Make sure to check back regularly, this blog will be updated with exclusive author, poet, artist and/or staff blogs on a regular basis!

Exclusive interview with William Ollie about his new novel Lord of the Mountain

To read more about the new novel Lord of the Mountain by William Ollie click here.

Harry Shannon interview conducted by New York Times best selling author Jonathan Maberry!

MABERRY: PAIN puts a different spin on the zombie story.  Talk about that.

SHANNON:  Those of us who love this genre know it’s become so popular that it’s now almost (forgive me) done to death. As you have said, I love my breath-challenged cousins, but it’s tricky to find a new way to present them. In PAIN they are the creation of a WMD accident near a remote mountain ER, caused by a fictitious virus Psychogenic Anticholinergic Infectious Neuropathy, acronym PAIN. The disease combines virulent strains of disease with a flesh eating virus, so it causes people to go in and out of a catatonic state, and suddenly explode with rage and violence when not sleeping. So we never know if they are harmless or about to kill. The mind is destroyed, except for those persistent physical and emotional cravings and obsessions they had in life. Their bodies are rotting away simultaneously, which causes them to go insane with pain and attack others. We meet two mercenary soldiers, a retiring ER physician, his unfaithful younger wife, some bizarre patients including a circus clown, and a teenaged girl who is coming out as a lesbian to her weird foster parents. All these folks are trapped in one small building. Down the mountain beyond the quarantine, one female Army officer suspects what’s really going on, and dares breaking orders to try to rescue at least the young girl. Let’s just say that there’s one hell of a lot going on between 7:15 and midnight!

MABERRY: You have a bizarre sense of humor, ranging from broad comedy to subtle social satire.  How does humor help in your kind of storytelling?

SHANNON:  It helps in my life. Laughter is indeed the best medicine, even cutting humor that pushes our noses into the poop we don’t want to focus on. My mystery stuff always contains a lot of black humor along with the necessary suspense. And for me, the best horror stuff is not only amusing, but serves as political commentary as well, the Romero zombies as ignorant and racist 60′s war mongers, or later as conspicuous consumption or class warfare. Here in PAIN the creatures stand in for the suffering created by our unrepentant human egos and bottomless appetites. Buddha says, “The world is suffering, and the cause of suffering is desire!”

To read the rest of the interview click here.  Or, to read more about the new zombie novella PAIN by Harry Sannon click here.

Nocturnal Confessions

A darkregions.com guest blog by
Jeffrey Thomas

     NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS is my latest short story collection from Dark Regions Press, and as far as most horror-themed short story collections go – even my own – it’s a horse of a different color.
     Whereas my earlier Dark Regions Press collections VOICES FROM PUNKTOWN (set in my milieu of Punktown) and VOICES FROM HADES (set in my version of the netherworld, as is my DRP novel THE FALL OF HADES) have a unifying theme, NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS is more like my first DRP collection DOOMSDAYS, in that it’s quite a mixed bag. Like DOOMSDAYS, NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS contains both traditional-type horror and far-out experimentation, the subtle and the visceral, the psychological and the supernatural. But I think NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS takes that mixed bag appellation to a whole other level even than DOOMSDAYS did. NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS is a buffet for readers who seek and appreciate diversity…and have something of an adventurous palate. A list of the contents, and a brief discussion of each story, will best illustrate what I’m getting at:

(1) “Godhead Dying Downwards” is a novella regarding a 19th Century British priest investigating the mysterious destruction of his church – and encountering dangerous supernatural forces, including Britain’s legendary “Black Dogs.” Some have said this tale is their favorite of my written works! It reminds me of something my brother Scott Thomas (another prolific DRP author) would more commonly pen – a bit of a departure for me. I did a lot of research for this one, by necessity…and incidentally, all the characters’ last names come from characters created by one of my favorite authors, Thomas Hardy.

(2) “The Hosts” involves a mass infestation of the world’s children by parasites that overwhelm their personalities. The story is a look at how the parents of physically or mentally ill children can find courage and resilience in the midst of their suffering, but in our narcissistic modern times also develop self-absorption – a kind of Super Mom syndrome -- at the same time. What complex creatures we are!

(3) “The Pool of Tears” focuses on a one-sided correspondence between a Cryptozoologist and his unresponsive daughter, the rift between them, and the loss of childhood…as the father investigates the remains of mysterious, fanciful animals that have been turning up. Hint: the title comes from a chapter heading in a story by Lewis Carroll.

(4) “The Night Swimmers” follows two brothers in a New England town as they investigate a series of UFO sightings – and what these UFOs might really be. Though the brothers are not truly based on my brother Scott and I, our close relationship certainly informed that of the fictitious siblings…and the swamp that appears in the story is based on one that Scott and I used to visit to shoot guns and make weird home video movies, and fun stuff like that.

(5) “Demeter” is about a disgruntled screenwriter taking a not entirely secret stab at a big Hollywood movie-maker, by delivering the opening scene of a script that features a combination shark/vampire. It can be stated here that NOCTURNAKL EMISSIONS features some of the most openly humorous work I’ve ever written – though always in the darkest of veins, of course.

(6) “Thirteen Poems” is just that: a collection of poems, some that rhyme and some that don’t, some haunting and some comedic, some fairly recent and others dating back a few decades. My favorite of them would be “Bedrock.” This one should be read to the music from “The Twitch,” a song from an episode of “The Flintstones” – go look it up on YouTube.

(7) “Star est Control” takes place in some future or alternate reality, where advertising has run amok and encroaches on our personal space, and maybe on our sanity (does the oppressed protagonist have anything to do, himself, with the faces of murdered people he views at his work for the “Registry of Faces”?). This is a weird one, but one of my own favorites of my stories.

(8) “The Possessed” is a novella that blends science fiction and horror, resulting in a kind of New Weird feel. It follows three explorers who via a scientific process travel out of body in order to study far worlds, and who become inadvertently trapped in the bodies of three citizens of a strange and doomed community in another realm.

(9) The titular “Nocturnal Emissions” is a novella that’s actually composed of a number of stories-within-a-story. We are again in some alternate reality, where a ghost factory glows in the night…where a giant eyeball floats about cities like a blimp, causing mental illness in those who witness it...where you will meet Detective/Psychiatrist Jabronski; corporate superstar Bobby Vook; an enigmatic dancing showman called the Continuity Agent; and the musical duo Rake and Widget – Widget being a foul-tempered marionette. Pop star Walter Egan (“Magnet and Steel”) “plays himself” in this story, in a chapter called “Waltered States” – kindly having given me permission to use both his persona and lyrics from his song “Tunnel ‘O Love.” Why did I put Walter, of all people, in here to go head-to-head with the nasty little Widget? Well, eccentric guy that I am, I just dreamed up this wacky but disturbing singing duo, all the more wacky and disturbing for singing what has to be one of the raunchiest songs of all time (Walter’s original has Stevie Nicks moaning orgasmically in the background, and it was my love of Fleetwood Mac back in the seventies that made me discover Walter Egan). “Nocturnal Emissions,” the novella, is overall one of the oddest works I’ve ever written – and I had an absolute blast with it. I hope readers find it hilarious, unsettling, haunting, and befuddling all at once.

This is my sixth book with Dark Regions Press (I neglected to include my novel THOUGHT FORMS, earlier), and there are more on the way. The wonderful thing is that publisher Joe Morey is always open to anything I might throw at him (and never goes at my work with a meddling red pencil, either, by the way). In a world of countless and interchangeable zombie novels and anthologies, where vampires have sucked the life from their own species and the werewolves should be spayed, of cookie cutter plots and bad imitations of imitators of Stephen King -- a literary (and I use that word loosely) environment too often lacking in imagination and daring -- Joe Morey has provided me freedoms as a writer that one could usually only dream of. This writer will never forget the days when his stories went straight from his desk to his closet (though DRP has already published a few of those old closet treasures), the days when he felt elated simply to have a poem published in some photocopied small press zine. Therefore, this writer will never forget his indebtedness to Joe Morey and Dark Regions Press for creating these gorgeous books that between their covers shelter so many, many of my words that otherwise might have languished in darkness forever. So if NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS disturbs or unsettles you in any way, you have Joe Morey as much to blame as me. But of course, should NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS disturb or unsettle you in any way, I know I’ve done my job…until I start to work on the next book.

Two Kinds of Darkness

By Rick Hautala

While reading Harry Shannon’s collection, I realized something. Maybe it was something I knew all along, but I needed to be reminded, and it hit me hard and fast as I read these stories.

There are two distinct kinds of darkness we “horror writers” write about.

The first kind of darkness is the kind I (and a lot of other authors) explore. We have vivid imaginations to one degree or another, probably since childhood, that tend to focus on things on the dark, “spooky” side, and we “explore” this darkness with a sense of childlike wonder and shivery fun from the safety of our writing desks and reading chairs.

It’s easy, and it’s relatively safe … I say “relatively” because if paranoia or some other psychological aberration gets tossed into the mix, then all bets are off.

But there’s another kind of darkness—and it’s the one you’ll find here—which is the kind of darkness that can only be written about by someone who, for want of a better phrase, has been “in the shit” … someone who has lived in and struggled through and survived the darkness and all its attendant demons.

This second kind of darkness is much more dangerous because the person writing it hasn’t just “imagined” it or “played with the ideas,” like so many of us writing and reading in the “horror field.” This second kind of darkness comes from a life experience of walking on—and maybe even, at least for a while, living on—the dark side of life.

I won’t presume to guess what Harry Shannon’s demons are. He’s the psychological counselor, not me. I have no idea what he has seen and done and gone through in his life to gain the insights so obvious in these stories; but each and every story in this collection is a message, a report back from the front, if you will, to the rest of us who are safely cushioned in our cocoons of security and are willing to experience the second kind of darkness only from relative safety.

Every story you will encounter in this collection—and I use the word “encounter” rather than “read” because you will do more than simply “read” these stories; they will come at you like the flash of chain lightning or the speed of an oncoming freight train—will take you to places you don’t encounter often in life … and survive. From the darkest alleys of LA to the eerie emptiness of the Nevada desert, you will meet people who have—for one reason or another—experienced the darkness inside themselves or around them … people who are trying mightily to work through it and survive.

They don’t always win, but—hey, that’s life, isn’t it?

Jung talked about how we must “eat our shadow” before it eats us, and that’s exactly what these stories demonstrate. You will meet characters who are fighting to be good even as they are feeling weak and driven by the darkness that threatens to consume them. In trying to “own” or “work through” their dark side, they are in peril of having that dark side—the second kind of darkness … their own shadow—overwhelm and consume them once and for all.

And isn’t that what life really is, too?

Come on.

Admit it.

We all (or at least most of us—I do believe there are genuinely evil people in this world) struggle to live good lives and keep the shadows at bay. And from the fragile bubble of our homes and our religion and our thin veneer of “sanity,” we all know the shadows are waiting for us even as we pretend they’re not there.

It isn’t often you encounter a writer who doesn’t just “imagine” the dark things. I know Harry Shannon has seen them; he’s maybe even lived them; and he hopes he’s conquered them but knows they’re always lurking … waiting for him to succumb in a moment of weakness.

He’s come back with the scars … and the stories.

So don’t for one second think this is a “safe” book.

It isn’t.

You will get glimpses here into the darkest corners of humanity … glimpses that aren’t in any way comforting, much less “safe.”

And here’s the best part.

Harry Shannon’s stories do the two things I believe all writing must do to be successful. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The best fiction has to be both surprising and inevitable. If they’re too surprising, the reader has no idea what the hell is going on. If they’re too inevitable, then the reader is dissatisfied because they “saw it coming.”

Well, Harry Shannon’s stories certainly are both surprising and inevitable. They entertain and satisfy, and in some small way, they may even make you grow as a person because of what they show you about the second type of darkness in the world, inside people … and inside yourself.

This book is filled with wonderful, dark surprises. I would conclude with the salutation: “Enjoy,” but you will do more than “enjoy” this collection. You’ll see the darkest side of things that not many people have seen … and lived to tell the tale.

Thank God, Harry Shannon has done both.

—Rick Hautala

Westbrook, Maine

January 8, 2010

Click here to read more about A Host of Shadows by Harry Shannon

William Ollie and some words about his novel Sideshow

Hello,

William Ollie here, or Wm, if you’ve seen me around the msg boards. Or Bill, which is what my friends call me. And we’re all friends here, right? Just wanted to drop by and tell you how stoked I am to have my next novel featured on this newly revamped website, and how fortunate I feel to be working with the folks here at Dark Regions Press, who with 25 years of publishing under their collective belts, really are a class act. They’ve really presented a first rate stable of authors over the years, and I’m proud to call myself one of them. And the cover art on this site, well, what can you say, other than wow?


My novel, Sideshow, is about what happens when a carnival shows up one fine October morning on the outskirts of a little South Carolina town. Not the carnival that comes around like clockwork every fall, but a different kind of carnival this year, a very special kind of carnival this year. I sat here in northeast Florida writing Sideshow, wondering what might happen if a thirteen year old boy saw a Ferris wheel rise up out of an overgrown field like Jack’s Magical Beanstalk, the amazing and astounding sights he and his friend might witness, once drawn to this place, and lastly, what horrifying events might make them wish they had never laid eyes on this mysterious carnival.


Sideshow has drawn comparisons to the great Something Wicked This Way Comes by folks who’ve read it, and I guess that’s fair enough, as the story is set in a carnival during the cool, crisp autumn days of October. But the similarities pretty much end there, and I’m confident you’ll find the book standing strong and tall on solid legs of its own, once you’ve reached that final page.


Thrills and chills abound in Hannibal Cobb's Kansas City Carnival, a place of magic and mystery you won’t soon forget…


I know I’ll never forget it, and I hope it finds some staying power in your hearts and minds as well.

Guess that about wraps it up for now… see ya at the Sideshow!


Best,

Bill Ollie

An interview with Jeff Strand about his novel Dweller

1. Why did you decide to write Dweller? Have you always had a fascination with the Bigfoot Mythos?

I’ve always been a Bigfoot fan (and all of the other “Are they real or not?” creatures, particularly the Loch Ness Monster and aliens) but I didn’t have any specific desire to write a Bigfoot book. It was really more that I wanted to write a novel that explored a lifetime friendship between a man and a monster in the woods, and a Bigfoot-type creature worked perfectly for that.

Of course, the Florida equivalent of Bigfoot is the Skunk Ape, and the Skunk Ape Research Facility down here would make for a much scarier novel than anything in Dweller. It's basically a gift shop combined with a museum/zoo--a zoo that, I guess I should point out, contains snakes and lizards rather than Skunk Apes. There's a Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe to the place as you walk through. I'm not for one second suggesting that any tourists have been murdered to feed to a Skunk Ape that they keep hidden out back, but I also wouldn't scoff at the theory if somebody else proposed it.


2. Your characters are so compelling. How did you make them so believable?

Flaws! Lots and lots of flaws! Actually, characters tend to be a pretty organic part of the writing process for me, and I don't really work anything out that's not in the book itself. So I'm not one of those authors who write out elaborate character bios and backstories, and I only know what they had for breakfast if I'm writing a scene where they're having breakfast. I tend to just let the characters naturally develop throughout the story, and then I'll go back and make sure they're consistent as I rewrite.



3. There are two bullies in Dweller who get their just desserts. Were you bullied in school, and if so, did your bullies ever receive their just desserts?

Yeah, we had several bullies in school, although it was never a case of being terrified to walk to the bus stop or anything like that. We pretty much just accepted that there were some mean kids in the neighborhood who would push you to the ground or steal the teeter-totter every once in a while--they didn't cause any deep psychological scars. I haven't followed their progress through life, but I can only assume that all of them were eaten by sharks.



4. Real friendship is hard to come by. Why do you think Toby would befriend such a volatile creature, and vice-versa? Why do you think a missing link would befriend a human? Please explain this to our readers.

It's pretty straightforward at the beginning of the novel: Toby doesn't have any other friends, and when you're a little kid with an overactive imagination, the idea of having a big scary monster as your best friend is cool. Who wouldn't want to be friends with Bigfoot? And the creature, Owen, is both lonely and happy to hang out with somebody who brings him food.
Of course, things get more complicated than that, and one of the major ideas of Dweller is "What happens when you no longer need to have a monster as your best friend?"


5. Lastly, Jeff you seem to be writing novels concerned with monsters of late. Are you planning on writing more monster novels, or are you heading in a certain purposeful direction with your writing? Can you give us a inkling or a clue of your future projects and where you would like to see yourself heading? What's your compass?

There were no specific thoughts of "I've gotta start writing more monster novels!" and in fact I sort of liked the direction I'd been following with the Andrew Mayhem novels and Pressure. But then I felt like doing a zombie novel (The Sinister Mr. Corpse), a parasite novel (Benjamin's Parasite), and of course an every-monster-under-the-sun novel (The Haunted Forest Tour, co-written with James Moore). Next up is a werewolf novel, Wolf Hunt. These, along with Dweller, are all technically monster novels, yet they're all very different types of monster novels. But I don't have any long-term direction in mind in terms of subject matter. Next up is a "mad scientist's experiment" horror/comedy called Sewn, and after that...I'm not sure...