GREETINGS, BOOKWORMS! I’m Aisha Kandisha, Head Librarian at Kandisha Press. Join me in the dusty stacks of the library I will never leave again as I chat with some of my favorite Women in Horror. Today we feature author Dawn DeBraal!
Dawn DeBraal lives in rural Wisconsin with her husband, Red, a dorky dog and a stray cat. She has published over 600 drabbles, short stories, and poems in online ezines and anthologies, including Black Hare Press, Black Ink Fiction, Clarendon House Publishing, Zimbel House Publishing, Terror House Magazine, CafeLit UK, Potato Soup Journal, Impspired Magazine, Commuter Lit, The World of Myth, Valiant Scribe, Wicked Shadow Press, Unsettling Reads, and more. She co-wrote a novel under the pen name of Garrison McKnight, nominated for 2019 Pushcart Award, Falling Star Magazine, runner up in the 2022 Horror Short Story Contest.
https://www.facebook.com/All-The-Clever-Names-Were-Taken-114783950248991
https://linktr.ee/dawndebraal
What made you want to become an author? Did you have an “Aha!” moment when you knew you were born to write? Or perhaps a beloved book inspired you?
I have always been a storyteller. Either through songwriting or speaking. It wasn’t until I lost my outlet for music, that I turned to writing. I have terrible grammar and punctuation skills, and rely heavily on Grammarly, even though I think she’s wrong at times.
I am still waiting for the “Aha!” moment. But I am stubborn and don’t give up easily, so I pursue the dream.
Every book I read offers some kind of inspiration, whether it’s good inspiration or bad depends on the writing!
What do you believe are your strengths in writing? And when you feel you need to improve on a particular writing skill, how do you go about it?
I think I am creative, and I love double twisting. You have a twist at the end of the story, but I like to twist the twist! It’s not enough to be hit by a bus. You must be hit by a bus and then have a dog come along and lift its leg on you!
Editing is my Achilles Heel. I am terrible at it. I rush through a story and read things that aren’t even there. “I like the story.” Is what I read, but what I wrote said “I like story.” I have my works read to me by word, I run it through Grammarly, I let it sit for a week and read it with a fresh mind. Never fails you find a mistake especially after you hit “send.”
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community?
There is so much out there. It’s almost suffocating. You want to stand out and get your works noticed and then you see the thousands of books that come out every day. I do find the group of authors I am communication with are supportive of one another.
Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
I think both. It’s harder in the sense of getting your work noticed. I recently submitted a short story to a call only to find out there were over 600 submissions and the call hadn’t ended yet. That’s a bit daunting. On the other hand, easier if you know how to self-publish, which I don’t, but fortunately I know some people that do! It’s the promotion that’s hard for me. There is a fine line between getting people interested in your work and overpowering them with constant bombardment. You can end up alienating the very people you would like to appeal to. It’s a tightrope.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
I think whatever it is I am writing at the moment is what I am most proud of. I have a few stories that stand out in my mind. “Blessed are Those Who Mourn” A story that takes place in the 1950s in the south. I am still working on the other stories in this series, but one of them jumped the short story track and demanded to be fleshed out so it’s still in the works.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
Dark Myth Publications will be publishing my first solo book. The Lord’s Prayer Horror Stories. To each line of the Lord’s Prayer, I wrote a horror story about three thousand words a piece. Each story shows the frailty of humans. Lie, cheat, steal, murder, suicide, arrogance all come into play.
I am also working on the Morgan Dollar series. Morgan Silver Dollars were minted 1878-1904 and again one more year in 1921. I have been writing a story for each year the coin was minted. They have more of a western tendency to them, which is a nice change from horror writing. There are so many things you can wrap history in a fiction story so that you are learning without knowing it.
I hope to one day write a novel, but I don’t have the endurance it takes yet to grab and maintain a story into the double-digit thousands of words. Someday, perhaps.
KANDISHA PRESS 
My father collected Morgans. I look forward to reading your “silvers.”
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