A.R. Braun-Author Interview (2020) Extreme Horror

Hello everyone! Just your Horrormadam here to bring you another astounding horror author, A.R. Braun. I enjoyed Grimoire so much that I started reading up on him and he is not only extremely talented as a writer but I also read about him on Amazon and found out that he is also diverse in all of his endeavors.  As well as his many writings he has taken Okinawan and Shotokan karate, kung fu, krav maga, and taekwondo and practices self-defense once a week, along with boxing and wrestling, which he’s also studied. He works out like a football player every other day when he’s not working out with the medicine ball or jogging. You can reach him on Twitter as @ARBraun and on Instagram as a.r._braun.  So let me ask him some questions so you can get to know him and get started reading his work!

1. Can you tell my readers a little bit about yourself?

I’ve been a full-time horror author for almost thirteen years. I’ve been a horror-movie fan since I was five—The Blob with Steve McQueen on Creature Feature—and I got inspired to write when I had to read “The Telltale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe at high school when I was sixteen. I was never the same. When I was seventeen, I bought every issue of Chillers mag, which had articles of horror movies, as well as horror short stories by up-and-coming authors. By the time I was eighteen, I had the whole Stephen King collection. I want to say I’m an extreme-horror author, but then again I don’t, because I think regular horror is scarier than extreme- or bizarro horror.

I’m also a one-man-band. I overdub the guitars with the vocals, bass, and drums so it sounds like a group. The main project is black-death metal, but I have side projects: power metal, traditional heavy metal that’s thrashy, and speed metal/thrash.

2. When and why did you get into writing?

I was writing stories for my friends to read by the time I was eighteen. I got into it seriously when I read On Writing: a Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. I realized I could really do this professionally.

3. Why horror?

Because it’s fun. It’s a rush when a horror story or movie actually scares you.

4. What authors inspired you?

So many. King, Koontz, Ira Levin is my favorite author, Shirley Jackson, Gary A. Braunbeck, Jack Ketchum. The Not is my Coffin County by Gary Braunbeck, and Only Women in Hell is my The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum, both with an original spin, of course. Only Women in Hell is based on the case of Joseph and Elisabeth Fritzl from Austria, like Jack‘s The Girl Next Door, which is based on reality.

5. What scares you?

The Devil. Demons: a black mass is a black smoke that’s demons, and if you ingest it, you kill people. Bouncing on my bed because I’m possessed. Seeing things out of the corner of my eye, then I turn, and nothing’s there. A feeling of being watched. Cops, bedbugs, ghosts, insane women. I prefer to write about people who go insane, or ghosts or demons because they’re real, and it’s scarier. No one is scared that vampires are going to come after them in real life.

6. Music plays heavily in your writing, favorite artists, styles, influences?

I like black metal/death metal, and power metal. There’s a new thing where you can be both black metal and death metal like Behemoth, Belphegor, and God Dethroned—it’s a thing—and I am that. Heavily influenced by Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Nile, Marduk, Immortal, and Nocturnal Rites.

7. Where do you get your ideas?

I got my ideas for “Cryptid” and “Dark Web” from videos on YouTube. This has given me some of my best ideas. It’s a great place to research. Dybbuk boxes, MK Ultra mind-control glitches, what the best weapons were in medieval times, you name it, it’s on there. Also, with “Cryptid,” I’ve been reading a lot of books and watching a lot of movies about cryptozoology—the study of hidden or unsubstantiated animals. I’ve released Dogman of Illinois, my new novel about a cryptid. And, of course, “You Can’t Go Anywhere” was influenced by the news. I tried to go too far with that one so Grimoire would be a banned book. Getting banned, or having people faint or run out of the room or have a heart attack while reading my tales, it’s a dream.

8. If you weren’t a writer what else would you pursue?

Well, I worked regular jobs for twenty-one years, but I can’t imagine doing anything else than writing horror (and metal music). And you don’t have to retire. You can write books at a desk ‘til you die.

9. Do you have any favorite horror films and or tropes?

Yes. I actually have two lists: my 101 Scariest Moments like on the Bravo Channel, and my top 400. Right now my favorite movie is Doctor Sleep, but if you asked me what my all-time favorite is, it’s probably Fulci’s The Beyond.

Paperback cover for Grimoire, as one with a golden pentagram, is the ebook.

I want to thank A.R. so much for taking his time to answer my questions and introduce me to such an amazing and fear-inducing author! Make sure and get his books now, just don’t expect to sleep for a while after. Here are a few of the links!

Nightmares Film Festival 2020 Announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW “SHUT-IN SHORTS” TO CELEBRATE FILMS MADE IN PANDEMIC Special Nightmares Film Festival 2020 Category Will Celebrate Housebound Horror Films COLUMBUS, OH – Nightmares Film Festival (Oct. 22-25) wants to expose you to the twisted fever dreams of entombed genre filmmakers through its new 2020 program, Shut-In Shorts. The new category – unique to this year’s festival – is for horror, thriller, and midnight shorts of five minutes or less shot under the restrictions of social distancing and shelter in place orders during this year’s COVID-19 pandemic.

“We created Shut-In Shorts in response to the indomitable spirit genre creators have shown throughout the pandemic,” said NFF Co-founder and Programmer Jason Tostevin. “We want to celebrate their ability to disturb and delight us by getting creative under remarkable constraints.” Top films in the category will be official selections of Nightmares Film Festival, regularly ranked among the top genre fests in the world. They will also be rewarded with live online screenings by Bloody Disgusting’s digital showcase, World of Death, during which WOD founder and host Tony Wash and Nightmares directors will join the filmmaker for discussion and Q&A with the audience. In addition, to honor many filmmakers’ challenging circumstances, Tostevin said the submission fee for Shut-In Shorts will be $5, and will not go up with future deadlines.

“Encouraging creativity and production among genre makers is a big part of why Nightmares exists,” said Tostevin. “So while traditional shoots are suspended, we wanted to give our film family an avenue to be recognized for continuing to tell stories even in very difficult times.”

Submissions for the new category, as well as all other Nightmares programs, are being accepted through FilmFreeway at https://filmfreeway.com/NightmaresFilmFest . Regarding NFF 20, Tostevin and Chris Hamel, co-founders, have said they will make a determination at the end of the summer about whether “the most welcoming genre networking event in the world” (Film Coterie), will be held live this year.

CONTACT: Jason Tostevin, co-founder and programmer nightmaresfilmfest@gmail.com

Revenant

The revenant is like a tenebrous red rose

It wilts, it dies, losing its color to the darkness

It almost welcomes the literal and cerebral decomposition

Of its spectral resonance 

Departing this mortal coil and venturing unto the veil

Valedictory

Jeremy C Shipp-Author Interview (2019)

Hey readers! Just your Horrormadam here to bring you another amazing author Jeremy C Shipp! He is a writer of weird horror, adventurous fantasy, and idiosyncratic science fiction all combined into this wildly visceral and blood-curdling works of fiction. I was so glad he introduced himself and his works to me will always be a fan. Now let’s get to the questions!

Can you please tell my readers little about yourself?

My name’s Jeremy C. Shipp, and I’m an author of weird horror tales. My short stories have appeared in various publications such as ChiZine, Cemetery Dance, and Apex Magazine. My books include the Bram Stoker-nominated novel Cursed and the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated novella The Atrocities.

When I’m not writing, I’m butlering for cats in a semi-haunted Victorian farmhouse. The ghosts took the phrase “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” to heart, so they spend much of their time napping and rarely perform.

The main question I always want to know about, why horror? What drew you to the genre?

I have always been a fiend for horror. As a kid, I would play pretend with my brothers, and we would imagine ourselves as vampires and werewolves and grim reapers. I grew up watching dark and bizarre films like The Dark Crystal, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and House II. I’ve always been fascinated by monsters and magic and the darker mysteries of the universe. I can’t say why exactly. But, for me, writing horror feels right.

What are some of your favorite horror films and or books?

As far as horror and gothic books go, I love The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Hell House by Richard Matheson, Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. And some of my favorite horror films are The Witch, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, A Dark Song, The Love Witch, The Shining, The House of the Devil, Evil Dead II, Dead Alive, Audition, Trick ‘r Treat, Psycho, Ringu, Ju-on, The Happiness of the Katakuris, The Funhouse, The Thing, The Descent. I could probably go on forever, but I suppose I shouldn’t. Eternity is a long time.

What actually scares you?

I’m afraid of sadism and bigotry and death. I’m afraid that humans won’t do enough to stop climate change. I’m afraid of heights. I’m afraid of mimes with sharpened teeth. I’m afraid of the man with translucent skin who lives under my floorboards because he keeps spoiling the ending of movies that I haven’t seen yet.

If you could have a dinner or poker game with your favorite authors alive or dead, who would it be and what would you like to discuss with them?

For my dinner guests, I would invite Charlotte Brontë, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kurt Vonnegut, Arundhati Roy, and Shirley Jackson. At first, we would discuss world events, and the writing process, and the human soul. But rather quickly I’d realize that we were all a bit stressed about the state of the world and our fast-approaching deadlines. And so, during dinner, we would decide to play Santa Claus Conquers the Martians on the TV, and we would make fun of the film MST3K-style while we ate. It would be a good night.

Indeed!

As an author, do you have a writer‘s kryptonite?

The entire writing process feels a bit like kryptonite to me. Everything is hard and frustrating, and I really wouldn’t have it any other way. I suppose my most potent kryptonite is my tendency to hyperfocus on one particular sentence or word. I can spend way too much time trying to compose the perfect sentence when I should simply move forward with the story and come back later. When will I ever learn? Probably never.

How much of yourself do you include in your writings?

I tend to only include some small bits of myself here and there. Perhaps a fingernail clipping or a pint of blood or a chunk of the spleen. In Bedfellow, for example, Tomas likes to hang out in a secret, leafy, magical space that exists between his neighbors’ fences. In reality, my brothers and I truly did play in such a gap. Vampires and werewolves and grim reapers crept among those fallen leaves.

What would you tell your younger self as a writer?

I first started writing short stories in 4th grade, so I would tell my elementary school self to invest all his birthday and yard work money in Apple stock.

When I was a teenager, I first started getting stories published, and I would tell my teenage self not to sell the Apple stocks, no matter how tempted he was to buy an electric guitar and a car with air conditioning.

I would also tell him that rejection letters are a normal part of a writer’s life and not to take them too personally. I would tell him that he shouldn’t stop himself from reaching out to other writers for advice and for help

When they make the movie of your life, would it be drama/comedy/horror and who would star as you?

I’d like a Jeremy C. Shipp character to appear in a Bill & Ted reboot in the distant future. In the movie, monsters overrun the Earth, and Bill and Ted travel back in time to get a monster expert to help them. They assume that I, as a horror writer, would somehow be able to deal with the vampires, werewolves, and other creatures. Ultimately, we end up befriending the monsters, and the world is saved. Jeremy C. Shipp would be played by a descendent of Sam Rockwell, because he’s an amazing actor, and he looks a bit like me, I think.

What do you do for fun or relaxation?

I enjoy watching great movies and excruciatingly terrible movies. I’m not much interested in mediocre films that exist somewhere in between.

I read books as if my life depended on it, and it probably does.

I like trivia games, even though I don’t have the mind for it. Ask me when the War of 1812 started, and I’d probably get it wrong.

One of my favorite things in the world to do is to watch The Bachelor or The Bachelorette or Bachelor in Paradise with my partner. Hard as I try, I still haven’t written a horror story as terrifying as those shows

What are you working on next or whatever other projects you are on that we should look out for?

I’m working on a currently untitled novel that will be published by Meerkat Press in 2021. Here are some details:

In Shipp’s newest novel, we will follow Seraphina Ramon into a once-abandoned amusement park now populated by a community of cultists. To our left, a dragon-themed roller coaster rests on the blackened earth, curled up like a dead snake. To our right, an animatronic Humpty Dumpty falls off a concrete castle and shatters on the ground, only to reform itself moments later. Up ahead, cultists giggle as they meditate in a hall of cracked mirrors. This is the last place in the world Seraphina wants to be, but at the same time, she will stop at nothing to investigate the cult that almost killed her sister. And the best way to find out the truth about this bizarre cult is to join them.

Also, I finished writing a horror screenplay a couple of weeks ago, and I’m hard at work on another.

In addition to all this, in my secret lab, I’m genetically engineering a miniature version of Cthulhu about the size of a dachshund. I’m hoping to create a couple hundred of them in my first batch. Gods, goddesses, and various other ethereal beings keep warning me not to do it, but I’m sure they’re just overreacting.

I would like to thank Jeremy very much for taking the time to answer my questions and for his amazing storytelling talent! If you want to learn more I have included some links for you to check out!

http://www.jeremycshipp.com

and you can find him on Twitter @JeremyCShipp

 

Blood Wolf Moon- Poem (2019)

The glacial night sky of the lupine month

Opens the door to the crimson heart of winter

A sanguine orb floating across the darkness

Claret colored clouds dancing upon it

The celestial sphere so large in the stratosphere

Calls to the nocturnal animals to carouse in its blushing illumination

Villainous Monologue

I always seem evil when I tell you my plan

I go on ad nauseum  explaining who I am

To try to expound or maybe to trick

I give details up but never too quick

I lie, I deceive, I do dastardly deeds

Maybe not giving it away is what I most need

But I brag, and I bluster, and sometimes I gloat

For your weakness, and fear just make me emote

Your running offends me and try as I might

I can’t stop getting off on all of your fright

Some call me a malefactor, some call me a cad

You can cry all you want but I’ll always be bad

But outlaw or miscreant no matter the name

You’re always caught up in my winning game

So my monologue is done, run away if you want

I’m just wicked and cruel, and this I will flaunt

Villain I am and of this I am proud

Especially when you’re screams are always so loud

So goodnight little victims, hold onto your heads

Fore I am the scary thing underneath your little beds

Poem 11/10/2018

Trembling With Fear: Year 1 Book Review (2018)

I will honestly say that I am usually not big on short stories because I like to get involved within a story and live there for awhile. But that being said, the book Trembling With Fear: Year 1 really changed my mind on this. Everyone of the stories were beautifully written and thoroughly concise in there execution. I got everything I expect from longer books with just many more stories to enjoy!

The book is an amalgamation of stories from the site the Horror Tree of which Trembling With Fear is a branch of. Horror Tree is a great resource for authors, whether they be established or new innovative and ingenious voices, as an outlet  for their written material. Find more out about Horror Tree here:

https://horrortree.com/

I have borrowed the next information from the intro to the book Trembling With Fear: Year 1 so that you the reader can get an exact idea of what they do:

Trembling With Fear is a branch of Horror Tree which publishes original fiction every Sunday morning. In it, they have a minimum of one short story and three pieces of flash fiction on a weekly basis. They are not a static publication however, and have recently introduced serials as a new feature and no doubt there will be other developments. Please check the Trembling With Fear Submissions page for details on how to submit.

You can find that page here: https://horrortree.com/submissions/

And please pick up the book, it is a real slice of horror entertainment. So many diverse voices and ideas that there is something for everyone in it and you will not be disappointed!

It is available here at Amazon on Kindle or in paperback form with a 5 star rating!:

Idiom Madness a Poem (2018)

Into the out of it

Confusion the new norm

Chaos by the sound of it

Disorder my new form

Drowning in the Sea of Tranquility

Hiding on the Dark Side of the Moon

Dropping the hat of gullibility

Judging a book too soon

Burning the midnight oil of anarchy

The devils advocate my new sanity

Bewilderment and disorganization a calamity

Hitting a nail on the head of my vanity

There is a method to my madness

Fell off the rocker years ago

Wouldn’t be caught dead playing with a full deck

Speak of the devil you know.

Poem 10/30/2018

Feast of Samhain a Poem (2018)

The Feast of Samhain is quickly approaching

The harvest is done and winter encroaches

The nights grow longer, the autumnal equinox is leaving

Fore the winter solstice advances and the farmers are done reaping

The boundary between this world and the next soon will be crossed

Sprites, fairies, and even wee ghosties never get lost

Because we leave them an offering of food and of drink

To leave us alone and be quick as a wink

To go back to their side without giving us dread

So we may stay safe in our warm winter beds.

Poem 10/29/2018

Broken Doll-Poem (2018)

There was a small broken doll named Jane

She had black hair on her head, like a goth mane

On her back a broken fairy wing

With little bat ears to hear the darkness sing

She had a wee fox nose

To smell a beautiful red rose

The black Victorian dress she wears

Goes so pretty with all that black hair

Her one eye is black, the other just a button

She would love to go out, but she was kept as a shut-in

She had one tiny friend

Whom most would not tend

A little corn snake who she named teddy bear

He wound around her fingers and curled in her hair

Never loved, never mattered

Her tiny heart did shatter

But teddy bear did kiss her

He could never ever resist her

So her little heart did mend

And they were friends to the end