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 Christine Morgan!
Christine Morgan, after several difficult and traumatic life-upheavals, is currently living at her father’s reclusive high-desert homestead, basking in hitherto-unaccustomed peace, isolation, and quiet. When not writing, editing, or reviewing, she’s probably either napping, being bossed around by cats, crafting, baking, goofing on the internet, or watching weird movies
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 think it was always just there; even as a kid, I’d be the one to come up with stories for various play and games (my Barbies had some wild adventures, and even my faithful stuffed animals lived soap opera lives!) for myself and my friends. When I got to school age, and the teachers would give us writing assignments, I’d always find it much more interesting to craft fictional stuff instead of essays on what we did for summer vacation. One book I remember never wanting to be without was Dr. Seuss’s ABC; I would go through it again and again, just fascinated.
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?
character, dialogue, and description. The use of language that fits the setting, era, or personality involved is hugely important to me; few things drive me crazier, for instance, than an author writing a child character who seems to think, communicate, or behave in the way an actual child would. Being able to tap into that other perspective, especially of someone very unlike yourself (even to the extremes of non-humans, aliens, animals, inanimate objects, etc.) is one of the biggest challenges and, to me, most fun aspects of this job. What I most need to improve on, I suppose, would be the business end of things, the hustle and marketing, all that. Not at all one of my strong suits. I usually look to others for inspiration, the ones who seem to know what they’re doing and can put themselves and their work out there without coming across as obnoxious.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community? Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
SO much easier now than back in ye olden days, in so many ways … the internet has been a marvel … just being able to email a submission instead of snail-mailing a printed draft with return postage … the accessibility and community … the incredible number and variety of smaller presses … moving past the idea that you HAVE to have an agent or HAVE to be published by one of the big houses in order for it to “count” … definitely lots better now, and if that’s its own two-edged sword because it means many more people can also do it, increasing competition, well, I’d rather see that than stern elitist gatekeeping.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
My work is all over the place, spanning genres and styles … I lean mostly toward horror, and more lately toward the extreme or splatterpunk end of horror … but I love writing historical stuff, cosmic stuff, funny stuff, smutty stuff … I enjoy doing mash-ups and pastiches … I’m into mythology and folklore … I like to play with the classic tropes, twist them, see how much I can get away with, challenge myself and the rules. If I had to choose just one work to be “most” proud of, I think I’d have to go with Lakehouse Infernal, because being allowed to play with Edward Lee’s toys, and doing so well enough to win a Splatterpunk Award as well as do a sequel, and then go on to collaborate with Lee himself … that’s some life-goal benchmarks right there.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
I’ve got a few books due out hopefully soon … Around Eldritch Corners is a collection of some of my cosmic horror / Lovecraftian / Chambersian short stories; there’s a collecting of my various shorter western works waiting in the wings … but the biggie I’m super excited about is a totally trashtastic chompy and obscene sharksploitation collaboration with Susan Snyder, titled NYMPHO SHARK FUCK FRENZY, due out from Madness Heart Press this summer. We kicked out all the stops and just went nuts with this one, and I can’t wait to see how readers respond! I’ve also decided to make 2024 the year of the sequels, working on a second Spermjackers From Hell book, Murder Girls 2, and hopefully a followup to my splatter western, The Night Silver River Run Red.
KANDISHA PRESS 