I understand you’re a musician as well, and “The Kiss” is woven through with references to music and musicians. Do you find that your music and your writing influence each other?
I’m not a musician by any measure, but I do love playing and listening to music. I spent nearly fifteen years in various bands up in Canada. I’d have to agree that music has influenced my writing, not so much as a subject matter (“The Kiss” is an exception), but when it comes to the sound of the words themselves and their arrangement within the story. I think because it’s an aural art form, it can be difficult to translate the language of music onto the page. But there’s a poetry in music much like the poetry in writing. You can develop an ear for it if you slow down and listen. “The spaces between the notes,” as a band mate of mine used to refer to them, is something I’m much more conscious of now than I used to be. That is, it’s not simply the words themselves that have significance, but the meaning and emotion that lie between those words. It’s all important.
What are you working on these days? Anything upcoming for you that you’d like to tell our readers about?
Short stories are fun, but my first love is novels. It’s been a dream of mine, and I’ve waited far too long to jump in. Right now I’m working on revisions of a novel about four soldiers in the Irish Brigade, set during the Battle of Fredericksburg,1862. I’d call it historical fiction with a dark, magical edge by way of the Emerald Isle. We’ll see what comes of it!
What’s the spookiest place you’ve ever been?
Don’t get me started! Canada’s largest cemetery, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, which I visited when I worked briefly in Quebec, made a solemn impression. I recalled an evening walk there when I wrote “The Kiss.” Alcatraz has an oppressive atmosphere, but a stark and unexpected beauty with its wildflowers, birds, and Pacific winds. The remains of Jack London’s Wolf House in the Valley of the Moon. The Prince House in Heritage Park, Calgary, Alberta. The Frank Slide, in the Crow’s Nest Pass, Alberta, is haunting—miles of limestone debris from the rock slide that destroyed most of the town of Frank in 1903. The nearby Bellevue Mine was chilling, like a tunnel to the underworld. Our tour guide, a friend, told us privately she’d heard voices and whistling there many nights when she was alone in the mine. But I’d have to say the two spookiest places I’ve ever been was the attic of the old Manitoba farmhouse I lived in when I was five, and the root cellar of what my brother and I called “The Yellow House” in the Alberta town I lived in when I was seven. I still have dreams!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born and raised in Honolulu, Lisa Nohealani Morton lives in Washington, DC. By day she is a mild-mannered database wrangler, computer programmer, and all-around data geek, and by night she writes science fiction, fantasy, and combinations of the two. Her short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, the anthology Heiresses of Russ 2012, and elsewhere. She can be found on Twitter as @lnmorton.
Author Spotlight: Ben Peek
Caroline Ratajski
What was the inspiration behind Upon the Body?
For a long time, I had been toying with an idea of writing a story about a sin-eater. Originally, I imagined that the story would be a much more authentic in terms of its portrayal of a sin-eater. Likely, it would be a poor man who, through food and drink, took on the sins of a recently deceased by a way of consumption, and by the end of the meal, he would rise up and leave, having taken on this new burden. I think—in my original idea—I had him showing up in a kind of lawless, borderland place, and the story would take place over the pace of the meal. I had this idea to play around with notions of power, especially with the divisions that exist between positions of power, and a lot of it, really, still exists in the piece. In fact, I think I wrote the opening line about the sin-eater and the gunfighter long before I sat down to write the rest of the piece.
Of course, once I returned to write the rest of it, all my original idea began to grow and twist and turn, and the story became what it is now.
Sonia wishes to have the marks of her husband’s life cleaned from his skin. Why do you think we desire to wash away the sins of someone once they are dead?
Well, for Sonia, the desire stems from her own empowerment, so it is important to note that, first and foremost.
Traditionally, a sin-eater had two functions. First, he/she existed to free a family of shame, and secondly, he/she existed to ensure that the soul of the recently dead did not wander the world in purgatory, or some such thing.
As for modern day desires to wash away the sins of the dead, I suspect it is a complex issue, arising from a mix of the original reasons sin-eaters existed, to politeness, and empowerment, and legacy. In the last case, it is much easier to create a legacy of a man/woman after they are dead than it is than when they were alive, for example. There are a number of authors—Lovecraft springs to mind—whose sins of racism are quietly pushed to the side, or viewed as lesser, for the sake of their legacies.
In the world of your story, a mortician is not someone who prepares a body for death, but who marks a life upon a body. What made you decide to change the meaning of the word?
I originally did it a few years ago, now. Maybe six, seven. Maybe more. I wrote a story entitled “Under the Red Sun,” in which a man goes to his ex-lover, who is a mortician, to find the body of his sister. Most of the story was inspired by my interest in grave robbing, if I was to be completely honestly, but while I was making the world, the word came to mean what it does now: which is a profession that tattoos into the skin of men and women, their life story so that an uncaring god may read it once they are dead.
There’re about six or seven “Red Sun” stories now, and morticians feature in a few of them, because I quite like the idea of your life being recorded on your skin, which, really, isn’t that much different from how some people view tattoos anyhow.
It’s interesting that to retouch the tattoos is vanity, but to do them in the first place is not. Why is that?
It is mostly linked to the idea of going back and polishing the stories from your earlier life, streamlining your personal history so that it isn’t contradictory, or self-incriminating, or so forth.
Which author(s) or work(s) would you say most inspire your writing?
Ah, man, y’know, it really depends on the day you ask. Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through Slaughter was a big influence. Octavia Butler’s work. Fritz Leiber. Orson Welles. Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Lydia Millet, especially her novel Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. Iain Sinclair. Jorge Borges. Haruki Murakami. Graham Greene. Kathy Acker. It’s a long list that keeps going on. Another day, another bunch of people would be there.
What work do you have out now or forthcoming, and what are you working on now?
My collection of short fiction, Dead Americans and Other Stories, was released a few months ago by ChiZine Publications. If people liked “Upon the Body,” they’ll be interested to know four of the other Red Sun stories appear there.
In August, my novel, The Godless, will be released in the UK, US, and Germany. It is the first book in the Children Trilogy and is set in a world in which the bodies of the gods lie across the world, dying, while an army marches up to attack a small town on top of a mountain. It has the giant bodies of gods in it, damaged immortals, saboteurs, and a cartographer’s apprentice who may, or may not, wield a burning sword at one stage. Well, okay, she does: the covers really give that away. But it’s pretty cool and I hope people check it out.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caroline Ratajski is a writer and software engineer, currently living in Silicon Valley, California, USA. Previously published as Morgan Dempsey, her fiction is available in Broken Time Blues and Danse Macabre, as well as at Redstone Science Fiction. She is represented by Barry Godldblatt of Barry Goldblatt Literary, LLC.
Author Spotlight: Simon Strantzas
Erika Holt
In “Out of Touch,” you do a great job capturing a sense of childhood
dread—that sick feeling that bad, heavy things are going on around Neil which he doesn’t fully understand and can’t change, but is forced to shoulder. Do you find it challenging to write from the perspective of a child in the sense that he has to convey information to the reader without quite knowing it himself?
I don’t, but this is primarily because I often write stories about characters who are ignorant or oblivious to the truths that surround them. The unreliable narrator is a favourite tool of mine and particularly effective in the horror genre for creating a sense of dread and uncertainly about how the narrative will play out. I suspect there are very few of us who, when confronted with the sort of peculiar situations most horror story protagonists find themselves in, would be aware of what’s going on and why. We would likely all just stumble forward to our demise. If anything, it’s arguable that my characters’ inability to know and understand themselves is the exact reason they’ve taken the wrong turn down the alley or become lost on the back roads of some foreign country. Not seeing the truth that’s plainly before them is why these characters have failed.
When you set out to write a story, what do you hope to achieve? What themes or subjects are important to you or do you find recurring?
Each story is an exploration of the emotional landscape of the human condition—most specifically, my human condition. I’m hardly alone in that regard, but I still think it’s an admirable goal to strive for. My fiction is about interior landscapes and mysteries. This may explain why they tend to revolve around failed relationships in one form or another and concern themselves with the unknowable other. But the malignant outer also plays a strong part, the idea that our lives, though not necessarily preordained, are victims of the whims of unknowable forces. I suppose we’d all like someone or something to blame when things go wrong, and the idea that there are forces beyond and behind the veil that are actively intent on harming us is one I find fascinating to explore.
Not only have you authored several short story collections, you also edited the anthology Shadows Edge. Did the process of assembling and editing an anthology inform your subsequent writing? Do you look at things differently now that you’ve been on the other side of the fence?
Editing had no real effect on my own work, but it gave me some sympathy for those that edit full-time. Writers are late, writers miss the point, writers are fragile, and herding them is like herding those proverbial cats. It’s a task I would wish on no one. That said, there’s a joy to seeing a story come into being that might never have without your input, and it is exciting to give a platform for lesser-known writers to shine. I’m very pleased with how the book came out, and so far readers seem to be responding to it.
Any tips for aspiring horror or weird fiction writers?
I find most people who are intent on being writers figure out any important advice on their own. If it’s something they want, they’ll find a way of doing it, and those that don’t eventually fall aside. The only suggestion I have beyond the obvious is to finish what you started. It’s amazing how many would-be writers fail at that simple task.
Do you ever plan on writing a novel, or does the short form hold more appeal for you?
The longer I write, the more I find the idea of writing a novel appealing, so I don’t think I can ever rule it out, but the short form holds the most sway for me. And I think it’s important to note that the short story is no less an art form than the novel. We have to learn to break ourselves of the notion that it’s merely a stepping-stone toward longer works. The short story is really more like a poem than a novel. It’s about an economy of words and cohesion of effect. The short story doesn’t have extra room for meandering. Ever word is vital, every scene vital. I suspect I’ll never write a perfect short story, but that’s the whole reason I keep trying.
What are you working on at the moment?
My latest book, Burnt Black Suns, has only recently been published, so my attention is directed at getting it seen. I think it will surprise readers expecting my previously restrained approach. After that, I have a few different irons in the fire. I’m elbow-deep in a novella that I hope will knock some socks off, as well as chipping away at a future collection of short fiction. But when that will be done is anyone’s guess. I try not to plan too far ahead anymore because experience has taught me that things shift too quickly. Instead I keep in mind a list of goals and do my best to steer toward them whenever possible.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erika Holt lives in the cold, white North (i.e. Calgary, Canada), where she writes and edits speculative fiction. Her stories have appeared in a number of anthologies including Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead, and What Fates Impose. She has also co-edited two anthologies: Rigor Amortis, about sexy, amorous zombies, and Broken Time Blues, featuring 1920s alien burlesque dancers and bootlegging chickens.
MISCELLANY
In the Next Issue of
Coming up in September, in Nightmare . . .
We have original fiction from Sunny Moraine (“Singing with All My Skin and Bone”) and Daniel José Older (“Animal”), and reprints by Charles L. Grant (“Old Friends”) and Lisa Tuttle (“The Man in the Ditch”).
We also have the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights with our authors, a showcase on our cover artist, and of course, a feature interview with Cecil Baldwin from Welcome to Night Vale.
It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out. And while you’re at it, tell a friend about Nightmare.
Looking ahead beyond next month, we’ve got new fiction on the way from Maria Dahvana Headley, David Sklar, Tim Lebbon, and newcomer Seras Nikita.
Plus, in October we’ll be presenting a special double-issue: Women Destroy Horror!, guest edited by the incomparable Ellen Datlow. This special issue, which will contain twice the amount of regular fiction, was entirely written—and edited by—women and features original fiction by Livia Llewellyn, Pat Cadigan, Gemma Files, Katherine Crighton, and Catherine MacLeod along with reprints by Tanith Lee, A.R. Morlan, and Joyce Carol Oates. All that plus an array of destructive nonfiction. (Take that, Horror!)
Thanks for reading!
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About the Editor
John Joseph Adams, in addition to serving as publisher and editor-in-chie
f of Nightmare, is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Armored, Brave New Worlds, Wastelands, and The Living Dead. New projects coming out in 2014 and 2015 include: Help Fund My Robot Army!!! & Other Improbable Crowdfunding Projects, Robot Uprisings, Dead Man’s Hand, Operation Arcana, Wastelands 2, and The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, and The End Has Come. He has been nominated for eight Hugo Awards and six World Fantasy Awards, and he has been called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble. John is also the editor and publisher of Lightspeed Magazine and is a producer for Wired.com’s The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. Find him on Twitter @johnjosephadams.
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