Interview with author, Alan Dale...

On the blog today is talented writer, Alan Dale...

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Well I am a long-time sports and news journalist who has worked for smaller newspapers and publications. I like the pace, but part of me wonders if I could do it at a bigger place. I am highly accolade in the profession and have been published over 10,000 times. I also won five national awards before I was 21. I live in Portland, Oregon and was born and raised in Chicago. Graduated from the University of Arizona a bit back. I am an avid sports fan following football, rugby union and league, cricket, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, American football, team handball, and futsal.

Could you tell us what work you currently have available?

The Dead Nations’ Army Series, beginning with “DNA: Code Flesh (Part I). It will be the first of six-eight novellas, all around 90-100 pages apiece. The thought is to have Code Flesh consist of the first two, Code Mind, the next two or three, and then the last, unnamed one, wrap it up with two or three. I also have a techno thriller out there called “The Enternet: Trapped Inside a WEB.”

Tell us about your latest release.

Dead Nations’ Army Series: DNA: Code Flesh (Part I). Well I decided that instead of hurrying to get DNA out I wanted to slowly introduce it to the mainstream. Then I consulted some other writers and asked them of the idea to produce a book serial of novellas to slowly get the brand out. I got a thumbs up so I went with it. It will be two books, four parts each. It basically is a political piece wrapped in zombie colors. According to some of my Facebook page fans, it is “highly politically charged,” and asks a lot of social/political questions we should be asking ourselves today. Is our educational system brainwashing us? Are we allowing the elite, wealthy, silver spoon kids wanting all of us “normal” people to die? Just look at insurance rates, medical, groceries, etc, etc. We have more elite kids in charge that come from silver than from dirt. DNA explores a more gruesome, yet realistic view at the lengths a totalitarian government would do to take over the world. The problem is that the zombies in DNA are not your garden variety, are the victims in essence, and offers, what will shock many, the perfect solution to solving the human race’s ills. Is it definitely an ending I believe we surprise many.

For someone unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your writing?

Some people, early on, said DNA is written like a cross between George Romero meets Chuck Palaniuk. I am very much focused on analogy and using my stories as educational pieces on the ills of our world. We need some major fixing soon or we are in trouble.

What else do you have in the pipeline?

I plan to finish out the DNA series in the next year. I have a few publishers eyeballing it and we may go in that direction. Then I hope to work on my Nigel Fang vampire series – no glittering undead here. That series could also surprise some folks. I also hope to continue working on my Serene Field (supernatural) series, 24=1M (post-apocalyptic, political), the Hellearth Chronicles (biblical, fantasy, action), and my Advancement of Man Trilogy.

What writers have had the most influence on your own writing?

Stephen King, Phillip K. Dick. Anne Rice, Edgar Rice Burroughs, are the main culprits.

What was the last thing you read?

King’s latest on the Kennedy assassination and Tana French’s “Faithful Place.”

Anything else you’d like to tell us about?

I just hope the readers take advantage of the low $ and feel free to review my work. Any and all critique is welcome. I hope they enjoy the ride, join the Army, and spread the word.

http://www.amazon.com/DNA-CODE-FLESH-Nations-ebook/dp/B007PL1C18/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

http://www.facebook.com/WeRZombies

http://www.amazon.com/The-Enternet-Trapped-Inside-ebook/dp/B007P801WM/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

An Interview with Author, Gary William Murning...

Mid-way through April, we spend time with author, Gary William Murning...

Could you tell us what work you currently have available?

I currently have three novels available—If I Never (Legend Press, 2009), Children of the Resolution (2011) and The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts (GWM Publications, 2012)

Tell us about your latest release.

The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts is very much about the driving need that we as individuals have to constantly strive for more. The driving force, I guess, behind cultural development, the building of civilisations and so on—but also, when given free rein, the possible architect of dissatisfaction and despair.

Hungry Ghosts are taken from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. They have huge cavernous stomachs and are constantly hungry. They also have, however, very small mouths (or thin necks, in some versions), so they can never consume enough, quickly enough, to satisfy their appetites.

Although I don’t use these specific ghosts in any literal sense, I liked that image.

And so I started playing with it, settling on a fairly suburban setting—a very ordinary family, a group of friends who, like said family, have problems of their own, and the discovery of an old diary buried in the back garden, a diary that belonged to a rather hedonistic occupant of the asylum that used to stand where the housing estate in the novel now stands.

It’s a pretty full on, disturbing novel. Lots going on, lots to think about, and it’s probably my most complete novel to date. To use the vernacular, they go on quite a “journey”.

For someone unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your writing?

Eclectic. I don't like writing the same novel over and over again. I tend to borrow genre motifs and play with them in ways that appeal to me—exploring the themes that such motifs can suggest and (I suppose this is true of all my work, the one common element) making character central. My overriding instinct as a writer is that as long as I can make my readers believe in my characters wholeheartedly they'll pretty much follow them anywhere.

What else do you have in the pipeline?

I've been playing around with a few ideas over the past couple of months. I have another couple of novels ready to go so there hasn't been any real pressure to rush. I think I have finally settled on one particular idea, however. A novel called Juniper Faraday—about a journalist researching/interviewing a woman who has murdered her husband for very unusual reasons.

What writers have had the most influence on your own writing?

Many writers have influenced me in many ways. In the early days, writers like Stephen King, Clive Barker, William Peter Blatty and Peter Straub made me want to be a writer. I learned from them, as well, of course, principally by, to begin with, trying to emulate them. I soon learned, however, that there were other literary directions I wanted to go in. I discovered writers like John Irving, Joseph Heller, Ken Kesey and a whole host of others and started trying other things. I loved horror (and still do) but quickly realised I couldn't write it in the genre exclusively. There were other stories I had/have to tell.

What was the last thing you read?

To the End of the Land by the Israeli writer David Grossman.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about?

To those who've already bought my work, thank you. To those who might buy my work in the future, thank you and I hope you enjoy it. To those who say they will never buy my work…

… are you absolutely sure?

http://www.gwmpublications.com/

An interview with author, Tracie McBride...

 With us today is dark fiction author, Tracie McBride...

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m a New Zealander by birth, but have lived in Melbourne, Australia since 2008.  I have a husband, three children, a dog, a cat and a white picket fence (just joking about the fence).  By day, I’m a mild-mannered teacher aide and by night I craft dark speculative fiction stories.  I also read and assess a lot of other people’s horror tales in my roles as a slush wrangler for Dark Moon Digest and as vice president for Dark Continents Publishing.

Could you tell us what work you currently have available?

The best place to find the definitive list of all my currently available work is my Amazon author page - http://www.amazon.com/Tracie-McBride/e/B005FD2VTA/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

I’m a short story writer, so I have a story in this magazine, a story in that anthology…you know how it goes.  If you’re looking for “all Tracie, all the time,” my first collection, Ghosts Can Bleed, is available in e-book and paperback from most online retailers.

Tell us about your latest release.

That would be April Fool and other Antipodean horror stories.  It’s a novella-length collection of short stories, part of the Tales of Darkness and Dismay e-book series released by Dark Continents Publishing in January this year.  I co-wrote it with fellow Kiwi writer John Irvine.  John and I share a country of origin and a certain dry sense of humour…and that’s about it.  Our differing writing styles and choices of subject matter make for some interesting contrasts in April Fool.  

For someone unfamiliar with your work, how would you describe your writing?

Recently someone described my writing style as ‘stark’.  I’ll take that as a compliment…?  My stories are usually (but not always) dark in tone and usually (but not always) speculative in nature.  I’m fascinated with the question “What if?”  I like to Omit Needless Words, and I like to leave plenty of room in my stories for the reader to layer his or her own interpretation.  Common themes for me are the family dynamic and family relationships – often with monsters thrown into the mix.  

What else do you have in the pipeline?

It’s a never-ending production line at my desk!  I have some more stories coming out in various publications this year, some more under submission, some more under construction, a stockpile of previously published pieces for my next collection…and a recently purchased piece of software for writers that is intended to help me wrestle my first novel into shape.

What writers have had the most influence on your own writing?

I couldn’t point to any writers and say, “I write like this person,” but if you’re asking me which writers I admire, whose work I enjoy the most, who inspires me, the list is long.  I’ll limit myself to a minute and see who first springs to mind – China Mieville, Robert Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Anne Rice, Margaret Atwood, Clive Barker, Stephen King, P K Dick, Dr Seuss (the genius of the latter is only now becoming fully apparent to me, now that I’m helping to teach kids to read in a professional capacity).

What was the last thing you read?

The last paperback I finished was a Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (I think it was number 15?).  The last e-book I finished was The Crooked God Machine by Autumn Christian (keep an eye out for this young woman, she is going to be a star).

Anything else you’d like to tell us about?

Why, yes I would!  Remember way back at the beginning, I mentioned Dark Continents Publishing?  We launched the company at the World Horror Convention in 2011, and now we have thirteen titles on our catalogue, with several more scheduled for publication this year.  Those titles include Monster’s Ink which is a paperback -only collection of short stories by indie superstar Scott Nicholson, Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth and Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery, both of which have been longlisted for the prestigious Edge Hill Prize, and The Collector which is the latest offering from up-and-coming horror writer Daniel I Russell.  You might want to check us out…

Dark Continents Publishing catalog:  http://darkcontinents.com/catalog/

Tracie's blog:  http://traciemcbridewriter.wordpress.com/