markgunnells

Up and coming author Liam Davies has taken over my blog for a big to introduce himself to you. So sit back folks, and let Liam talk to you for a bit. He's an interesting bloke with a lot to say and a lot of talent. So without further ado, here's Liam...

The past year has been one of antithetical emotions for me. My first book got published: a small novella that mixes elements of absurdity, horror and literary references, well liked by the publisher, Gallows Press, and well received by those that have read it for the most part. Well, the ones who haven’t kept quiet. The others who didn’t like it… well, let’s just hope they keep on being quiet. The novelist Kurt Newton was effusive in his Amazon review for it. A few other reviews popped up, a couple by people I don’t know, to boot, as well as a tidy little rave-review in the magazine, Shock Totem. Suffice to say a little voice started whispering in my ear… you’ve made it, son! After so long trying, it is somewhat overwhelming to have acceptance of your work. I was elated. Now, here comes the “but”… if you ever hear that voice, the self-congratulatory, sycophantic one, I only have one piece of advice. Ignore the bastard. It leads to sad and desperate places: checking Amazon sales rankings at 2am, obsessive Googling of the book’s title to see if anyone is saying anything about it, becoming greedy for good word. For a week or two, I became the Gollum, sibilantly cooing over my precious and wishing the world would coo too.

So what’s the antidote? Well, it turns out, it was easy. Write. Write some more stuff. Try to assist with publicising the work that’s out there, sure, but don’t rest on, admittedly, quite small laurels. Get on with the next story and make it better than the last one, and whatever you do, don’t press alt shift and flick to Internet Explorer to check your Amazon sales rank. So that’s the mission for me now. To cultivate a body of work that people enjoy and keep on improving as a writer.

Luckily, I have a good relationship with my publisher, and we’ve exchanged contracts on two more pieces of work, this time full-length novels. One of the pieces due out soon is very important to me. A hefty, 120k horror novel that draws on quite a lot of my experiences growing up in my hometown in Pendle, Lancashire (alienation, prejudice, societal oppression, demonic pig ghosts – you know, the usual). It’s also the first of a trilogy. The novel is due out any time now (I’m assured) and I’m very excited about it. The sequel has already been written and is with the same publisher, and I’m slamming my way through the final draft of the third and final instalment. And now it’s dawning on me. What if people don’t like the first one? Will the publishers sever their ties? What if people see me for the talented hack that I am? I evaluate my own work and I am either a genius or I am a writer of schlock. I write worthy subtext or I am pretentious. That sentence works well or that chapter needs to go. Aww, what a nice review, I’m not worthy. What? The characters were flat and the plot uninteresting? Go fuck yourself.

I tell you, being published, being a writer, it’s a damn curse! You swiftly become the sort of needy person that in any other walk of life, you’d probably try to avoid at all costs. Realising this is the first step. Hi, my name is Liam Davies, and I have an addiction - I am addicted to being validated in the eyes of others!
And so here it is. After a year of initial headway… the skin has thickened. To everyone else who is at the baby-steps moment of their writing careers: Ignore everyone and enjoy the praise, but do so only in passing… and most of all, ignore yourself! You’ll only end up considering creating a Wikipedia page about yourself. Instead, just write another damn story. Just write tighter sentences. Experiment. Work out how to utilise syntactical chiasmus and grammatical dislocation and hypophora and semantic incrementum, all those fizzing, stylistic tools out there, and then deploy them like bombs. LIKE BOMBS DAMNIT!


Here's Liam's amazon page, check out his work.
http://www.amazon.com/Liam-Davies/e/B007UFOKV8/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_3?qid=1366750766&sr=1-3

I first discovered Brian Knight when a friend turned me on to the novel Broken Angel. I was immediately impressed by Knight’s skill and began seeking out all his other works. I feel his is a master at characterization and emotion, and his stories are always engrossing and satisfying. Recently Knight has turned to the Young Adult market with his novel The Phoenix Girls Book 1: The Conjuring Glass. Knight agreed to sit down with me to discuss this book.

Up until now, your books have mostly been written for adults. What went into the decision to try your hand at Young Adult writing?

I wanted to write something I could let my daughters read, they were both much younger at the time, so I was already open to the idea of writing YA, so when the idea itself hit me I had to do it. The idea for the first book arrived almost complete, though it has changed with the number of drafts, and evolved into a much bigger idea, a whole series of books. The idea of dedicating so much time on one story was daunting, but I love the story and the characters, so there was no way I could not do it.


Did you find the process was different than writing books aimed at adults?

The only difference is that I had to reminded myself “This needs to be suitable for my nine and twelve year olds,” and I didn’t even have to do that much. The characters dictated the story.


Your main characters in this book are thirteen year old girls. Did raising girls of your own help you with the characterization?

I couldn’t have written The Phoenix Girls without my own girls to influence me. I don’t think I would have even wanted to.


Have any of your own children read the book? If so, what was their reaction?

They both read portions of a very early draft, the first or second I think, but I don’t think they’ve read the final book. They have their own copies, so I’m waiting for their reactions. Those nine and twelve year old girls are now fifteen and eighteen, so that may change how they relate to the story, but I think a good YA story (and I do think The Phoenix Girls is good or I wouldn’t have written it) appeals to every age group.


This is the first book of a proposed series. Do you have a certain number of books in mind for the series?

There will be at least three, but possibly as many as seven.


The book is being published with JournalStone. How did you get hooked up with them?

My friend and editor Norman Rubenstein suggested I submit to Journalstone when I found The Phoenix Girls on the market after an aborted attempt at publication with another company. Norman is Senior/Assistant Managing Editor at Journalstone and put in a good word for me. Thanks Norm!


Will you be writing Book 2 next or working on something else before returning to the series?

The second book is already written. It needs another round of revisions before I show it to my bosses at Journalstone, but it’s nearly there!


The YA market has really blown up over the past few years. What would you say sets your book apart from the others out there?

I haven’t read all the other YA books on the market, so I’d have to cross my fingers behind my back if I was to offer examples of how it differs from them. One thing I did try to avoid was turning the story into a hormone charged mystical romance where the female lead drools over the unattainable stud-muffin and then gets him in the end. I think most girls in their young teens have more important things to do than obsess over boys. In understand that as they age, boys will come into the picture, but those boys won’t be the entire focus the girl’s lives. The Phoenix Girls isn’t a love story, and will never turn into one.


A bit off topic, but I’m a big fan of your Butch Quick series. Will there be any more books in that one?

I’m currently working on the second Butch Quick novel, Cut to the Quick, and have a third planned.


Do you find writing a series offers rewards a stand-alone novel does not?

I find it offers different rewards, but also different challenges. I love the Butch Quick and Phoenix Girls novels, but I do look forward to writing another stand alone novel one of these years.


Well, I want to thank you for sitting down with me, Brian. The Phoenix Girls is due out next month, and here is a link to its page on the JournalStone site: http://journal-store.com/fiction/the-phoenix-girls-book-1-the-conjuring-glass/
And a link to Brian’s website: http://brian-knight.com/

Thanks Mark. It’s been great chatting!

Kool Kat John Boden tagged me in this little Blog event, and I thank him for it. Check out his blog at http://etiquetteofboobytraps.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-next-big-thing.html

Here we go:

What is the working title of your book or story? I am currently working on THE CULT OF OCASTA, which is a sequel to my novel THE QUARRY.

Where did the idea come from for the book or story? Well, when I wrote THE QUARRY, I never really intended for their to be a sequel. It was actually the publisher, Evil Jester Press, that asked if I'd ever considered a sequel. I started thinking on it, and an idea started to form on how I could possibly continue the story.

What genre does the book fall under? Horror, a bit of a creature feature with an occult tinge.

What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Hmm, not something I usually consider. I see the characters vividly in my head as fully formed people, not actors, so it would actually be hard for me to envision known actors playing them.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book or story? Something evil lurks beneath the waters of the Quarry...and forces are gathering to bring it to the surface.

Will your book or story be self-published or represented by an agency? It will be published by Evil Jester Press, same publisher who did THE QUARRY and my most recent novel THE SUMMER OF WINTERS.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? Still working on it, so I'll let you know.

What other books or stories would you compare this story to within your genre? I don't really like to compare my stuff to other writers' works because I'm trying to create my own unique stories and voice, but my style tends to be straight-forward like King or Lansdale, not that I'd ever even pretend to be in their league.

Who or What inspired you to write this book or story? In this case, it was Pete Giglio over at Evil Jester that put the germ of the idea in my head.

What else about your book or story might pique the reader's interest? The story is a continuation of THE QUARRY, but also incorporates characters from my novella OCTOBER ROSES. Fans of those books should enjoy this one as well.

Okay, that's it. Unfortunately I only found one other writer to tag, so here you go Julie Jarosinski
http://www.ariellia.com/

Benjamin Kane Ethridge is a hell of a talented writer, author of Block & Orange, Bottled Abyss, and now Dungeon Brain, the latest of which is a bit of a new direction for him. He was kind enough to sit down with me for a short interview about Dungeon Brain which can be purchased here:

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Brain-Benjamin-Kane-Ethridge/dp/1938644069/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1353453086&sr=8-3&keywords=Benjamin+Kane+Ethridge


You won the Stoker for Best First Novel in 2010 for Black & Orange. How, if at all, has your writing career changed since then?

BKE: In short, I’m very busy! Many independent presses have approached me with offers and, never inclined to say “no,” I’ve taken most all of them. I used to have more of a concentrated effort on finding publishers for my work, but now publishers are finding me. In the next couple years I’d like to make a push for a larger publisher, but at the same time still work within the independent network, because I’ve got my sailing legs here and I have so much respect for the publishers I’ve worked with and those I haven’t yet, like Dark Fuse, Dark Regions, ChiZine, just to name a few.

I seem to recall there being a sequel in the works. Any news on that?

BKE: Next Halloween, 2013, Bad Moon Books will release NOMADS, the sequel the Black & Orange. It continues the story, but is a separate work to itself; so if you’ve never read the first, you can dive into the second. I have a rough outline of three more books in the Black & Orange universe, but they will be on a more epic scale than those coming before it.

Your newest book, Dungeon Brain, is said to be a mixture of mystery, horror, and science fiction. Have you always been a fan of cross-genre works?
Yes. I’ve always loved most genres. Each has a unique flavor and I enjoy cooking genre soup whenever possible.

BKE: The book deals with mental illness. Did you do much research on the subject?
I always research heavily on material I never use. For this novel, I started out doing a lot of book and documentary research on electroshock therapy and then ultimately didn’t use any of it for the final project! Didn’t fit, so I didn’t use it.

The main character of the novel has thousands of personalities. Did you do detailed notes on some of these personalities to keep them all straight during the writing?

BKE: Because of the magnitude of different people within the mind of the main character of June, most of the “prisoners” who surface take on a temporary role in the story and never come back. So I didn’t need to keep them straight, for the most part, since they were so tenuous. Like separating one ant from a colony to examine it—once you return it to the colony, you’ve largely forgotten it. Moreover, June had no personality of her own, so these people represent character types to her. She uses them to evaluate the patterns of their thought processes, agreeing and disagreeing as she goes, but never becoming attached to one person over the next (there is a slight exception, but plot developments cancel out any interest she might have had for this particular person).

A story like this with a sci-fi element, have you found going about promotion for it different than something more strictly horror or fantasy?

BKE: I’m still trying to search out a pool of fans that are open to this type of fiction. I know they are out there and it’s just a matter of time before they happen upon this novel. Hopefully they give it a shot!

What would you consider your most ambitious writing project to date?

BKE: I’m working on a trilogy right now called NIGHTMARE BALLAD. It’s been challenging, rewarding, perplexing, and exhausting work. Sustaining the surreal absurdness of a living nightmare through most of a novel is not for the faint of heart. I don’t recommend it, and yet, here I am, committed to writing two more books to complete the story.

Can you tell us about any upcoming projects, or works in progress?

BKE: I will be hard at work on a shared world anthology you may have heard of, called MADHOUSE. We’ve had some great submissions and now things are beginning to set and form, the metastory about to unfold. I’m really excited about it. To be completely honest, I’m looking forward to getting away from my own fiction for a little while.

What has the response been like for Dungeon Brain so far?

BKE: It’s still too early to say, but I’ve seen a handful of positive reviews come in so far and that’s all you can hope for. This novel is somewhat of an experiment. Not only is it my second novel put out in the same year, but from another genre. In some ways it’s starting all over for me.

Where would you like to see your writing career in, say, ten years?

BKE: I hope to have a strong enough audience to justify my existence in this competitive publishing world and I hope to have gained some sort of international presence at that point. That’s a lot to hope for, but I don’t believe in setting hopes low.

Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. As a final question, what would you say is the legacy you would like to leave with your fiction?

BKE: More than anything, I just want to remembered for contributing some of the best outlandish fiction and being entertaining in the process

Some writers love research. Anne Rice has been quoted as saying that she is always researching history and ancient cultures and myths, and instead of researching ideas, often her ideas come from her constant research.

I am not such a writer. I recognize that research is a necessary part of the writing process, it is important for authenticity, and fiction that lacks authenticity is not successful fiction. But I don’t love research, I often find it tedious and a bit dull. In this modern world, a lot of research can be done online, which simplifies things, but not all online information can be trusted, meaning sometimes you have to research your research.

My new novel THE QUARRY required a decent amount of research. Mainly because it took place at a real location, Limestone College, and in particular the beautiful but potentially dangerous lake on campus. I wanted to get the facts straight in order to enhance the fiction.

But there was a bit of Anne Rice in the whole situation. When I started my research I didn’t have a real idea in mind for what become THE QUARRY. I just knew there was a lot of rich history that surrounded Limestone, and in particularly Lake Limestone, known locally as The Quarry. I thought I could mine that history for a pretty interesting story.

But what I quickly started to discover that was a lot of what I had always thought was history was actually urban legend. However, the information I found was sketchy, which meant more and deeper research was required.

So I dove in headfirst, and spent almost an entire week doing nothing but researching The Quarry…and what I found was that what had once seemed like a chore suddenly was rather thrilling and exciting.

I started my research online, but quickly found there was little to find that way. So I went old school…straight to the library. I scoured through old books of local history, went through old papers dating back to the 50s on microfiche. A lot of what I found only raised more questions, requiring more searching, panning for kernels of information that could give me a true picture of the past. The actual search, the discovery that much of what I had been told over the years was myth, actually started to form a solid idea for THE QUARRY.

In the meantime, I also wanted to find out about life the Limestone campus. I was a student there, but my days as a student were over a decade in the past by this point, and the college had changed a lot since that time. Luckily I have a friend who still works at the school, Pam Wylie. I contacted her, repeatedly during the research process and later the actual writing of the book, and she answered every question she could. She even took me on a little tour of the campus, showing me things that had been updated since my day, just proving to be a wonderful resource. She also pointed me in the direction of a local paper because she remembered them doing a detailed article on The Quarry and its history several years prior.

This paper did not have their backlog on microfiche. I had to go to their offices and go through those oversized bound volumes of old papers. It almost seemed the way one would do research in a movie, and not even a movie made in this decade. But I was really enjoying it. In fact, in the end I used a lot of my experience researching in the book itself, having one of the characters go through a similar search.

It was far from the constant research that Rice does, but I did spend a week of my life—a week I was actually off from work—researching, and I actually loved it. Doesn’t mean that research is my favorite thing, but I no longer look at it as a necessary evil. I see its benefits, and realize that it can be exciting and enjoyable. And I think THE QUARRY is definitely a better book for it.

THE QUARRY can be purchased in trade paperback or ebook here: http://www.amazon.com/Quarry-Mark-Allan-Gunnells/dp/0615598439/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_4

I have always had an affinity for horror stories set on college campuses. Call it a sub-genre, but I have often been drawn to movies like Final Exam, The Dorm that Dripped Blood, Black Christmas, House on Sorority Row, and even more modern efforts like the first two Urban Legend films and Scream 2. I also gravitated to horror and mystery novels set on college campuses. Books like Bentley Little’s The University, The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and Obedience by Will Lavender.

Why do these types of stories appeal to me so much? Until recently I had never given the matter much thought, honestly. I simply liked them, and that was good enough for me. However, when I sat down to write my college campus horror novel The Quarry a couple of years ago, I started to examine just what it was about these kinds of tales that made me such a fan.

And I came to realize that there is something about the atmosphere on a college campus that just lends to itself to stories of horror and mystery. I think there are two main reasons for this. One, college is just kind of scary. It’s a big step in a young person’s life, that first step into adulthood. New environment, new people, greater expectations. And for dorm students, it’s usually the first taste of real freedom out from under their parents’ thumb. Now that can be absolutely thrilling for an 18 year old…but it can also be rather frightening.

The other reason is that a college campus is a very insular world. It’s a part of the larger community, and yet apart from it at the same time. It truly is almost its own little society, a world unto itself. I think that lends college this atmosphere that secrets can be kept there, hidden from the outer world. I think that makes it quite easy to have mysterious and horrific events transpire there.

So considering my love of this particular subgenre—call it Campus Horrors—it was probably inevitable that I’d eventually write one. I had dabbled with short stories set on college campuses before, but with The Quarry I decided to undertake something a little more ambitious. With a novel I could really explore the location, the atmosphere, the characters.

I set the story on a real campus, Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina. That is my alma mater, a school I have great love for and know fairly well. Some may say it is an odd way to show my affection for the place by setting a story there where terrible things happen, but that’s just the kind of guy I am.

I tried hard to capture the feeling of a college campus, of the students who attend classes and live there. Not just for authenticity, but because as I said—college is kind of scary and secrets can be hidden there. Did I succeed in creating an effective campus horror novel? Well, I hope so, but ultimately it will be up to the readers.

The Quarry is available in both trade paperback and digital formats.
http://www.amazon.com/Quarry-Mark-Allan-Gunnells/dp/0615598439/ref=ntt_at_ep_edition_1_3

I've decided to compile a list of all the reviews of my various works. That way if anyone is comtemplating trying my stuff, they can read the reviews and see what others are saying. I'm including all of them, good and bad, so folks can make an informed decision.

ASYLUM (http://www.amazon.com/Asylum-Mark-Allan-Gunnells/dp/0984553568/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327780951&sr=8-1)

http://scifiguysbookreview.blogspot.com/2011/07/asylum-book-review.html
http://thecrowscaw.com/2011/01/15/reviewed-asylum-by-mark-allan-gunnells/
http://skullsaladreviews.blogspot.com/2011/01/asylum-by-mark-allan-gunnells.html
http://michelelee.net/2011/11/02/review-asylum-by-mark-allan-gunnells/
http://thegorescore.com/2012/01/27/g-o-r-e-score-asylum/
http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/reviews/asylum-mark-allan-gunnells.html
http://www.undeadinthehead.com/2011/03/asylum-by-mark-allan-gunnells.html
http://betwixtbookreviews.blogspot.com/2011/01/review-asylum-by-mark-allan-gunnells.html
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/horror-and-bizarro-literature/articles/140312/title/asylum-novella-mark-allan-gunnells
http://www.buyzombie.com/2011/04/22/reviews-of-zombie-related-things/asylum-review/
http://musingsamongstmagnolias.com/2011/04/16/in-my-opinion-asylum-by-mark-allan-gunnells/
http://writerbrandonford.blogspot.com/2011/02/book-review-asylum-by-mark-allan.html
http://reviewsbyamoslassen.com/?p=6158
http://darkdiscoveries.com/blog/2011/02/asylum/
http://simonmccafferyfiction.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-zombie-fiction-from-zombie-feed.html
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/139111003
http://networkedblogs.com/dUdmn

A LAYMON KIND OF NIGHT (http://www.amazon.com/Laymon-Kind-Night-ebook/dp/B005C1NQV2/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327781027&sr=1-1)

http://dreadfultales.com/2011/12/27/a-laymon-kind-of-night-by-mark-allan-gunnells/

TALES FROM THE MIDNIGHT SHIFT (http://sideshowpressonline.com/?page_id=4&category=3&product_id=38)

http://thecrowscaw.com/2011/06/27/tales-from-the-midnight-shift-vol-1-by-mark-allan-gunnells/
http://grantwamack.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/330/
http://writerbrandonford.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-review-tales-from-midnight-shift.html
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/181682498
http://betwixtbookreviews.blogspot.com/2011/09/review-tales-from-midnight-shift-volume.html
http://thehorrorfictionreview.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html The review for this one is about fourth down

DARK TREATS (http://sideshowpressonline.com/?page_id=4&category=6&product_id=67)

http://www.horrordrive-in.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/607-DARK-TREATS-Mark-Allan-Gunnells.html

GHOSTS IN THE ATTIC (http://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-in-the-Attic-ebook/dp/B0059JHU64/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327781235&sr=1-4)

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/244913184

LAST MEN ON EARTH (http://www.amazon.com/Last-Men-Earth-ebook/dp/B006NQDE94/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327781412&sr=1-3)

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/253491990

Fellow writer Kody Boye is taking over my blog for a minute to provide you with the inspiration for his newest work.

The Gay Perspective in Zombie Fiction and Building a Relationship in One Month
Kody Boye



It’s no secret that Brian Keene’s Dead Sea was what inspired me to write my own take on the genre, Sunrise. Presented from an African American’s point of view, we are taken to the world post-apocalypse one month after a calamity struck mankind and turned the living into flesh-hungry walkers. It was not, however, the black lead that made me want to write my novel from a gay perspective. It was the fact that Keene’s character was also gay—a thing that I had not seen before in zombie fiction.
To say that the gay perspective in horror has not been popular would be an understatement. Save for the works of Clive Barker (horror,) Christopher Rice, the homoeroticism in Anne Rice’s vampire universe and in a few choice other places, it hasn’t been widespread or, I could say, popular. In recent past, however, it is becoming more prevalent to include gay characters in fiction. Few, though, can capture the true perspective unless they themselves are gay, or at least know someone who is gay.
When I went back to the world of Sunrise in late 2010, I wanted to do one thing and one thing only—present to readers a character gay and flawed who, through chance circumstance, ends up meeting a significant other during the zombie apocalypse. Given that ten percent of the population is gay, there is always a chance that a person (or several persons) may be gay, or identity as GLBTQIA. When the world is struck with a plague that kills some eighty to ninety percent of the population, that drastically limits the chance of finding a significant other, a fact that I wanted to explore within this universe.
Our main character is Dakota Travis—eighteen, five-foot-six, grey eyes, short brown hair. At the time of the zombie apocalypse he was living in an adoption center until rescued by his friend Steve Earnest. Through chance, he and Steve end up fleeing Steve’s apartment building and meet up with the United States military. There, Dakota is introduced to a corporal named Jamie Marks. It isn’t long afterward that they confess feelings together and they begin their relationship.
It is no secret that during great times of peril people are willing to grasp onto anything they believe is pure and wholesome. During World War II, men and women would meet a week before being deployed, then get married over the weekend. Such fast movement in an intimate relationship can be seen as the result of one cause—time. When you are unsure whether or not you will live to fight another day, there is always the drive to reach for anything good in your life, whether or not that thing happens to be a relationship. It was this time constraint that presented a dilemma while writing Sunrise. How, I wondered, will I make their relationship believable? A quick search about World War II and tragedy was enough to solidify the fact that such a relationship would be likely to occur in an apocalyptic scenario, especially if two people managed to be attracted to one another.

Kody’s debut novel, Sunrise, is now available on Smashwords in eBook formats and on Amazon in paperback (with Kindle format forthcoming.) He lives and writes in the Austin, TX area and is the author of five book-length works. You can visit him online at KodyBoye.com.

Brandon Ford is a young writer with three novels under his belt and several appearances in various anthologies.  He recently released his first short story collection, Decayed Etchings, from Black Bed Sheet Books.  Brandon was nice enough to spare some time to talk with me about his new book.


MG: Up until now you have mostly been known for novels. Do you find your writing process differs for short stories?


BF: Well, obviously, there's a hell of a lot more involved in writing a novel. Lots more planning and plotting and outlining and trying to develop new ideas, while nixing bad ones. I usually have a few techniques I use when writing short stories. If I'm struck with what I think is a good idea, but can't get started on it at that time due to too many open projects, I'll jot down some notes on what I've got so far and go back to it when my desk is a little clearer. Or, I'll spend about a week bouncing the idea around in my head, trying to connect certain things and come up with that perfect title. I almost always write my first drafts longhand when it comes to a short story. I almost never type it up right away,


MG: Is there something in particular you get out of longhand that you don't get from working on a computer?


BF: Writing longhand is obviously a much slower process than typing on a computer. While writing longhand, I'm putting more thought into finding the perfect word or appropriate line of dialogue. I'm taking my time on the piece and making it as good as I can make it. Typing's good and all, but it's far too quick and I find it less cerebral. Also, I find that typing up the handwritten manuscript makes it much easier to edit.


MG: Decayed Etchings consists of previously unpublished tales. What made you decide to go that route as opposed to including some of your published tales?


BF: I plan on releasing future collections. I'll definitely include some of my previously published works in them. But since this was my very first collection, I wanted it to be all new stories no one has read before.


MG: How hard was it to select the stories that made it into the book?


BF: It wasn't that difficult. Most of them I had already ear-marked, so I purposely didn't submit them.


MG: What is the oldest story in the collection? The most recent?

BF: "Uninvited" is probably the oldest of the bunch. That story was written approximately 7-8 years ago and was meant to be an homage to Frank Henenlotter, one of my favorite cult horror filmmakers. "Sledgehammer" would have to be the most recent. That one was written probably a year ago.


MG: Let me ask you about some specific stories. I was really impressed by the surrealism of "Trippity-Do-Da" about a couple of friends out on the town while enjoying some chemical enhancement. The hallucinatory quality is superb. How did you go about crafting this story? I was just curious if you worked out exactly what would happen that night and then went back and determined how to twist and warp it.


BF: Thanks! That one was a lot of fun to write, especially the dialogue. I had a general idea of the things I wanted the characters to see prior to beginning the manuscript and during the process of scribbling, I decided how to twist and distort it. A lot of it was written on the fly. If it made me smile, I put it in the story.


MG: The fun certainly translates to the reader. Despite the darker tones of the piece, it was a pleasure to read. Without getting too specific and giving spoilers, I was very impressed by the boldness of the way you ended "Prognosis Negative." Did you ever consider ending it any other way?


BF: No, I knew there was no other way I could end that story. It's very dark--possibly one of the darkest I've ever written--and I didn't think it would be true to the piece to end it on a positive note.


MG: Was there anything at all biographical in your tale "Bookends"?


BF: Well, the idea came about when I decided to send a copy of one of my books to a writer I've always admired. Because this writer is known for doing some pretty outrageous things, I got this weird idea that he'd show up on my front door. And I started asking myself what I'd do if that ever happened.


MG: I know this is a little like asking a parent which child they love the most, but do you have a favorite story in the collection?


BF: I have a soft spot for "I'm Up Here". It just makes me smile.


MG: I think this collection can serve as a great intro to your work and hopefully lead readers to your novels as well. Final question, what do you have in store for us next?


BF: I'm working on a couple of new novels and I always have some short stories in the works. Hope to be seen in some new anthologies in the near future and have some more books out there soon!


MG: Well, good luck and I look forward to your future works. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.


Brandon's works can all be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Brandon-Ford/e/B003ASJOWY/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1313882797&sr=8-1

I have to admit, I wasn't really aware of the writer Richard Laymon until about 5 years ago.  I think I'd seen his books in the bookstores, but I didn't know much about him and had never read any of his work.  A friend of mine told me I had to check him out if I wanted some fun, quick reads.  So I picked up a few of his Leisure paperbacks and decided to give him a try.  I have to say, I rather devoured bookls like Island and the Stake, The Cellar and Beast House.  I even took to ordering some of his books not readily available in the U.S. from U.K. sellers on eBay, discovering great books like Quake.  I was officially hooked, an instant fan.

Sometimes I take a step back and examine my love of Laymon.  His books are...I often describe them as the literary equivalent of B grade horror flicks.  They are full of over-the-top violence, graphic sex, characterization is often at a minimal, and women are all victims and even the good guys think of little more than nailing babes.  The plots usually hinge on huge coincidences or characters constantly making the dumbest choices imaginable.  On paper, it seemed like I shouldn't like these books.

So what was it that drew me to Laymon's work?  Well, the answer seemed clear--it was the unadulterated sense of FUN that saturated his stories.  Yes, the books were cheesy and excessive, but Laymon was in on the joke.  He wasn't trying to write the Great American Novel, he was just trying to have some fun, to entertain himself and to entertain his readers.  It isn't a question of suspension of disbelief, it's just a matter of giving yourself over to the experience of getting swept along in the fun.  It's like a rollercoaster, even when you know the loops are coming, they still give you quite a thrill.  Pure fun, that is how I would describe the works of Richard Laymon, and that is what keeps me coming back for more. 

As a writer myself, my main goal is to entertain.  I hope my stuff has a bit of style, decent characterization, I strive for authentic dialogue--but mostly I just want to have fun with my stories and hope others have fun reading them.  May not seem the loftiest goal, but there it is just the same.  And for this, I could learn so much from Laymon's catalogue.

A few years back I decided I wanted to try my  hand at a story that was just pure unadulterated fun, something Laymon was a master at.  I figured I would make it a homage to the Master.  I decided to write a tale of a young woman having to walk home late at night through the city, and I would make her a Laymon fan so that she started to see everything and everyone as if it were all happening in a Laymon story.  I figured if I could capture even an ounce of Laymon's magic, it would be such a fun read.

Did I succeed?  Well, all I know is that I had an absoute blast writing the story, and I can only hope that translates to the reader as well.  The tale, "A Laymon Kind of Night", was written with much love, my nod to a writer who knew how to entertain like no one else.  I was lucky that Sideshow Press expressed interested in the tale, and they published it with 2 other stories--"The Snoop" and "Van People"--as a chapbook in 2009, entitled A LAYMON KIND OF NIGHT.  The book actually sold out in pre-order (mostly because it could be bought as a set with chapbooks from more established writers like Brian Knight, Kurt Newton, and Edward Lee), and I was very happy with the reception.  I don't think it came anywhere near capturing the joy and fun of a Laymon work, but it did seem to entertain people which really pleased me.

And after having been out of print for 2 years, I decided to make it available again in a digital edition on Amazon.com.  Tom Moran from Sideshow, who did an absolutely stunning for the chapbook, graciously agreed to let me use the cover for the digital edition as well.  I am hoping to get the stories out to a wider audience, and maybe if people enjoy "A Laymon Kind of Night" it will even encourage them to give Laymon's works a try if they haven't already. 

Above all else, I hope people take a chance on this and have fun.

www.amazon.com/Laymon-Kind-Night-ebook/dp/B005C1NQV2/ref=tmm_kin_title_0