[Interview] Shells Walter

Author, editor and publisher, Shells Walter has been published in places that include Micro Horror, Static Movement, The Shine Journal and Demon Minds.

She is also actively involved with Sonar4 Publications, a science fiction and horror publishing house she started in 2008.

In this interview, Shells Walter talks about her writing:

When did you start writing?

I started writing when I was 11 years old reading my first horror story by Edgar Allan Poe.

Poetry is where I started first, then short stories and eventually longer works. I chose to start wanting to get published in 2006. Up until then I wrote for the pleasure of it.

How would you describe the writing you are doing now?

Different and twisty.

I end up writing a lot of what I'm feeling at the time into my writing, of course what I find interesting or researched I put into it as well.

I don't have a target audience per se. Several people who like different genres have enjoyed some of my work. I think I tend to just write and hope people will enjoy my work.

Which authors would you say influenced you most?

Edgar Allan Poe, Stephen King and Philip K Dick have influenced me the most.

I think they had this influence because they went past the barriers that so-called genres allowed them to go. They allowed the readers to be able to feel their work instead of just reading it.

I want readers to be able to have their own sense of emotions when reading my stories.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My main concerns as a writer is having something I thought was good turn out that it wasn't as good as I originally had hoped. My ways of dealing with this is having a good editor check over my work and possibly see the things I may have missed.

The biggest challenges at times is putting my stories into a specific category. Since my writing tends to fall in several different areas, people sometimes gets confused on where my stories may fit. I try explaining to them what the story is about and in hopes they understand it.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

I was shy when I was younger and picked on in grade school. Writing had allowed me to focus my emotions and get them out.

Personal experiences to this day pull the direction of my writing, allow my emotions to run full force into the stories.

Do you write everyday?

I write when I can. I really don't have a set schedule as it depends on time that I have.

However, I often take writing breaks and that allows me to write on a daily basis and that can vary from an hour to three hours.

How many books have you written so far?

I have a horror novella called Bite This published in 2009 by Sonar4 Publications which deals with a Priest that gets bit by a vampire. He then questions his faith on why this happened to him.

Demon Alley, 10 short stories based on your favorite urban legends; a short story collection published by Sonar4 Publications in 2009.

And currently Justice Served, a horror novel published by Sonar4 Publications released in Nov 2009, which deals with a lawyer and the devil. He defends a case for the Devil and he loses it. He then becomes the Devil's personal attorney. His first case is defending the most notorious serial killer known. It is available in ebook and print from sonar4publications.com

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into Justice Served

At times, it was making sure details were accurate and changing some. Since parts of the novel is based on actual events, I twisted some because it was a fictional piece.

I allowed myself not to worry too much and to just write the story. Any real issues were fixed later if I felt they caused a problem.

Also, having a great editor does wonders.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

Without giving too much away, writing on certain parts of the history in the novel on one of the characters. I have always been interested in learning about this specific person and it was fun including them in the story.

What sets Justice Served apart from other things you've written?

It has more twists and I believe it deals with more history, where others dealt more with just aspect of good vs evil.

In what way is it similar?

It has twists, something I enjoy putting into stories if they fit.

What will your next book be about?

There are a few projects coming out that I'm working on. One is called Dead Practices based on a Zombie Lawyer coming from Sonar4 Publications; a group collaboration of a zombie story published by Pill Hill Press; a group collaboration called The Gentlemen's Club, based on "The Secret Life of Hank Wilson", a short story of mine coming out in 2010 from Sonar4 Publications; and, Devil's Own, the sequel to Justice Served coming out from Sonar4 Publications in the future.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

To have someone say that my work has influenced in some way. Whether it be good or bad.

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• [Interview: Part 1 of 5] John Miller, Conversations with Writers, August 31, 2009
• Shells Walter Interview, House of Horror, Accessed on March 18, 2010

[Update] Danfo Driver

My short story, "Danfo Driver" has been accepted for publication in Writing Free, an anthology of contemporary Zimbabwean writing. The anthology is published by Weaver Press and will be out soon. - Ambrose Musiyiwa, 7 April 2011.

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The Bracelet [Short Story], by Ambrose Musiyiwa, Conversations with Writers, February 17, 2010

[Featured Author] Joe Bright

Ghosts, a haunting and an exorcism
By Alexander James

Author Joe Bright’s newly published novel is about murder. But the fiction has lain to rest the ghost of a brutal, real life killing that had haunted him all his adult life.

Joe was still a high school teenager when the quiet town where he lived was rocked after the body of a missing schoolgirl was discovered in a pond near the railway tracks. She had been raped and strangled to death.

The killer later turned out to be an intimate friend of Joe’s family.

The whole town was in shock. But I was more deeply affected than most. The young killer was my brother’s best friend. I’d often laughed and joked with him around the Sunday dinner table and had gone out shooting rifles with him.

One day soon after the murder, while police were still hunting for clues, this good pal passed me in his truck when I was on the way back from a run along the same road where the body had been found. He gave me an odd look, as though he was worried about where I’d been.

Something about that look made me think for a moment that he might be the killer of that little girl. But … c’mon … he was a friend. I dismissed the thought and didn’t tell anyone about the encounter. Later, of course, I realized it had been a look of guilt. Our instincts are often more in tune with the world than we give them credit for, but when the instinct suggests something frightening, we often allow ourselves to push it aside.

I’d have been glad to see the killer hanged … until he turned out to be my friend. Then, I just felt sick. If he hadn’t confessed, I would have sworn they had the wrong guy. Why? Simply because I knew him, and we often choose sides based on association rather than on the facts of the situation.

The horrible knowledge that someone we trust completely can be so secretly dark inside scarred me. I could never shake the dreadful feeling that people -- even those I knew well -- might conceal something awful and dark in their hearts.

But writing The Black Garden served as a catharsis for me -- a kind of exorcism of a haunting. Using what I learned about murder, murderers and the difference their crime makes to those around them as a backdrop to the main story was therapeutic. I projected all my fears -- how little we actually know even our closest friends -- onto characters in my book. It helped me work through the inner conflicts that had dogged me since youth.

The Black Garden -- released this month by Europe-based publishers BeWrite Books -- is set in a small town in Vermont, far from where the real life murder took place in Evanston, Wyoming. And it is also set in the fifties, long before the actual murder took place in 1979.

A few years after the murder, Joe -- one of a family of eight brothers and sisters -- left Wyoming and received his BA in English from Utah State University.

He began his career as a technical writer for Thiokol, the manufacturer of space shuttle rocket boosters. He later taught English in Honolulu, Hawaii and Berkeley, California.

He currently lives in Studio City, California, and works as a graphic designer.

Joe always had an interest in the arts and attended college on a fine arts scholarship, yet spent much of his time playing the guitar, writing songs and performing with a band. He did a lot of short story writing in high school, but didn’t get serious about it until 1994, while teaching English in Hawaii.

This was when I wrote my first novel, and I’ve been writing consistently ever since. Five novels in 15 years; three are out on audio cassette, two have been self-published, but The Black Garden is the first so far to have hit the spot with a traditional publisher and been released internationally.

The Black Garden is set in a small town in Vermont.

For years, the residents of Winter Haven have speculated about George O’Brien’s misdeeds; however, during the summer of 1958, when Mitchell Sanders arrives to help the O’Briens renovate their home, he discovers that not all of their skeletons are in the closet where they belong.

Joe said:

Since the story is set in 1958, I had to do a lot of research about the era to make the setting authentic. I wanted to make sure the dialog didn’t contain slang or technical terms that didn’t exist at the time. I also needed to know how the police investigated a crime prior to the advent of DNA testing. Fortunately, one of my older brothers works in law enforcement, and I was able to pick his brain on procedures and protocol.

Most of my stories fall within the gothic suspense category. The Black Garden, though, is more of a drama/mystery. With its rural setting and dark theme, it still fits in the American Gothic slot, but without the supernatural elements often associated with the genre.

Murder is a small part of The Black Garden; but the theme of judgment runs through the story. Who’s right, the Hatfields or McCoys? Depends if you’re a Hatfield or a McCoy. I hope the novel gives readers a different perspective on events, and entertains them at the same time.

My protagonist is Mitchell Sanders, the outsider who moves to the small town of Winter Haven for a summer job. He doesn’t care about his employers or the community. He’s a coward who has run away from his problems in Boston and then finds himself entrenched in even bigger problems. He’s not comfortable speaking his mind while in the company of people he knows will disagree with him. Yet as the conflict mounts, he’s forced to take a stand and to grow as a person.

The black garden from which Joe’s new book takes its title rests behind the house of George and Candice O’Brien, a grandfather and granddaughter with dark secrets. The residents of Winter Haven have speculated for years about the deeds of the O’Briens, but in 1958, Mitchell Sanders discovers the horrifying truth.

Mitch has come to Winter Haven for the summer, hired by the O’Briens to renovate their home. Unaware of the controversy surrounding the family, he moves into the studio at the back of the eclectic garden, where he has a rare view of the lives of George and his granddaughter. He notes how George spies on his neighbors through his binoculars, how they refuse to speak of Candice’s parents, and how they never leave the house. Especially troubling is the way the townspeople turn cold whenever he mentions that he’s working for the O’Briens.

Their bad reputation stems back 20 years to when George’s daughter Carolyn was raped and subsequently gave birth to Candice. The accused rapist, Grant Baxter, is from one of Winter Haven’s more prominent families and, true to the unbiased nature of American justice, the verdict favors the wealthy. Rubbing salt into the wound, Baxter’s lawyer casts suspicion on George by inferring that he was the one who impregnated his own daughter.

Infuriated by the verdict, George managed to alienate himself and his family from the townspeople, who have grown more convinced that George is the guilty one. As the slander intensified, Carolyn broke down and took her own life. A few weeks later, Grant Baxter vanished, never to be seen again. Howard Baxter, Grant’s father, is convinced that George O’Brien had everything to do with his son’s disappearance, yet is unable to present a shred of evidence.

Joe said:

I chose Vermont for the setting mainly because when I visited there I was taken by its beauty and felt it would make a great backdrop for the story. The town of Winter Haven is fictitious; however, I drew a lot on my own hometown of Evanston, Wyoming, when describing the layout.

With a first traditional release under his belt, Joe can now take time to reflect on the years that went into its accomplishment.

He said:

It’s such a great feeling to finish a novel. I also write songs, and I remember how proud I was when I wrote my first, which took a few days.

A novel, on the other hand, takes much, much longer. Thus, the feeling of pride is that much greater. I wrote the first draft of The Black Garden, for instance, 10 years ago. Then it was a work-in-progress while I revised, adjusted, wrote a screenplay version, launched on the long and difficult search for a publisher, and eventually went into months of fine-tuning with my editor at BeWrite Books, Hugh McCracken.

The most rewarding part of it is having other people read and enjoy it. It’s a nice boost of confidence and encourages me to continue developing my writing skills and to work on the next novel.

The hardest part about writing is the blank page. It’s a lot like creating a sculpture out of clay. In the first draft, you are creating the clay. That’s the hard part. Molding it is the fun part. To help me through this process, I first write an outline, plotting out the story. Through this, I come up with my characters, establishing their backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Once I know my characters, it’s much easier to know how they will react in a given situation.

Often I’ll write anything that comes to mind, just to get the writing going and to fill up that daunting blank page. I also tend to keep other novels around so I can pick one up and read a little to get me in the right frame of mind.

The first novel I ever wrote, I took the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach. That is, I just delved in without really knowing where the story would take me. Many writers work that way and do a splendid job. Not me. I ended up doing a lot of editing that I could have avoided if I’d have thought things out better.

Now I always outline. First, I write a brief synopsis of the story. Second, I figure out who my characters are. This often takes a month or more, because I really need to know who these people are so I can work with them. Third, I write an outline. My outlines include most of the dialogue and brief sketches of the action. So they tend to be around a hundred pages long. Fourth, I start writing the novel. It never follows the outline completely, since I discover new things while writing and often encounter flaws that I’d overlooked before.

I’m a graphic designer during the day and a writer in the evenings, so I’m at the computer all day long. The tragic part of that is that I have very little social life. I can be quite obsessive and have to force myself to take a break and go do something fun. I’m still trying to find the balance.

My parents and brothers and sisters have always encouraged me. It’s vital to have someone believe in you … especially when you’re having trouble getting agents and publishers to read your work. I’m very fortunate to have such a supportive family.

The Black Garden is published by BeWrite Books and is available from all major online book stores or can be ordered at any local high street book shop.

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[Interview] Bernadette Steele, Conversations with Writers, March 29, 2008