Ghost hunters, supernatural sleuths and occult detectives. It’s no secret that we love the blend of mystery/thriller and the ab-natural – although we’ll happily take either on their own, especially in historical settings. So, as we’re also exploring LGBTQ+ in scary fiction this month, what better than to feature a guest review of KJ Charles’ The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal? For this happens to be an occult detective book which has both a mention of William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost Finder – and gay protagonists.
It’s always good to welcome guests back onto greydogtales, so today’s interview with author Lynne Jamneck is a particular pleasure – and extremely interesting as well. Having covered some emergent writers recently, this time we have someone with plenty of experience as a writer and editor in the weird fiction field. We first talked to Lynne in mid-2016, following the release of her anthology Dreams from the Witch House, and we discussed some issues around LGBTQ+ fiction then. Now we have more space to get explore the topic – and to talk writing, the nature of the horror experience, and all sorts…
Hello again, dear listener. Yes, we’re back on dark fiction by LGBTQ+ creators – in which we interview both experienced and more recently emerged writers, in conjunction with Jim LcLeod‘s Ginger Nuts of Horror site. This, as you will know, replaces our previous theme ‘The Root Vegetable in British Naval History’, which was sadly cancelled due to legal advice. Today we welcome Maxwell Ian Gold, a young American writer who has called 2018 his ‘breakout’ year, in which he has had a number of pieces published, including prose poems in The Audient Void and Hinnom Magazine, and his first short story, in the anthology Caravans Awry, edited by Duane Pesice.
So with those under his belt, we asked him for his thoughts on LGBTQ+ issues and writing…
Or… The Trials Of A Sort of Mythos Author. The jobbing writer knows no fear; accepts no shame. Literary purity is not for the likes of us, beggin’ yer pardon, guv’nor. Run off a young adult horror story? Index a quick textbook? Draft a missing cat advert? Write a Lovecraft Mythos story? Well, why not, given that you’re trying to earn a living? Was it not St Catherine of Alexandria who said “Better a sold Nyarlathotep story and a new gas cooker, than snobbery and half a box of matches.”? No, it wasn’t, but still…
