Author Outtakes: James Everington
Today I am here with James Everington, author of First Time Buyers, Feed the Enemy, The Shelter and The Other Room. Welcome, James. Please tell us a little about yourself and your career.
JE: Well, I’m a writer from Nottingham in the UK. I mainly write short horror fiction – if you’ve read stories by Ramsey Campbell or Thomas Ligotti you’ll know what I’m aiming for, although whether I’ve hit the mark is another question.
I’ve had a number of stories published in small-press magazines, but the main place you can find my work is the self-published collection The Other Room.
JR: What attracted you to the horror genre?
JE: It’s my dad’s fault probably. Certainly it was him who handed me a copy of Salem’s Lot at an impressionable age. My dad’s bookshelves were always sagging under the weight of books (still are, actually) so I was always pestering him for something to read as a kid.
JR: I recently read your short story First Time Buyers. I must say it had some creepy imagery. What inspired you to write this short?
JE: I wanted to write a horror story that was a mixture of a traditional structure and contemporary themes and feelings. The economic crisis seemed a good way of doing that; I think horror works well when it preys on people’s secret fears and anxieties – the little voices in their heads. And for a lot of people at the moment, those fears are about losing their jobs, their homes.
JR: I read your novel, The Shelter, and was quite impressed. You stated in the book this was based off a personal experience. Did this fact help the work come to life as you wrote it?
JE: Well I actually wrote the first version of The Shelter over fifteen years ago, not long after its real life inspiration took place. So whilst I couldn’t write for toffee then, I did get a lot of details down that stood me in good stead when I decided to revisit the idea all these years later. Things I probably would have forgotten, like the fact on a single day every year all these little black flies seemed to hatch all once from the fields behind my house, and the spider’s webs were just black with them.
JR: There has been much debate about the state of the horror genre today. Some say it isn’t mainstream, others say it is all gore, and many say it is alive and well. What do you think?
JE: I think horror movies, of the torture porn kind, have kind of warped people’s perceptions – I recently watched the original Halloween with someone and she said it was good but more a thriller than horror – not enough gore! As if the only aim of a horror film – or by extension story – is to shock or gross someone out.
Whereas I’m a lot more into the kind of horror that ratchets up the tension, giving the read that creeping feeling that something, somewhere is badly wrong… I like the ambiguous, the psychological, and some degree of subtlety in my horror fiction.
JR: How do you keep a positive outlook in an industry that seems so cutthroat?
JE: Well, being self-published the ‘real’ publishing industry is a long way from me; its maneuverings and machinations can’t really touch me. And the majority of people I have met, from both traditional and indie publishing, have all been enthusiastic and helpful. I’m sure there’s idiots out there – there is everywhere – but I’ve managed to avoid their attentions so far.
JR: How do you manage your time between promoting your work and writing?
JE: Badly, to be honest. In common with many writers, self-promotion doesn’t come naturally to me, so I have to force myself to do it. Which occasionally means I overdo it, at least by my standards. I wouldn’t mind so much if I knew which bits of self-promotion actually worked, but a lot of it feels like shouting down into a deep black pit and waiting for an echo to come back.
JR: Do you think the rise of self-publishing has made it harder or easier for a new author to be recognized. Why?
JE: If like me you mainly write short stories, then easier, at least initially. If you self-publish a book which is at least competent you’ll build an initial audience which is far bigger than trying to sell each story individually to horror magazines. I love some of the magazines out there, and I want to get more stories published that way, but waiting six months for someone to tell you they like or dislike your story isn’t the easiest way to build up momentum…
JR: What is your favorite book?
JE: One? What kind of sadist are you? Okay, many of my favourite stories appear in the (huge) anthology The Dark Descent say I’ll say that.
JR: What authors have influenced your writing? Do you have a favorite author?
JE: I’ve already mentioned Campbell, King and Ligotti as influences above. I’d add to that list Shirley Jackson, Robert Aickman, Kafka…
Picking a favorite author is almost as hard as picking a favorite book! Probably the one who has given me the most unalloyed reading pleasure over the years is Terry Pratchett.
JR: If you could be a character in a book, what book would it be and why?
JE: Sherlock Holmes – a genius violin playing cocaine addict.
JR: What are you currently working on?
JE: The stories to go into the follow up to The Other Room. I’m not sure which will be in it as yet, or what it will be called, although I’m liking Other People’s Ghosts at the moment. What do you think – any good?
Short Answer:
I wish I had more time to… procrastinate. I never do enough of that, I always find something else to do instead.
If I had one wish it would be…to have one hundred wishes.
Horror authors are… just like everyone else. As long as you don’t look too closely.
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