Andy Graham Author

Political thrillers, dystopian fiction, creepy reads, and dark humour.

Main navigation

English

One Book Interview #46 – Frank Dorrian (Author)

by Leave a Comment

Other than a love for reading (and a bloody-minded persistence*), there isn’t a particular type of person that writes, no easy pigeon hole for, or set of ingredients that go into making an author.

Author #46 is no different.

Describing himself as ‘a veteran observer of the world,’ #46 has competed internationally as a Muay Thai fighter, worked as a mental health nurse, and now works for a specialist unit for those with financial problems.

Good people of the Internet, writing out of Liverpool, UK – Frank Dorrian.

Name one book:

1 – everyone should read

The most recent one that springs to mind would be Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. It’s an awesome book that I think will strike a note with fans of all branches of fantasy. It’s not overly complex story-wise, in fact I’d say its astoundingly simple, but it gives plenty of room for the characters to shine, which is where the book’s strengths lie.

2 – you would take with you if you were going to be marooned on Mars

Something fat. Like, p h a t. Probably something from the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, as I should probably read beyond the first book at some point.

I actually took three huge tomes with me to Thailand in 2015 when I was training for a fight there for a month – Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan, The Shadow Throne by Django Wexler and The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence. I finished ‘em all in about three and a half weeks, fought, lost, and spent the rest of my free time nursing bruises and drinking cheap beer in 40 degree heat.

3 – you took a chance on and were pleasantly surprised by

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler. I’m not into imperialist/colonialist era stuff, reminds me way too much of Sharpe-style stuff which I’m just not a fan of, but The Thousand Names was awesome. Very different book, and after reading about swords and shields and spears and bows for years on end, reading about muskets was actually pretty refreshing.

4 – you’ve written that is your favourite

I would say my first book, The Shadow of the High King, which I published in August 2016. It took 14 months to write and another 10 to edit and redraft, as it’s a t h i c k  book, but I had a beast of a time writing it in a way that I’ve never had since.

5 – that has influenced you most as a person

More than likely The Hobbit, if I’m honest. It was the first real fantasy book I chose to read when I was about 12, way before The Lord of the Rings films were kicking about. I picked it up from the school library after my dad said I should read it and finished it in about 2 days, after that I picked up his old copies of The Lord of the Rings and fantasy just sort of became my thing, even if Tolkienesque fantasy no longer is.

6 – that has influenced you most as a professional

Definitely Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. It wasn’t my introduction to grimdark, but it was certainly my introduction to a poetic, philosophical form of grimy fantasy, one with emotional depth. It was enough to inspire me to start writing again after 10 years away from the keyboard.

7 – of yours that prospective readers should start with if they want to get to know your work and where they can get it.

I’m not sure how my readers’ opinions would fall upon this, but personally I’d actually say my most recent book, Scars of the Sand. It’s book 2 of my series of shorter standalones, Tales of the Blackshield Dogs, and something of a prelude to the central story arc in The Shadow of the High King.

You can find Frank at www.frankdorrian.wordpress.com

Frank Dorrian was born in 1987 in Liverpool – his hometown, a post-industrial cityscape, served as poignant inspiration for his creative efforts. He would commence writing in earnest during his teenage years, composing stories to sate desires of both expression and introspection.

Formerly a qualified mental health nurse working with people suffering severe psychiatric and psychological disorders, today Frank works in a specialist role supporting and educating vulnerable people through financial difficulty.

When not writing, Frank spends his spare time reading, playing computer games and attending a martial arts gym. He has previously competed as a fighter domestically in the UK and abroad in Thailand.

 

 

*Don’t believe me? Try writing a book.

 

 

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

 

One Book Interview #41 – Matt Hickman (Author)

by Leave a Comment

The hangover has cleared after last week’s 40th birthday  celebrations, and The One Book Interview is back with what counts – the authors.

This week, I’m very happy to have with us a British author who is rapidly carving out a name for himself in the UK horror scene.

Not literally, you understand.

(I hope.)

Good people of the Internet, writing out of Tipton*, UK – Matt Hickman

Name one book:

1 – everyone should read

Since a young age, I’ve been a massive fan of the work by Roald Dahl. The man had an imagination that was out of this world, I can still picture him scribbling his crazy ideas in his notebooks in the hut where he wrote at the bottom of his garden. His writing manages to cross any boundaries of age or sex; they’re as much loved today as they were when I was a boy, and the joy between those pages has been passed down to my two children. I would find it difficult to pick a certain title as a favourite, so as a book that everyone should read, I would choose Tales of the Unexpected, his eclectic short story collection which really showcases his diverse literary talents.

2 – you would take with you if you were going to be marooned on Mars

Damn, I knew there would be one of these types of questions. If you were stranded on Mars, aside from playing volleyball against little green men, you would need something fairly substantial to keep the boredom at bay, a book where you could get immersed into its pages again and again. For my choice, it would be The Stand by Stephen King. Weighing in at over 1000 pages, it’s a massive read, and also one of the best takes on an apocalyptic pandemic, threatening to wipe out humanity that you’ll find.

3 – you took a chance on and were pleasantly surprised by

Back when I was living at home, my dad was studying for an Open University course in the classics, and I picked up a battered, dog eared copy of The Iliad (a poem) by Homer that he had left on the kitchen table. Oblivious to the theme of the book, and it being a modern version of the translated text, I started to browse the contents and found myself blown away. I’d never seen such a cocktail of sex, violence, deceit and revenge. Those Greeks really knew how to do a number on each other.

4 – you’ve written that is your favourite

That would be one of two, but I think I’ll go with my novel, Amnesia. I awoke suddenly one morning in a hotel while working away in Crawley, with an intensely violent and disturbing scene running through my mind. I’m not sure whether I dreamt it, and it etched itself into my psyche. That scene was the only thing I knew I wanted to write. Without any other ideas for plot or the story, I went to work, blind. A few months later, the novel was complete. A slow burn and build in tension until it erupts into hell. I have recently received the digital rights back from the original publisher, so I will be writing the prequel, Flashbacks, and releasing them together. The paperback is still available.

5 – that has influenced you most as a person

I think that would have to be Red Dragon by Thomas Harris. I read a copy of the book when I was about fourteen years old and it scared the living shit out of me. It was the first time I’d really looked at any depth into the depravity of humanity, and the way that realism can, in some ways be more horrific than monsters or the supernatural. In addition, the book introduced me to a character that was to become a lifelong obsession, Hannibal Lecter.

6 – that has influenced you most as a professional

That’s a really difficult one to answer, as I don’t really consider myself anything like professional. I’ve certainly never studied any books on writing techniques or taken any creative writing classes. I kinda just fell into this after years of being an avid reader with an astute eye. I haven’t dodged around the question properly have I? Okay, I’ll pick a book from a writer that I would say is one of the biggest influences on my style of storytelling, Endless Night by Richard Laymon. When I first read this book, I knew immediately that I would be pursuing more of his work. The story is an intense, harrowing, and adrenaline fueled piece of fiction. For me, it was all about the characters, good and bad, an equation that ultimately works for me.

7 – of yours that prospective readers should start with if they want to get to know your work and where they can get it.

As with most authors, my work varies in content and style. I think the best place to start would be with my short story collection, Sinister Scribblings. There are thirteen of my own stories ranging from seasonal horror, to extreme, nasty shorts, to tales underpinned with dark humour. The book also contains additional stories from other emerging authors within the indie market.

You can find Matt at : www.matthickman.co.uk

Matt is an avid fan of horror fiction. He spends a majority of his free time reading books from both established and independent authors. With a diverse knowledge of the genre, and an astute mind for the macabre, he has taken to writing his own brand of horror – dark, relentlessly violent and blood-soaked, and often peppered with dark humour. With the support of his peers, some of which are established writers themselves, he has taken on a new career, one that has seen him take the genre by storm. He currently resides in Tipton, a small town in the West Midlands with his partner and two children. He travels the width breadth of the UK on a regular basis as a Sales Manager for a construction company.

 

Since his debut eighteen months ago, he has been featured in numerous short story collections, including anthologies for charity, as well as releasing numerous novels and novella’s and collaborations with Stuart Keane, Andrew Lennon, and Matt Shaw including his first solo collection of short stories – Sinister Scribblings.

 

*Not to be confused with this place. (Sorry, Matt. It’s lame, but I couldn’t resist.)

 

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

 

One Book Interview #40 – A Birthday

by Leave a Comment

The One Book Interview reaches forty this week. It has a few more aches and pains in the morning than it did when  it turned eighteen, but it’s still going strong.

To celebrate its 40th birthday, here’s a look back through the last few months – words seen through numbers.

We’ve had:

39 interviews, of which 38 are authors and 1 is an editor;

3 book reviews;

7 questions to each person;

a total of 270 different books mentioned (39 people picking 1 book for 7 questions should be 270, so we’re almost exactly right).

Which books?

Classics, indies, short stories, epic fantasy series, and even a photographic book of sharecroppers in Alabama in the early-mid 20th century.


Some books have appeared more than once (I’ve excluded multiple mentions of people’s own books).

Before we get to the answers, most of the participating authors write dystopia, horror and dark fiction so their book choices may not be a complete surprise. If you fancy, have a guess at what the top choices could be.

I’ll wait.

Done?

In reverse order, and starting with the new entries, these are the top choices:

(All book covers link to Amazon UK)

The Wheel of Time – 2x

The Shining – 2x

Ready Player One – 2x

1984 – 2x

Neuromancer – 2x

Imajica – 2x

The Dice Man – 2x

Animal Farm – 2x

The following books appeared in the 18th Birthday post.

The number of times they have appeared in total is given first; the number of times they appeared in the 18th Birthday is given in brackets.

Death Becomes Her – 2x (2x)

Little Bee – 2x (2x)

Pride & Prejudice – 2x (2x)

Think & Grow Rich – 2x (2x)

The Name of the Wind – 2x (2x)

Harry Potter – 3x (Did not appear in the 18th Birthday)


To Kill a Mockingbird – 3x (3x)


The Lord of the Rings – 4x (4x)

A song of Ice and Fire – 6x (2x)

The Martian – 6x (3x)

The Bible – 7x (6x)

The Bible still has reviews on Amazon! GOD hasn’t struck down the non-believers since I pointed it out last time.

The Stand – 8x (2x)

On Writing – 8x (3x)

The fact that there have been some additions since the eighteenth birthday edition is not surprising given there have been 38 interviews rather than 18. What is interesting is that most of the book choices remain unchanged. ASOIAF and The Martian have gone up a few places. LOTR is a non-mover. Stephen King, however, has knocked The Bible off the top spot with not one, but two books.

Mr King deserves a special mention, in that his books have cropped up more than anyone else’s:

The Talisman

The Running Man

Roadwork

Rage

The Long Walk

It

Gerald’s Game

Different Seasons

Carrie

On Writing

The Stand

Once more, a huge thank you to all the authors that have taken part up to this point.

 

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

 

One Book Interview #39 – Christina Bergling (Author)

by Leave a Comment

In association with Confessions of  a Reviewer, I’m very happy to be able to bring you another interview/ review post-pairing. (Is that even a word?)

You can find out what I thought of Author 39’s most recent book tomorrow, but today, here’s a taste of her favourite books.

Good people of the Internet, writing out of Colorado Springs – Christina Bergling

Name one book:

1 – everyone should read

Seven Types of Ambiguity by Elliot Perlman. The multiple narrations in this book blew me away. All seven circle around a central event to become a brilliant examination of perspective and distortion. It is one thing to understand that everyone sees things differently, it is more impactful to experience that seven times.

2 – you would take with you if you were going to be marooned on Mars

Different Seasons by Stephen King. “The Shawshank Redemption” is one of my favorite novellas ever. It is simply intoxicating. Yet all four novellas in the collection contain an entire and fascinating world. If I was stuck reading the same book over and over, I would want one with multiple stories.

3 – you took a chance on and were pleasantly surprised by

Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. I knew I always wanted to read the book because it spawned the concept of BDSM. However, I had my reservations because it is so old. I worried it would be as neutered and unemotional as all the British literature I studied in college. Instead, it is brilliant, racy, and raw.

4 – you’ve written that is your favourite

It is a solid tie between Savages and The Rest Will Come. Savages was the world I could keep living in. When I was writing, I thought about it all day, dreamed about it. The story just poured out of me. However, The Rest Will Come was the most fun to write. I was able to include people in my real life in the process.

5 – that has influenced you most as a person

Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. I went to Iraq as a contractor in 2009, and nothing there made sense to me. This book explained some of the irrational and upsetting paradigms and procedures I encountered. It did not make the things acceptable, but it at least established cause and effect.

6 – that has influenced you most as a professional

Gerald’s Game by Stephen King. I read a lot of Stephen King’s work in my youth; however, this is my favorite novel of his. This book taught me about crafting horror in a restricted setting with very few characters, showing me the horror in the mind. I found that restrained horror far more terrifying than his more fantastical works.

7 – of yours that prospective readers should start with if they want to get to know your work and where they can get it.

The Rest Will Come offers a good taste of horror with some levity. It is available on Amazon and through other online book retailers.

You can find Christina here.

Colorado‐bred writer, Christina Bergling knew she wanted to be an author in fourth grade.

In college, she pursued a professional writing degree and started publishing small scale. It all began with “How to Kill Yourself Slowly.”

With the realities of paying bills, she started working as a technical writer and document manager, traveling to Iraq as a contractor and eventually becoming a trainer and software developer.

She avidly hosted multiple blogs on Iraq, bipolar, pregnancy, running. She continues to write on Fiery Pen: The Horror Writing of Christina Bergling and Z0mbie Turtle.

In 2015, she published two novellas. She is also featured in the horror collections Collected Christmas Horror Shorts, Collected Easter Horror Shorts, Collected Halloween Horror Shorts, and Demonic Wildlife. Her latest novel, The Rest Will Come, was released by Limitless Publishing in August 2017.

Bergling is a mother of two young children and lives with her family in Colorado Springs. She spends her non‐writing time running, doing yoga and barre, belly dancing, taking pictures, traveling, and sucking all the marrow out of life.

 

 

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

 

 

One Book Interview #38 – Paul Flewitt (Author)

by Leave a Comment

A former steelworker turned author who keeps beta-reading demons alongside his kids.

Intrigued?

You should be.

A huge thanks to Author 38 for his thorough answers to my questions.

(And The Stitcher-in-Chief crops up again in this interview. That’s three times: 20, 36 & now 38. Is there such a thing as stalking-by-proxy?)

Good people of the Internet, writing out of Sheffield, in the UK – Paul Flewitt

Name one book:

1 – everyone should read

Well, I’m a horror (ish) author, so I guess I should start with horror right? So, my pick for this question is Stephen King’s The Bachman books.

I’m not really a big fan of Stephen King’s later work, but his early stuff is awesome. From Carrie, The Stand and It to The Talisman and The Shining, he really established and pushed the horror genre into the scene that we know today. The Bachman Books are a glimpse at some oddities, originally published under the Richard Bachman pseudonym. Roadwork, Rage, The Long Walk and The Running Man. The first story is nice, showing King’s ability to write a character that you can love and loathe in equal measure. The Running Man is the story that inspired the movie of the same name. As opening and closing stories in a short story collection, they do their job well, but these aren’t the reason for me picking this collection. No. The real meat of this collection is in Rage and The Long Walk. I consider these to be two of the very best Stephen King stories. There’s no bloat or unnecessary excess which usually typifies King’s work. These are straight to the point and hit you right where it hurts. The characters here are truly affecting, the stories more thought-provoking and challenging than almost anything else that King has written. Rage, in particular handles a very difficult theme (school shootings) with sweep, sympathy and I don’t feel that he glamourizes or sensationalizes the subject matter, as some other critics have done. The Long Walk is a tour de force of a story; a very prescient comment on reality TV shows and where they could end up. Sadly, King saw fit to withdraw Rage from the collection a few years ago, but if you can track down an older copy then you will not regret it.

2 – you would take with you if you were going to be marooned on Mars

I reckon that if you were marooned then you’re going to be waiting a while for rescue, so any book that you want with you would have to be pretty long. I reckon it would also have to be a book that you can read, read and read again without getting bored by it.

Before embarking on the journey that is answering these questions, I read a couple that have been done before. I didn’t really want to repeat something that someone else had said, because that’d be pretty damned boring. However, after reading Mark Cassell’s interview I couldn’t help but agree with him, and so I’m going to second his pick here.

Clive Barker is the best writer I have ever read, his imagination and grasp of language is second to none, without ever coming across as unnecessarily clever or hyper-intellectual. There, we’ve got that out of the way early and so I can just carry on gushing, right?

Imajica is a 1000 page + book which demands repeated reading. There’s a hell of a lot in here, from the history of the Godolphin family to the origins of our tortured and damaged hero, Gentle. It’s a story of love, obsession, sex, horror, greed and divinity. It’s a journey through our own world, into other plains and then flying off into the heavenly pantheon. He creates monsters the likes of which only Barker could conceive of, but he also creates beautiful creatures with the same abandon (Pie-oh-Pah, the Mystif.) He holds our hand through all of this journeying, whispering the tale into our ears as if he was sitting in the room with you. It’s a quality that I have very rarely experienced with any writer, and this is the book in which Clive Barker achieved a kind of perfection in his literary art.

3 – you took a chance on and were pleasantly surprised by

It’s not often that I buy a book by a writer I’ve never heard of. Usually I have to have them recommended to me, or read a review about them. I took a chance on Alex Laybourne’s Diaries of the Damned because the style of the work was different and interesting. In its original form, The Diaries were a series of short works which centered on one particular character caught up in a zombie apocalypse. Nothing too new there, it’s a trope that is often used these days. The thing is that Laybourne’s DID do something a little different. He pushed the limits of what some might find acceptable, created a group of characters that you can immediately identify with, love, hate and sympathise with. Laybourne proved here that he understands human nature, people’s motivations and how to pull on the heartstrings. Laybourne was really writing dispatches here, reporting from the front line. A job very, very well done.

4 – you’ve written that is your favourite

There are two that I’m particularly proud of, so I’m going to cheat and mention them both. Both are short stories, since I’ve spent the last few years writing for anthologies in an effort to hone my craft. Climbing Out appears in the Demonology collection, and is a story that I’d wanted to write for a little while. It centers on a demon, climbing from the depths of Hell. On the climb, the demon reflects on what brought him so low. It’s a journey through ancient times and tells the story of misunderstanding, human error and the consequences of them… and redemption.

The second choice is The Silent Invader. I wrote this for an independent TV show named Fragments of Fear, which was being optioned at the time and can still be viewed on YouTube. I finished this one in 12 hours, it really just flowed out of me. It is a monologue from a possessing spirit, recounting its favourite atrocities in a very intimate manner. I really enjoyed the narrator’s telling of the tale, truly embodying the character and making the experience extra creepy. The resolve at the end is engaging, and just a little bit terrifying.

5 – that has influenced you most as a person

I don’t read true-drama books too often, but a title that kept on being mentioned to me was A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. It’s the story of his childhood and is a painfully frank account of the life of an abused child. It really upset me and affected me deeply. One of those books that make you want to embrace your own kids and keep them safe, to be a better parent because you are aware that there are children in pain all over the world. These are the real horrors.

6 – that has influenced you most as a professional

This is going to be a repeat, I’m afraid. It’s Imajica again.

I learn from everything that I read, and I’ve learned more from this book than any other. From characterization to world-building, it’s a tour de force of dark fantasy. This is the book that made me realise that my eyes had been closed, that there were more possibilities in the realms of horror/fantasy than I had imagined. This is where I understood what it was to let your imagination of the leash, to fly off into your own creation. I became a different kind of writer when I read that book, and it’s stood me in good stead. Essentially, to quote Barker himself; “I just had to trust my own madness.”

7 – of yours that prospective readers should start with if they want to get to know your work and where they can get it.

Probably the easiest thing to find would be my debut novella; Poor Jeffrey. You can find it across the Amazons (currently available in paperback only, but will return to ebook soon.) and it really showcases my style well. It’s one of the first things I wrote that was readily accepted by a press, and I still love it. I think I captured the characters very well, particularly the main ones. It also got me my first favourable reviews, so it will always have a special place in my heart.

You can find Paul here.

Paul Flewitt lives in Sheffield, UK with his partner and their two children. He is a writer of horror and dark fiction with CHBB/Vamptasy press.  Paul is the author of “Smoke” a flash fiction which appeared in OzHorrorCon’s Book of Tribes anthology, “Paradise Park” from JEA’s All That Remains anthology and the stand alone novella “Poor Jeffrey” through CHBB/Vamptasy press. In 2014, Poor Jeffrey was nominated in the Preditors and Editors Readers Poll for Best Horror Novel, placing 5th overall. He continues to work on further pieces…

 

 

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.

One Book Interview #35 – Kevin Kennedy (Author)

by Leave a Comment

Interview #35 holds the record for the quickest turn around to date.

Within 12 hours of the author kindly agreeing to be featured on the One Book Interview, I had the answers back. I thought it only right to put out the interview within another 12 hours.

You should read it, it’s a good one.

Good people of the Internet, writing out of Scotland in the UK (well, it is at the moment…) – Kevin Kennedy.

Name one book:

1 – everyone should read

Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland by Carlton Mellick III. I have probably read thirty or more books by Mellick. This was one of the first and the main reason I started to appreciate the Bizarro sub genre. There are so many great ideas in this book and Mellick’s style is a pleasure to read. It’s almost like having a bedtime story read to you when you were little, except the stories are absolutely mental, and often look at real issues in a very interesting way. I really enjoyed this one and while I could spend all day listing books like Swan Song and other fan faves, I feel this book deserves more credit than it gets.

2 – you would take with you if you were going to be marooned on Mars

Okay, so I said in the last post I wasn’t going to mention books like Swan Song. I lied. If you only had one book, which if we are honest, isn’t a plausible way to exist, it would need to be a pretty big book. Especially if you were going to re-read it, which is something I very rarely do. I think Swan Song and The Stand uncut version are the two longest books I’ve read. Although a lot of people may disagree, for me Swan Song was a far superior story and had a lot more going on in it. Post-apocalyptic fiction is one of my favourite sub-genres so there is a good chance I’d go with this one. It is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. It could be an idea to take something I haven’t read but if it turned out to be crap or written in a style I didn’t enjoy I’d be raging lol.

3 – you took a chance on and were pleasantly surprised by

City Infernal by Edward Lee. I started reading adult horror books when I was fifteen. I fell in love with Richard Laymons work and I read my way through everything he had written. When I finished all his books I tried another few authors and wasn’t impressed and just stopped reading. A few years later I found the old Richard Laymon message board and was recommended another few books and authors. The first four I bought were City Infernal by Ed Lee, Offseason by Jack Ketchum, Live Girls by Ray Garton and The Rising by Brian Keene. The suggestions were excellent. I loved them all but the world that Ed Lee builds in City Infernal was something else. It was entirely different from the type of horror Laymon wrote, and while I loved his style I also enjoyed Ed Lee’s style. I think it’s a book everyone should read. A lot of people talk about Edward Lee’s extreme horror and I love that too but this book is a tremendous story and not as hardcore as a lot of his other stuff.

4 – you’ve written that is your favourite

You Only Get One Shot: A Horror Novella that I co-wrote with J.C. Michael. It’s the longest piece I’ve written by quite a bit and it’s also the most time I’ve invested in the one piece of work. We changed things several times along the way and it’s good to have someone to bounce ideas off of. I think we both found it pretty easy to work together which helped and by the end up I think we have a pretty great story. The feedback has been excellent from readers and authors alike. J.C. also wrote a short prequel to the novella in Collected Halloween Horror Shorts.

5 – that has influenced you most as a person

Darkness Tell Us by Richard Laymon. It’s the book that started me reading adult fiction. I read Point Horror books when I was young and then fell away from it. I hadn’t read in years, then we got told we had to write an essay for English class when I was fifteen. I left it to last minute and then grabbed this book for 10p at a jumble-sale just because it had a Ouija board on the cover. I then realized the book was about six hundred pages and I think I had three days to read it and write the paper. It should have been an almost impossible task but I think I read about three hundred pages the first night. It was absolutely riveting. The story totally sucked me in and I only put the book down because I needed to get a few hours sleep. After this I read Island and continued on from there.

6 – that has influenced you most as a professional

Probably Funland by Laymon. I don’t want to make it all about Laymon but sometimes when I’m thinking of new ideas and I think about the type of story that I enjoy reading, I think of Funland, as I really like stuff involving carnivals, boardwalks or piers with rides and stalls and circus stuff. Something about the whole carnie vibe works well with horror. Funland was among my favourite Laymon books, and ever since reading it, I’ve always looked for stories in that vein. The most recent story I have written, Halloweenland, featured in my new Halloween antho, is about a special kind of traveling carnival that sets up on a pier, funnily enough. It is completely different from Funland in every way but I think it definitely influenced my taste in horror and that translates into the stories I write.

7 – of yours that prospective readers should start with if they want to get to know your work and where they can get it.

You Only Get One Shot: A Horror Novella, is the only work I have out that isn’t part of an anthology but I do put together the Collected Horror Shorts series, which has received some amazing praise. I have stories in each of the anthos and we have a fantastic mix of upcoming indie authors and some of horror genres top sellers. You can now pick up Christmas, Easter and Halloween editions.

 

You can find Kevin at: www.kevinjkennedy.co.uk

Kevin J Kennedy is the co-author of You Only Get One Shot, and the man behind the best-selling Collected Christmas Horror Shorts & Collected Easter Horror Shorts anthologies. His short stories have featured in many other notable anthologies in the horror genre.

Kevin lives in a small town in Scotland with his wife, step daughter and two strange little cats.

Keep up to date with new releases or contact Kevin through his website: www.kevinjkennedy.co.uk

 

 

 

Please note I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon sites.