Men in Horror: PATRICK FREIVALD

Patrick Freivald does a lot of volunteer work for the Horror Writers Association. Those of you not a part of this organization should really consider joining if for nothing else, the great networkig opportunities that can happen with the virtual or real world, and not to mention the wonderful people involved that do most of the work behind the scenes for no pay.

I read JADE SKY and found it intersting. It was a blend of horror and science fiction which can work so well if done correctly. I enjoyed the book and it was well written. It was a wee bit more SCI-FI for me, but then I am a plain horror girl. It has been short listed for a Stoker award, which is a tremendous accomplishment. 

Patrick is well spoken, offers his opinion when warranted and does not suffer fools, a trait I can admire. He offers challenging opinions and still mananges to play well with others in the sandbox....most of the time.

1.     When did you start writing horror?

At conception. On paper, I wrote a variety of things through high school and college, but much of that energy was poured into roleplaying games, many of which had a dark, twisted edge. The idea to write for publication came from my twin brother, Phil, and the first book I ever wrote (but not the first published) is a thriller, BLOOD LIST, that we co-wrote. An awesome experience, by the way.

2.   Have you written in any other genre?

TWICE SHY and SPECIAL DEAD are marketed as YA horror, but I've always considered them satire for adults. It surprised me when they were taken seriously, but I'm now used to different people getting very different reads out of the same stories.

BLOOD LIST is a thriller, and while some pretty horrific things happen, it's not horror. JADE SKY is a true crossover, a horror/thriller/sci-fi military mashup that I'm quite proud of.

3.  What makes you uncomfortable?

New shoes.

4.  Does your family read your work?

Many of them do. I'm the second-youngest of eight brothers and two sisters, most of whom have read my work, and my mom is a voracious reader. My brothers Phil, Mark, and Jake are fantastic beta readers. (Well, Jake used to be. He has ten kids, so we can pretend to forgive his lack of attention to what's important to me. Maybe.)

5.  Does your writing make you uneasy?

Nothing makes me uneasy. I'm very honest about who and what I am, and anyone who doesn't like that can go find something else to occupy their time.

6.  Who would you say you write like?

I'd like to say that I characterize like Stephen King, write dialogue like Elmore Leonard, write action like Dan Abnett/Jonathan Maberry/Weston Ochse and suspense like Preston and Child, and endings like Cormac McCarthy. I may also be psychotically delusional.

My writing style is pretty terse—both in information provided and in word economy. I pride myself in saying more with less and letting the reader fill in the details with their imaginations (which they're going to do anyway no matter who you are.)

7.  Who are your favourite authors?

Devil woman, who can answer that question? Not I, not I. There are countless authors I enjoy, and countless others I've put down and will not try again.

8.  Who influences you as a writer?

Everyone, for better or for worse. Some of my literary heroes I've already mentioned: Leonard, King, Abnett, Maberry, Ochse, Preston, Child, McCarthy. Add to that Straub, McCammon, McKinney, Wilson, Chambers, Lovecraft, Poe, Faulkner, Twain, and countless others.

9. Do you remember what your first horror book was that you read?

10.  How old were you?

I read The Stand when I was nine-ish, and IT not too long after. F. Paul Wilson's SOFT AND OTHER STORIES came out in 1990—I was fourteen, and that same year my mom bought me the unabridged and uncut THE STAND. These stick out the most as my "firsts," but there were others in-between, certainly.

11.  Is there any subject you will not touch as an author?

No. I don't write shock for its own sake, and I find that in postapocalyptic fiction in particular rape is far too overused for shock value (which doesn't work because of that overuse), but nothing is off the table when I'm writing if it serves the narrative.

I find that horror writers often mistake grotesque behavior (rape, child abuse, cannibalism) for horror in its own right, and I won't use them just to shock. But if it fits, I'll use it.

12.  What was the best advice you were given as a writer?

Be positive, don't engage in drama.

13.  If you had to start all over again, what would you do different?

I would have started twenty years earlier.

14.  How many books do you read a year?

I aim for fifty. Sometimes I double that, sometimes it's half, depending on the year. Add to that somewhere between dozens and hundreds of short stories.

15.  Do you write every day?

No. I'm a beekeeper and the coach of a competition robotics team, and both activities preclude the possibility of writing every day. (Due to the FIRST Robotics build season I don't write much of anything in January and February, because I'm working 16+ hours a day six to seven days a week.) I write if and when I feel like it, because it's fun. Even so, my schedule keeps me on pace for two novels and a half-dozen short stories a year, so I'm happy with it.

Please provide Amazon, Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, Blog Links

http://patrick.freivald.com
http://www.amazon.com/Patrick-Freivald/e/B006N2B4YK/

http://twitter.com/PatrickFreivald

http://www.facebook.com/patrick.freivald

Men in Horror: CHRIS BARNES

And now for something completely different.....Okay, I had to throw some Monty Python in there.....

Here is the voice of horror, the fabulous Chris Barnes. 

I am not a big fan of audible books because if my eyes are not engaged I tend to fall asleep. But I could listen to Chris Barnes all day. He even does voices! It is kinda cool when you listen to him with that rich accent. I could get used to that.

1.How did you get into narrating Horror?   

It really happened through sheer force of will.  In June 2012, I took a family holiday, loaded up a few freebie ebooks onto my Kindle app on my phone and began to read.  Suffice it to say, I came across an absolute gem of a novel, “The Cold Beneath” by Tonia Brown.  It begged and pleaded with me to bring it to life through audio.

I had to wait 5 more days - 5, excruciating days, to get behind my trusty Yeti, and do something about it.

I had already previously contacted the author about producing an earlier novel of hers, but had been put off. This time I was not going to be so easily deterred.  I wanted to thank the author for writing me a great story, the best way I knew how. Reviews, they say, are the best way to thank an author. Whilst this is undoubtedly true, there is, I think, no better way to thank an author than to read their work and bring their characters to life - to make them tangible.

I recorded the first chapter of the book, added some intro music and emailed the author the link to file.  The response I got was out of this world.  We agreed, rather quickly that this particular novel should get the Audio treatment it deserved and so I got to work.

2.   Have you narrated in any other genres?

I’ve dabbled in YA and Romance thus far.  Horror is what I’m best known for, although it’s nice to be able to change it up a little, more for my own sanity than anything, sometimes you can spend too long in the darkness and it starts to affect my sleep.

3.  What makes you uncomfortable?

The feeling of being watched. Especially during an early morning studio session.

4.  Does your family listen to your work?

No, none of them are into horror, or listening to me read it either.  My two youngest love to listen to the kids book I did called Doodeedoo about a little mouse who “makes” a friend after reading Frankenstein.

5.  Has anything you’ve narrated made you uneasy?

I’ve not come across anything yet that I would have refused to narrate – there is a line, but thankfully no one has asked me to cross it yet.

6.  Who would you say you sound like?

I’ve heard the name John Hannah mentioned a few times in the same breath as mine.  I’ll take that comparison gladly.

7.  Who are your favourite authors?

The ones that I work with for obvious reasons.  I can’t remember the last time I read for pure pleasure, but I get an innate joy from doing what I do, so it’s never a chore, either.

8.  Who influences you as a narrator?

The characters in the book influence me an awful lot more than anything else.  They want their stories told, and they generally make sure I do it their way.  A prime example of this is Connie from High Moor 2 : Moonstruck, I had finished recording the book, but there was a voice in my head saying “redo Connies dialogue, do it this way instead”, so I did, all 45-50 lines of Dialogue, redone.

9. Do you remember what your first horror book was that you read?

Think it was a Shaun Hutson one, can’t remember the name of it, but it was about an amulet and finished up in an abandoned cinema I think….

10.  How old were you?

About 16

11.  Is there any subject you will not touch as an narrator?

If there is one, we haven’t found it yet!

12.  What was the best advice you were given as a narrator?

Slow down.

13.  If you had to start all over again, what would you do different?

I’d have started this years ago!!

14.  How many books do you read a year?

Around about a book every 1-2 weeks at the moment. 

15.  Do you narrate every day?

Although it varies depending on factors like the day job and being able to record, I do try to record everyday if I can.

Please provide Amazon, Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, Blog Links

Facebook Page :

 http://www.facebook.com/chrisbarnesnarrator

Blog

thedynamicram.blogspot.com

Audible.com Page :

http://www.audible.com/search/ref=sr_sort_salesrank?searchSize=20&advsearchKeywords=chris+barnes&searchRank=salesrank&searchRankSelect=salesrank

Twitter : @ChrisBarnesVA

Men in Horror: RAY GARTON

I adore Ray Garton, one of the guys that has it all together. He wrote LIVE GIRLS, which was a good book, CRUCIFAX, and THE NEW NEIGHBOUR, which is my absolute favourite of all of them. He has written dozens more, but these are the only ones I have read so far, although several more on on my TBR list. 

I do believe he has the luxury of writing full-time, one I aspire to do someday. A talented man, with no lack of imagination and the ability to write a damn fine novel, Ray Garton has made a name for himself in the horror world. He has an awesome sense of humour and shows true integrity by disclosing a few personal conversations where he discussed things that happened in his early career concerning a ghost haunting. 

But....be warned....do not tick him off. 


1. When did you start writing horror?

Very, very early.  Before I could read or write.  I used to draw stories in panels, like a comic book, and they were usually pretty dark, scary stories.

2. Have you written in any other genre?

I’ve written crime fiction, noir, thrillers, and one science fiction novella, which was just enough to know that it’s not my genre.  I’ve written a number of movie novelizations and TV tie-ins, as well, which is a source of embarrassment for some writers.  Not for me, though.  I always loved adapting scripts into novels.  It was fun work, and because it’s work, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.  We working writers have more than literary achievement on our minds — we also have to pay bills and buy food.  I really miss doing novelizations.

3. What makes you uncomfortable?

Wow, that’s a loaded question!  Anything — the most mundane, trivial things — can become discomfiting under the right circumstances.  Part of my job as a horror writer, as I see it, is to make the familiar and comforting things in life suddenly ominous and menacing.  Personally, I am made uncomfortable by a host of things.  These days, the news is all it takes to make me squirm because we appear to be living in a boiling cauldron right now.

Got a little headache?  Maybe it’s a brain tumor.  That noise the car has been making can’t be good.  Sunny, 70-degree days in February?  It’s only a matter of time before the oceans rise and drown us all.  A chunk of the population refuses to have their children vaccinated, and now we’ve got diseases popping up that we haven’t seen in ages.  And I wonder how all that radiation from Fukushima is doing in the Pacific Ocean as it makes its way toward the shores of my home state of California.

Don’t get me started.

4. Does your family read your work?

Rarely.  My dad never read a word of it and my mother has read a little, but she just doesn’t like horror or crime or noir or fiction.  My sister and her husband recently read my novel Frankenstorm, and before that, she read Live Girls in 1987.  I’m the only big reader in my family, and the only one who enjoys the horror genre.

5. Does your writing make you uneasy?

It has to, otherwise it won’t make anyone else uneasy.  When I’m writing horror fiction, I have to disturb myself or it’s not going to work for the reader.  There have been times when I’ve frightened or upset myself enough to walk away from the keyboard for a while.  For example, Shackled was an upsetting book to write and I had to take a little break at one point.  Apparently, it worked, because I’ve heard from quite a few readers that they were upset enough to put the book down for a while.

6. Who would you say you write like?

I honestly don’t know.  I’m a poor judge of that sort of thing.  I’ve been told my work has a distinctive voice, but I have no idea what it is or even if those people were being honest.  I started out intentionally mimicking writers I loved, like Richard Matheson and Stephen King.  I think all writers do that in the beginning, but then find their own way.  I’m afraid that’s a question I can’t answer.

7. Who are your favourite authors?

It’s a long list.  I already mentioned Matheson and King.  As a child, I read L. Frank Baum, Rudyard Kipling, Poe, Dr. Seuss, and as I got older, I naturally segued into writers like Harold Robbins, Sidney Sheldon, and Jackie Collins, mostly because those were books I wasn’t supposed to read.  Forbidden fruit, and all that.

My favorites include, but are far from limited to, T.C. Boyle, Charles Dickens, Patricia Highsmith, John Irving, William Goldman, Angela Carter, Philip K. Dick, Evelyn Waugh, and Fran Lebowitz to name a few off the top of my head in no particular order.

I enjoy crime fiction and noir, especially the old masters like Cornell Woolrich, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, David Goodis, Gil Brewer, as well as contemporary writers in those genres, like Tom Piccirilli, Lee Child, Carl Hiaasen, Barry Gifford.

Naturally, I have a lot of favorites in my own genre, the most popular genre ever reviled.  Writers like Matheson, Rod Serling, King, and Straub are the ones who really made me want to write.  One of the writers I cut my teeth on was William F. Nolan, whose stories span horror, science fiction, and crime, and, fortunately for us, he’s still at it today at 87.  I have a lot of favorites in the genre old and new.

There are so many talented writers working in horror that it’s hard to believe the genre, as always, gets so little respect.  I’ve been very impressed with the work of John F.D. Taff.  When people think horror, they think blood and guts, that sort of thing, but writers like Taff prove that it’s much more than that.  For me, really good horror is about the human condition, which includes far more than bloodshed.  Lisa Morton is a favorite of mine because she can make my skin crawl in the most surprising ways.  She excels at making the mundane terrifying.  Writers like Bryan Smith and Ed Kurtz jump between genres with ease.  Each will turn out a rousing horror novel, then maybe follow it up with an equally rousing crime novel.

I’ve been reading and writing a lot of short stories lately.  The short story has been gasping for air for a long time, but it thrives in the horror genre.  And it’s a great way to discover writers.  Short stories have led me to a lot of wonderful novels.  That’s how I found people like Rena Mason, Joe McKinney, Laird Barron, Taylor Grant, and so many others.

There’s so much diversity in horror that it’s frustrating to know most people still think of it only as a hack-and-slash genre.  You can be choked up with emotion by a writer like Gary Braunbeck, or you can get some laughs with your chills from Hal Bodner or Jeff Strand.  And if you want blood and guts, you can put on your butcher’s apron and dig into the work of Monica O’Rourke or Wrath James White.  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Sorry.  You asked for my favorite writers and I’ve named a lot of them here, but I also launched into a long-winded speech.  That wasn’t my original intention, but for the last couple of years, I’ve been catching up on writers I’ve not read and getting reacquainted with horror, and I’ve realized how proud I am of the genre.  It’s full of talent and variety that often gets overlooked because of so many preconceived notions about horror and dark fiction.

8. Who influences you as a writer?

Everyone.  And everything.

9. Do you remember the first horror book you read?

The first stories that were read to me as a small child were bible stories.  If you’re not familiar with them, I’m here to tell you that there are some pretty scary stories in the bible.  My parents strongly disapproved of horror movies and fiction, but they read those bible stories to me, and that was my first exposure to scary stories.  Later, I started reading horror fiction, I don’t remember the first thing in read in the genre.  I always knew that horror fiction was just that, fiction that’s made up by imaginative writers.  But I was told that the bible stories were true and actually happened, which made them much scarier.

10. How old were you?

Very young.  I wasn’t reading yet when my mother read those bible stories to me.

11. Is there any subject you will not touch as an author?

I’m sure there is.  I’ll let you know when I find it.

12. What was the best advice you were given as a writer.

Don’t write for a living, have a back-up career.

13. If you had to start all over again, what would you do different?

I’d follow the best advice I was given as a writer.

14. How many books do you read a year?

I have absolutely no idea.  I’ve never kept track.  Was I supposed to?  Is there a competition?  Are there prizes?

15. Do you write every day?

Normally, yes, but I’ve had some health problems in recent years that have disrupted my ability to work in a big way.  It’s been extremely frustrating.  I’m trying to get back in the saddle, but the goddamned horse won’t hold still.

Website:  http://www.raygartononline.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ray.garton.3

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/RayGarton

Blog (even though it hasn't been updated since December):  http://preposteroustwaddlecock.blogspot.com/

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Ray-Garton/e/B000ARBIQI/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1425160792&sr=1-2-ent