-Interview by Desi D

1. As a writer, how would you describe your muse?

That is a tough question for me, because I’ve never really thought of writing in those terms. I know there’s this long and storied tradition of the artist’s muse, but every story or book I’ve written has been inspired by something discreet, usually specific to that piece. As far as writing in general, the best way I can put it is to quote what one of my old college professors used to say. He called writing a habit—you either do it or you don’t.

2. How does your experience as a criminal defense attorney influence your fiction? And how would you describe your writing process?

I used to say that being a defense attorney gave me some insight into the darker side of human nature. And that’s not wrong but incomplete. The truth is that people just do awful things to each other, and it can be for all sorts of reasons. What ends up being scary is that many of the folks who do the worst things are not all that scary in person—which is way more terrifying.

In terms of my process, I write every day, but a lot of the time I produce nothing much at all. Other times though, I write until my fingers hurt. It comes and goes. If you’re asking whether I am a “pantser” or an outliner, I work from an outline, but I always deviate from it too.

3. What is it about horror and occult thrillers that fascinate you?

On the one hand, it’s all about the unknown: death, the dark, whatever lies beyond us, etc. That’ll always be fascinating because we’ll never know the answers. Also, it’s just the best escapist reading, at least for me.           

4. What authors do you admire? And why? And of course, what is the next story we can look forward to reading from you?

As far as influences, I can give you two. They’re very different but related in my mind: Robert E. Howard and Clive Barker. The thing that ties them together is that I had the same experience reading both. They made me want to write. A clang of steel seems to echo from every page of Howard’s pulp stories. Barker can make the grotesque feel horrible and beautiful in one phrase.

On a personal level, someone I admire who I’ve had the chance to hang out with a little is Edward Lee. He’s uncompromising. He writes whatever the hell he wants and doesn’t care who he offends. I love that.

When it comes to future books, I try to avoid jinxing myself. All I will say is this: I have one more project in the pipeline at The Evil Cookie right now, and there might be a few hints floating around out there already.       

Pick up a copy of THE RITES OF AZATHOTH by Frank Cavallo here.