I recently sat down for a cross-planet interview with Michael David Wilson and Bob Pastorella of This Is Horror, discussing everything from the genesis and themes of They Don’t Come Home Anymore, my love of the novella as the best vehicle for horror fiction, having a professional mindset in the writing game, a structured vs. unstructured approach to constructing a story, the brilliance of artist Candice Tripp, the most impactful book I’ve read in the last 365 days, reading widely and getting out of one’s comfort zone, and the ongoing difficulty of separating the artist from the art, amongst other topics.

Here is the breakdown of topics included in the interview, for easy reference on what was covered:

Show Notes

• [03:10] Interview start/most important thing learnt in last year
• [06:20] They Don’t Come Home Anymore and its genesis
• [08:40] Pre-order bonus
• [12:30] The novella form
• [16:00] Planning
• [20:50] Candice Tripp’s cover art for They Don’t Come Home Anymore
• [30:20] Professional mindset
• [32:10] Most impactful book in last year
• [49:45] Separating the art from the artist
• [53:20] Authors stopped reading because too objectionable
• [56:15] Advice to eighteen year old self
• [01:00:45] Lessons learned pre-fiction to prepare for fiction writing
• [01:03:15] Self-evaluating work
• [01:05:45] What story that isn’t usually classified as horror T.E. Grau would put within the genre
• [01:11:50] Misconceptions about T.E. Grau