L.L. Soares
REALLY MAKING
A READER SQUIRM
David Byron Interviews L.L. Soares
David Byron is the founder of NVF Magazine, an online publication that promotes new voices in horror fiction and film. His past special guests include Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and Edwin Neal of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame. His latest projects include Queens of Scream: The New Blood
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Horror writer L.L. Soares has had stories published in such magazines as Cemetery Dance, Horror Garage, Gothic.net, Lullaby Hearse and Aoife's Kiss, as well as the collections Best of HorrorFind 2 and Right House On the Left. He also writes reviews of horror films and co-wrote a humorous horror movie review column called Cinema Knife Fight with Michael Arruda from 2004 to 2006.
Horror Garage: Greetings and salutations, L.L. How are we this fine morning?
L.L. Soares: Doing great Dave, thanks.
HG: First off, a cliched and boring question: Why did you want to become a writer? And...who were your early influences? I favored Stephen King and Clive Barker myself.
L.L. Soares: Well, I've been writing stories ever since I first learned how to string sentences together, so it's hard for me to remember a time when I wasn't writing. I can remember being six or seven and writing stories. They were just about one or two pages long in a notebook I had, mostly riffing on monster movies I'd seen. Movies were definitely my first influence, and the earliest ones I remember being obsessed with were the old Universal films from the 1930s and '40s. The first time I saw the 1931 Frankenstein with Boris Karloff -- I must have been five or six -- I realized this was something I wanted to be a part of somehow. Horror has been a part of who I am ever since.
As for writers who influenced me, as a child I read a lot of the classics, like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and tons of Poe stories. And I was a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft early on. Then in high school I was more into science fiction, but mostly writers who straddled the fence and wrote some horror as well, like Fritz Leiber, Theodore Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison. I wrote to several writers while I was in high school, including Leiber, Sturgeon and Isaac Asimov, mainly asking for advice, and many wrote back. I remember being pretty thrilled about that. By college I was more into "outsider" fiction like Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, and Charles Bukowski. So my influences are all over the place. In the '80s and '90s I got sucked back into horror again with the emergence of Clive Barker -- I really dug what he was doing in his early horror stuff, especially the Books of Blood. He got me excited about horror fiction again. Then there were anthologies like Paul M. Sammon's Splatterpunks books, that introduced me to a whole slew of new writers, many of whom would become favorites of mine, including Joe R. Lansdale, Poppy Z. Brite, Jack Ketchum, Richard Laymon, Edward Lee, and Skipp and Spector. I've always been into fiction that took risks and broke taboos, so this was all very appealing to me. Since then, my writing output has been mostly horror fiction. It's in my blood.
HG: I really enjoyed your story "The Cancer Ward At Midnight." Although I wouldn't recommend it to the squeamish. What exactly was your inspiration for that piece? Or...should I fear to ask? I sure am glad you let me have it for Darc Karnival, too!
L.L. Soares: First off, thanks a lot for the kind words about my story.
I originally wrote "Cancer Ward" back in college, over 20 years ago. Back then, it was from the point of view of the girl who was dying of cancer, and her father was hardly even in it. The man who comes to "save" her was rather anonymous back then, too. I don't think I identified him at all. A couple of years ago I found this one and a few other old stories that I felt still had potential and rewrote them. For "Cancer Ward" I totally changed the point of view, making the father the protagonist. I did a totally different take on it, but the seeds were already there.
I can't remember what the inspiration was for it when I first wrote it, but right now it has particular significance to me. My best friend who I've known since fifth grade is currently going through a miserable time, dealing with cancer, and I did fine-tune the story a bit recently, based on what I've seen with his situation.
I wish I had a more intense answer for you about the story's origins, though.
HG: Have you ever written any full-length novels, or short fiction collections?
L.L. Soares: Well, I started submitting stories to magazines when I was in high school. I had this silly idea that I was going to sell stuff early on and have a long writing career. It didn't turn out that way. I sold my first story in college, to a little magazine called The Minnesotan Science Fiction Reader, but the magazine closed up shop before they could publish it. I got $15 for the story. I remember the editor being very supportive, though.
I didn't sell another story for over 15 years. I was sending them out, but I was just getting piles of rejections. I also wasn't writing horror for most of that time. I was writing more literary fiction, and I just was having no luck with it. In 2001, I made my first professional sale to Gothic.net with a story called "Little Black Dress." Since then, I've been selling more regularly, but it's been a very long road.
In high school I also wrote my first novel. It was a sword and sorcery novel in the vein of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. It was called The Glass Eye of Time. I remember sending it out to publishers a couple of times and getting rejected. Between now and then, I've written about nine novels. They run the gamut of fantasy, science fiction, crime fiction and horror. About three or four of them defy categorization completely, mixing genres, and I guess they'd be considered something like "bizarro" fiction today -- but back in the '80s and '90s there wasn't much of a market for fiction like that. I don't think I sent those manuscripts anywhere. I'd just finish writing a book and then move on to the next one. I was certainly productive all those years, I just wasn't selling anything.
So yeah, getting some of my novels published is a definite goal of mine. I'm currently getting my last novel -- which was my first horror novel -- ready to send out again. And I'm working on a new one. So wish me luck.
As for short stories, I have enough to probably fill a couple of collections, but one project I've been pitching is a joint collection of stories by myself and my wife, Laura Cooney, who also writes dark fiction. The good news is that the collection, called In Sickness, has finally found a home, and will be published by Skullvines Press in 2010. The collection will be in three parts: 1) stories by Laura, 2) stories by me, and then 3) a 12,000 word novella called "In Sickness" that we wrote together.
I've been trying to find a home for In Sickness for some time now, and I'm really excited that it's finally coming out. For some reason nothing in my writing career has come easy. But that just makes me try all the harder.
HG: Now for some more of my obligatory -- and boring -- Q&A: What would you say is your all time favorite horror film? How about book? I know that may cover a lot of ground.
L.L. Soares: That's a really tough question, mostly because there are just so many books and movies that I love. I'm also a film critic, and movies have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember.
My favorite time periods for horror films were the 1930s (the Universal horror films) and the 1970s. My favorite horror flick of all time is probably the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's a powerful, amazing film from beginning to end. George A. Romero's original Dawn of the Dead also had a huge impact on me, and is a very close second.
As for horror books, I'm a big fan of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. That is an amazing novel. And Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door is such a disturbing, powerful book that you actually feel like an accomplice in the horrible events that unfold in it. I think that book is one of the most powerful things I've ever read and showed me the potential horror has for really making a reader squirm. It's like a right cross to the jaw. Which is what I think good horror should be.
HG: What do you think about this zombie "renaissance" that's going on right now? I love it, myself. Nothing like a good old flesh-ripping, blood-spurting, brain-slurping zombie tale.
L.L. Soares: Y'know, you'd think that I would love the new zombie craze. I grew up on Romero's zombie movies, and they are some of my favorite films. I wasn't so crazy about a lot of the movies that ripped him off over the years -- and there have been tons of them -- but some stand out. As for novels, I dug Brian Keene's The Rising a lot when it came out. Keene's a solid writer, and that seemed to be the start of the whole "renaissance." But so many people have jumped on the zombie bandwagon since, and there are just so many zombie books out there, that I'm a little overwhelmed by it all.
This especially hit home recently when I started co-editing an anthology of humorous horror stories with Nick Cato for Novello Publishers called Dark Jesters. A large amount of stories we've received have been zombie stories, and I have to admit, I am starting to feel a bit burnt out on the topic.
That said, I know there are zombie stories and books out there that are probably very good. I would never disregard an entire subgenre just because there currently seems to be a glut. Like vampires, zombies are probably always going to be around in some form, and good writers will always find a new and fresh way to use them.
HG: Anything to tell us before you go?
L.L. Soares: Well, if people want to know more about me, they can check out my website, www.llsoares.com I'm also on MySpace and Live Journal. I write movie reviews for FearZone.com, which is a terrific website for all things horror -- movies, books, comics, music, etc. I am also the co-chair of the New England Horror Writers (NEHW) and an active member of the HWA.
And I'll keep writing more stories and novels. I don't plan to slow down anytime soon.
Thanks a lot for talking with me, Dave.
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WWW.LLSOARES.COM
