivors of the first book and a looks to feed on a few new people as well. In The Triumvirate, both books of the series are tied in together, and the fates of the remaining characters are resolved. It explains more about where the Hollowers come from, why they come here, what their losely connected society is like, and what else is out there in the multiverse that we should lose sleep over. This book also ties in Thrall and For Emmy as part of that universe, as well as a novel I am working on now. In fact, it basically gives a possible explanation as to why any of my monsters find their way here.

You’ve written and published short stories and novels – do you have a preference between the two? If so, why?

I love short stories — they’re fun, they’re quick, they’re often a single shot of powerful emotion, and I enjoy writing them as much as reading them, but I prefer novels. I like having the room to stretch my creative legs and really delve into characters’ minds and explore the strange and supernatural. There’s an incredible sense of satisfaction for me in finishing a novel — I feel as if I’ve lived, laughed, loved, cried, and bled a whole adventure…and that I have a 2-300-page memory album to show for it.

What work of yours would you recommend to someone new to your writing?

My personal favorites are Thrall and For Emmy. I think if someone wants a taste of my range of writing, those two would be the way to go. Plus, they’re both available on Kindle now, so they’re easy to find.

Beyond the new “Hollower” books from Thunderstorm, what else do you have coming in the near future?

I’m writing a non-supernatural book with Brian Keene, due out in 2013, I believe, and I’m working on a new untitled novel that I’m almost a quarter of the way done with. I’m hoping this will be a good, productive year.