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So, Dean and Ritchie Valentine Smith met at Fantasycon 2017 and chewed the cud over a few drinks – they talked about collaborating in the future so it was great news when Ritchie agreed to be part of the Short Sharp Shocks! Series – Monster Beach is Book 4 in the series. Dean and Ritchie hadn’t been able to meet in the flesh since that original (and historic!) first meeting and have been very much ‘passing ships’ ever since at various events. But just prior to publication they sat down and talked Monster Beach.
DEMAIN PUBLISHING: Ritchie hi – great to speak to you – you are very determined and focused gentlemen, something I was able to see right from the first time we met…thank you so much for sending me Monster Beach – I thoroughly enjoyed it – can you tell our readers a little more about it. RITCHIE VALENTINE SMITH: Monster Beach is a kind of off-cut from my fantasy series Words Of Power. On the level of fiction, it is about characters in a fantasy world following mythic archetypes. On a directly personal level, it is about fiercely aggressive crabs on a Cuban beach! Finally, it’s about the horrible power beauty can exert over us. DP: And you’ve been very successful in that…I’ve always wanted to visit Cuba but then I read your story and I think I might have changed my mind ha ha – was writing the story challenging / hard in any way? RVS: It’s not easy to make a big alternate world clear in just a few thousand words. I hope I’ve succeeded! DP: In my opinion you definitely have – I was totally immersed in the story / world within only a few lines so hats off to you my friend. I don’t think I particularly do when I create but when you were writing Monster Beach did you see / feel yourself as any of the characters? RVS: I suppose I identify most with Man (Emmanuel-John Kinross) who is prickly and somewhat insecure – but also good-hearted. I have been lucky enough to see all sorts of fantastic locations and things in my travels, so I use them, shamelessly. Example: one day I want to use the walled Old City of Jerusalem. DP: That would be amazing, I’ve toyed a couple of times with writing something in the Middle East but could never find the right angle so to speak, so good luck with that and would love to read it when its finished. Ritchie do you have a particular writing style… RVS: I tend to write quite complex prose about complex, off-the-wall ideas. I do sometimes struggle for maximum clarity and hope I achieve it. DP: In what I’ve read of your work so far I would say that you have achieved it so well done because I know it isn’t always easy…let’s talk about your influences… RVS: In horror, Stephen King is the master, don’t you think? Salem’s Lot is truly, truly frightening. For other things (love, the exotic alien background) I’ve always admired the greatest science-fiction / fantasy novel there is, James Clavell’s Shogun. DP: I’ll admit I’m not the greatest King fan but totally buy into what you’re saying. The Dark Half is in my opinion one of the best he’s written and I really enjoyed the film version too. Timothy Hutton is an amazing actor in that and was brilliant also in the recent adaptation of The Haunting Of Hill House – starring one of my very favourite actors Henry Thomas who is now a ‘genre’ author – so welcome to the family Henry!!!! Myself and my previous writing partner did have the rights to a King short story – we moved the setting to the South of France and came up with some interesting ideas if we ever get the money…anyway, anyway, enough about that – what next for you, what do you have in the pipe-line? RVS: I am currently working on a fantasy sequence set in a variant of samurai Japan. The next book is Words of Darkness (where bad things happen to good people), which is preceded by Words of Power and then Words of Fury. We then go on, I hope, to Great Albion itself, and then to other lands round the corner from this world, including Hindia and T’zina (China). DP: That’s pretty amazing – I love the idea of writing stories about different cultures etc – a lot of my work, particularly the last few years, has been based / set in France so perhaps it’s time to widen the net a little…you’re always busy (and focused!) are there any days when the words just don’t flow the way you’d like? RVS: I have good days and bad days, like anyone else working creatively. I have never had long-term writer’s block – and hope I never do! DP: I hope so too – so to help / assist you do write an outline before you start or just go for it? RVS: I don’t work from formal written outlines, but the arc of the story has to be clear in my head. (Though even I am surprised by how the story changes...) DP: That’s what I love about creating – once you start writing, the plot and / or the characters end up telling YOU where they should be headed rather than the other way around…it can be frustrating at times but it’s their life, not yours! Is there a particular theme or two that runs through your work? RVS: I like to write about the power of people in unusual and exotic locations. I like to think I celebrate the human spirit. But, yes, in my writing dark things do happen. DP: That they do, that they do. Okay, so pitch me Monster Beach. RVS: In horror films we already know ugly things can kill us. In this story it’s actually the beautiful things that destroy... DP: That’s clever…and if you were writing a short synopsis? RVS: In a fantastic land (based on samurai Japan as new world powers, such as Great Albion, arrive) there is a myth about ‘The One Who Will Change’, who will be a liberating force. This person, Emmanuel (call him Man) lands along with his friends on what may be the ‘midnight beach’ of Prophecy. They must cross it – or their world, and then our world too, will perish... DP: Finally, Ritchie can you tell us something about you we don’t know or which might surprise us? RVS: As well as being an award-winning playwright, way back in the hippyish/punk mists of time I was a minor poet. DP: Thank you so much Ritchie, I enjoyed that chat – see you soon and of course all the best with Monster Beach. For more information about Ritchie Valentine Smith, please check out: www.ritchievalentinesmith.com TWITTER: @ RitchieVSmith
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Dean M. Drinkel and Stephanie Ellis had previously worked on a Christmas themed anthology in 2017 and met in the flesh a year or so later at Fantasycon in Derby. Stephanie was one of the first authors Dean approached regarding the Short Sharp Shocks! Series – so it was an honour when she agreed to join the family with her Asylum Of Shadows which is Book 3 (and will be published on the 1st March 2019).
DEMAIN PUBLISHING: Welcome welcome Stephanie – hope 2019 is treating you well. We loved Asylum Of Shadows – can you tell us a little about it? STEPHANIE ELLIS: Thank you. The story is set in Victorian times and its focus is a destitute young girl who gains employment as a seamstress in the new Limehouse hospital. The items she discovers she has to make are shrouds and hoods for the hangman. Her other duties include watching over the recently deceased in the ward of St. Carcifex, making sure they are really dead in order to avoid the horrors of premature burial. It was sewing that first brought me to this story. I had recently completed a short tale which featured the stitching together of eyelids. I couldn’t quite let go of the idea of needle and flesh and wanted to create a story where it came more to the fore. Marian, the seamstress, allowed me to do this. In addition, I had been focussing on the polar opposites of industrial and folk horror and wanted to make sure I could still write in other genres; I do not want to be a writer pigeonholed by the type of horror they create. I love the darkness, the shadows and secrets of gothic and thought this would fit my story perfectly. DP: I totally agree that they fit your story perfectly. I also am of the opinion that it’s important as a writer not to become pigeonholed and if the opportunity presents itself then creators should work in as many genres as possible even if you deem yourself predominately a horror writer. These last few years I’ve been able to move into creating more historical work (albeit in tv / film) though it is quite ‘amusing’ when you meet producers etc and they’ve read your period piece and love it and then ask you what your background is – you mention horror and for some reason they can’t seem to ‘marry’ the two…anyway, that’s a longer discussion for another time…did you ‘become’ any of the characters in Asylum Of Shadows whilst you wrote it? SE: I rarely pick up a needle so people are safe from me. Needle and flesh do occasionally go together but only when I accidentally stab myself. As I wrote it, I saw the world through Marian’s eyes. I always try and put myself in my character’s place so that I can bring the senses into my writing. The emotions of a person, what they see, hear, feel, touch, are vital to rounding them out. It’s not words I seek first when I write, it’s what I see and experience – the right words will follow on afterwards. It’s pretty much like when I read – the words vanish from the page and I have a movie running in my head. DP: That last point is very intriguing…I have a similar experience when I listen to music…classical musical in particular…if I’m in a silent dark space I can close my eyes, crank up the volume of the cd / record and let the music flow through me…it might take me a few moments to relax properly but then the ‘magic’ happens and I’m actually able to see the music…it can range from exploding colours (like bursting paint balls I suppose) to dancing ribbons to faces which appear / disappear / transform…it used to be quite unsettling when I was younger but I’ve grown to ‘enjoy’ it. I suppose. So 2019 – what does it bring for Stephanie Ellis? SE: A publisher has recently expressed an interest in my folk horror novel, The Five Turns of the Wheel. It may come to nothing but I have a strong belief in that book and so should it get rejected, I have other avenues to pursue with it. This does mean I am, like many writers, in waiting mode but I have filled up my time by developing another book. This emerged during NaNoWriMo and is another folk horror, it’s gone through a few title changes and is currently living under the name Grandma. It’s loosely based on Red Riding Hood, except there is no Red Riding Hood, only Grandma and the Wood Cutter living in the modern day with rituals and death abounding. I even wrote a short story lately which focussed on these two characters and allowed me to explore their relationship a little. I intend to finish that this year and also plan a follow-up to Five Turns. DP: Oh great, that sounds like fun and something I’d like to read. I love dark fairy tales (the darker the better actually) and is a genre I’d like to play in one day…we’ll see…so many projects on the go as it is…with that in mind, do you ever suffer from writer’s block? SE: Not yet, touch wood. I’ve worried about it, dreaded getting it but I find I only have to start writing and ideas form. It may take a few paragraphs or a few pages of rubbish but something always seems to appear. DP: Good for you. I don’t think I’ve ever really suffered from it – I’ve been lucky that way I guess – and with a lot of stuff on if I find one project not working then I can move onto something else and go back to it later…I’ve always found it cathartic that I’m constantly doing a lot at any one time in different mediums too which also helps…I’m wondering then – you outline your stories or are you more of a ‘seat of your pants’ type of writer? SE: Pantser pretty much through and through. I see a character in a setting or situation and just start writing from there. I allow the character to lead me, to tell the story. Once I’m half-way or two-thirds through, the remaining structure of the book usually suddenly appears by itself. I’ve tried to do what others do – write potted biographies, create timelines etc but I always end up deviating. It’s too restrictive. DP: Yeah, I get that I really do. Right now I’m writing a new horror film script and I’m using a different method I’ve never tried before – the method is deliberately restrictive…I’ll be honest, I’m not necessarily enjoying it and I’m positive I won’t do it this way again but if I get a sellable script by the time I’ve finished then I guess it has been some kind of success, right? It’s been a little while since I’ve written an out and out horror script so I am enjoying that aspect…do you have a favourite theme or genre? SE: Currently I’m rooted in folk horror. My childhood in the countryside, the atmosphere of that remote, rural world has come back to me in a big way. Nostalgia is feeding my stories and these are the ones I have enjoyed writing the most. One, The Way of the Mother, features in Nosetouch Press’ The Fiends in the Furrows anthology which has made it onto the HWA’s Preliminary Ballot [DP – WELL DONE!]. That short story is set in the world I created in Five Turns. I have also started reading up on old superstitions, folklore and traditions. If you don’t expand your own knowledge, if you don’t read widely, your own writing will become narrow and stale. With regard to Asylum of Shadows, I also realised how much I like to set my stories in physical darkness, in the gloom, in the shadows (in folk horror, it tends to the twilight). I love that almost invisible world in which so much can happen or be imagined, where the mind can play tricks on character and reader alike. I’m not one for in-you-face horror. I like it to creep along quietly, slowly reaching for you… DP: Ah, that’s so true – it reminded me a lot of Caravaggio’s work actually particularly his use of ‘shadow’ and darkness…perhaps that would be a great idea for an anthology or something…stories based on Caravaggio’s art. I’ll have to get that some serious thought…so, okay, I’m looking for a project to produce. Pitch me Asylum Of Shadows. SE: In St. Carcifex lie the dead. Marian watches over them, working her needle. Should they breathe again, it won’t be for long. She finishes what the hangman started. DP: I love that last line – that would definitely go on the poster of the film! So if you were a reporter / reviewer / critic and you were writing a synopsis… SE: Amongst the slums of Limehouse stands a new hospital, a monument to Victorian philanthropy. Marian, destitute and about to be orphaned as her father succumbs to the ravages of syphilis, is taken there by Dr Janssen. This eminent physician offers her work and a roof over her head. Employed as a seamstress, she stitches shrouds for the dead and hoods for the hangman. Then she is taken to the ward of St. Carcifex. This shadowy ward receives the recently deceased, particularly those who have hung from the gallows. Her task in this gloomy place is to watch over them, make sure the dead stay dead. On her first night, she is charged with the care of two murderers, who, despite their hanging, do not appear to have the expected deathly pallor. On the second night, these guests are joined by innocent, hard-working men, victims of an unfortunate dock accident. Marian is enraged that such should be forced to share the ward. As her own mind falls victim to the ravages of the disease which killed her father, she metes out her own justice, her own vengeance – on dead and alive alike. DP: That’s perfect – let’s make the film already ha ha!!! Finally my friend can you tell your readers something surprising about you? SE: Those who know me, know of my love for heavy metal, especially the darker side, from Rammstein to Nine Inch Nails to Rotting Christ. What they won’t know is that I was once a member of The Osmonds Fan Club. This did not last long… DP: The Osmands? Oh Stephanie that is hilarious. Thanks for your time and good luck with Asylum Of Shadows. For more information on Stephanie and her work: Website: https://stephanieellis.org/ Twitter Address: @el_Stevie Dean M. Drinkel originally met actor / musician / writer Tim Dry through their mutual friend Barbie Wilde. Tim subsequently sent Dean a couple of stories and well, the friendship and working relationship grew from there with Tim’s work appearing in many of Dean’s anthologies over the coming years. It was obvious that Tim would be very much at the forefront of Dean’s plans when it came to the Short Sharp Shocks! Series and as such, Tim’s brilliant The Stranger & The Ribbon is Book 2 and is published on the 1st March 2019. They sat down recently to chat. DEMAIN PUBLISHING: Hello Tim. Welcome to the Demain family. Can you tell your readers a little about The Stranger & The Ribbon and how you came to write it? TIM DRY: Hi! And yes - this was the first time that I’d been asked to contribute a story to a collection without being given a theme so I had to think of one all by myself! I didn’t sit down with an idea and a through line at all and for a while I was treading water mentally. Then out of the blue came a memory of an argument that I’d had many years ago with my ex-wife in a pub out in the country. No idea why that arrived in my head but I just took it from there and I knew that I had to write those bitter first lines of dialogue at the head of what I hoped would lead me somewhere. From the moment totally drunk Brian gets into his car and drives off in a fury I knew that something bad was inevitably going to happen to him. Love Is A Stranger by Eurythmics came up as an ear-worm and I remembered what a strange and haunting piece of Electro Pop that was lyrically and musically back in the 1980s and introducing that started off a completely unexpected turn of events. That’s what I love about writing fiction, it’s as if you’re adrift in a boat on an open sea with no idea where the wind will blow you. It’s a kind of magical process as connections are made that you hadn’t even thought about. It’s almost like you become an observer of the result of your imagination channelling itself down through your fingers. DP: I appreciate with your background that music / musicians always feature heavily in your work and I love how certain songs really inspire you – me too – I’m writing something right now whilst listening to a lot of Peter Gabriel and Duran Duran with a bit of Bowie thrown into the mix…sometimes I dream I’m a frustrated musician but sadly the best I can do in real life is strum a few chords on my uke…oh and of course I used to belt out Bieber’s Baby on karaoke…I haven’t done that in a year or so so I tell people I’m in semi-musical-retirement ha ha. With your story, what were the challenges you faced when writing it? TD: For a large amount of the stories that I write I don’t normally have an end result in mind and this was no exception. I literally made it up as I went along! The challenge is finding a satisfactory way of rounding off the story if you haven’t got an ending before you start writing. DP: Good for you – I’m not really one for over-plotting etc and feel that a story needs to find its own heart / pace / breath…I’m with you all the way on that one. With your earlier answer about the argument with your ex-wife in mind, while you were writing The Stranger & The Ribbon do you use anything else from your real life? TD: From my own life? Hopefully not! Only a severely dramatised version of the pub argument that I mentioned. Also, one of the stoned art students is definitely based on myself back in the early 70s! DP: I think it would have been fun to know you back then ha ha. Let’s think about your writing, do you have a specific style? TD: I don’t believe I have a specific writing style as such. Although having said that I do have fun introducing elements of bizarre, possibly twisted, humour into a story. I also enjoy juggling with words and images. I’m a very observational person and because I have worked as a visual artist for most of my adult life elements of that definitely make their presence felt in my writing as well. I do tend to write in a kind of cinematic way because of that. DP: Which other writers (or books) influenced you? If you had a pick of any ‘famous’ writer to mentor you, who would it be? TD: That’s a tricky one! I don’t class myself as a writer in one specific genre and so my influences come from all over the place. I can’t name any one author as a mentor but off the top of my head I can certainly cite Stephen King, Michael Moorcock, Colin Wilson, Rupert Thomson, Jorge Luis Borges, William Burroughs, Kurt Vonnegut, Clive Barker, Stephen Volk, Christopher Fowler, Phillip Jose Farmer, Charles Higson as writers whose work I find inspirational in many differing ways. DP: Oh there’s some cracking writers there and I’m really with you on William Burroughs – I’m a great admirer of his work for sure and I’ve been lucky to work with Chris Fowler in the past…but let’s talk about the future – what have you got planned for 2019. TD: I’ve been asked to write stories for two more anthologies this year and I’m slowly laying down guidelines for those. I’m also about a third of the way into my second novella. This will be called Reconciliation and it’s the dream diary of an eccentric bon viveur who lived life to the max and died as a result! Yes, writer’s block is always the Black Dog threatening to start barking whenever a new writing project is called for. I find that the only ways to deal with it are either to just start writing whatever comes to mind, be it sublime or ludicrous or, if that’s not an option, then just forget about it and do something else to distract oneself. Of course the danger is that the distractions can sometimes supersede the desire to actually sit down and write! DP: Ha ha – I’m certainly aware of that pain – distractions – it is amazing the things you end up looking at following serious research isn’t it? And time flies that before you know it, the hours have passed…from what we’ve talked about before then – you write an outline before you start or just go for it? TD: It depends…sometimes one and sometimes the other! DP: Fair enough – (in your work) what’s your favourite theme / genre? TD: Because I’m English and I was born in 1952 I do find that elements from my life and times will quite often find their way into a story, whether it’ll be a nostalgic memory of childhood or music from my teens or old English myths and legends. There’s such a wealth of information to draw on when you reach my age that the well can never really run dry. However, I did write one story for an anthology called The Bestiarum Vocabulum that was set in Africa and Los Angeles. That was fun to do! DP: That was a great story – loved it very much. Okay, so, I’m looking for a project to produce – can you pitch me The Stranger & The Ribbon if it was going to be a movie. TD: A perverse alien father dispatches his twin daughters to come to Earth and collect two human heads that will complete the display in his zoological gallery. The race is on! DP: Oh I like that. And if you were writing a synopsis for a magazine / newspaper? TD: Abusive, out of control drunkenness, a dreadful accident, sexual desire, hallucinations, cigarettes, two daughters whose father is a shape-shifting alien, a house that constantly remodels itself, heads will roll and more. DP: I won’t say too much but I love the “heads will roll” part of that pitch – very apt. Okay, final one my friend – tell your readers something which might surprise them about you. TD: I’m old enough to know better but young enough not to care! DP: And long may that continue! Thank you for taking the time to chat – best of luck with The Stranger & The Ribbon. For more information about Tim, please visit: www.timdry.co.uk Twitter: timdry1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tim.dry Amazon Author Page: https://authorcentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/profile Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/timdry Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timdry1/ (Photo of Tim taken By Nicole Klein) Dean M. Drinkel and Barbie Wilde have been friends and collaborators for a number of years now having first met at a BFS Open Night in London. Of course Dean originally knew Barbie from her electric performance as the Female Cenobite in Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 – but over a glass or two of red wine, Barbie spoke at length about her love for writing and from that conversation Dean went onto publish one of her early stories in his first anthology (discussed further below). When it came to the setting up of Demain Publishing and the Short Sharp Shocks! Series in particular, Dean ensured that Barbie was involved from the off and as a ‘gift’ for the work they had done together, he actually launched the series with her excellent story Patient K.
DEMAIN PUBLISHING: Great to speak to you again Barbie. Let’s get straight down to it: Patient K is a cracking story – can you tell your readers what it is about? BARBIE WILDE: Hi and sure. Patient K was first published in Dark Discoveries Magazine and the theme for that particular issue was the idea that the supernatural world is just as real, if not more real, than the natural world. I’ve always been fascinated by eyes (they’re one of my favorite organs!) and the idea of a ocular prosthesis (AKA an artificial eye), especially a haunted one, just popped into my head one day. DP: Having read the story, we can tell you are definitely fascinated by eyes ha ha! What particularly challenged you when you wrote Patient K? BW: This story came rather easily to me. Normally, I do face challenges, but for some reason, this one just flowed. I supposed the initial inspiration was the warning that all mothers tell their children: “Don’t do that or you’ll poke your eye out!” My brother and I used to fence with ski poles in our basement when we were kids, so it was a miracle that I didn’t get my own eye poked out at some point during my misspent youth. Especially since my brother was four years older than me and considerably taller. (I was very good at fencing though. Used to beat him all the time. I even went on to take a sabre fencing course at University.) DP: Fencing? I didn’t know that about you. I’d love to fence…anyway, anyway – did you ever feel as if you were one of the characters in Patient K when you were writing it? BW: I guess I do live the characters a bit, as any ex-actress might. And a reviewer actually asked me if I had been abused as a child after reading one of my stories, Uranophobia (featured in the Phobophobia anthology) because I’d written so feelingly about it. But no, I just have an exceedingly vivid imagination. And I pride myself on thoroughly doing my research. DP: Your imagination certainly is vivid my friend, I can attest to that. Do you think you have a specific writing style? BW: I like to keep things simple, scary, sexy, gory and occasionally funny. The most important thing is to find the unique voices for the characters and for the overall tone to the story. I know of some folks who can’t disguise their own voice in their stories and I think that can be a real handicap for a writer. DP: Yes, when I first started out as a writer I had a friend who “wrote as he spoke” so I told him to his face – he didn’t take too kindly to it and perhaps I hadn’t articulated properly what I was trying to say but I totally agree with you. Personally I think it’s like certain actors that give the same performance every-time…perhaps that’s a discussion for another time. Okay, I probably know the answer to this already (because it’ll be the same person for me too I’m sure) but do you have authors (or books) who influenced you? BW: I couldn’t possibly choose just one! However, as far as horror is concerned, there is an author that stands above the rest and that’s Clive Barker [DP: me too!]. He’s the Hemingway of horror: he writes concise, rich, muscular prose with the added bonuses of humour and erotica. I also adore Rod Serling. The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery TV shows were powerful influences in my childhood. My third favorite author is crime writer Patricia Highsmith. She has many of the same qualities as Clive: so beautifully descriptive in just a few paragraphs and so deliciously perverse in her ideas. (The ‘criss-cross’ concept in Strangers on a Train. The character of Ripley in all the Ripley novels. Wow…) Other favorite writers are Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Margaret Atwood and Shirley Jackson. The first horror novel that I read was Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was a huge influence on me. Other favorites are The Hellbound Heart, Weaveworld, Rosemary’s Baby, Psycho, The Haunting of Hill House and [Stephen] King’s The Shining and The Stand. And special mention must be made of Stephen Volk’s marvellous novella, Whitstable, which features Peter Cushing as a character. DP: I totally agree particularly about Clive Barker…I also need to read more of Mr Volk’s work actually so thanks for the reminder. What next then For Barbie Wilde? BW: I’ve just finished working with Hellraiser’s Doug ‘Pinhead’ Bradley on the audio book of my diary-of-a-serial-killer novel, The Venus Complex. Doug has done a magnificent job. It’s such a pleasure to hear his sinister and dulcet tones reciting my twisted and sick prose! I’m still working on a feature length screenplay based on my short story, Zulu Zombies, which first appeared in The Bestiarum Vocabulum anthology. And I’m in pre-production for the horror feature film, Blue Eyes, which is based on another short story of mine, which first appeared in the Green and Pleasant Land anthology. Ex-Fangoria Editor-in-Chief Chris Alexander (Blood for Irina, Queen of Blood, etc.) is co-writing and directing. DP: Oh that’s brilliant. I loved The Venus Complex as a book so can just imagine where Doug takes it and well done working with Chris – he’s certainly a talent. Like me you always have a lot of projects on – do you suffer at all from writer’s block or do you simply not have time for it? BW: Yes I do…however, I just follow the advice of famed story consultant, Robert McKee, who said that if you suffer from writer’s block, you should just go back and research, research, research. Something you read might just trigger a helpful creative thought to stir you out of the inky abyss. DP: That’s good advice. So when you write do you plan / outline or just go for it hell for leather so to speak? BW: I just go for it. Although I normally have a pretty good idea of where I’m going before I sit down to write. (My ideas often come to me just as I’m falling asleep, which is very inconvenient.) I’m very character driven, so I like to create the main character first. Then I let them scamper off and I follow in their wake, writing down their adventures. DP: Personally I don’t really outline a short story / novella and just go for it myself and then when I finish the first draft I try to work out what the story is…I do end up doing a lot of drafts that way but I like discovering the story as I go along…I’ve been working on a lot of tv scripts recently and I’ve found that for them I quite like planning each act etc and sticking quite rigidly too it – I also handwrite the first drafts of the scripts where with the stories it’s straight onto the laptop…what do you think is your favourite them to write about and genre to write in? BW: My favorite theme, although I love crime and horror, is the exploration of the human psyche and human psychological motivations. And since sex is part and parcel of being human, many of my stories explore the sexual mindscapes of my characters. These elements alone can inspire stories of horror and crime. I am attracted to the dark side. I think that I am a pretty relentlessly cheerful person myself and one is always attracted to opposites. DP: Oh, I like that answer. So, okay, I’m a film producer – pitch me Patient K. BW: A beautiful one-eye woman goes to a ocularist ¾ who just happens to be a murdering pervert ¾ to have a new prosthetic glass eye fitted and gets more than she bargains for. But then again, so does he. DP: I hate doing pitches etc but totally got that one…so let’s try: if you were writing a synopsis for a newspaper / magazine article – how would it go? BW: After a childhood accident in which she loses her left eye, Klara Alexander visits her new ocularist, Dr Markham, to have a replacement ocular prosthesis fitted. Unfortunately, the good doctor is a sexual pervert and he takes advantage of her while she is under sedation. Too shocked to report the attack, Klara goes home and tries to recover. Then she notices a scary phenomena occurring in her new prostheses: a tiny glittering golden entity appears in what previously was the dark void of her left eye socket. The frantic little figure is waving to her…sending her signs and messages …advising her how to take her revenge. And boy, does she. DP: I should employ you to write all my pitches / outlines ha ha. Finally then can you tell your readers something surprising about you? BW: I once took a course in how to play the bagpipes at University. It seemed like a good idea at the time. (I have to confess I had a bit of a crush on the teacher. What can I say? I had a thing for men in kilts.) I’ve also gone sky diving twice in the hopes that it would cure me of my fear of heights and fear of flying. It didn’t. DP: Sky diving? Rather you than me my friend! Well, thanks for your time Barbie – all the best with everything you do and I raise a glass of red wine to Patient K! Cheers!!!! For more information about Barbie: Website Address: barbiewilde.com The Venus Complex is available on Amazon and on Audible.com: https://tinyurl.com/TheVenusComplexAudioBook Twitter and Instagram Address: @barbiewilde Any other social media links: Facebook: barbie.wilde Facebook Pages: BarbieWildeAuthorActress, VoicesOfTheDamned, BlueEyesHorrorMovie, TheVenusComplex (Note: original photo of Barbie Wilde by Robin Chaphekar, Barbie Wilde-Cenobite artwork by Andrew Tong) Martin's Beasties will be published on 1st March 2019 but is available for pre-sales at:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NLCJGV7/ Ritchie's Monster Beach will be published on 1st March 2019 - but is now available for pre-sales here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NNV2LZH/ Stephanie's book will be published on March 1st 2019 - and is available now for presales at:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NLD1K57/ Tim's book is now available to order (publication date - 1st March 2019).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stranger-Ribbon-Short-Sharp-Shocks-ebook/dp/B07NLMDND9/ Barbie's Patient K is now available for pre-sales (to be published March 1st 2019)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Patient-Short-Sharp-Shocks-Book-ebook/dp/B07NLC17QN/ Dean's book Dirty Paws is now out - and here's the link!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DIRTY-PAWS-SHORT-SHARP-SHOCKS-ebook/dp/B07DKS85HM/ |
CategoriesArchives
November 2023
AuthorDean M. Drinkel |