Tag: Halloween Extravaganza

Halloween Extravaganza: INTERVIEW: Mark Tufo

megHan

Meghan: Hi, Mark. Welcome to Meghan’s House of books. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Mark Tufo: Hi. First off, thank you for having me on your page, I truly appreciate it. My name is Mark Tufo. I’ve been writing professionally now for about ten years and have over 40 full length books to my credit. I am also allowed to feed three spoiled bull dogs.

Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?

Mark Tufo: Damn my life is already like an open book this might be tough. Okay first off, contrary to popular belief I like cats. Let’s see, Jaws pretty much screwed with my ability to enjoy the ocean. Reading IT killed any love I may have had for clowns. I have OCD and ADD which means that I need to finish everything if I’m not being distracted by shiny things. I think that’s five!

Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?

Mark Tufo: Another tough one, as a kid I went to the library a LOT, but maybe the first book the stuck with me was IT.

Meghan: What are you reading now?

Mark Tufo: Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames, kind of throws the whole fantasy genre on its ear.

Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?

Mark Tufo: I really liked The Host by Stephanie Meyer.

Meghan: What made you decide you want to write? When did you begin writing?

Mark Tufo: I decided to write as a way to alleviate the stress of being laid off, I was reading a bunch and seemed a natural progression. I’ve always loved to write ever since grade school, never thought I’d be doing it professionally though.

Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?

Mark Tufo: I generally write while I’m parachuting, so it’s about a three minute window where I’m typing furiously, or my office.

Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?

Mark Tufo: Well coffee is involved but that’s probably a standard, I also have very loud music on. Sounds strange but it drowns out the rest of the world.

Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?

Mark Tufo: It’s the editing, writing to me is by far the easiest aspect of this entire endeavor it’s once the book is completed that the real work begins.

Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?

Mark Tufo: It’s funny, commercially it is one of my least successful books but I am particularly proud of The Spirit Clearing.

Meghan: What books have most inspired you? Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?

Mark Tufo: I couldn’t even begin to list all of the authors that have inspired me. I grew up and remain a huge Stephen King fan so there’s influence there and Susanna Clarke is also someone that writes an incredible tale, I just wish she was a little more prolific.

Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?

Mark Tufo: Suspense is a key element, the need to read that next page, to see what’s going to happen but it’s the characters that matter the most, if you don’t care if they live or die then you aren’t vested in the story and at that point it doesn’t matter what they’re doing.

Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character? How do you utilize that when creating your characters?

Mark Tufo: Whether a reader loves or hates a character I think depends on how relatable the character is. Most of my characters are every person types, they are imperfect, they have flaws, aspects we all have.

Meghan: Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?

Mark Tufo: Many mistakenly believe Michael Talbot and myself are interchangeable but that guy is nuts.

Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover? To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?

Mark Tufo: Being an author you’d think I’d know better but yeah an off-putting cover can set the tone.

Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?

Mark Tufo: I’ve learned that my grasp of the English language is rudimentary at best and without a great editor I’m pretty sure I’d be asking people if they wanted fries with that. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, just at this age I should have probably moved on.

Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?

Mark Tufo: Really any time a character I care for dies, it’s a difficult process, you’d think it would get easier, if anything it’s tougher. I wonder if George R.R. Martin offers any courses?

Meghan: What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?

Mark Tufo: I think it is the blend of sarcasm and humor, people seem to like laughing one page and hiding under their covers the next.

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)?

Mark Tufo: To me I think the cover is more important, as for the title I like for it to give an idea of what readers can expect in the pages. Also without giving everything away. Although how brilliant was John Dies at the End as a title?

Meghan: What makes you feel more fulfilled: Writing a novel or writing a short story?

Mark Tufo: I don’t write many shorts, usually just for special occasions or freebies around the holidays. Sure there’s a satisfaction when completing one but for me I find it to be more fulfilling to write a full length book, something you have time to develop characters with and really flesh the story out. Shorts always seem rushed to me.

Meghan: Tell us a little bit about your books, your target audience, and what you would like readers to take away from your stories.

Mark Tufo: My books… well I like to write what I read, I’ve got a zombies series, werewolves, vampires, paranormal, young adult, science fiction, I’m sure eventually I’ll get around to a historical romance. My target audience, the planet I guess. I mean who doesn’t want a world-wide audience? As for a take away, my hope would be that the few hours they spent with my stories they found fun and entertaining, if that’s the case it’s a win.

Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?

Mark Tufo: I have a propensity to go darker in my stories than intended, can’t write three quarters of a book in PG format to then all of a sudden hit a hard R. I’ve also offed characters that I’ve had to back track and re-write. I don’t know why I keep killing people! I might need help.

Meghan: What is in your “trunk”? (It doesn’t necessarily have to be book related.)

Mark Tufo: I am attempting to build a life size R2D2, I am a person that works well when directions are present, this project has none and I find myself frozen in indecision a bunch!

Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?

Mark Tufo: Well the hope is that the statute of limitations will expire soon and the future won’t entail jail. Oh wait that’s probably not what you were talking about. Um in terms of books, I’ll be releasing ZF13 and 14, A Shrouded World 5 and 6 (a project with my friend John O’Brien), then another collaboration, The Bleed, with Chris Philbrook and David Moody. Then there’s a few shorts that ended up in some anthologies, I’m also currently working on my first fantasy. I think for now that might be it. ☺

Meghan: Where can we find you?

Mark Tufo: I’m all over the place on Facebook. I also have two fan pages, a website, or if you want to reach out by email.

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?

Mark Tufo: I’d like to thank all of the fans and readers that have supported me over the last ten years. I cannot thank you enough for allowing me to do what I love. Without you, well I’m just some weird guy tapping away at a keyboard, Now that I think of that I guess that’s still true but now I get paid to do it!

Mark Tufo was born in Boston Massachusetts. He attended UMASS Amherst where he obtained a BA and later joined the US Marine Corp. He was stationed in Parris Island SC, Twenty Nine Palms CA, and Kaneohe Bay Hawaii. After his tour he went into the Human Resources field with a worldwide financial institution and has gone back to college at CTU to complete his masters.

He has wrote the first installment of the Indian Hill trilogy in college, it sat in his garage until July 2009 when he published it on Kindle. He has since written the Zombie Fallout series and is working on a new zombie book.

He lives in Maine with his wife, three kids and two English bulldogs. 

Visit him at his website, blog, or Facebook Author Page for news on his next two installments of the Indian Hill trilogy and upcoming installments of the Zombie Fallout series.

Halloween Extravaganza: M. Ennenbach: STORY: Halloween

megHan

Wait. You thought Halloween was over just because it’s November 1st? Boy were you wrong. Sit back and prepare yourself for another month of Halloween. Here’s a short story to get you feeling the mood…

“Look kid, don’t make us call your parents to come get you. Just tell us what you and your friends did.”

The officer stares at me across the table. I wish I could say this was my first time in the police station. At least I can safely say that this time I did nothing wrong.

Halloween night, 6:00pm

We were hooligans. But the kind with hearts of gold. Gold plated. Alright, the kind of gold that turns your skin green from prolonged exposure. We had started onto our path of hijinks over the summer. What can I say? They were all fifteen and I was the fourteen years old only child that wanted to fit in. And maybe, just maybe, I was also the de facto ringleader.

All throughout summer we had taken to sneaking into the junk yard to get the parts needed to rebuild our friend’s motorcycle. They had the know how, I had the brawn to carry the parts. It was a dream team. Sort of. It took two weeks after the bike was running for it to fall over muffler first onto Ron’s calf. So now it was Halloween and he was still going through treatments where they peeled the skin off of his leg so shenanigans were out for him. But the rest of us were bored. So bored. Already drinking lost its appeal. Weed was still a good time but it was Halloween. Dammit. What do we do?

“Let’s run from the cops.” Warren looked at us all.

“Why?” I wasn’t opposed to the plan. It was better than nothing.

“To get them to chase us.”

I looked around the room and through the haze of smoke I saw nodding heads. “So we see a cop and we just take off?”

“Yep. Cut through yards. See how long until they catch us.”

I felt all of their eyes on me. Let’s go back to when I said I was the brawn. It’s because I was fat. Not chunky. Not portly. No. Morbidly obese. It was ridiculous. I had a bicycle with an odometer on it and we rode over a thousand miles that summer. Yet the way my thighs rubbed together as I walked made it seem like I just laid in a bed of Cheetos. That was after the bike rides. I just didn’t have a grasp on that yet. So the law of averages stayed the first of us to get caught would be me, the slow one that wheezed up stairs.

If I have ever been anything, it is self aware.

So we smoked some more and went outside. Halloween in Illinois was always a precursor to Winter no matter what the calendar said. It was cold and rainy. We walked around until we saw the first squad car and made sure he saw us looking suspicious in no costumes. When he turned towards us we scattered.

I don’t know how far we ran. How many yards we his in as the spotlight made its way slowly over the fence. But we ran for hours. Laughing like madmen we would get to the sidewalk and wait patiently for the cherries to make there way closer and then we were off again.

It was a different time back then. None of us even considered getting shot. Or tased. Or anything. We just saw the cops and we laughed and ran.

I wasn’t the first kid caught either. A combination of puberty and cool weather kept me moving. I didn’t always lead the pack but I didn’t trail far behind it either. We began to fall, one at a time. Soon it was Warren and I alone. That’s when they got smart and cornered us in an alley. No cuffs. No pat down. Just thrown in the back of squad car where we laughed and laughed all the way to the station.

When we got there they threw us all into one room. I was shocked to see two of the guys with tears on their faces.

“They said they are gonna call our parents!”

I held up a hand. “For what? Running?”

They all looked at me as the lightbulb clicked. For once, we were innocent. So we just reminded ourselves of that as they took us into the interrogation room one at a time.

“You were just running?”

“Yes officer.”

“Why?”

“Two reasons really. I am fat and could use the exercise,” I didn’t appreciate the nods, “and because it was fun having you chase us all night. I’m clearly not the only one that needs the exercise.”

They arched their eyebrows but then patted their ample bellies and reluctantly nodded again.

“So to get it straight, you thought it would be fun to get chased by police officers? What kind of idiot idea is that?”

“You kept chasing us…”

“Get your friends and get the fuck out of here!”

There were Halloweens in costumes with tons of candy. There were Halloweens spent drunk at great parties, on hayrides, doing scavenger hunts. But this one will always stick out as just sheer fun. And one that cannot be recreated in this day and age.

Next year, remind me to tell you about the scavenger hunt in the old creepy cemetery. It has hijinks, booze, drugs and even some sex.

M. Ennenbach is a lot of things. Part time dreamer. Full time poet. Scribbler of tales. An Illinois yankee in DFW, but don’t hold any of that against him. A proud father of two that he loves more than life itself. His stories are written from a place of raw emotion, stripped pieces of the man himself spun into powerful trips through nightmare and daydream. Sometimes bleak, at others hilarious but always unique glimpses of another realm; his words will take you on a journey. His first collection, Notches, is available on Amazon and Death’s Head Press with more on the way.

Notches: A Collection

A Collection of dark, twisted and some humorous stories including an epic dark poem from the tormented mind of M. Ennenbach. Each story will give you a window into the darkness of the soul. Fueled by raw, powerful emotions. They will chew you up and spit you out, leaving you quivering on the floor in a gruesome mess begging for more. Are you brave enough to traverse the dark path laid before you or will you become another notch on the wall?

Halloween Extravaganza: INTERVIEW: M. Ennenbach

megHan

Meghan: Hi, Mike. It’s been awhile since we sat down together. What’s been going on since we last spoke?

M. Ennenbach: I finished a novella for a secret project with the guys at Death’s Head Press. I finally got my first novel edited. And compiled a collection of poetry. Shopping them around now in the hopes someone will put them out soon. Also had a short in Dig Graves Volume 2. It has been a busy first year as a published writer.

Meghan: Who are you outside of writing?

M. Ennenbach: Father to two. Neopost technician that travels the DFW area fixing mailing machines. Daily poet at mennenbach.com.

Meghan: How do you feel about friends and close relatives reading your work?

M. Ennenbach: Anyone that knows me has determined long ago that I have issues and their reading my words will just prove them right. It is daunting though. Like being stripped naked and paraded in front of them to judge.

Meghan: Is being a writer a gift or a curse?

M. Ennenbach: Nice. Both. The ability to write and make others feel emotion is one of the greatest gifts. Not having enough hours in the day to scribble down every single idea and refine them is a curse.

Meghan: How has your environment and upbringing colored your writing?

M. Ennenbach: As a kid, my parents always had a book in front of them. They instilled a deep seated love of the written word. Battling depression my entire life has colored my writing. It adds it’s distinct coloring to my tales.

Meghan: What’s the strangest thing you have ever had to research for your books?

M. Ennenbach: The worst was one night I spent an hour doing algebra to determine how far from shore a man would have to be to out swim crocodiles. An hour for a paragraph.

I made friends with genital torturers and doms for a short story in Notches. It led me down a rabbit hole that helped shape a character in my novel as well. So many things seen that cannot be unseen.

Meghan: Which do you find the hardest to write: the beginning, the middle, or the end?

M. Ennenbach: The middle. I know the beginning most of the time. And the ending is there but nebulous. The middle is always a surprise to me. I feel I corral the words towards the ending with no real control over what happens. It’s nerve wracking. I’ve killed characters I had no intention of killing because that is where the story took itself.

Meghan: Do you outline? Do you start with characters or plot? Do you just sit down and start writing? What works best for you?

M. Ennenbach: Usually I have a vague idea. I like to write a prologue that pops and catches attention for an opening scene. No outlines though. Too stringent and when I try and make one I become bored of the story. Nine times out of ten, I just let it flow and around chapter three I hurry to jot down a list of characters so I can remember who does what. Very professionally unprofessional.

Meghan: What do you do when characters don’t follow the outline/plan?

M. Ennenbach: Let them tell their own story. The best made plans can become a better story if you let it fall how it wants to. Organically developing twists are what makes it fun for me.

Meghan: What do you do to motivate yourself to sit down and write?

M. Ennenbach: Ryo Fukui playing in the background. A big cup of coffee and a blank screen. I make myself wrote two or three poems a day to keep myself in writing mode. Since I do all of my writing on my phone it makes it easy to scribble when inspiration strikes.

Meghan: Are you an avid reader?

M. Ennenbach: Yes. Been reading a lot of beat stuff lately. Anything Bukowski or Thompson.

Meghan: What kind of books do you absolutely love to read?

M. Ennenbach: Horror or fantasy is my go to genres. Eastern European and Russian lit is also great because they give this tragic and off-putting feel in everyday living.

Meghan: How do you feel about movies based on books?

M. Ennenbach: I’m not a snob. I know it is impossible to refine one thousand pages into two hours. That said, the trend of ten episode shows based on books is way better. I prefer the author being involved in some capacity to keep it authentic.

Meghan: Have you ever killed a main character?

M. Ennenbach: Yes. A few. No one is safe. If you know a character is safe it takes away the stakes.

Meghan: Do you enjoy making your characters suffer?

M. Ennenbach: I like to let then dig a hole and have to find a way out. Suffering is part of living, so while I don’t take pleasure from writing it, it would be wrong to leave it out.

Meghan: What’s the weirdest character concept that you’ve ever come up with?

M. Ennenbach: I have a drug addled leprechaun in my novel. He snorts a drug he makes called Unicorn Blow. Then there is the Undersecretary of Hell that transcribes the meeting of Satan and his demons.

Meghan: What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received? What’s the worst?

M. Ennenbach: The best has been being told certain stories actually made them cry. To move someone with a story like that blew my mind. The worst was an ex asked why I waste my time writing stories no one will ever read. I set down my pen for five years after that.

Meghan: What do your fans mean to you?

M. Ennenbach: I don’t have fans. Not yet. I have a core group of readers that have become friends. If I ever get to the point of having fans I hope to make them all friends as well. I guess it is a concept I cannot wrap my head around.

Meghan: If you could steal one character from another author and make them yours, who would it be and why?

M. Ennenbach: Silk from David Eddings‘ Belgariad series. He is slimy, hilarious, and has a trick for any situation. Or Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. He is just awesome.

Meghan: If you could write the next book in a series, which one would it be, and what would you make the book about?

M. Ennenbach: Dang. Richard Kadrey wrote a book, Butcher Bird, a decade or so back. He says he will never write a sequel and went on to the Sandman Slim series. I would like to dive back into the world he created and explore the mythos of it. A badass assassin on a mission to expose the hidden world to all.

Meghan: If you could write a collaboration with another author, who would it be and what would you write about?

M. Ennenbach: A dream scenario would be with China Mieville on a prequel to Perdido Street Station. I would like to tackle the Malaria Wars between the people of the Bas Lag and the mosquito creatures that threatened extinction. It was a quarter chapter idea in The Scar that made me chomp at the bit to see fleshed out.

Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?

M. Ennenbach: The secret project is due out in early 2020. I’m really excited about it and feel it is a great story. I am in the midst of writing the sequel to my novel. New poetry everyday and hope to see a collection of two of it hit the shelves soon.

Meghan: Where can we find you?

M. Ennenbach: Website ** Facebook ** Instagram ** Twitter

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?

M. Ennenbach: Thank you for reading so far. More is coming and I feel I am just getting better with each release. Leave reviews after you read. It really helps spread the word about your favorite authors.

M. Ennenbach is a lot of things. Part time dreamer. Full time poet. Scribbler of tales. An Illinois yankee in DFW, but don’t hold any of that against him. A proud father of two that he loves more than life itself. His stories are written from a place of raw emotion, stripped pieces of the man himself spun into powerful trips through nightmare and daydream. Sometimes bleak, at others hilarious but always unique glimpses of another realm; his words will take you on a journey. His first collection, Notches, is available on Amazon and Death’s Head Press with more on the way.

Notches: A Collection

A Collection of dark, twisted and some humorous stories including an epic dark poem from the tormented mind of M. Ennenbach. Each story will give you a window into the darkness of the soul. Fueled by raw, powerful emotions. They will chew you up and spit you out, leaving you quivering on the floor in a gruesome mess begging for more. Are you brave enough to traverse the dark path laid before you or will you become another notch on the wall?

Halloween Extravaganza: INTERVIEW: Jonathan Janz

megHan

Meghan: So, you’ve made it back for round three, Jonathan, where the questions get more and more difficult.

What are your go-to horror films?

Jonathan Janz: A few I’ve watched and rewatched are (of course) Jaws, which is one of my top-three films ever. I also love Ravenous, which I probably watched ten times over a few months back in the early 2000s. Another would be the original Halloween for the way it builds suspense bit by bit.

Meghan: What makes the horror genre so special?

Jonathan Janz: So many traits make horror special, but one of the ones I appreciate the most is its diversity of subject matter. It can be supernatural or non-supernatural, grounded or completely surreal. It can have creatures. It can be set in another time and place. The possibilities are endless.

Meghan: Have any new authors grasped your interest recently?

Jonathan Janz: Sarah Read really blew me away with The Bone Weaver’s Orchard. A couple others that are doing great work are Tim Meyer and John Quick.

Meghan: How big of a part does music play in creating your “zone”? What do you listen to while writing?

Jonathan Janz: It’s integral to my process. I listen to Baroque music (usually played by Yo-Yo Ma) when I write, and it really gets my creativity flowing. It also drowns out the noise of my house, and with three kids and two dogs, that can be pretty important sometimes.

Meghan: How active are you on social media? How do you think it affects the way you write?

Jonathan Janz: Relatively active, though I’ve had to scale back. I simply don’t have time to be on there much. It doesn’t affect my writing much, though I do see interesting items there sometimes that pique my interest.

Meghan: What is your writing Kryptonite?

Jonathan Janz: My busy schedule. Everyone thinks he/she is busy, but I’d put my schedule beside anyone’s and give him/her a run for his/her money. I have two full-time jobs (teaching at one of the most demanding public schools in the nation, as well as being an author), a family to love and take care of, the entire business side of writing (every day I have a punch list of maybe seven or eight tasks I try to get done), my ninety-four-year-old grandpa to help, three different teams to coach (in three different sports), a house to maintain, my fitness to keep up, and… oh yeah, a wife I’d like to see a lot more often. I simply wish there were more hours in the day.

Meghan: If you were making a movie of your latest story/book, who would you cast?

Jonathan Janz: In my current work-in-progress, I’d cast Chris Hemsworth as one of the characters and Nick Offerman as another. Those two would play really well off each other.

Meghan: If you had the choice to rewrite any of your books, which one would it be and why?

Jonathan Janz: GARDEN OF SNAKES. It’s my one “trunk novel,” and I still love certain aspects of the story. I just didn’t know how to write it back then, and it showed in the final product.

Meghan: What would the main character in your latest story/book have to say about you?

Jonathan Janz: He’d tell me to breathe, to lighten up a bit so I could get more sleep.

Meghan: Did you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Jonathan Janz: I absolutely do. Writing is an intensely personal act, so some of the stuff would only be detected by people who know me well. Brian Keene does that a lot with my work, most recently in The Dark Game.

Meghan: How much of yourself do you put in your books?

Jonathan Janz: So much! Most of the time, though, it’s accidental, and I’m not even aware of it until I notice it later, or after publication, when someone points it out to me.

Meghan: Have you ever incorporated something that happened to you in real life into our novels?

Jonathan Janz: Many of the events in Children of the Dark are based on real-life occurrences. I lived in that house, on that street, beside that graveyard, and in front of that woods. That was my baseball field and my hometown. Those were my friends. It’s incredibly autobiographical, and I think that shows in a positive, poignant way.

Meghan: Are your characters based off real people, or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

Jonathan Janz: Some of both, though more of the latter than the former. I’d say my imagination is the food, and other people are the seasonings I sprinkle in.

Meghan: How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?

Jonathan Janz: I’ve grown much more confident. I now can look at something I’ve written and say, “That doesn’t work,” and go back and delete it or change it. That takes a strong stomach because you’re admitting to yourself that you made a mistake or that you were off track for a day or three.

Meghan: What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Jonathan Janz: Letting go of a book. I edit and edit and edit and would probably keep doing that in perpetuity if I didn’t force myself to let it go at some point.

Meghan: Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Jonathan Janz: Definitely both. I get so excited when I write something that works, but when I’m done each day I feel like I’m in a fog. I tell my wife and kids it’s like Han Solo unfreezing from carbonite.

Meghan: Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with the bad ones? Have you ever learned something from a negative review and incorporated it into your writing?

Jonathan Janz: I read them less and less, and there are people whose reviews I don’t even glance at because I know where they’re coming from, and it’s not a happy place. They have value, and I’ve read positive and negative reviews that have both helped me, but I simply don’t have the time to look at them much anymore because I’m too busy creating.

Meghan: Why are your ambitions for your writing career? What does “literary success” look like to you?

Jonathan Janz: Someday, I’d like to write full time. I’m in no hurry to get there, and if I could write now, I don’t think I would because I truly love teaching too much. But at some point that would be a blast.

Jonathan Janz is the author of more than a dozen novels and numerous short stories. His work has been championed by authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Jack Ketchum, and Brian Keene; he has also been lauded by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and School Library Journal. His ghost story The Siren and the Specter was selected as a Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Horror. Additionally, his novel Children of the Dark was chosen by Booklist as a Top Ten Horror Book of the Year. Jonathan’s main interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children. You can sign up for his newsletter, and you can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and Goodreads.

Halloween Extravaganza: INTERVIEW: Mark Cassell

megHan

Meghan: Hi, Mark! Welcome to Meghan’s House of Books. Thank you for stopping by. Let’s start with something easy: Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Mark Cassell: It’s an honour to be here, thank you.

I’m a UK author who leans towards cosmic horror and the supernatural. My sci-fi, fantasy and steampunk work contains a splash of horror somewhere, though I am not one for a gore-fest. My dreams are often apocalyptic, and at 5 o’clock most mornings you’ll find me cradling coffee at my writing desk. I live near the sea with my wife and many pets, keep fit doing gym stuff but love pizza and chocolate (not on the same plate).

Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?

Mark Cassell:

No. 1 : I suffer from tinnitus possibly due to the dozens of metal gigs I attended in the 1990s.
No. 2 : I breed mealworms.
No. 3 : I have only one dental filling, and swear it’s because I drink a lot of milk.
No. 4 : I once came second place in a Fancy Dress competition dressed as a toffee.
No. 5 : In my early 20s I occasionally worked as a spotlight operator for an Elvis impersonator.

Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?

Mark Cassell: Unfortunately I can’t remember either title or author, let alone how old I was when I read it, but the visuals have stuck with me ever since. The story featured a little girl whose strange friend, a gangly and mischievous creature, lurked in the shadows at the bottom of her garden. This peculiar companion would call her name “Eniiiiid, Eniiiiid…” and encourage the girl to misbehave. I’d love to know what book that was.

Meghan: What are you reading now?

Mark Cassell: Simon R. Green’s fantasy novel Down Among the Dead Men. It’s a swords and sorcery tale, a simple read, and a nice break from my usual genre.

Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?

Mark Cassell: Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. A truly stunning novel that some may recognise as the 2012 movie directed by Ang Lee. It features an Indian boy on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

Meghan: What made you decide you want to write? When did you begin writing?

Mark Cassell: At school when I was ten years old, I wrote something which later I’ve wondered what my teacher thought after reading it. The story followed a boy who discovers a treehouse in the woodland beyond his garden. He climbs up to find boxes filled with dead animals, and shelves stacked with jars containing human brains. When he goes back the next day, all that remains of the treehouse is a charred trunk from where a fire had ravaged it.

As for when I decided to “properly” write, I guess that was when I hit my mid-thirties. The weirdness hasn’t changed much during that gap of a couple of decades.

Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?

Mark Cassell: There’s a room in our house that’s dedicated to books. My desk is wedged in the corner next to a vivarium, the home of my little buddy, Arnie the bearded dragon. I’m not a writer who can sit in a noisy coffee shop, nor on a park bench. For me, I need to plug in to my tunes to crack on with the project at hand.

Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?

Mark Cassell: There’s a process I go through which probably isn’t anything special. I print out a hard copy and attack it with the Red Pen of Doom. No matter the length, I cannot let a story out of my sight until it’s gone through at least one round with the Red Pen.

Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?

Mark Cassell: Fighting the Procrastination Demon. He’s a frequent problem.

Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?

Mark Cassell: My Lovecraftian steampunk horror book titled In the Company of False Gods. It follows wheelchair-bound Attacus who’s commissioned to build a clockwork construct, though he doubts his abilities. Once powered up, his creation escapes and runs amok, destroying more than just the town he calls home. Hunting his deadly automaton forces him to confront his past. He had no idea his creation would take him to the threshold between worlds.

And I had no idea this book would remain one of my favourites. I really need to revisit that genre again. Yeah, there’s certainly a splash of horror in that one.

Meghan: What books have most inspired you? Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?

Mark Cassell: Back when I was a teenager, James Herbert kicked my love for horror into overdrive with his novel Magic Cottage. Also, Clive Barker‘s early work like Weaveworld and The Damnation Game, and later Imajica truly inspired me. Alongside Brian Lumley‘s incredible Necroscope series, I’d say these three British authors led me down the dark path I now tread.

Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?

Mark Cassell: For a novel there must be a spark within the first three pages, along with characters who carry that spark to the last page. As for a short story, the first paragraph needs to slap you in the face either with a genius hook or a character the reader will undoubtedly care about. I’m a tough nut to crack, and life is short, so when I read something it must grip me pretty damn quickly.

Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character? How do you utilize that when creating your characters?

Mark Cassell: Characters need to be human and I love it when I can immediately relate. There must be a connection between character and reader. When I create my own characters, I try to emulate that. I want to make my readers immediately tune in. It helps using all the senses, so as to make the reader land on the page and see through the character’s eyes.

Meghan: Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?

Mark Cassell: Undoubtedly it’s Leo from my novel The Shadow Fabric. As a debut, it was inevitable the main character would somehow reflect me. Not the tormented mysteries that unravel throughout the story. That’s all fiction, honest! I’m talking about his travels round the world, his knee injury, and his penchant for wearing combat trousers. Also, I know damn well he acts like me.

Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover? To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?

Mark Cassell: I’ve been lucky enough to work with three book cover guys, and they deserve a mention: Christopher Shoebridge, Redski Redd, and Paul Ashby. When it comes to reading I can be incredibly picky, as already mentioned, so there are many factors that could put me off. But I may let off a dodgy book cover – as long as it’s not too bad – however if a blurb begins with Inspector/Detective blah-blah-blah, I’ll drop it and look for something else. Call me unfair, I know, but that honestly puts me off. And I have no idea why.

Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?

Mark Cassell: It’s not an easy process. This writing thing is a hard game to play and I admit in getting bogged down in striving for perfection. To top that off, I find myself swinging between an existence as an introvert and an extrovert. There are days I simply wish to hide in a cave and write, while on others I’m happy to attend book signings at conventions. Marketing needs to be full on for much of the time, so yeah, it’s hard work. But equally rewarding.

Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?

Mark Cassell: In my book Hell Cat of the Holt, there’s a sad scene where the main character is utterly stricken with grief. At the time of writing, I was not in a good place and my life had turned upside down, so that particular scene was a tough one.

Meghan: What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?

Mark Cassell: When I first came into the writing game, I was bored to death of detectives with drinking problems, each hunting vampires and werewolves and Hollywood-type evils, and I was incredibly tired of zombies and the like, all causing predictable havoc. With that in mind, I listed every cliché that made me yawn.

That list was long.

So when plotting my debut novel I stripped naked the old tropes of witchcraft and demonology. I recognised that I needed to be different and so had to lay my own foundations, to devise a new kind of evil, a fresh menace. Essentially a novel of demons and deceit, The Shadow Fabric became a tale of a sentient darkness and a 17th-century device. Based in modern day, it’s the story of one man’s struggle to unravel his past. As he learns more, he begins to mistrust all those around him. Including himself.

My short stories and subsequent books have followed that marker, and I’m proud to say that the reviews have often mentioned the fresh angle the story delivers.

Though there is one problem with this: it makes me far from prolific.

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)?

Mark Cassell: Sometimes a title comes first and other times last. For instance, I was once invited to write for a Christmas anthology and immediately came up with “Away in a Mangler.” After that, the story flowed. However, the title of my debut novel The Shadow Fabric came along in 1993 during my college years, though I didn’t begin writing it until 20 years later.

Meghan: What makes you feel more fulfilled: Writing a novel or writing a short story?

Mark Cassell: Novels are a long slog. Short stories are precisely that: short, quick and to the point. My brain is all over the place at the best of times, and so I’ve found I attack short stories considerably easier.

Meghan: Tell us a little bit about your books, your target audience, and what you would like readers to take away from your stories.

Mark Cassell: I’ve been lucky enough to meet readers at book signings and conventions, and so I’ve learnt what it is they enjoy about my books. It seems to boil down to two things: firstly, the subtly in which I explore the evil within us as a species, and also the evils beyond the walls of our reality (whichever genre I step into). Secondly, the extensive research I go into hasn’t gone unnoticed. I believe in order to create a solid story, no matter the length, it’s important to establish something that which is already grounded. It’s that what connects the reader.

Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?

Mark Cassell: Many deleted scenes have become short stories I’ve later sold to anthologies, and now feature in my collections, Sinister Stitches and my most recent release, Terror Threads. There’s always something left over, lurking in a folder somewhere. Or if not, they remain as scribbles in my notebook, awaiting just the right story.

Meghan: What is in your “trunk”?

Mark Cassell: A prequel to The Shadow Fabric, revealing the troubled history of a couple of key characters from the novel.

Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?

Mark Cassell: I’m neck deep in a novel titled PARASITE CROP, so I’m cracking on with that. Although at the moment I’ve set aside writing short stories, I do have a couple soon released by both KJK Publishing and Crystal Lake Publishing.

Meghan: Where can we find you?

Mark Cassell: Website (and a free book) ** Twitter ** Facebook

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?

Mark Cassell: Often readers ask where I find inspiration, so I’ll answer that here.

Usually it’s desolation and ruins. Barren ground, an expanse of nothingness, empty places, void of anyone else, that kind of thing. I think what intrigues me is that there can be beauty and serenity in the way nature takes over, the way the elements tear down anything manmade. Think of the pattern of rust, the pockmarked sandstone from an assault by the wind, and the tangle of determined weeds. Relentless, often silent deterioration or even growth, and it will always be there long after we die.

I see through it and use it, injecting new life into that which is otherwise derelict. My stories have featured castle ruins and ancient rock, rusty machines and collapsed outhouses. Even a part of my novel was set in … um … if I told you, I’d spoil the twist … Incidentally, most of my dreams are apocalyptic and I think that’s why I’ve turned my hand to dystopian cyberpunk; a scorched landscape where my characters roam free.

Mark Cassell can label himself as author, artist, and actor, but his passion is clearly stamped in the written word. As the author of the best-selling Shadow Fabric Mythos, as series of books about demons, devices and deceit, he has a penchant for ignoring typical horror tropes, casting them into the void. Although best known for cosmic horror, he also writes steampunk, sci-fi, and dark fantasy, with work published in numerous reputable anthologies. More about Mark can be found at his website.

The Shadow Fabric

Leo remembers little of his past. Desperate for a new life, he snatches up the first job to come along. On his second day he witnesses a murder, and the Shadow Fabric – a malevolent force that controls the darkness – takes the body and vanishes with it. Uncovering secrets long hidden from humankind, Leo’s memory unravels. Not only haunted by the past, a sinister presence within the darkness threatens his existence and he soon doubts everything and everyone… including himself. 

Now Leo must confront the truth about his past before he can embrace his future. But the future may not exist. 

THE SHADOW FABRIC is a story revealing the unknown history of witchcraft and the true cause of the Great Fire of London. A supernatural novel of sins, shadows, and the reanimated dead.

In the Company of False Gods

When commissioned to build a clockwork construct, wheelchair-bound Attacus doubts his abilities. Once powered up, his creation escapes and runs amok, destroying more than just the town he calls home. Hunting his deadly automaton forces him to confront his past. 

He had no idea his creation would take him to the threshold between worlds. 

And soon he finds himself… 

In the Company of False Gods.

Terror Threads

Pull a thread… and you’ll be dead. 

Ten standalone tales in the best-selling Shadow Fabric Mythos. Each story of ghosts, of demons, of the occult, weaves the mythos tighter and proves we all have the power to see in the dark. Both an introduction to the Shadow Fabric and a companion book, this collection of horror stories contains the following: 

  • Dust Devils: When a driving instructor’s pupil fails to turn up for a lesson, he doesn’t just drive off. He investigates… things.
  • A Story of Amber: Two brothers and a grandfather’s secret. This is a story that begins in childhood and ends in adulthood.
  • Claimed: In Yellowstone Country Park things are black.
  • The Rebirth: A primary school teacher’s lesson fails to go to plan when a peculiar Easter egg lands in her possession.
  • Dead Lines: An artist learns she is not the only one holding the brush.
  • Pile of Dirt: After a serious accident, all you want to do is relax in your garden. But the mysterious pile of dirt that has appeared on your lawn bugs the hell out of you.
  • The Commission: A photographer’s commission proves to be a pain in the neck.
  • Diagonal Dead: It’s a shame that dead can’t stay dead, especially those who are discovered in a wall cavity.
  • Demon Alcohol: Staying at a bed and breakfast in a quaint harbour town, Tammy is not in the mood for uninvited guests. Especially when she’s hungover and the guests are demons.
  • A Sunset Companion: The low October sun can cause road accidents by blinding drivers… but perhaps there are other causes in the surrounding woodland.

Most of the stories featured in this collection have been previously published in anthologies.