Meghan: Hi, Cynthia. Welcome to Meghan’s House of Books. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Cynthia Von Buhler: I’m an author, artist, and theater producer. I’m passionate about animals.
Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?
Cynthia Von Buhler: 1) I was the lead singer of an all-female S&M band. 2) I’m agoraphobic. 3) I never take the subway. 4) I love antique shopping more than sex. 5) I’m really good at cutting pig hooves.
Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?
Cynthia von Buhler: As a child I think the first book I read myself was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. For adult books, I read Gone With the Wind and The Last Tango in Paris in 4th grade (I found it hidden in my parent’s bathroom). I can’t recall which one I read first.
Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?
Cynthia Von Buhler: The dictionary.
Meghan: What made you decide you want to write? When did you begin writing?
Cynthia Von Buhler: I started my career as an illustrator and became tired of illustrating other people’s stories. I started writing children’s books in the mid-nineties and graphic novels only a few years ago. I’m only interested in writing books with pictures.
Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?
Cynthia Von Buhler: In bed or in the bathtub.
Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?
Cynthia Von Buhler: I need to drink many cups of coffee, all my animals need to be fed, and my house needs to be clean before I write.
Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?
Cynthia Von Buhler: Dialogue needs to sound natural. I like to give it to my actors to read aloud before I commit to it. If it sounds realistic I’ll keep it.
Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?
Cynthia Von Buhler: Writing The Illuminati Ball was a cathartic experience because I have such complicated feeling about human beings. I’m compassionate like Pig King and furious like Chumanzee.
Meghan: What books have most inspired you? Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?
Cynthia Von Buhler: The pulp comic books of the twenties and thirties inspired my graphic novel drawing style. I love the paper texture, muted colors, and realistic line drawing. My actors inspire my writing style.
Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?
Cynthia Von Buhler: A good story, play or film needs to teach you something about life.
Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character? How do you utilize that when creating your characters?
Cynthia Von Buhler: Loveable characters are not perfect. Like all of us, they battle their inner demons and struggle. I seek out my own demons and haunt my characters with them.
Meghan: Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?
Cynthia Von Buhler: I think all of my characters have a little bit of me in them. With The Illuminati Ball, I’m compassionate, trusting and kind like Pig King, but I’m also aggressive and angry like Chumanzee. In The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini, I’m like Minky Woodcock and Harry Houdini. Humans contradict themselves.
Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover? To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?
Cynthia Von Buhler: Absolutely. The cover needs to be special. I draw all my books, including the covers. We also hire artists to do alternate covers and I get to choose them.
Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?
Cynthia Von Buhler: That creating a book is the easy part. Promoting is the hardest.
Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?
Cynthia Von Buhler: When you kill characters you love it is always hard.
Meghan: What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?
Cynthia Von Buhler: I try to make every single panel a work of art. Many comics have a good cover and the interiors are too simple or poorly drawn. My books are fairly unique. I don’t think there are many out there like them. I’m not interested in superheroes or fantasy monsters. My books are always based on shocking facts.
Meghan: How important is the book title, how hard is it to choose the best one, and how did you choose yours (of course, with no spoilers)?
Cynthia Von Buhler: A good book title is crucial. I love writing them and yes, I always choose them.
Meghan: What makes you feel more fulfilled: Writing a novel or writing a short story?
Cynthia Von Buhler: I write graphic novels or children’s books. I’m only interested in creating books with pictures.
Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?
Cynthia Von Buhler: I toned down some of the steamier scenes.
Meghan: What is in your “trunk”?
Cynthia Von Buhler: I’m working on a graphic novel about a girl who is half human and half tree. I also envision it as a puppet show.
Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?
Meghan: Do you have any closing words for your fans or anything you’d like to say that we didn’t get to cover in this interview?
Cynthia Von Buhler: Be not a cancer on earth – leave room for nature. Leave room for nature.
Cynthia von Buhler, aka Countess von Buhler, is an American artist, performer, playwright and author. Hailed by the press as “multitalented and eccentric” (Boston Globe), a “rising star” (NY Arts), and “one of the top contemporary surrealists” (Art & Antiques), Cynthia von Buhler has made a name for herself as an award-winning and critically acclaimed fine artist, author, and illustrator. Her illustration work has won awards from the Society of Illustrators and has repeatedly appeared in American Illustration, Communication Arts, and the Society of Illustrator annuals of the best illustration in America. Von Buhler’s stunning, three-dimensional paintings have been displayed in galleries and museums around the world, and have been featured in books, newspapers and magazines from Rolling Stone to The New Yorker. The New York Times has written four features on her in the last five years. Von Buhler has collaborated on art projects with Steven Spielberg, Neil Gaiman, and Clive Barker. She has illustrated book covers for Harry Turtledove, Scott O’Dell, Jane Yolen, Elizabeth George Speare, and Lawrence Block. Her sculptures have appeared on NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, she and her work were profiled in Mary Magdalen: An Intimate Portrait on the Lifetime Network, and she was a recurring character on Discovery Channel’s Oddities. Von Buhler also writes, directs and produces immersive theater. In writing about her theater productions, Forbes called her “a creative genius” and the New York Post wrote, “Von Buhler has the kind of family footnote any writer would kill for.” Von Buhler was the lead singer in two seminal Boston bands, The Women of Sodom and Countess, the latter garnering her a development deal with MCA Records. Her comic work includes Evelyn Evelyn: A Terrible Tale in Two Tomes with Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley, An Evening with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Bloody Beginning and Emily and The Strangers.
Cynthia von Buhler, acclaimed author and visual artist of Minky Woodcock, brings her immersive theater production The Illuminati Ball to Graphic Novel form.
Acclaimed author and visual artist Cynthia von Buhler (Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini) brings her hit immersive theater production The Illuminati Ball to the page in an all-new graphic novel which merges the myth and mystery surrounding the secret organization of the rich and powerful who supposedly control the world with a story about human-animal hybrids who have escaped an experimental lab. Inspired by the legendary 1972 surrealist masquerade party that influenced Stanley Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut — hosted by the Baron and Baroness de Rothschild at their mansion in Paris — The Illuminati Ball combines elements of the fantastical with reality to tell an unforgettable story about power, cruelty, deceit, betrayal, and the insatiable hunger for freedom.
Meghan: Hi, Adam. Welcome to Meghan’s House of Books. Thanks for joining us here together. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Adam Davies: I’m forty-five and live in a village in Yorkshire in the north of England (Stark country, not as far north as wildlings). I have an amazing, supportive, beautiful wife and two incredible daughters soon to turn eight and six. My real-world job is procurement and supply chain director for a business that distributes medical consumables. Two of my three cats that passed away in the last eighteen months so I’m down to an incredibly handsome, long-haired ginger tom, Jambo.
Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?
Adam Davies: I’m a huge introvert and find people totally exhausting, but you would never know this if you met me because I can come across as quite outgoing and I like to joke and gossip. I didn’t realise this introversion about myself until well into my mid-thirties. I’m very good at conflict, I have to be as part of my job, and my colleagues would all consider me quite feisty and combative at times, but very few people realise that I absolutely hate it and it eats away at me whatever I have to disagree with somebody. This is another revelation about my character that I only discovered in later life.I’m a high-functioning insomniac but have been able to bring that under control in the last four years by following a CBT online program. If there are any insomniacs reading this, I cannot recommend CBT highly enough it has changed my life. Where I previously averaged two to three hours sleep and had bad nights four nights in seven, I now average six to seven hours sleep I only have bad night’s one night in seven. The difference is incredible.I was a stage child taking dance and drama classes from the age of three and, by virtue of being a boy in a female dominated world rather than Talent on my part, I ended up appearing on national television on Christmas day and even as an extra in a film with Michael Palin and Dame Maggie Smith.Last summer I had a panic attack on a small aerial assault course on holiday in Italy. I’ve never been scared of heights before and I was no more than twenty feet off the ground. Fear of heights is something else didn’t know about myself.
Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?
Adam Davies: I have two iconic childhood reading memories. The first is Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish, by Michael Foreman. My favourite book as a young child which I recently bought for my own daughters. It was very much ahead of its time with an incredibly relevant environmental message that we as a race have failed to heed. I also remember a book called Wereboy, by Terrance Dicks. As an eleven or twelve-year-old I borrowed this from the local library dozens, if not hundreds of times to read over and over again. I’ve never linked that memory to the fact that I write horror, but I guess a seed was clearly planted.
Meghan: What are you reading now?
Adam Davies: Vox by Christina Dalcher. It’s set in the immediate future where the ultra-conservative right has the presidency and women are prohibited from speaking more than one hundred words per day. It’s thought (and anger) provoking, chilling and well written. I recommend it.
Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?
Adam Davies: I was lucky enough to backpack around the world for a year in my mid-twenties. I read a succession of medical thriller novels by Robin Cook that I picked up at various hostel book exchanges. I found them all incredibly gripping despite the fact that they are ultra-formulaic and very not my thing in normal circumstances
Meghan: What made you decide you want to write? When did you begin writing?
Adam Davies: This is probably the most interesting questionable for me. I first put pen to paper three years ago in my early forties. I never knew I wanted to write, and I’ve never had the remotest inclination to try it. My youngest was coming up to two years old so we still had a baby monitor. I had the thought what have you heard somebody whispering to your child through your baby monitor while you were both downstairs and, on a whim, I decided to try and write that story. It quickly became an exploration of what happens to a couple’s relationship when they have a baby anthropomorphized into horror. I have seventeen thousand unpublished words somewhere that I hope one day to complete, but it became clear to me writing a novel was too hard for me and I had no idea what I was doing. In parallel I stumbled on a few Creepypasta I really enjoyed, Candle Cove, Mr Widemouth and Penpal stick in my mind. The Creepypasta led me to NoSleep on reddit and I suddenly realised I could write short stories and that would be easier than a novel and would help me learn. That probably marks the actual beginning of my writing. Over the course of twelve months I wrote around thirty-five stories I posted across r/NoSleep and r/shortscarystories on reddit. Through these subs I met a bunch of Incredible, talented fellow writers who I am part of various groups with to this day. I have been lucky enough to have a few short stories published in anthologies run by groups I met through NoSleep.
If that’s the how & when, the why is less clear. Now that I am writing I realise I have always imagined stories and always wanted to tell them. I’m under no illusions, I don’t have what it takes to have a career as a writer, that’s not my goal. I just want to write what I want and tell the stories that mean something to me. If anyone wants to read them that’s the icing on the cake.
Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?
Adam Davies: Special places to write don’t really exist in a house with young children in my experience!
Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?
Adam Davies: In terms of quirks, due to the amount of time I spend in my car with work, around four hours a day, I do an awful lot off my writing on a voice to text app as I drive. Without that I wouldn’t get the time to write anything. It takes an awful lot of getting used to. Not being able to see the words on screen in front of you adds a layer of complexity and wordsmithing is out of the question, but it’s good for rough drafting and just getting words on paper. There is significant editing required as the speech recognition with the background noise of the car can be pretty sketchy at times. This often leads to some hilarious sentences like “Callow 10 hatch Rossi akon hashish ready 2 evade.” I then have to figure out what I was actually saying at the time and translate back.
Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?
Adam Davies: I never enjoyed studying English in school, so I dropped it aged sixteen. As a result, I lack a lot of fundamentals. I particularly struggle with punctuation and grammar. I seem to have a complete blind spot on how to correctly use commas despite reading dozens of articles about the rules for doing so. The fact that I find it so difficult part of the fun for me. I love mastering things I find a challenge.
Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?
Adam Davies: A short story called ‘The Worm King.’ I remember being told about the cellular memory of worms in my mid-twenties and the concept of an all-powerful worm has sat in the back of my mind for decades. It’s short and snappy, with just enough science to make it almost plausible and make it a bloody scary concept. It also elicited a really fun set of interactions with the readers who commented on the story which really made it for me.
I also have a huge soft spot for the only children’s horror story I have written ‘Granny Heckle’s Teeth.’ I have a bunch of stories planned for the formidable Granny and I’d love to publish them one day with my daughter doing the artwork. (She’s only eight but seriously talented.)
Meghan: What books have most inspired you? Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?
Adam Davies: I think writing is still so new to me that I’m not sure I actually have a style yet. I love Clive Barker. His anthology The Books of Blood remain one of my all-time favorites. He has an incredible, vast imagination and tells stories on an epic scale which is something I aspire to. In non-horror I think A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin are the best books ever written. Again, the vastness and depth of the world and character building really appeal to me.
Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?
Adam Davies: Engaging characters and storylines that make you think.
I’m a horror writer that isn’t scared by horror. When I get a chill down my spine, it’s because something has made me think wow, that could really happen and it’s a chilling prospect. I enjoy psychological horror and technology horror as they tend to elicit those kinds of reactions in me.
Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character? How do you utilize that when creating your characters?
Adam Davies: I like a sharp wit, and a misunderstood character will often draw me in, so somebody like Tyrion Lannister is a great character for me. He is deeply flawed and thoroughly unpleasant but mostly vilified for the wrong things. He has the confidence and acid tongue to deliver some stinging one-liners.
My own character development is something I struggle with. Short form horror is by its nature plot driven more than character driven, and in venturing into writing my first novel, I’ve had to try and force myself to address that in my current work in progress. I think there are some decent characters, but I am about to overhaul my main character. I think he lacks enough depth and interest to carry the book. I can’t visualize him clearly, and I don’t always know how he will react in a situation. If I don’t know that, how can the readers care?
Meghan: Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?
Adam Davies: William Bridge the main character in my novel (who isn’t interesting enough to carry a book!) probably represents many of the less positive things I think about myself. He is a loner, disengaged from the world and doesn’t care about other people’s live. Captain Harold Stubbs, a homeless veteran from the same novel, probably possesses some of the positive qualities I’d like to think I have. He is loyal and honorable.
Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover? To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?
Adam Davies: I don’t know if they turn me off as much as a good cover definitely draws me in. My published work to date is in group anthologies where I had visibility of covers, and a small amount of inout between options. When I finish my novel and get to the point of needing a cover, I’m looking forward to being heavily involved in that. I confess to having a soft spot for a gold old fashioned eighty’s horror cover.
Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?
Adam Davies: So many things! The most enjoyable thing I’ve learnt is a reminder of how important imagination is. More than anything, writing for me is a gateway back to my childhood where imagination was more powerful than reality. I am lucky enough to have a happy and stable life, but reality can still suck at times. Writing means I get to create my own reality where ultra-cool shit happens, and monsters abound. Even though I don’t write about happy things, I get to write about things I find intriguing.
Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?
Adam Davies: My cheating answer is some of the scenes I haven’t written yet. I find endings difficult (we all do, right?), so the fact that I can’t yet conceptualize the end of my novel makes it hard to write. I don’t do happy endings so in my head the bad guys win. I’m not sure people are going to want to read that.
I’ve found some of the earlier, more mundane, character building scenes from my novel difficult for some of the reasons I mentioned above about finding character development a challenge. Not really being in love with my own main character has been a factor, and as the scenes have intrinsically less plot, they are further away from my comfort zone. I’m a horror writer so I have my fair share grisly scenes and even a few sex scenes. (I have a story in a horror erotica anthology, don’t judge me, it was huge fun.) Unpleasant stuff I’m fine with, mundane stuff I find harder.
Meghan: What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?
Adam Davies: I don’t know yet is the honest answer. I’m trying to write a novel that is vast and complex with intertwined stories as part of a larger narrative arc. It has a message about how I view the world today and gives a uniqueness to some tried and tested horror bad guys. If I actually achieve one of those three things, I’d be pretty happy.
Meghan: How important is the book title, how hard is it to choose the best one, and how did you choose yours (of course, with no spoilers)?
Adam Davies: With the birth of my writing career being on NoSleep, the title e is often the single most important factor in the number of eyeballs your story gets. When it comes to a novel, I think the significance of the title drops several pegs. The cover, the promotional activity and reviews are more important for visibility, I think.
My current WIP title comes from a prediction made in the story by something called ‘The Reaper App’ that predicts how and when people will die…with unnerving accuracy.
Meghan: What makes you feel more fulfilled: Writing a novel or writing a short story?
Adam Davies: Short stories give instant gratification. Write it, get it out, look at the feedback and move on. It’s a really nice feeling. But for me, the real sense of fulfillment has to come from the novel. It’s a huge challenge for me on so many levels. I’m a rank amateur, I lack the fundamental skill set, I don’t have the time, all of these are challenges I can overcome and get a big, bold story out there.
Meghan: Tell us a little bit about your books, your target audience, and what you would like readers to take away from your stories.
Adam Davies: I want to tell stories that terrify by making you think. I want them to unnerve and unsettle because they are a dark spin on a reality that is a little too close for comfort. My only real target audience is people like me, who read horror stories that are tropey and come away feeling a little disappointed that the book didn’t just go a little bit further.
Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?
Adam Davies: I have an extremely graphically unpleasant scene that may not make the final cut. It’s a transformation scene where a character is basically tortured into taking their own life to escape the agony. It’s borderline gratuitous, but it is important for the story. I’m on the fence.
Meghan: What is in your “trunk”?
Adam Davies: I have two. My Granny Heckle stories and the completion of my first baby monitor story that I suspect would end up as a novella.
Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?
Adam Davies: I love #vss365 and do a horror themed tweet every day, so If nothing else there will be that.
All current efforts are focused on the first novel. I’m at 50,000 words so making decent progress, but it could easily be another year before I even have a finished first draft at the rate I write.
I also have a second novel idea and about 15,000 words written. I would describe it as ‘Dune, with Faeries,’ so yeah, that one’s a bit left field.
I have a lousy website that needs an overhaul, nothing to see there currently.
Meghan: Do you have any closing words for your fans or anything you’d like to say that we didn’t get to cover in this interview?
Adam Davies: Just a huge thank you for interviewing me. I’m a complete nobody but I’m having a whale of a time writing and this is a huge opportunity for me that I really appreciate. The questions were thought provoking and I enjoyed the process.
Adam Davies writes thinking person’s horror for fun, and to free his imagination, if he didn’t, all those crazy thoughts would stay trapped in his head and who knows what would happen? Adam has six short stories published across four anthologies and is currently working on his first novel. Adam is an active part of the indie online horror community and founded the NoSleep Writers Guild in 2017 to help improve relationships between internet horror writers and YouTube horror narrators, and combat IP theft. His published works can be found in:
You’re never so vulnerable as when you surrender your body to a hospital.
You trust the doctors to know what is best, but these stories show what happens when they have other plans.
What if a maternity doctor pretends your child died during birth just so he can steal it? Or a simple operation is used as an excuse to harvest parts? Discover the truth of the asylum in the woods, take the pills which induce mind-bending phobias, and try to escape when you’ve been institutionalized against your will.
A CURE FOR CHAOS is an anthology of horror stories from 30 authors, each with a unique way to thrill and terrify you. From stalking supernatural monsters to the psychopaths hiding in plain sight, these quick reads are perfect for adding excitement to your daily life.
THE MONSTER BOOK OF MONSTERS is a collection of 100 stories from around the world, inspired by the legendary book from Harry Potter. These aren’t your everyday Werewolves and Wendigos either. Each story is told by the survivor of an encounter with a unique and mysterious creature more wild and varied than you can imagine. This book has something for everyone with a dark mind, so read now to find the perfect monster for you.
Some monsters are quirky and friendly, while others are apocalyptic behemoths crawling up from the depths. Some stories are heartwarming, funny, or profound, while others are a blood bath.
Goregasm is a compilation of the hot and the horrifying, the sexy and the scary, the titillating and the terrifying. Featuring X stories from over X authors, Goregasm contains the most vile tales of lust the human mind can conjure.
From a father’s bequeathal of his sordid sexual proclivities, to a glory hole made by the devil himself, to a computer program that allows its users to partake in their most depraved fantasies, Goregasm takes a frightening dive into the sexual psyche, with blood-curdling tales that are presented with the hardest, deepest, most throbbing details the written word allows.
Prepare to be aroused and appalled as Goregasm brings you to what will unquestionably be the most divisive climaxes you ever achieve.
Each and every day, first responders are thrown into situations most of us can barely comprehend. These brave souls are pushed to limits far beyond the average imagination, be it physically, emotionally or something…else…
Like a police officer who arrives at a scene that defies all logic and reason…
A firefighter who rushes into a house only to be met by the very flames of Hell…
A paramedic who can’t restart a heart…because the patient doesn’t have one…
A 9-1-1 call from beyond the grave…
With 40 terrifying tales from 31 authors, join the heroic men and women of those professions and more as they attempt to rise above the darkness…and avoid having the last sounds they ever hear be…
A.J. Brown joins us today to tell us a little bit about his favorite holiday and the story of a really good friend of his, now gone.
Halloween is my favorite day of the year. It also used to be Chris Dunne’s favorite day. I say used to be because Chris died on Halloween night in 1995. For the record, this is not a lead in to a fictional story of some movie slasher who wears a mask and carries a chainsaw or machete or has Wolverine type claws on his fingertips. Please, understand that now before you read any further.
I don’t want to tell you the story of Chris’s death, though I have to, somewhat, so you understand. I’ve already written a book about his death and the events leading up to it. For those who don’t know, he died of a gunshot wound to the head. I’m going to leave out the rest of the details. If you want those, you can pick up Closing the Wound and read all about it.
What I want to write about here today is the irony of something he did, something I helped him do. Stick with me for a few paragraphs and I’ll try to make this as painless as possible.
Most of you know me as an author of dark stories, most of which are considered horror. Before I began writing, I used to draw. My favorite things to draw were superheroes. I have entire sketch pads dedicated to just superheroes. One Sunday at church I wasn’t feeling the message. I’m not going to lie here, the sermon was boring and the preacher lost me at hello. On the back of the bulletin I drew a picture of a man holding a balloon and floating away—it was what I wanted to do right then: float away. It was nothing special, just a sketched out person holding a balloon, shaded to look like it could have been red or blue or some other dark color.
After church, in the car as I took Chris home, he said to me, “That’s a pretty cool drawing you did in church.”
Part of me was embarrassed that he saw it. The other part was flattered. However, I’ve never been good at taking compliments, so I played it off with, “It’s just a sketch. I do them all the time.”
That’s when Chris asked me, “Can you teach me how to draw like that?”
I shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
A couple of weeks later, he came to my house. We sat at a picnic table in the backyard, each of us with paper and pencils in front of us. I showed him the basics of drawing, using shapes, like ovals, squares, rectangles and triangles. He drew those shapes on his paper, just as I had on mine. I showed him how to connect the shapes and add depth and layers to the drawing. He seemed to really enjoy creating something from a piece of paper and a wooden stick with lead in it.
That began a run of a few weeks where he came over on either Saturday or Sunday and we would draw together, me showing him and him learning and getting better.
Abruptly, those lessons stopped when he met Chris Pettite. He was a year older and looked like a weasel—literally, his face had the shape of a weasel’s. He was also a bad boy. He didn’t play by the rules and he was good at manipulation. (For the sake of the rest of this part, I will refer to the boys as CD for Dunne and CP for Pettite, otherwise there is the potential for a lot of confusion.) It was mid-summer when they met and CD’s life changed.
CD left the church we all attended. He started skipping school. He stopped hanging around all of his old friends. His skin took on a different appearance, almost waxy, as if he no longer took showers. The skin beneath his eyes always seemed to have gray or bruised bags beneath them. There was speculation that he was using drugs and doing things he shouldn’t be. During that time period, he turned sixteen, and what can you tell a sixteen-year-old rebellious boy? Nothing. That’s the answer. Not a thing.
On Halloween morning in 1995 I talked to him around eight. It was the last time I talked to him. Around twelve or so hours later, CD would be dead.
Just writing that sentence gave me goosebumps and brought tears to my eyes.
Before I go, I want to tell you about the irony of Chris’s death and drawing superheroes. Chris, as I stated earlier, loved Halloween. He loved horror movies and the darker side of entertainment. The last time he came to my house for a drawing session, he left a few pictures in a brown letter-sized envelope. I didn’t think anything of it and I put it in my portfolio of pictures. Years later, after I wrote the original form of Closing the Wound, I came across that envelope. Not knowing what was in it or who it even came from, I opened it.
My heart stopped. Well, I believe it stopped. If not, it missed a good chance to do so. There were three pictures, one that held a word and two that were actual pictures. The first one I saw made my stomach drop into my thighs. It was a picture of a coffin. Above it was the word FUNERAL. The second was the single word, which was the same one on the coffin picture and on the last one as well. The third image was of this big, muscle bound hero with a spike on the backside of each hand. He had a little, bald head and a huge body.
As I stared at the pictures, the only thoughts I had were I taught my friend how to draw a coffin and a hero who went by the name of Funeral. In writing, we call this foreshadowing. In life, we call it heart wrenching. I’ll never say my friend had a death wish, but you have to admit, that’s kind of what it looked like when I found those pictures.
Chris loved the darker things in life. He loved Halloween. In hindsight, he might have even foreshadowed his own death.
I leave you with this: though my friend is gone and has been for many years, I still think about him on a regular basis, especially on Halloween. So, this year, if you wouldn’t mind, get your favorite candy bar and raise it in the air for my friend, Chris.
I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween. As for me, I will, even as I remember my friend.
Until we meet again, my friends, be kind to one another.
A.J.
A.J. Brown is a southern-born writer who tells emotionally charged, character driven stories that often delve into the dark parts of the human psyche. Though he writes mostly darker stories, he does so without unnecessary gore, coarse language, or sex. More than 200 of his stories have been published in various online and print publications.
A.J. Brown is back for round three of the interviews, which is really exciting. If you’re not following him on social media – and reading his stuff – you are surely missing out. Not only talented, but a great conversationalist, motivational and thought-provoking.
Meghan: What are your go-to horror films?
A.J. Brown: Lost Boys is one of my favorites. And World War Z. Sadly, I don’t find many horror movies scary. I wish I did.
Meghan: What makes the horror genre so special?
A.J. Brown: Scaring people is hard. I think the original intent of horror was to scare people, unsettle them, make them think about the darker things of life. Horror doesn’t shy away from taboo subject matters. It’s not politically correct. I feel horror is truer to real life than any other genre. That’s pretty special, if you ask me. Oh wait. You did.
Meghan: Have any new authors grasped your interest recently?
Meghan: How big of a part does music play in creating your “zone”?
A.J. Brown: Music is a HUGE part of creating the writing zone. Each story has a soundtrack, whether I realize it at first or not.
Meghan: What do you listen to while writing?
A.J. Brown: It really depends on my mood and the story, but most of the time, I listen to Metallica’s instrumentals. Not having lyrics in my head as I write makes it easier and I love the ebbs and flows of Metallica’s music.
Meghan: How active are you on social media?
A.J. Brown: I’m not very active on Twitter—I just don’t get it. I’m somewhat active on Instagram—I’m still trying to figure it out. I am very active on Facebook, both on my personal page and my author page. Though I think advertising on social media is often a waste of time and falls on blind eyes, I like to engage with people, let them see who I am—this is my way of getting readers comfortable with me, and hopefully, get them to purchase a few books from time to time.
Meghan: How do you think it affects the way you write?
A.J. Brown: Occasionally, I get an idea from social media, but it really doesn’t influence me much.
Meghan: What is your writing Kryptonite?
A.J. Brown: Marketing. I suck at it.
Meghan: If you were making a movie of your latest story/book, who would you cast?
Meghan: If you had the choice to rewrite any of your books, which one would it be and why?
A.J. Brown: I wouldn’t. The stories are the way they are.
Meghan: What would the main character in your latest story/book have to say about you?
A.J. Brown: He’d say I was a jerk for putting him through all of the drama and death. He probably wants to kill me, to be honest.
Meghan: Did you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
A.J. Brown: Oh yeah. I do that in a lot of my stories.
Meghan: How much of yourself do you put in your books?
A.J. Brown: There’s a little of me in every story. There has to be. I think authors are influenced by the lives they have lived, the things they have seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelled. Some stories, like Dredging Up Memories and Cory’s Way have a lot more of me in them, but every story has something from my life as an influence.
Meghan: Have you ever incorporated something that happened to you in real life into your novels?
A.J. Brown: Yes. The two bullies from Cory’s Way were real bullies from my childhood. A scene from a novel I wrote appears, almost exactly like it happened when I was a kid. My novella, Closing the Wound, is the true story of a kid who was murdered in 1995—I knew the kid and it was a devastating event.
Meghan: Are your characters based off real people, or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
A.J. Brown: A little bit of both. I think every character we create is based, loosely, on other people, their characteristics, mannerisms, appearance. Someone or quite a few someones had to influence them.
Meghan: How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
A.J. Brown: I used to write crap. Now, I don’t. The longer answer is I’ve learned what telling a story truly is. It’s not a matter of just putting words to paper, but putting words that make sense and carry a story forward that matters. Cheesy B movies influenced a lot of my earlier stuff, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Now, life—real life—pushes a lot of my creativity.
Meghan: What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
A.J. Brown: Keeping my butt in the seat. I want to write all day, but focusing on it long enough to get more than a few hundred to a thousand words in one sitting is difficult. It’s amazing that I’ve finished as many pieces as I have.
Meghan: Does writing energize or exhaust you?
A.J. Brown: Both. When I get in a particularly good flow where words are just pouring onto the paper, then I don’t want to stop and I get excited for the written word. On the other hand, if I am struggling through a piece, I know it’s not going to be all that great and it gets more and more difficult to finish the piece, and that is exhausting. It’s almost like the writing is work during those times.
Meghan: Do you read your book reviews?
A.J. Brown: Yes. I read all of them. If someone took the time to read my book and leave a review, they deserve, at the very least, me to read what they have to say.
Meghan: How do you deal with the bad ones?
A.J. Brown: I look at what they said and see if there is a way to improve on telling stories. Most of the negative reviews I have received have given reasons why the story wasn’t liked. Those are things I can focus on for other stories.
Meghan: Have you ever learned something from a negative review and incorporated it into your writing?
A.J. Brown: Most definitely.
Meghan: What are your ambitions for your writing career?
A.J. Brown: I want people to read my words. I want them to be moved by my stories. I want them to feel something when they read what I write. I would be lying if I said I didn’t want people to buy my books and to be a popular writer, but if someone reads one of my stories and then tells three of his or her friends, then they tell three of their friends, and so on, then popularity will grow and people will buy the books. That’s not a bad thing.
Meghan: What does “literary success” look like to you?
A.J. Brown: Being read by a lot of people would be nice. Success isn’t always about money—it’s about how you are viewed and if people want what you write. It’s about moving someone to tears. If you can touch someone’s heart, you are a success.
A.J. Brown is a southern-born writer who tells emotionally charged, character driven stories that often delve into the dark parts of the human psyche. Though he writes mostly darker stories, he does so without unnecessary gore, coarse language, or sex. More than 200 of his stories have been published in various online and print publications.
Hank Walker woke up in a bed in survivor camp. He should have been dead, and a short time after that, he should have risen and joined the ranks of the shambling biters—those who had died and come back seeking the flesh of the living. Instead, he woke up alive and in a safe place.
Or is it truly safe?
Ruled by Harrison Avis, a militaristic leader, Hank realizes quickly Fort Survivor S.C. #3 might not be so safe after all, especially for those who do not find favor with Avis.
When a member of the camp is exiled to the outside world, Hank launches a plan to expose Avis as corrupt. It’s a plan with possible grave consequences for all involved. Though he knows the dangers of failing, Hank is willing to take the risk to protect what remains of his family, if not from Harrison Avis, then from himself.
On a Saturday morning in early February of 2002, the phone rang. How was I supposed to know the voice on the other end would ask a question I dreaded answering?
“What happened that night?”
That night was Halloween of 1995, when a young man was brutally murdered.
Swallowed by a rush of memories and the word, Goodbye, I took a trip to the past, where some wounds never heal. This is my story.
After his father leaves in the middle of the night, Cory Maddox and his mom, Gina, are forced to start over. Left alone while Gina tries to work her way out of debt, Cory deals with life as the new kid in school with no friends. Fleeing from the school bullies, Cory ends up under an overpass where an old homeless man lives. After being saved from the bullies, Cory and the homeless man, Mr. Washington, become friends.
But things don’t get any easier for Cory. Children are disappearing from around the state, and the bullies haven’t forgotten his escape the first time they went after him. And there is something wrong with Mr. Washington…something terribly wrong.
Accompanied by his only two friends and the unlikeliest of allies, Cory sets out to keep a promise to the ailing homeless man. Will Cory and his friends find a way to keep the promise, or will the journey prove too difficult for them?
In the best of times, loneliness is difficult. At the end of time it can be deadly. Hank Walker is alone and struggling not just with the undead but with depression that threatens to swallow him. Searching for the family he sent away at the beginning of the rise of the dead, Hank is left to deal with loneliness, desperation, and his own memories that haunt him. The dead are everywhere. The few people still alive are scattered, and the ones Hank comes across may be more dangerous than the biters. With an unlikely traveling companion, Hank’s search takes him across the state of South Carolina and to the depths of darkness like nothing he has ever experienced before. Can Hank find his family and survive the biters? Or does he completely unravel in the world of the dead?
Meghan: Hi, Mark. Welcome back… well, welcome TO Meghan’s House of Books, but welcome back to the interview couch. It’s been awhile since we sat down together. What’s been going on since we last spoke?
Mark Reefe: So the bad news is my publisher (Burning Willow Press or BWP) recently closed up shop. It’s tough because I worked with the owners and other BWP authors for years. In many ways we were more like a family than a business. Fortunately, I still keep in touch with many of them, and we continue to support one another and sometimes collaborate on writing projects.
The good news is that I’ve found a new home for my first novel, The Road to Jericho, with Three Furies Press. We’re still working out the details and a release date, but it’s tentatively scheduled to come out sometime in 2020. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well with the release as there are two more novels in the series that need a home too. Wish me luck!
Meghan: Who are you outside of writing?
Mark Reefe: A lover. A fighter. But mostly a half-assed handyman who thinks he can fix anything with some duct tape and a little gorilla glue. When I’m not busy gluing and taping, I enjoy spending time outdoors with the wife, two boys, and two devilish dogs.
Meghan: How do you feel about friends and close relatives reading your work?
Mark Reefe: I get a real kick out of it. Having that personal connection with the reader and knowing a little about their likes and dislikes gives more meaning to any feedback they have to offer. Also, there’s nothing quite like making a friend or family member bawl while reading a particularly moving scene. The problem comes when they’re crying and the part they’ve read isn’t supposed to be sad.
Meghan: Is being a writer a gift or a curse?
Mark Reefe: Depends on the day of the week and how picky my editor’s being. But seriously, when it’s all said and done, I guess it’s a gift. It’s just hard to see it that way when a deadline’s fast approaching and you still have a couple of hundred pages of track changes to sort through. I hate editing.
Meghan: How has your environment and upbringing colored your writing?
Mark Reefe: A fair amount since I tend to put my characters in places that I’ve lived. I love the stark contrast between the lush forests and flowing rivers of the Shenandoah Valley and the haunting desolation of the South Texas shrublands. I’m actually putting the finishing touches on a manuscript that takes place in my hometown of Bowie, Maryland during the late 1970s. I’ve always wanted to capture that location and time in a story and share it for the world to see. Now if I can just get the damn thing published…
Meghan: What’s the strangest thing you have ever had to research for your books?
Mark Reefe: Can you be charged with drunk driving while mowing your lawn? Wait a minute. That research was for personal reasons. For books I’ve done a fair amount of homework on black magic (Palo Mayombe to be specific). I’ve also perused the finer points of how to make pipe bombs in the kitchen (cinnamon is key) and the names of the nine circles of Hell (turns out the ninth circle is actually referred to as Chuck E Cheese’s by scholars).
Meghan: Which do you find the hardest to write: the beginning, the middle, or the end?
Mark Reefe: The middle. Most times I know where I want to start and how I want everything to end, but getting there often turns into a tremendous pain in the ass. Pacing and continuity are so important to good storytelling that I find myself constantly rewriting middle portions of my manuscripts and obsessing over them. Did I mention that I hate editing?
Mark Reefe: Do you outline? Do you start with characters or plot? Do you just sit down and start writing? What works best for you?
Meghan: I’ve done a little bit of everything. As crazy as it sounds, I had a great deal of my first novel planned out in my head before I started writing. For the second and third books in the series, I found outlines were necessary to get everything organized the way I wanted. I tend to focus much more on the characters during the initial stages of any story. I want to know their backstories, motivations, likes, dislikes, etc. If you have well-developed characters you’re off to a good start with any story.
Meghan: What do you do when characters don’t follow the outline/plan?
Mark Reefe: I go with the flow and try to enjoy the ride. I think it’s great when one of my characters takes control of their destiny and changes the narrative. The clean up afterwards can be messy, but it’s usually worth it.
Meghan: What do you do to motivate yourself to sit down and write?
Mark Reefe: Two shots of Elijah Craig with an espresso chaser. Not a joke.
Meghan: Are you an avid reader?
Mark Reefe: Absolutely. Reading a good book is not only a wonderful escape but a great way to exercise the brain. Unfortunately, I don’t have the discipline to carve out specific times for reading, but I always try to keep a book close at hand.
Meghan: What kind of books do you absolutely love to read?
Mark Reefe: I like reading a variety of books, but I lean towards horror, fantasy, and a little science fiction. If the author does a good job creating another world that I can get lost in, I’m happy. If I read a little bit of a story and find myself thinking about it the next day and visualizing the characters and scenes, then I know I’m into something good. Tolkien does that for me.
Meghan: How do you feel about movies based on books?
Mark Reefe: I’m good with it. Sometimes Hollywood nails it (e.g., The Lord of the Rings). Other times you get movies like The Dark Tower (who farted?). It seems to me the big studios get into trouble when they lose faith in the actual story and make changes in an attempt to appeal to the masses. They fail to realize there was a reason the book was a best seller to begin with.
Meghan: Have you ever killed a main character?
Mark Reefe: You bet. What can I say? Sometimes a little blood needs to be shed to move the story along. I tried explaining that to one of my readers after he flipped me off for having killed one of his favorite characters. I’m not sure he bought it.
Meghan: Do you enjoy making your characters suffer?
Mark Reefe: Enjoy isn’t the right word. Suffering is a part of character growth. If it’s done right, I believe it can bring the reader closer to the character and get them more invested in the story. If characters don’t experience pain or hardship along their journey, why would the reader care whether they triumph in the end?
Meghan: What’s the weirdest character concept that you’ve ever come up with?
Mark Reefe: A half-horse, half-dog sidekick that can talk. It was for a short story contest that I didn’t win.
Meghan: What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received? What’s the worst?
Mark Reefe: A beta reader once said my writing style reminded him of Ray Bradbury’s. That was pretty freaking awesome. I honestly can’t recall the worst. I try not to harp on that kind of thing.
Meghan: What do your fans mean to you?
Mark Reefe: Both of them are super. Thanks Elizabeth and Jeanette – you rock! All joking aside, it’s always a pleasure to know someone has enjoyed my work. My fans are very important to me. Reading a nice review of one of my books on Amazon or Goodreads will easily keep me in good spirits for the rest of the week, so please keep them coming.
Meghan: If you could steal one character from another author and make them yours, who would it be and why?
Mark Reefe: Huck Finn because he’s awesome. He’s dirt poor and a hot mess, but he owns it. Also, he’s willing to go to Hell to help out a friend. I could come up with a few dozen storylines for someone like that.
Meghan: If you could write the next book in a series, which one would it be, and what would you make the book about?
Mark Reefe: Maybe I would take a stab at writing about Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn and their adventures in the next life. I always felt there was more to explore with the series, and I need to fill the void left in my soul from Odd’s departure. Dean Koontz really hit a home run with that series!
Meghan: If you could write a collaboration with another author, who would it be and what would you write about?
Mark Reefe: Fellow BWP Alumni Sarah Dale and I have been kicking around the idea of collaborating on a story steeped in Appalachian folklore. The history of the region is just packed full of war, strife, love, betrayal, etc., and is excellent fodder for a ghost story. Also, I’m a huge fan of her Zodiac Cusp Kids novellas, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s something we can work on in the near future.
Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?
Mark Reefe: The rerelease of The Road to Jericho will be coming in 2020 with Three Furies Press. The book is the first in a planned trilogy that was initially released with BWP. I’ve also been working on a story regarding the mysterious and terrifying Goatman that I’m hoping to get published sometime soon (fingers crossed).
Meghan: Do you have any closing words for your fans or anything you’d like to say that we didn’t get to cover in this interview or the last?
Mark Reefe: Don’t forget to like and follow me on social media for updates regarding the release of The Road to Jericho, and have a cool and creepy Halloween!
Raised in Bowie, Maryland, Mark Reefe moved his homestead to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley some years back where he now resides with his lovely wife, two boys, and two devilish dogs. After a quarter century in federal law enforcement catching drug smugglers, money launderers, terrorists, and other nasty fellows, he decided it was time to scratch the itch tickling him and start writing. His Hell Walker Trilogy incorporates his experiences along the southern border with supernatural elements in a haunting yet riveting series that has received numerous accolades and five-star Amazon reviews. The first book in this trilogy, The Road to Jericho, will be rereleased by Three Furies Press in 2020.
When he’s not writing, Mark enjoys woodworking, camping, breaking small appliances when they don’t appear to work, apologizing to his wife for breaking the previously mentioned appliances, and bourbon (not necessarily in that order).
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