Prior to publication of The Darkest Battlefield, Dean sat down with Richard Farren Barber to talk about his amazing story, All Hell..
DD: Richard, though you make reference to it at the authors note at the end of your story, did you do a lot of research for All Hell – if so, was it just a case of going on ‘google’ or did you have to visit libraries, read primary sources, watch films etc etc?
RFB: I have a love/hate relationship with research. In particular it’s the challenge that when you’re researching you learn so much and because it does feel like hard work (to me at least) I have a sense of wanting people to know I’ve done my homework, and that all of this information hasn’t gone to waste – but then stuffing a story full of facts just to show off doesn’t seem a great idea. That, and the fact for everything I get right, I probably make ten mistakes without realising. For All Hell I did a lot of research. A few years ago I wrote a short story centred around the Sherwood Foresters at the Battle of the Somme so I had a rough understanding of the lay of the land, but I was really keen with All Hell to tackle something different. I wanted to tell the story of what it was like back in England during the war. We’d just come out of the Victorian Age, much of the population was living in slums, and suddenly the country is in the middle of this conflict. I remained friends with Google, but I also ended up contacting local historians at the Nottingham Post and at the local studies library. I wanted a sense of what life was really like. How did people live? What did they cook? What did their houses look like? I found a map from 1910 and actually walked the area where All Hell was set, but it was redeveloped in the 1960s and so most of the streets are no longer there. There are a few elements that remained; it was a very strange experience – as if Nottingham 1910 was a ghost, haunting the modern day streetscape. On my tour, one of the old factory buildings from the time was being demolished, which had a certain poignancy to it, as it felt one of the last links with the past was being lost.

DD: What were your challenges when writing the story?
RFB: Research! Wanting verisimilitude without it turning into a history lesson. In particular, I found that although you can’t move in a library without tripping over a book that tells you what every soldier was doing in Gommecourt on the first of July 1916 for each minute of that day, it was incredibly difficult to find anything about what life was like back home for everyone left behind. I did end up looking at cuttings of newspapers from the time and I found a number of oral history transcriptions, but I never felt I had a full picture of life at the time. As much as I found it difficult to get under the skin of the time, it’s an era I expect I’ll return to in my writing. I’d really like to learn more about Nottingham at the end of the Victorian period and into the early twentieth century – to get beyond the stereotypical "times wos ‘ard  but evvryone pulled togevver" image of an urchin with a cheeky grin and a smudge of dirt on his forehead, to the reality of what was certainly a very grim period to be poor.

DD: Do you have a specific writing style? Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
RFB: I’m not sure I have a style; I doubt you’d be able to pick out my prose in an identity parade. I aim to write in an accessible fashion – there’s nothing I find more off-putting than having to read with a dictionary at my side. In my own writing, I find it’s difficult to remain objective. When I’ve worked on the fourth or fifth draft it’s impossible to decide whether it’s good or terrible. I usually go with the latter. And, because I’m colour-blind and so I sense colours have less impact on me than other people, I have to make a specific effort to remember to include colour in my descriptions.

DD: Which authors / what books influenced you do you think? If you had to choose, which writer could you consider a mentor? Who is your favourite author and what strikes you about their work?
RFB: The usual crew: Robert Westall, Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell. Of the three, Stephen King has been the most influential to me and my writing. I love the way you’re drawn into the story he weaves. He’s my go-to writer if I ever need to really immerse myself in a story. Bad day at work? Struggling to get your thoughts under control...pick up Sai King and in minutes you’re in Castle Rock or Mid-World. I also love the connections he draws between his stories which makes you feel that your part of a clique. The club of Constant Readers.

DD: What next – what are your current projects? Can you share any of it with us?
RFB: I’m currently working on a novel which is scheduled to be published mid 2019. I’m particularly excited about this because it will be my first novel-length publication.

DD: Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
RFB: Yes and no...I sometimes get blocked on a story, but thankfully I’ve never had a situation where I just couldn’t write. I have a daily routine and I think that helps because my mind is expecting to write at a certain time, and I keep to it even if what I put out is total dross. (Stop sniggering at the back there!) As a result, if I ever miss a writing session I feel agitated. I do struggle sometimes with what I’m writing – often the root cause is that something’s wrong with the plot. I’ve got that novella that’s “finished” but doesn’t work so I keep leaving it for a few months / years and then come back and see if I can fix what’s wrong with it. More usually if I struggle to progress a story I often stop where I am and skip a little bit ahead in the story and then come back afterwards to work out why I’d gone off the tracks.

DD: Do you write an outline before every story you write or do you just go for it?
RFB: I’ve taken a number of different approaches. Typically I have an idea of the story’s arc and I write without an outline but with an idea of the ending...although it often doesn’t end as I’d expected. Sometimes I might outline the coming 5 or 6 chapters just to give me a view of the road ahead. I’ve tried outlining an entire novel or novella – and a couple of times when I’ve submitted to publishers I’ve sent an outline as my proposal – but more often I veer so far from the outline that it feels like wasted effort. That said, I would love to crack the whole planning thing as too often my third draft feels like rebuilding a skyscraper by switching out the foundation stones one at a time and hoping the whole thing doesn’t fall on my head.

DD: What is your favourite theme / genre to write about? Did you learn anything from writing this story – if so, what was it?
RFB: My favourite genre is horror. It’s not that I find myself particularly scared by horror stories, but I think it’s the genre that allows the writer to explore the great questions of life: what next? What’s after the veil? What’s the most important thing in life. In particular, I love ghost stories. I think there’s a special texture and depth to spectral tales. What are the strongest human emotions that might fuel someone to make the effort to come back from death? It’s usually love or hate – everything in between is just background noise.

DD: If you had to pitch your story to a film producer – how would it go?
RFB: A mother realizes she can protect her sons who are fighting in the First World War. But is she prepared to pay the price with her soul? (Cue swelling background music)

DD: And if you were writing a synopsis for a newspaper / magazine article...
RFB: After Mary Fothergill watches her sons march off to war she lives in dread of the squeal from the post boy’s cycle and the letter from the War Office. Together with a group of other mothers she realizes that there must be something they can do to help their sons. When a strange woman enters their life, and suggests they are not as powerless as they feel, Mary has to decide whether she can pay the price demanded to protect her sons.
 
DD: What is something your readers might be surprised to find out about you?
RFB: I failed my English o’ levels. Both of them – Language and Literature. Then again, maybe readers will see this and think, that explains a lot.

DD: Richard added some "Bonus Material" to his interview...
RFB: [The character of] Mary Fothergill is named in honour of Watson Fothergill – a Nottingham-based Victorian architect who was responsible for some fantastic landmarks in the city. He was part of the gothic revival movement of the late 1800s and many of his buildings still stand today. Go to Nottingham and take the tour. Just don’t mention the Black Boy Hotel! Other characters are named after the families of men who were killed at the Somme, that I came across in my research.

DD: Thank you for your time Richard - it was very much appreciated. If you would like to know more about Richard then please visit - Website: www.richardfarrenbarber.co.uk
Twitter: @rfarrenbarber
FB: richardfarrenbarber

 
DD: Hello Paul, your story: Where The Wounded Trees Wait, which opens the anthology, seems to be a very personal story and is dedicated to a family member. Can you tell us a little about the subject and how you came to write about it?
PE: The story is dedicated to my great-grandfather on my father’s side, William “Billy” Edwards. Billy actually fought in World War II, and was one of the Desert Rats who helped defeat the Germans in North Africa. In his dying days, he expressed a great deal of regret over something that he had done as a soldier; he was hugely remorseful and frightened of death as a result. My father later came into possession of a wallet that had belonged to Billy, containing a picture of a swastika and photographs of Berlin – a spoil of war, perhaps. For my story, I wanted to explore the impact and horror of being put in the position of having to kill or be killed, whilst paying homage to my great-grandfather’s memory. I also wanted to write a weird tragedy around how the events of the past can inform the present, and vice versa.   

DD Did you have to do a lot of research – if so, was it just a case of going on ‘google’ or did you have to visit libraries, read primary sources, watch films etc etc?
PE: I visited the battlefields in and around the Somme in October of last year, exploring Mametz, Danzig Alley Cemetery, Thiepval Memorial – all the places that I basically mention in my tale. It was a humbling, fascinating experience, although the smaller, more personal stuff captivated me most – diary entries and first-hand accounts of frontline soldiers in particular. I found these accounts extremely moving, and they inspired me to take a diary-entry approach with my own story. I was also influenced by the macabre and disturbing art of Otto Dix, which I came across in the museum in Peronne. Finally, Owen Sheers’ poem Mametz Wood provided the setting and a much-needed spark of inspiration to get my story going.   

DD: What were your challenges when writing the story?
PE: One of the biggest challenges I found was trying to capture the voice of the soldier. Visiting various war museums in France and reading those diaries and first-hand accounts certainly helped. Also, it took me a while to get the ending right; originally (and without giving too much away) I had a much more optimistic ending in mind, but it just didn’t work out. I’m much happier with the ending that I settled on, even if it did take me a while to figure out!

DD: While you were writing it, did you ever feel as if you were one of the characters? Are there parts of it which are based on events in your own life?
PE: I think there’s always a little bit of me in my characters, as well as other people that I know and am close to; things people say or do in real-life have a habit of popping up again in my writing. When someone says something to me that sparks off an idea, I tend to zone out, turning glassy-eyed and vacant, much to the exasperation of whoever’s talking to me!vI don’t think there are any parts of the story based on events in my own life, but there are strong echoes of me in how certain characters think and feel, I guess.

DD: Do you have a specific writing style? Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
PE: My fiction usually revolves around relationships; stories set within the weird, insular world that a damaged couple might forge for themselves. I’m not entirely sure why, but I seem to gravitate towards writing about broken relationships in a horror context. I find editing the most challenging aspect – the first drafts tend to come fairly quickly (I write first drafts longhand), then I can slave away for months, sometimes even years, until I finally have something half-decent to show for it. I have a fulltime job and a family, so I don’t have as much time to write as I would like, but I keep going because I still get a massive kick out of being published.

DD: Which authors / what books influenced you do you think? If you had to choose, which writer could you consider a mentor? Who is your favourite author and what strikes you about their work?
PE: I do mainly read horror as I am a big fan. My favourite writers include Ramsey Campbell, David Almond (children’s author, so a slight deviation there!), Poppy Z. Brite, Jack Ketchum, Joel Lane, M. John Harrison, Gary A. Braunbeck, John B. Ford, Simon Clark and many, many others. I’m not sure I have a favourite writer, but I do hugely admire the work of the late Joel Lane. His stories are strange and downbeat, but utterly compelling and beautiful, too. His stories are definitely an inspiration to me.   

DD: So what next – what are your current projects? Can you share any of it with us?
PE: I’m currently working on a 50,000-word collection, tentatively entitled We Are the Void. It’s taking quite a while to get right, but I’m hoping to send it out to places in 2019. I’ve also started a novel, a cosmic horror story about a PCSO (Police Community Support Officer) investigating some weird goings-on on his beat… 

DD: Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
PE: I suppose I’m lucky in that I’ve never suffered from writer’s block. I’ve always got loads of ideas floating around inside my head; it’s just having the time to get them all down!
 
DD: Do you write an outline before every story you write or do you just go for it?
PE: I don’t tend to write outlines, although I am hesitant in jumping into writing a story unless I have a clear beginning, middle and end in mind. I have written a very brief outline for the novel, but I’ve deviated from that already and am now just going for it! I love being creative and find writing stories cathartic; I can’t imagine ever not-writing.

DD: Thanks for your time Paul - good luck with everything!
If you're interested in discovering more about Paul, please check out:

Website: https://www.pauledwardshorror.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paul.edwards.3979

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaulEdwards23

Terry Grimwood runs The Exaggerated Press and was responsible for 2016's  Darker Battlefields of which The Darkest Battlefield is an unofficial sequel. Dean and Terry sat down and talked about Terry's contribution: Maria.
TG: The Great War fascinates me; Edwardian soldiers fighting in an apocalyptic landscape using weapons of fire and iron. Those ancient, rivet-studded tanks, titanic, steam-powered warships pounding each other to burning scrap and Zeppelins reigning destruction from the sky. The stuff of steampunk, only real and infinitely more horrible. I have always felt that there are entities that feed off war. I don’t mean supernatural ones, but, rather, underlying the horror and carnage there is something that gains sustenance and strength from it. Steve Byrne’s excellent Vietnam War novel Phoenix explores this theme and was a source of inspiration for Maria. This entity, is the much-vaunted military-industrial complex, I suppose. War can make people wealthy, it can sweep others up to positions of great power. It can also feed a nation’s sense of superiority. It can puff the chest and stir up patriotism and nationalism. I think that the physically beautiful creature who calls herself Maria is, in some ways, representative of that. She is a manifestation of war’s death-eaters. Look at the way Britannia herself is presented in many a propaganda poster from the First World War; the ugly face of xenophobic jingoism, the call to fight in a conflict that will earn the weapon makers untold wealth, the blood-sacrifice required to settle the squabbles of the royal families of Europe, all dressed-up as a fearsome but wholesome and beautiful woman.

DD: For a historical story such as this – particularly as it is told (uniquely for this antho) from a German point of view did you have to do a lot of research – if so, was it just a case of going on ‘google’ or did you have to visit libraries, read primary sources, watch films etc etc?
TG: In March 1918, the Germans launched their last great offensive. It was almost a success, the Allies were driven back and lost virtually everything they had gained in the previous four years. That offensive was swift, brutal and effective and saw the introduction of Stormtroopers and sub-machine guns. It was also the Germans’ last, desperate act (repeated twenty-seven years later in the Ardennes). I find that moment terrible and compelling. It is the fulcrum on which the outcome of the entire war is balanced. I had to make that offensive the pivotal moment of my story. As far as research went, I have spent a lifetime watching war documentaries and war films and read countless books on the subject, both fiction and fact. My paternal Grandfather was a machine-gunner in the conflict and although he told only a handful of stories from that time, oh, how I drank them in. I recently read All Quiet on the Western Front, which is, of course told from the German side and is a tract on the sheer futility of that war. I was further influenced by the 2016 BBC documentary about the Somme, which was a history of the battle told, in equal measure, from both sides and described the suffering of the German soldiers in the lead-up to the assault. Max Hastings’ superb Catastrophe, was, for me, the most vivid and coherent explanation of the conflict’s origins I have ever read. The devastating 2018 film version of Journey’s End is set during the March offensive and helped me to visualise the trenches and the horror. Then, of course, there is dear old Auntie Google.

DD: What were your challenges when writing the story?
TG: Keeping a sense of time and place. Putting little clues in to anchor it in Germany in the first decades of the twentieth century, the cigarettes they smoke, the newspapers read. Also, giving the main character enough motivation to commit the awful deeds he deems necessary without overdoing it, was tricky. Writing the battle scenes were another challenge. I don’t write about square-jawed heroes, or so-called “elite” forces. I find those characters and their stories dull and uninteresting. I wanted to show fear and madness, I wanted to show filth and horror, but without superlative, again walking the tightrope between purple-prose and bleakness. Returning to novels that have provided inspiration over the years, Sebastian Faulke’s spare, brutal and heart-wrenching account of the first day of The Somme in his magnificent novel, Birdsong is one of the best fictional descriptions of battle I have ever read.
 
DD: While you were writing, did you ever feel as if you were one of the characters? Are there parts of it which are based on events in your own life?
TG: I always feel I am the main character. Or rather, the main character is a piece of myself (which is why there are no square-jawed heroes!). Ernst’s dilemma, the choices he is forced to make resonate with me. Fortunately, I haven’t had to make any life-or-death decisions, but like everyone, I have been come upon forks in the road that lead to heartache or pain for myself or others, whichever path I choose. Like Ernst, I know loss, and specifically, the loss of a spouse. Guilt is in there, of course, particularly given my sadly lost, but previously earnest, religious faith.
I am acutely aware that there are consequences to our actions and have been brought-up to face them. No one else is to blame! It probably feeds-in to the fact that many of my stories revolve around one Faustian pact or another, and the price that ultimately has to be paid. Read Des Lewis’s Real-Time Review of my collection The Exaggerated Man (even better read the book!) for the most forensic examination of the relationship between writer and story I have ever encountered. It was terrifying.
 
DD: Do you have a specific writing style? Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?
TG: I think that the first time I became conscious of style, or a desire to cultivate one, was when I read John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, for me, the greatest work of English language fiction ever written. Steinbeck achieved a poetic, deeply personal rhythm to his work which I sought to emulate, but of course, never could. Then I read The Stand by Stephen King and became a half-baked King impersonator. There is a similarity between King and Steinbeck. American through-and-through, intimate, vivid and capable of generating an intense emotional connection with the reader. The breakthrough came with my first published horror story, John, which appeared in the now-legendary Peeping Tom magazine back in the 1990s (it’s also in The Exaggerated Man). The style is curt, spare, and economical and as charged as I could make it, but always concerned with the character’s emotion and perception of events. That’s what I try to achieve. Challenging? Uh, writing. Seriously though, trying to say something different.

DD: Which authors / what books influenced you do you think? If you had to choose, which writer could you consider a mentor? Who is your favourite author and what strikes you about their work?
TG: The aforementioned Steinbeck and King are my mentors, there is no doubt about that. Books that influenced me, other than those also mentioned earlier…The Shining, for its relentless tension and vivid description of a man’s decent into madness. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier for its atmosphere and ability to hold its central mystery until its last Act.  Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb for its near-Biblical surrealism. Bob Shaw and Robert Silverberg for their brief yet always-entertaining science fiction novels that inspired me to write when I was a youngster, along with the psychedelic sword-and-sorcery of Michael Moorcock. The list is endless. So difficult to pin it down. Oh, and the first iteration of Star Trek, absolutely my first inspiration to write and a masterclass is economical yet highly imaginative story-telling.

DD: What are your current projects? Can you share any of it with us?
TG: As of this moment, I have a number of stories forthcoming, Laurel in the Black Room Manuscripts Vol 4 and Men of Renown, in Evil Faces, Dark Places Vol 2. My urban fantasy novella, Enuma Ellis is due out as a third of a three-novella volume titled Unholy Trinity (Hellbound Books). Eibonvale will be publishing a mini-collection of mine next year as part of their chapbook range. It’s called Affairs of a Cardio-Vascular Nature and features a handful of my more left-of-field stories. I have a science fiction novella at the publishers, fingers-crossed, and a science fiction novel I can’t place (definitely the publishers’ faults, it couldn’t possibly be mine!). And a non-genre novella called Joe is soon to be published by a certain Demain Publishing [that it is, that it is- Dean]. I write all the time, a short and a novella at the moment. As well as fiction, I have re-kindled my Exaggerated Review site.
 
DD: With so much happening, do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
TG: So far, not to the extent that I can’t get words onto a page, but knowledge that I am repeating myself can sometimes bring me to a shuddering halt. One of the reasons I have moved to science fiction of late is that I need a break from horror in order to explore fresh concepts and ideas. I also love writing non-genre fiction, which is a challenge because it removes the safety of a supernatural support on which to rest the narrative. Suddenly it is the human condition and not a monster that has to be overcome or made peace with. I do love a theme, however, because it helps focus my mind. A game played at a writers’ retreat many years ago was to pick up random passages and pictures cut from a pile of magazines and construct a story from them. I have begun doing that and the results are fascinating. Finally, discipline helps. I write almost every day, whether I feel like it or not.

DD: Do you write an outline before every story you write or do you just go for it?
TG: Not usually.  I guess my incomprehensible first draft is my outline and plan. More often than not I have an idea and start writing. Usually it works, but sometimes it doesn’t and I either stop and try to construct a plan or I give up. If I make it to the end of a first draft, no, matter how awful it seems at the time, then that story will eventually be completed and turned into something decent - I hope. Some publishers’ open submission requirements might include a synopsis or plan and I have to admit, putting one together does make the actual writing of the story a little easier.

DD: What is your favourite theme / genre to write about? Did you learn anything from writing this story – if so, what was it?
TG: My default, and most-loved writing genre is horror. Then science fiction. But I’m open to any genre and try to explore as many different ones as I can. I’ve also written non-fiction, including a number of co-authored text books. It’s healthy for a writer to work outside their comfort zone. Though much maligned, and badly misrepresented by Hollywood, horror at its best enables you to explore raw human emotion. The monsters (I use the word carefully because a lot of modern horror doesn’t rely on the traditional monster) it presents are, to me, physical representations of our own fears and wishes; death, injury, everlasting life (good or bad), the dark, the stranger and the different. Horror could be viewed as a politically incorrect genre because many of its monsters are physically unpleasant and stories seem to equate ugliness and difference with evil. However, this can be forgiven because the things we fear are ugly and unpleasant to us. Horror isn’t saying that only the beautiful is good (Maria is beautiful but she is far from good). In its raw form, it is taking the fears and horrors of our minds and souls and saying this is what they look like to you, isn’t it, but they can be beaten. There is a stake you can drive through their hearts. Horror as therapy, I’ll be opening my consulting rooms in the New Year. Science fiction on the other hand, holds a mirror up to society, to the social and political. It gives you a means to say that if we follow that course, we could end up like this. I’m not so much interested in the grand space opera form. Again. Too many heroes. No, I’m talking Philip K Dick, Black Mirror, Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale, Orwell’s 1984, the first series of TV’s Humans and many more, unsung warnings of the consequences both of mankind’s folly and its genuine attempts to progress to a better place. My own novel, Bloody War, falls into the former category, what if everything you are told and are experiencing is a lie…Almost forgot…What I learned from writing this story is that I can dip into the past, into a world that is not my own but existed and should be represented as truthfully and authentically as possible.  I have been there before, my play The Bayonet is set just after the Great War and that much-rejected novel opens in London in 1916. But Maria has given me the confidence to take on the past more frequently.

DD: If you had to pitch your story to a film producer – how would it go (30 words or less).
TG War requires sacrifice, but for Major Ernst Dreyer that sacrifice goes beyond patriotic duty. The life of his son depends on the blood shed in the mud of the battlefield.

DD: If you were writing a synopsis for a newspaper / magazine article – how would it go (200 words or less).
TG: Major Ernst Dreyer is just one more faceless infantryman fighting on the battlefields of France during the horrors of the Great War. He is a good soldier and, at heart, a man of principle. But he has a secret, a friend who first visited him in childhood and saved him from his violent and abusive father and has protected him and those he loves ever since. His protector is a beautiful and enigmatic woman who calls herself Maria. He loves her, and feels that she loves him. But her protection is conditional, paid for by the sacrifice of human life. Now, amidst the carnage of the Western Front, her hunger is growing and her demands are increasingly onerous. The life of Ernst’s ailing young son hangs in the balance and can only by be bought by the wilful shedding of blood. Sacrifices must be made, that go far beyond those expected of the patriotic soldier and Ernst must lay the lives of his own men on the altar of a father’s love.
 
DD: What is something your readers might be surprised to find out about you?
TG: I was born in Suffolk and when I was a kid, earned my spending money working on a pig farm. Pigs are okay, but I learned to hate farms and farm-work and that is why I never have, and never will, work on a farm again.

DD: Thanks Terry for your time, it was very much appreciated - and of course for kicking all this off two years ago with Darker Battlefields and allowing us to play in your sandpit again!!!!

Please find more about Terry at:Exaggerated Reviews: https://exaggeratedpress.weebly.com/reviews.html
Wordland Magazine: https://wordlandhome.weebly.com/index.html
theEXAGGERATEDpress: https://exaggeratedpress.weebly.com/index.html
FB: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/terry.grimwood.9

Anthony Watson's story for The Darkest Battlefield is entitled The Lost. Recently Dean M Drinkel sat down with Anthony and talked about his contribution and the project as a whole. 
AW: The Lost is set during the third battle of Ypres (better known as the battle of Passchendaele) and concerns the efforts of an army chaplain and MO to combat an ancient supernatural force. I’ve long been obsessed by the first world war and it’s featured in much of my writing already so it was a real pleasure to be let loose on a novella length story. I chose Passchendaele as the setting as it was pretty much a microcosm of all the horrors we associate with the conflict, in particular the awful conditions the men had to fight in – estimates vary over the number of casualties but a figure of around half a million seems likely, with many of those a result of drowning in the mud or flooded trenches. Another notable feature of the battle was the use of mustard gas and this plays a huge part in my story. It even provides the novella’s title which, as well as referring to the thousands who laid down their lives in the battle, arises from the fact that mustard gas was originally called LOST after the scientists who developed its mass production, Wilhelm Lommel and Wilhelm Steinkopf, using the first two letters of their surnames. Whilst I hope I’ve created some fully rounded characters, I will admit that the choice of a chaplain and a doctor as the protagonists is a thinly veiled allusion to science and religion as forces against the supernatural…

DD: For a historical story such as this did you have to do a lot of research – if so, was it just a case of going on ‘google’ or did you have to visit libraries, read primary sources, watch films etc etc?
AW: I did a ton of research. Which I loved. I seem to have drifted into writing more stories in historical settings and so research is becoming a huge part of what I do as I think it’s important to be accurate even in a work of fiction. I enjoy the process as I’m learning new stuff too – which is always a good thing – and quite often will find things which will enhance the work in progress or provide ideas for new ones. Much of what I researched for The Lost was pretty grim, especially the accounts of the effects of poison gas on human beings, but as well as all the military history I had to check I also had a great time researching the details of the supernatural elements of the story; the monster I created is entirely fictional but the history and context in which they were created are as historically accurate as I can make them.

DD: What were your challenges when writing the story?
AW: I guess the biggest challenge when writing a story set in real events is the risk of being exploitative, somehow being disrespectful to the memory of those who fought and lost their lives. Hopefully I’ve avoided that pitfall. The other challenge is the one I face with every story – exposition. I still fret over the whole process and find those scenes the hardest to write. There’s a lot of exposition in The Lost…

DD: While you were writing, did you ever feel as if you were one of the characters? Are there parts of it which are based on events in your own life?
AW: I always feel like I’m one of the characters in my stories. In truth, it’s the only way I can write to get the feel for the emotional responses to situations I place my characters into. I also find it really useful to get dialogue right. I’m always asking myself how would I say this? I like setting stories in interesting landscapes and situations so I can put myself into them (albeit vicariously) to make the writing process as much of an escape for me as reading is. Thankfully, none of The Lost is based on any personal experience.

DD: What's next for Anthony?
AW: I’ve currently three projects on the go: I’m self-publishing the re-print of my first novel, Witnesses. It was originally published in February by Crowded Quarantine Publications but shortly after they unfortunately folded. There’s a new cover courtesy of the incredibly talented Neil Williams and I’ve added a few extras inside. I’m working with my good friend Benedict J Jones on a series of stories featuring a Special Operations Group in the Second World War called Damocles. The group exists to combat the occult machinations of the Nazis and the plan is to combine the stories in one volume with linking sections and an overall story arc leading to a novella-length conclusion. We’re five stories and about 40000 words in already and I’m very excited about it. Finally, I’m working on my second novel, provisionally titled The Fallen. It’s another supernatural horror set in a variety of locations and time periods; a modern day arctic research vessel, a world war two arctic convoy and 16th century Russia.

DD: It's great to be so busy isn't it? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?
AW: Luckily, I never have. There have been times when the ideas haven’t flowed quite as fast as I may have liked but I’ve never been in the position where literally nothing has come into my head.
There have been times when I’ve written myself into a corner which could have brought things to a halt but I’ve always managed to find a way out. To be honest, I think that’s part of the joy of writing, part of the creative process. I think a block comes from putting too much pressure on yourself, trying too hard – that’s never good in whatever field you work in. Fortunately I don’t have to write to earn a living and so there really isn’t any pressure. I truly do write for the pleasure of it so applying pressure on myself just doesn’t feature.

DD: Do you write an outline before every story you write or do you just go for it?
AW I’ve never written an “official” outline before starting any story. I’ll have a rough idea of what’s going to happen – although not necessarily how it will end – before I begin but then it’s a case of just starting and seeing what happens. I’m coming round to believing that the story is there already, hiding in my subconscious, but the only way to find out what happens is to begin writing. The act of writing releases more glimpses of the story and I’ll begin scribbling them down as they occur to me in case I forget them. Often, the end result is very different to what I’d anticipated before beginning. Sometimes better ideas come along but sometimes the original ones don’t work with the internal logic that develops in the story as it’s written. With regards to The Lost, I knew there would be a final confrontation but the way it turned out was even better than I had first imagined because of a combination of factors which I’d set up already, independently of each other, as I was writing the story. The fact that all those things came together so spectacularly convinces me even more that the entire story was there all along, waiting to be uncovered.

DD: What is your favourite theme / genre to write about? Did you learn anything from writing this story – if so, what was it?
AW: Definitely horror, and – it has to be said – horror with a supernatural element to it. As a reader I can appreciate most of the forms horror can take but as a writer I find I’m drawn to stories with real monsters (if that’s not an oxymoron). I’ve also found myself drawn to historical settings, somehow I find it easier to couch the horrors in the past – selling monsters in contemporary settings is a lot more difficult. Apart from everything I learned through my research for The Lost, and an increased admiration for the men who fought in the first world war, I also realised that I prefer writing longer pieces. I still enjoy knocking out the occasional short story but it seems I’m more comfortable with novella length – or even novel length – pieces. (This may of course be due to a tendency to waffle).

DD: Thank you Anthony for your story but also for the additional hard work you put into getting The Darkest Battlefield to publication - it was very much appreciated.

If you want to seek out more about Anthony here are his links:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.watson.182

BLOG: https://anthony-watson.blogspot.com/

Happy to announce that THE DARKEST BATTLEFIELD has now been published in ebook form - paperback to follow Spring 2019 with additional material!