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…
Tracie's blog: http://traciemcbridewriter.wordpress.com/
2 comments :
Well, would you look at that! Friday the thirteenth! Thanks again for hosting me, Ian. I hope that date is a good...ahem...omen.
No problem Tracie. Have a successful summer.
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