My last visit with the Purgatorium Anthology contributors! Amanda Tompkins is always a delight in person, and I find her endlessly interesting. She makes me laugh and she’s also über smart and tells fascinating stories. I’m really looking forward to her words in Purgatorium. I will not soon forget the motto she leaves us with here…one I think I may take as one of my own. “Expectations are just mind forged manacles”.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the release date of this sumptuous anthology of horror! November 19th, Purgatorium will be here!
IN FACT! If you come to BOOKAPALOOZA from 10am-3pm at Durham College Centre for Food/Bistro 67 in Whitby on November 19th, you can pick up a copy of PURGATORIUM…and there’s a good chance you’ll be able to get quite a few of the authors to sign it for you! Bookapalooza is a free event and it’s ALL ABOUT BOOKS! You won’t want to miss it! It’s also the place where the Purgatorium Anthology launches!
BOOKAPALOOZA
And now, Amanda’s responses to my Proustian Questionnaire…
Prugatorio Dialogues – X – Amanda Tompkins
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Curled up in my easy chair, with a good book in my hands, and my dog at my feet.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
Fantasy
3. What is your greatest fear?
Nothingness.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
I’ll read just about anything, but Fantasy is my favorite.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
I’d have to say Mary Shelley. She did amazing work and faced a lot of opposition.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
Taking the mundane, the familiar, and making it threatening.
7. What do you consider the most overrate virtue?
Patience. Who needs it?
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
Word count limits.
9. What else have you written?
A few short stories, and several works in progress.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
When I realized that nothing is forever, and you can lose the people you love most.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
I’d love to be able to read/speak every language.
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Something large and predatory. That probably says more about me than I’m strictly comfortable with.
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Being forced to watch a loved one suffer, and knowing there is nothing you can do.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
‘To kill a mockingbird’, by Harper Lee. ‘War for the oaks’, by Emma Bull. ‘The interior life’, by Katherine Blake.
15. Who are your favorite writers?
Usually whoever I’m currently reading.
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
Atticus Finch
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
People chewing loudly with their mouths open.
18. How would you like to die?
Ideally, not at all. Realistically, in bed having just finished the last page of a good book.
19. What sound brings you deep joy?
The click of my dogs nails on the tile as he runs to greet me.
20. What is your motto?
‘Normal’ is a subjective judgement call, and expectations are just mind forged manacles.
LIFE IS CHANGE
Children become adults. Summer becomes winter. The old pass from life to death. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
But to some, life is purgatory. A place of temporary suffering between this world and the next.
In these eleven stories, every painful, frightening transition is driven by a single element.
Another day, another visit with authors from the Purgatorium anthology coming soon from ID PRESS! Today, I have an interview with Yvonne Hess. One more to go. Amanda Tompkins has some writerly deadlines to meet, so she will be participating shortly. Writers ALWAYS have deadlines of one kind or another. It keeps us honest!
I also took the liberty of answering this Proustian Questionnaire myself…so you’ll find my responses here, immediately following Yvonne.
I love love love Yvonne’s response to the first question. It’s quintessential. Enjoy her interview and look forward to discovering her horror fiction in Purgatorium. It’s coming!
Purgatorio Dialogues – VIII – Yvonne Hess
Yvonne Hess
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
The moments when I become aware that I am experiencing true happiness in that moment.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
Literary/historical
3. What is your greatest fear?
Heights or being the centre of attention in a room full of people I don’t know.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
Impossible to choose! But if I have to pick one I’d say historical.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
I actually don’t read horror.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
To me, horror could be anything from slasher/blood and gore to psychological thriller.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
I’m not sure any of these can be overrated.
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
(Not answered)
9. What else have you written?
Several full-length manuscripts.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
I can’t talk about that.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
Singer/musician.
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
The daughter of a multimillionaire!
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I can’t talk about that either.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
Impossible to pick just 3!! But if I have to…Shogun, Outlander, anything by Jane Austen.
15. Who are your favorite writers?
Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Diana Gabaldon, Edward Rutherford, James Mitchener…the list goes on and on.
I could not make all the other contributors answer this questionnaire without also putting myself through the ringer. So, as we await Amanda’s response…I give you my own:
Purgatorio Dialogues – IX – Kevin Craig
Kevin Craig
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Laughing with my grandchildren, or being purposefully lost and wandering in a foreign city.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
Although not quite a genre, I would have to say coming-of-age. I love the young adult market, but I love that a good coming-of-age story can explore themes not quite young enough for the YA audience, and yet still have the youth aspect to it.
3. What is your greatest fear?
The theft of childhood
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
I don’t have one. Story is king, genre are the clothes donned by the story.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
Stephen King. Because he is one of the best character writers in the world. He knows the importance of all aspects of storytelling, not just shock.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
Scary. Must. Terrify. Reader.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
FORGIVENESS. It is not imperative to offer forgiveness. Some are not worthy of it. Most often, when you are giving it, it is to free yourself from the wrong done to you anyway. I only consider forgiving when the one I am forgiving is worthy. Sometimes, they are not.
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
It’s the genre where you take the reader by the hand and lead them down the garden path they simultaneously do not want to be lead down and can’t help but go freely and eagerly. They have to trust you and be leery of your motivations at the same time.
9. What else have you written?
Plays, poetry, novels, articles, and memoir. And manifestos…many manifestos.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
November, 1977…the day my childhood was stolen.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
Singing.
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I always picture myself as an aging Russian peasant farmer woman. I think getting there would be hard and tiring, but to just wake up one day as an 87 year-old babushka wearing peasant woman picking potatoes on her farm would be the loveliest of things. As it seems very unlikely this would happen, I’ll go with DOG.
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Not forgiving yourself for something that you could not possibly be blamed for…and having the kind of unhealthy mind that would allow this self-blaming to thrive and hold you hostage.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
I included this question because I hate it. The nature of the reader is that they love all the books. Their three go to books would change by the day, by the hour, by the minute. It makes for a conflict in the brain when they are asked this question.
Right this second, my answer is FRANNY & ZOOEY by JD Salinger, THE WONDER BOYS by Michael Chabon, and, THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS by Anne Rice.
But right this second, my answer is quite different!
15. Who are your favorite writers?
JD Salinger, Michael Chabon, Dr. Seuss, Charles Dickens, Jennifer Niven, Hannah Moskowitz, Sylvia Plath, John Green, Anne Rice, Mark Twain, Naguib Mahfouz, and on and on and on…
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
Zachary Martin Glass (Zooey)…because he is a king of sarcasm and a lover of life.
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
The sound of a baby crying.
18. How would you like to die?
Any way other than the ways I have imagined in my darkest days.
19. What sound brings you deep joy?
A child laughing with utter abandon. And cicadas.
20. What is your motto?
I have several. This too shall pass comes to mind. As does Never quit and See beauty where others refuse to see it and LOVE.
Welcome to the third installment of my series of interviews with the contributors of the horror anthology PURGATORIUM from ID Press! Now that we have the 4 members of ID Press completed, we can go on to the other contributors of the anthology.
I have found each of these interviews to be highly entertaining and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did. Today we have Kate Arms, Mel Cober and Samantha Banik in the spotlight.
Kate is always eloquent and she stopped me in my tracks with one of her answers. On the subject of her favourite genre, she replied:
“Wherever I can find poetic language about philosophical ideas and questions about what it means to be a human being, with a preference for writers who are willing to look at the dark sides of humanity and find beauty there.” ~ Kate Arms
Now that’s something I can fully get behind! These interviews are peppered with beautiful and thoughtful insights. I’m glad I poked the contributors…they continue to delight me with their responses.
I must remember to bring Mel a nice pile of fluffy kittens the next time we get together. From the woman who thinks being nice is overrated. 🙂
And I think I may have fallen a little in love with Samantha after reading her response to question #16. So very true!
Enjoy Kate, Mel, and Samantha’s interviews! All are wise, witty and wonderful…
Purgatorio Dialogues – V – Kate Arms
Kate Arms
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Feeling passionately alive in the present moment.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
The easy one to write – now, if I could just figure out which one that is…
3. What is your greatest fear?
Horrible things happening to my kids.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
Wherever I can find poetic language about philosophical ideas and questions about what it means to be a human being, with a preference for writers who are willing to look at the dark sides of humanity and find beauty there.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
The one that most recently gave me shivers. I’m fickle that way.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
That too much is badly written and involves jump scares and gratuitous gore, but that the best stuff is marvelously disturbing.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Prudence
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
A way to explore the dark side of humanity without actually hurting anybody.
9. What else have you written?
Personal essays, poetry, contemporary adult fiction, a manifesto on how to have healthy relationships, a book of writing prompts, and too much unpublished YA fantasy.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
I was held up at knife point outside my apartment one night in my 20s.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
The ability to write a first draft that doesn’t need revision.
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
“A bag of groceries accidentally taken off the shelf before the date stamped on myself” (h/t They Might be Giants)
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
I need to ask my son. He’s writing the graphic novel “Death vs. Darkness”, and Misery is a central character. He probably knows.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Huis Clos by Jean-Paul Sarte, and “Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska“.
15. Who are your favorite writers?
The ones I am reading at the moment who are captivating my imagination, the ones I get to hang out with, and Shakespeare.
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
The writer.
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
The video game soundtracks from all the games my children play.
18. How would you like to die?
In a book written by a friend. Or my sleep.
19. What sound brings you deep joy?
Waves crashing on a rocky shore.
20. What is your motto?
Carpe the F*ck Out of This Diem. (Stolen from a mentor, Kristen Bentley, who took it from her mentor, L.A. Reding.
I prefer to write in darker genres, but I’ve written in many.
3. What is your greatest fear?
Spiders. Oh wait- this could be used against me. Piles of fluffy kittens is my worst fear.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
I have no preference, I read it all. (And I think everyone should as well)
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
Is it cliche to say Stephen King? Because he gets it done, and he’s by far the best known. (please don’t use this one Kevin)
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
Everything from things that go bump in the night, to an alien abduction to a demon peeling the skin off it’s victim. Anything can become a horror story, if told right.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Being polite. Sometimes, you need to stand up for yourself (or others) and be that bitch.
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
Same as 6
9. What else have you written?
I’ve written blogs for Boom 97.3, articles for small publications and many short stories.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
When my grandma had a stroke and I got the call from my dad. Sadly, she didn’t make it.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
To be able to finish a task w/o distraction. Oh look…is that a squirrel?
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
A cat. I’d love to sit in the sun all day and nap, and have someone feed me.
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Misery without company?
14. What are your three deserted island books?
All the Bright Places, Eleanor and Park and a book that changes each time you read it. 😉
15. Who are your favorite writers?
Everyone in Purgatorium.
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
(Not answered)
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
The beeping of our water softener that beeps constantly a full two weeks before it will run out of salt.
That or Dale Long. 😉
18. How would you like to die?
No one likes to die. So I suppose in my sleep is best.
19. What sound brings you deep joy?
The sound of the water lapping on a dock during a summer night, while I type away.
That moment when I walk in the room to pick my daughter up from daycare and she first sees me. That look in her eye of unconditional love and happiness, followed by pure excitement as she runs into my arms squealing. That right there. That is my happy place.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
Apparently I have a few.
3. What is your greatest fear?
Losing my Mom or my daughter. And being abducted by aliens…clowns too. Hate clowns.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
Anything. I will read anything.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
Bram Stoker. Dracula was the first horror piece I ever read. I love his style. It’s the first book I think of when I think about horror books.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
A world in which chocolate does not exist. Oh, and smelling poop. You can’t trust the smell of poop. Ask any mom.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Patience. Whoever made that list, did not have children.
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
A world in which writers do not exist.
9. What else have you written?
The Pirate – WIP, Fallen From Grace – WIP, plus many, many unfinished pieces. Several articles for the Orono Weekly Times.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
Standing outside of my father’s house the night he died knowing what I was going to find when I entered.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
I would love to be able to sing well. Though, I do anyway even though I sound like a wounded guinea pig.
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Losing This was a hard one too. I think a cat. They have pretty good lives. Nine of them to boot.
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Losing a loved one. It’s a pain that runs deep and never truly goes away.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, How to Build a Raft out of Sticks and Leaves by Samantha Banik (WIP), War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.
15. Who are your favorite writers?
I have many, but a few are Jane Austen, Diana Gabaldon, D.H. Lawrence, J.R.R. Tolkien, and all of my writer friends 🙂
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
All the heroes and heroines of every story I’ve ever read. I had to think about this one and I couldn’t come up with any one character.
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
The sound of negativity.
18. How would you like to die?
Preferably in my sleep, but trying to save the world from an alien invasion would be cool too.
19. What sound brings you deep joy?
My daughter’s laughter.
20. What is your motto?
One is never served so well as by oneself, or – If you want something done right, do it yourself.
Welcome to day two of my interviews with the writers from Purgatorium. Today, I’m featuring Pat Flewwelling and Tobin Elliott. Together, with Connie Di Pietro and Dale Long, they make up the staff of ID PRESS. Pat had me laughing out loud in places. Especially when she spoke of her fear of flying and then let me know she was boarding a plane (sadly, I’m quite certain her fear amped up yesterday…as she experienced several delays at the airport prior to boarding said plane). What can I say about Tobin Elliott? Nobody makes me cry as often as Tobin does. He’s like that phone commercial that breaks you down and leaves you bawling and surprised that a 30-second vignette could cut you so close to the bone. He’s a funny guy…but he writes with an emotional poignancy I myself could only dream of owning. Even his Facebook updates often have me swallowing through the lump in my throat. Yes…a couple of his responses here left me in tears. Something in the way he writes…
Pat, Connie, Dale, and Tobin
The Proust Questionnaire was not penned by Proust, but rather made famous by him. It was a personality questionnaire that Proust famously answered in the most delightful of ways, and often. It was his answers to the question that caused the questionnaire to take off and become a favourite form of interview…it even had a life as a parlour game of sorts. I find that it reveals a lot about a person…it invokes personal insights as well as personality, sense of humour and one’s beliefs, etc. This questionnaire I composed is not entirely the same as the Proust version, but a lot of the original questions remain intact. Enjoy today’s insights into the minds of Pat and Tobin, two of the ten writers featured in PURGATORIUM!
Purgatorio Dialogues – III – Pat Flewwelling
Pat Flewwelling
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Letting go.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
Anything but Westerns, Romance, and Poetry.
3. What is your greatest fear?
Flying. I go a little crazy before and during every flight. Like…I need to gnaw on people and scream and stuff, that kind of afraid. I hate flying.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
Non-fiction and mystery.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
Nancy Kilpatrick, because she’s not afraid to tell a new writer the painful, honest truth, without being discouraging – but as an editor, she is also willing to give new, unknown writers a chance.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
That it was an easily maligned, but not easily defined, genre. It should, at the very least, make me shiver at the profoundness of the human soul – either as profoundly evil, or profoundly defiant in the face of utter horribleness.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Temperance. All things in moderation, including moderation.
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
Horror doesn’t have to go to extremes – neither all-scary, nor all-gory, nor all-demonic/paranormal. Sometimes horror can use a soft touch.
9. What else have you written?
Three dark fiction novels (Helix: Blight of Exiles, Helix: Plague of Ghouls, and Helix: Scourge of Bones), two dieselpunk novels (The Fog of Dockside City series), a crime/biography (Judge Not), and a smattering of short stories. Those are the published ones, at least.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
Depends on your definition of “afraid”. If you mean anxious to the point of running away, the answer is “Any time I’m in Costco on a Saturday afternoon.” If you mean, jump-scared / ran away / screamed like a little girl, then it would be that time I tried to clean my first fish, and it wasn’t as dead as I’d thought it was, and it jumped clean off the plate, flapping tail-to-mouth in the air. If you mean “afraid for my safety”…that seems to be the times when I’m most focused and self-controlled, so I guess I would have to say, “n/a”…?
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
Is tact a talent? Because I’d like to have that. Mind you, I find talent overrated. If a talented gymnast won gold every year without hardly trying, and this other “talent-less” but hardworking gymnast won silver for the first time in sixteen years, I’d applaud the one who won silver.
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I’d like to come back as the incarnation of bad luck. I don’t know why I said that. I blame the lack of coffee. But it’s amazing what bad luck can do for you sometimes. A flat tire could save you from a five car pile-up.
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Convincing yourself that you can’t – and don’t deserve to – change.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (aka Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick); The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Howard Pyle); The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).
15. Who are your favorite writers?
The ones I’ve met in person. Well, most of them, anyways. Also, Raymond Chandler, Sam Thomas, and Ellis Peters.
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
Brother Cadfael. Crusader turned sailor turned Benedictine monk / gardener and sometimes murder-solver. He’s completely anti-noir because he looks for the good in humanity, despite war, murder, profiteering, etc., and knows the value of a peaceful place.
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
Power tools. Any power tool. Literally any. If they had faces, I would punch them.
18. How would you like to die?
Quickly, purposefully, and in saving someone else.
19. What sound brings you deep joy?
The overall harmony of nature in the morning, deep in the interior of Algonquin Park.
20. What is your motto?
Video et taceo. For the record, it was also Queen Elizabeth I’s motto, and it is not Latin for Netflix and tacos.
Perfect happiness is having my family around me, lots of books to read, good friends who love me unconditionally, and my pets. Preferably on a lovely fall day.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
I love the horror genre, but it’s finding the horror in the everyday things. To me, the monster isn’t scary unless it’s in a position to take something cherished away from my human characters. A realistic character reacting to the loss of a lover or child or parent is more terrifying than a monster that bites his neck or kills him.
3. What is your greatest fear?
Not being able to be there for those I love. Whether that’s due to a debilitating terminal illness, or death, or just not being available when one of my kids or my wife really needs me. I never want to let down those that need me most.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
Oh damn. That’s tough. I love good horror, probably because I find it so rarely. But I also can say the same for good science fiction, or thriller, or crime drama, or mystery, or non-fiction books. I read constantly and widely, so for me it’s less about genre and more about the quality of the experience.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
Also a tough one. I admire Stephen King simply because he’s bucked the odds and become not only the most popular modern author, but he did it writing a much-frowned upon genre. But I also have great admiration for Jack Ketchum because no one—absolutely no one—has affected me like he did with some of his writing, particularly The Girl Next Door.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
From a reading standpoint, usually something involving a supernatural element. I love my vampires and werewolves and demons. From a personal standpoint, it was—and remains—the answer to #3. Our greatest fear is always that thing that inspires the greatest horror.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Physical beauty. Yes, I like attractive looks, just like everyone else, but I despise how they often give the person a pass to be an absolutely deplorable person and get away with it. I’m looking at you, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. Beauty fades, but the ability to be empathetic and honest and funny and loyal are forever.
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
Finding the horror in the everyday. As I said above, I love my vampires and werewolves and demons, but nothing matches the horror of a parent or role model who is more of a monster than any of them could ever hope to be. So, a bit more of a dovetailing of greatest fear and horror.
9. What else have you written?
I’ve written some ugly stories about awful people doing terrible things. I’ve had three novellas published through small presses, as well as a couple of short stories in anthologies. All are horror. But I’ve also written three interconnected horror novels and collaborated on a dark fantasy novel involving the Four Horsemen, a God who is mad (and angry) and the Biblical Apocalypse. Oh, and some blogs that made people laugh.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
Well, there was a time in Algonquin Park when a bear attacked our camp for about an hour and the only thing between it and my twelve-year-old tasty flesh was tent fabric. But I think the most terrified I’ve been…well, to be honest, I can’t even talk about it. That’s not a cop out, it’s the truth.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
The power of persuasiveness. I’d love to be able to guide people to make better choices. From small things like helping my kids, to larger issues like preventing things like gun violence, racial crimes, sexual attacks, and better leadership for the countries of the world. As the old Coke commercial said, I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
Probably a cat that my daughter would own, because I know I’d live like a freaking king.
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Losing a loved one. No question. Because there is no lowest depth when it comes to that.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
I hate this question. Still, I’ll play your silly reindeer game…
The Shining – Stephen King
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle – David Wroblewski
Boy’s Life – Robert R. McCammon
15. Who are your favorite writers?
Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Dennis Lehane, Robert E. Howard, Elmore Leonard, John Skipp & Craig Spector (when they collaborated), Douglas Adams, Harlan Ellison, Harper Lee, Ray Bradbury, J.K. Rowling, Carsten Stroud, David Wroblewski, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Chris Claremont, Warren Ellis, Terry Moore, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, . And a bunch of others that I likely can’t think of off the top of my head.
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
You’re killing me here. Sorry, I’m going to have to stray from books because I tend to default to a character in a television series. Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce as played by Alan Alda in M*A*S*H always wins for me.
If I need to go from the written word, I’d likely choose Danny Torrance, the young boy from The Shining. There’s a lot that I can identify with in him: an abusive, alcoholic father who could never say no to his demons, a mother who desperately tries to swim the current of her husband’s madness and keep both her own and her child’s head afloat, and Danny himself, walking through the corridors of a manmade hell, doing all he can to understand and navigate away from the horrors…
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
Anyone whining. Drives me absolutely batshit.
18. How would you like to die?
That’s an odd question. Would anyone really like to die? Not so much. Nor do I, and as I get older, the thought intrudes more and more as my mortality makes itself known. But if I have to go, I want to go out with those I love around me, and everyone laughing and joking and telling their most embarrassing or stupid stories about me…god knows there’s a lot of them.
19. What sound brings you deep joy?
The sound of my wife or kids saying they love me. The purring of my cats. My dog’s yipping in his sleep as he dreams. Wind through the leaves. Rain. The strange muffled silence after a snowfall. The Beatles. Pink Floyd. Heart. Boston. David Bowie. Cheap Trick. The Eagles. Steely Dan. Billy Joel. Elton John. Tom Petty. The Electric friggin’ Light Orchestra. And…absolute silence.
20. What is your motto?
I have a few…
“What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?” – Robert Schuller
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
“Mommy’s all right, daddy’s all right, they just seem a little weird.” – Cheap Trick
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do.” – Unknown
“And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” – The Beatles
The Cover of the Upcoming Anthology PURGATORIUM from ID PRESS.
I recently had the idea of interviewing each of the writers you will find within the pages of the upcoming horror anthology, PURGATORIUM. The first thing that came to mind was the PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE and how much fun it always was to read the way people would respond to some of the questions on it. So, I cribbed from the list of questions on the questionnaire, keeping some of them intact, removing some and adding some of my own that would relate to the experiences the respondents would have had in writing in general and in writing for the anthology in particular. (I’m so good at writing run-on sentences, aren’t I!?)
There are ten of us in the anthology. I will eventually share all the Proustian Questionnaires here. I thought I would begin with the principles of the newly formed ID PRESS, which is the press bringing PURGATORIUM to the marketplace. Today, I thought I would share the responses I received from Connie Di Pietro and Dale Long. Without further ado, I bring you the slightly altered Proust Questionnaires of Connie & Dale…but we’ll just go ahead and call them the PURGATORIO DIALOGUES. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did! For me, reading their responses made me realize just why I chose these lovely people as friends.
Purgatorio Dialogues – I – Connie Di Pietro
Connie Di Pietro
1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
My idea of perfect happiness is the comfort from the warm sun on my back, toes in the sand, rolling waves and my children’s laughter. My music, mornings spent writing, evenings spent reading, and a table surrounded by friends and family enjoying a wonderful meal together.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
Not sure I have any one preferred genre. I do have those which I’d find difficult to attempt to write in, because I don’t read them. I do love the dark and twisted.
3. What is your greatest fear?
Waking up and finding that all my fingers had been lopped off and my tongue pulled from my mouth.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
This, like the above, is difficult…as my reading is varied. But dark and twisted always does win out.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
Stephen King, because he isn’t afraid to bend his genre and go beyond the traditional horror of blood and gore. Andrew Pyper is also a very generous man with his time and talent in helping those of us who are just learning how to climb the ladder.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
I had a fairly good grasp of the genre. I have been given the title Queen of the Macabre.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
hmmmm….virginity.
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
Same as it’s always been, there are so many varying degrees of horror. And sometimes the most horrific are the most realistic.
9. What else have you written?
Besides my cupboard filled with shelved stories, I’m currently working on the 2nd book of a trilogy about witches who travel through time trying to find their way back home in a time when witches were persecuted. I have another novel that is currently being shopped by my agent at The Right’s Factory. I have a short story in another anthology
10. When and where were you most afraid?
I was born in 1971. In 1973 my parents brought us to the drive-in theater, second billing was The Exorcist. That’s right…I stayed up in the back watching it. Still have quite a vivid memory of that. It took me deep into adulthood to watch it again without an afghan over my head as I peered through the knitting. And yes, you did the math right. I was 2 and a half, to be exact.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
Pole-dancing. Imagine the shape I’d be in!!
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
I’d like to come back rich and beautiful, because this whole nice thing doesn’t pay the bills so well.
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Seriously, the lowest depth of misery is treating others unfairly, unjustly and with inequality. It must be a very sad existence to think that you are better than everyone else around you.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
The Red Tent, The Secret (because I need the universe to get me off of the island), and Little Women.
15. Who are your favorite writers?
Anita Diamont, author of The Red Tent and Day after Night, Stephen King, and the Brontes….I know they are 2.
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
(Not answered)
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
Whining and fighting….I do have 4 kids.
18. How would you like to die?
Never thought of dying much and my preference in the matter of which I would die, but I’d have to say in my old age while I slept after a wonderful meal surrounded by all my friends and family. I’d also like to know I would/could be in control of my own mortality.
The waves at my feet, Wings on the BBQ, margarita in hand, surrounded by friends and family.
2. What is your most preferred genre as a writer?
Genre? GENRE?? We don’t need no stinking genre!
3. What is your greatest fear?
Death.
4. What is your most preferred genre as a reader?
Anything that is exceptionally written.
5. Which horror writer do you most admire and why?
Mary Shelley. For starting it all off, for writing horror in a time when women weren’t seen as credible writers, for living through what she did.
6. What was your idea of horror prior to setting off on this adventure into Purgatorium?
Running out of charcoal.
7. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
Success/fame. Are those virtues? In today’s age they seem to be.
8. What is your idea of horror now that you’ve been to Purgatorium?
Running out of charcoal and margarita.
9. What else have you written?
Middle grade ghost stories, old fashioned Christmas “scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago”, Humour short stories, life stories (eulogies), post apocalyptic science fiction and some fantasy.
10. When and where were you most afraid?
The day my wife got diagnosed with cancer. Sitting in the doctor’s office. It felt like the world cracked open and threatened to swallow us.
11. Which talent would you most like to have?
To cure stupidity and ignorance.
12. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
*censored*
13. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Misery always has a lower depth.
14. What are your three deserted island books?
How To Build A Boat Out Of Sand by Neil Degrasse Tyson, Cooking with Coconuts by Deb Rankin, How To Make a Radio from Palm Trees by MacGuyver.
15. Who are your favorite writers?
All the writers in and around Purgatorium. I admire the ones that didn’t make it into the anthology for their grace and for putting themselves out there.
16. Who is your hero of fiction?
Each time I open a well written book, that character becomes my hero of fiction.
17. What sound grates on you more than any other?
The noise made when a Know-it-all opens their head hole.
18. How would you like to die?
I don’t like to die. Ever.
19. What sound brings you deep joy?
Hearing my daughters sing when they don’t know I am listening.
20. What is your motto?
“To infinity and beyond!” No, that’s not it. “Live long and prosper!” Nope, that’s not it either. “I’m Batman!” Close, but not it. “You say that can’t be done, do you?” Yep. That’ll do.
KEVIN CRAIG 