by Ted Kosmatka
Billy doesn’t quit when things go bad. He fights. So does the man in black. Apart from that, I wanted Billy to be kind of an All-American 1960s Everykid. And I’ve always loved stories about ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations, so there’s a little of that going on in “Blackbirds,” too.
There seems to be an element of fatalism to this story in the sense that, no matter what Billy does, he can’t win. Do you agree? Is this often a theme in your work?
Definitely. That’s one theme I’ve visited many times. Growing up, I was fascinated with characters who couldn’t win and knew it. Everyone from Macbeth to Chuck Heston in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. I still love stories like that.
What scares you?
My imagination, for one thing. Having a dark turn of mind means that it’s never hard to imagine a bucket of doom propped above the door, ready to dump on your head. Which means I’m always thankful when that doesn’t happen.
What will we be seeing from you next?
I’m working on a longish novella for Cemetery Dance called Oktober Shadows. It’s about a World War I soldier who wanders into a world populated by vampires, werewolves, and other creatures who go bump in the night.
Erika Holt lives in the cold, white North (Calgary, Canada), where she writes and edits speculative fiction. Her stories appear in Shelter of Daylight issue six, Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead, and Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales. She has co-edited two anthologies: Rigor Amortis, about sexy, amorous zombies, and Broken Time Blues, featuring 1920s alien burlesque dancers and bootlegging chickens. Follow her on Twitter: @erikaholt.
Author Spotlight: Sarah Langan
Lisa Nohealani Morton
Can you tell me what gave you the idea for this story?
I wrote this story when my oldest was six months. I’d gone from having zero responsibilities and writing whenever I pleased (all the time), to having to take care of myself as well as another human being. It was awful! I was terrified.
“Sacred Cows” is a story about grief, but it’s also about identity, and especially about women’s struggle to find their own identity (or just a place to rest) in a world that demands that they be mothers, daughters, wives. Is that a statement you set out to make? Can you talk about that a little bit?
It’s not a statement, really—not in a feminist way, where I’m frustrated by the inequality of gender roles. It’s more personal than that. I find that I want to be good at everything I do, but it’s impossible. Every day, I fail someone I love, on some level, and that includes failing at my own career ambitions. But that’s life. I can’t be good at half the jobs I have. My kid goes to school with un-brushed hair, and we eat the same meal three or four nights a week, because those things are low priorities for me. I haven’t finished a novel since I had my older daughter three and a half years ago, and that’s because I wasn’t in the head space to concentrate the way I needed—at least, not on spec, without a paycheck in advance so I had some justification for not being around. It’s painful, and frightening, being a mother. But I can’t imagine my life without my family. I wouldn’t like it.
Men’s roles are just as tough, but it’s not often discussed, except in an Updike way, in which they’re absent or avoiding responsibility. What about the ones who stick around, cook, do laundry, make the money, tell the bedtime stories? Nobody tells them they’re doing a good job. In fact, they get crapped on for being pansies.
What are you working on now?
I’m finishing up a screenplay for my agent (well, a draft of it—they’re hard!), then onto an adult novel in January. I’ve had a good amount of time away, and am burning to get back to the work-thing I love most: novels.
What’s your favorite campfire ghost story?
Definitely the guy with the hook story that Bill Murray told in Meatballs. Also, I re-watched the original Dawn of the Dead last night, and it scared the crap out of me. Oooooh, Romero.
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 publications such as Lightspeed, Daily Science Fiction, and the anthology Hellebore and Rue. She can be found on Twitter as @lnmorton.
Coming Attractions
Coming up in March, in Nightmare . . .
We’ll have original fiction from David Tallerman (“The Sign in the Moonlight”) and Jeff VanderMeer (“No Breather in the World But Thee”), along with reprints by Molly Tanzer (“The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins”) and Livia Llewellyn (“Jetsam”). We’ll also have the latest installment of our column on horror, “The H Word,” plus author spotlights with all of our authors, a showcase on our cover artist, and a feature interview.
It’s another great issue, so be sure to check it out. And while you’re at it, tell a friend about Nightmare. Thanks for reading!